A link.
A link meant to bind the three Axes, the three Hosts of the Axes.
A link designed to give birth to billions… to trillions of Alizaxa. A link that would allow us to pass the Trial.
Void spoke calmly as he sat inside Kade's house, as if this were nothing more than a casual visit, as if the words he spoke were not condemning an entire world.
Kade tried to act normal.
He forced composure into his face and grabbed Liam's arm, dragging him toward the door. Toward escape.
But the closer he walked, the farther the door became.
Each step weighed more than the last. The distance stretched unnaturally, as though space itself were folding away from him. His legs slowed. His arms trembled. His thoughts began to lag, arriving late, incomplete.
Time fractured.
Void's voice continued behind him, each word landing with unbearable weight, every syllable separated as if a year passed between them. Kade screamed, but no sound emerged. Pain flooded him. Sharp and dull at once. Agony. Despair. The sensation that something fundamental inside him was being unraveled thread by thread.
Void spoke as though nothing were happening.
"An anomaly," he said evenly. "One that has not occurred in thousands upon thousands of years. An anomaly we have not observed on any other planet."
Kade's vision blurred.
"That could mean," Void continued, "that it was not born from you, but from the Abyss itself."
Kade collapsed to his knees.
"The threefold link was the foundation of us three brothers," Void said. "But when forming the link meant to bind us to three humans… a fourth link emerged."
Void turned slightly.
"You."
Kade's body began to change.
Gray crept through his hair in seconds. His beard grew coarse and uneven. Wrinkles carved into his skin. His clothes faded, drained of color, as though time itself were leaking through him.
Void raised one extremely thin hand.
"We cannot allow you to die yet."
The weight vanished instantly.
Kade staggered upright, suddenly able to move. He turned desperately toward Liam.
"Liam...!"
"Liam is me now," Void said calmly.
Kade spun around.
Where Liam had stood, there was another Void.
And when Kade turned back...
There was only one Void.
And one Kade.
The room felt empty.
Tears streamed down Kade's face, but his body refused him. He could not scream. Could not run. Could not even collapse.
"What's happening?" he whispered. "Where is Liam?"
Void pointed at his eyes.
"They are still closed," Void said softly. "I will open them, so you may see the world as it is."
Kade blinked.
Reality shattered.
His house vanished.
In its place rose mountains of bodies, piles upon piles stretching beyond the horizon. Blood flowed like rivers, pooling into vast crimson seas. The air reeked of blood, fear, and decay.
Kade gasped.
"They are not dead yet," Void said.
Kade's ears rang.
"Over three hundred million," Void continued. "A vast number to you. Merely sufficient to us."
Kade looked around.
People screamed. Wept. Raged. Despaired. Every face twisted under extreme emotion, fear, grief, hatred, hopelessness. And from each person, as their emotions peaked, something crawled free.
Small. Insect-like. Misshapen.
Bugs of countless forms spilled from mouths, eyes, chests, each unique, each writhing with purpose.
"If this were another planet," Void said, "birth would take days. Here, due to the slow yield, it will require months. Perhaps years."
Kade's mind fractured further.
A voice echoed across the ruin, cold, absolute.
We require someone to clean the bodies.
Kade turned, shaking.
Since you are the last human alive in North America, that duty falls to you.
Void stepped closer.
"You see," he said, "we thrive within memory, within humanity's strongest emotions. But we cannot remain there forever."
His voice dropped.
"Or we will die."
"That is why we require Hosts," Void continued. "And those responsible for our continuation."
One finger rose.
"The threefold link."
A second.
"The fourfold link."
A third.
"And the twofold link."
He paused.
"Since the others are absent, the burden falls upon us."
Kade shook uncontrollably.
"We will awaken our race," Void said. "From dreams. From memory. And then, we will raid this planet."
The world trembled.
-----
And just like that, North America fell.
One survivor remained.
But before the fall, something occurred.
Something insignificant to the Alizaxa.
Something small.
A flaw.
A link.
A link where, if one fell, all would follow.
But what if someone did not fall?
What if someone who should have collapsed… remained standing?
An unexpected link.
Kade, his childhood memories corrupted, yet not erased.
Serena was also the same.
Neither fully consumed. Neither fully claimed.
Even though Serena had brushed against the Alizaxa. Even though she had come close.
Two hearts. Two halves.
One bond.
One link capable of altering the fate of an entire continent.
A link born not of design,
But of the Abyss itself.