Beyond the Threshold
The moment Kael pulled the sword free, the sky fractured.
A hairline crack zigzagged through the air above them, and a high-pitched tone pierced the silence like a scream barely held back.
Then the ground beneath their feet dissolved — not fell, not crumbled — dissolved.
They didn't fall.
They shifted.
The world blinked, and suddenly they were somewhere else.
A white plain. No sky. No ground.
Just light.
And in the distance, a door stood.
A door, bleeding from the hinges.
The Voice With No Shape
Kael approached first.
Each step was heavier than the last. Not physically — something in his mind pulled at him, slowed him down.
Selene walked beside him, fists clenched. She didn't speak, but her expression said everything.
She was afraid.
Not of death. Not of gods.
Of truth.
The door groaned as they neared it.
From the other side, something whispered.
Not in words — in memories.
Kael heard his father's voice.
Selene heard her sister screaming.
The door pulsed.
And the sword… hummed in answer.
The Hall of Echoes
The door opened when Kael touched it.
Inside was darkness — thick, breathing darkness.
They stepped in, and light flickered on.
Walls stretched outward, lined with mirrors — not reflecting their bodies, but their other selves.
Kael saw versions of himself: crowned, corrupted, bleeding, broken.
One mirror showed him burning cities with a grin.
Another showed him weeping at Nera's grave.
Selene touched her own reflection and saw herself kneeling — before Kael, eyes dead, voice silent.
She turned away.
"I hate this place," she whispered.
Kael nodded.
"This place isn't real."
"No," a voice said behind them. "It's worse."
The God Without Chains
He wore a cloak made of falling stars.
His face was empty.
Literally — there were no features, no skin, just void.
But his voice was every voice Kael had ever trusted.
"I was never your enemy," the god said.
Selene drew her blade. "Liar."
He raised a hand. "I offered you power. You refused. And now you bring ruin with you. Who, then, is the real monster?"
Kael stepped forward, shaking. "I didn't choose this."
"You did. The moment you took the sword. The moment you let her live."
He pointed at Selene.
And the Darksword screamed in Kael's hand.
Fragments of Fire
The battle was not a clash of steel.
It was a war of will.
Kael's memories burst like glass: Nera's face, the burning palace, the chains he once wore.
Selene fell to her knees, gripping her skull as visions clawed into her mind.
The god stepped through mirrors, shifting shapes — Kael's mother, Kael's mentor, even Selene herself.
"You are not ready," he hissed. "You never were."
Kael staggered forward.
"I don't have to be ready."
He raised the Darksword.
"I just have to end you."
The blade struck home.
And everything went white.
The Afterplace
They awoke in a field of ash and stars.
It wasn't the world.
It wasn't not the world either.
Selene stirred first. "Where are we?"
Kael sat up slowly. "I don't know."
Then a voice spoke — not the god's. Not the sword's.
It was… Nera.
"I told you not to sit on the throne," her voice echoed.
Kael looked down.
He was sitting on it.
A throne carved from bone and shadow. He hadn't meant to. He hadn't even seen it.
And now…
He couldn't move.
The Throne's Price
Selene lunged forward, trying to pull him away.
But her hands passed through him like smoke.
Kael's eyes widened.
"I didn't— I didn't choose—"
The Darksword hovered in front of him, point-down, waiting.
"You did," Selene whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks.
"No. No, I was trying to stop it—"
"You are it now."
Kael reached for the sword.
Selene screamed.
"DON'T."
But it was too late.
His hand closed around the hilt.
And the throne bloomed into flame.
The Birth of the Hollow King
Kael didn't scream.
He didn't burn.
He became.
The stars above cracked like glass, and the ground ruptured into rivers of memory.
Selene was thrown back, landing in the dirt, staring in horror as Kael's body rose from the throne, glowing with light not meant for mortals.
The sword was no longer metal.
It was him.
Kael's eyes opened — white-hot and infinite.
He spoke.
But it wasn't Kael's voice anymore.
"The Darksword is no longer a weapon. It is truth."
And the world began to bend.
A Choice in Ruin
Selene rose to her feet.
She was alone with him — or with what was him.
Her dagger trembled in her grip.
"Kael," she whispered.
No answer.
Only that same voice, booming:
"You may leave. But you will never find him again."
Selene stepped forward.
One step.
Two.
And then, she dropped the dagger.
She walked to the throne, stared up at the broken sky.
And whispered, "Then I'll stay."
Kael looked down at her — or the thing wearing his skin.
And for just a second…
His eyes softened.