The black, empty void of the Warden of Shadow's domain dissolved, its chaotic, unmaking will now a part of Rhys's own, more perfect emptiness. The world returned, no longer a featureless void of black or white, but a strange, new reality.
They were standing on a simple, black stone platform. In front of them, a single, shimmering, and now-open doorway of pure, starless black had appeared. The way forward was clear.
Rhys stood there, his body unchanged, but his presence was different. The cold, empty void that Emma had always sensed at the core of his being was now a manifest part of his aura.
He was a living embodiment of the concept of Erasure. His cultivation, which had been at the peak of Stage 9, had taken another, impossible leap. He was now a master of a fundamental, conceptual law. He had reached Stage 10: Essence Refinement (High).
