The days after the Fracture Rite were filled with silence.
But not the kind that brought peace.
It was the Null's silence—thick, alive, ever-watching. It hovered around Aion now like a second skin. The world responded differently to him. Ether bent slightly, unnaturally, when he passed. Birds refused to fly too close. Even the wind avoided him.
He sat atop a shattered obelisk as Itheon approached, holding two warped, metal rings.
"These belonged to the old Fractured Circle," he said. "Tools forged in the Void. They were the first to understand that the Null was not absence—but freedom."
He tossed one of the rings to Aion. It felt heavier than it looked. Not in weight—but in intention.
"What is this?" Aion asked.
"Your first lesson in Nullcraft."
---
Nullcraft.
The art of shaping the unshapable. Unlike Law-based abilities—rigid, structured, predictable—Nullcraft operated on will, emotion, and paradox.
Where a Lawcaster would say: Bind. Burn. Collapse.
A Nullcrafter would whisper: Forget. Unmake. Undo.
---
Training was brutal.
At first, Aion couldn't do anything with the ring. Itheon told him to focus—not on what should happen, but on what shouldn't. He had to learn to think in contradictions. To disbelieve reality hard enough that it unraveled around him.
Days passed.
Kael nearly got erased twice.
But then—breakthrough.
Aion held the ring, focused, and watched the air around it split, like fabric being quietly torn. It didn't glow. It didn't pulse. It simply ceased to obey.
He could erase gravity in a space the size of a coin. Turn fire cold. Rewrite momentum into stillness.
He was rewriting the rules.
---
Later that night, Itheon stood beside him.
"You're advancing faster than I did," he said, almost quietly. "Too fast."
Aion looked at him. "You scared?"
"No," Itheon said. "I'm wondering what broke inside you to let this grow so quickly."
Aion didn't answer.
But in his mind, he saw Seln's face. The man who raised him. The man who hid his identity. The man who was now being hunted by the Inquisition.
He clenched the Null ring tighter.
"I need to find Seln."
Itheon nodded. "You will. But if the Cardinals reach him first…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't have to.
---
Meanwhile, deep beneath the capital of Scoria, Maelrik stood before the Crimson Engine.
It pulsed like a heart of molten crystal, bound in hundreds of chains, guarded by a dozen Cardinals.
Veyra knelt nearby, her new mask smooth and expressionless.
Maelrik spoke a single word: "Unbind."
The chains shattered.
The Crimson Engine roared to life.
From it came a voice—ancient, mechanical, hungry.
"You have awakened me, Seer."
Maelrik's eyes burned.
"Find the Nullborn."