The sky bled.
Veythar staggered to his feet, his cracked Void Core searing his ribs with every breath. Around him, the ruins of Darkreach Chasm trembled, the ground slick with a viscous, star-flecked substance that dripped from the rift abovee- wound in reality itself.
The gate of stars had collapsed, but its aftermath was far from silent. The air thrummed with a dissonant chorus of whispers, as if the Void itself were unraveling.
Thalion crouched beside Rune, his remaining hand pressing a bloodied cloth to her shoulder where the Devourer's corruption had struck. The golden light in her eyes flickered, fighting the violet tendrils snaking beneath her skin.
"Its spreading," he growled, his voice raw. "Faster than before."
Veythar's gaze snapped to the horizon.
The bleeding sky wasnt just a spectacleit was a **signal**. The Shattered Realms were destabilizing, their fractures widening. And somewhere in the chaos, Sylviariss shadow lurked, her true motives still a razor-edged mystery.
The Void Core in Veythar's chest pulsed, and for a heartbeat, he**remembered**:
- **The Citadels heart**, shattered by his hand, its fragments scattering likedying embers.
-**The Keepers face**his own, twisted by centuries of servitude to the Void.
- **Sylviariss whisper**:
*"Now... we begin."*
The memory fractured as Rune gasped, her back arching. Gold and violet light warred in her veins, and for the first time, **she spoke with another's voice**-hollow, echoing timbre that raised the hair on Veythars neck.
*"You broke the lock, little thief. But the door remains."*
Thalion recoiled. "That's not her."
Veythar knew. It was the **Devourer**, its consciousness clinging to Rune like a parasite.
The realization struck like a blade: the corruption wasnt just killing her. It was **rewriting** her.
--.
Sylviaris materialized from the bleeding shadows, her silver hair streaked with crimson.
"Touching," she mused, her violet eyes fixed on Rune. "The Devourer always favored resilient vessels."
Veythars dagger was at her throat before she could blink. "Fix, Her."
Sylviaris didnt flinch. "I cant. But *you* can." Her shadow slithered to the ground, forming a grotesque ritual circlea- mirror of the Eclipse Concord, but **inverted**.
'The Hollow Pact. A bond that transfers corruption from one host to another."
Thalion's curse-laden vines twitched.
"Youre asking him to take it himself?"
"No," Sylviaris said softly. "Im asking him to **choose** who does."
The implication hung in the air like a executioner's axe.
The Pact required a sacrificeone life to spare another.
Runes stolen voice laughed. *"Will you condemn your ally, Veythar? Or finally embrace what you are?"*
---
Thalion moved first.
He seized Sylviaris's ritual knife and dragged it across his own palm, bloodsplattering the inverted runes.
"Do it," he snarled. He seized Sylviaris's ritual knife and dragged it across his own palm, blood
Veythars breath caught. "Thal
"I've carried a curse my whole life," Thalion interrupted, his gaze locked on Rune. "She's carried *light*. That's not a choice."
The circle flared to life, its edges drinking their blood greedily. Rune's corruption surged toward Thalion, the violet tendrils leaping like live wires. She screameda-raw, human soundas the gold in her eyes brightened.
But Thalion?
He **collapsed**, his veins blackening, his body convulsing as the Devourer's will flooded him. His final act was to fling his sword at Veythar's feet, its blade etched with a single, glowing rune: *"Finish it.""
The bleeding sky **ripped open**.
A colossal figure descendednot a beast, not a god, but a **being woven from the Void itself**, its form shiftingbetween a dozen fractured realities. The Devourers true avatar.
*"You stole my heart,"* it hissed, its voice a chorus of dying stars. *"Now I take yours."*
Sylviaris stepped forward, her shadow merging with the creatures.
"You misunderstand," she purred. "The heart was never yours."
With a flick of her wrist, she **unraveled** the Hollow Pact's magicnot to save Thalion, but to **redirect**the corruption.
Straight into Veythar's Core.
---
Agony.
Veythar's vision whited out as the Devourer's essence fused with his own. The cracks in his Core **splintered wider**, not with pain, but with"*power**.
When his sight returned, the world had changed.
The bleeding sky was now a "*canvas"*a tapestry of every Shattered Realm, their borders dissolving. The Devourer's avatar loomed, but its formThe bleeding sky was now a **canvas**a tapestry of every Shattered Realm, their borders dissolving.
The Devourer's avatar loomed, but its form was... hesitant. "Afraid.*
And Sylviaris?
She knelt at Veythar's feet, her shadow finally still.
"The Veil is yours, Core-bearer," she whispered. "Now tear it apart."
Behind her, Thalion's body lay motionless.
Rune's golden light guttered like a dying star.
And the Void **waited**.