The battlefield was silent.
No—space itself was silent.
Where once a city stood, only splinters of reality remained, suspended in frozen stutters. Buildings were bent sideways, light stretched like taffy, and sound refused to exist.
And in the heart of that stillborn storm… stood Ariel.
Opposite him, a monstrosity born of collapse—a Rank 5 abomination wielding a Domain of Space. Its limbs bent in impossible angles, existing a heartbeat ahead of itself. Reality rippled around it, folding and unfolding in loops of cruel elegance.
The world trembled beneath them.
Ariel didn't speak.
He didn't scream.
He moved.
Faster than light.
Quieter than silence.
Sharper than thought.
Blows exchanged didn't land—they collided in concepts, in echoes. Each clash distorted existence itself. Buildings twisted into Möbius loops. Gravity shuddered. One second felt like infinity; the next, nothing at all.
But even that was not enough to stop him.
Ariel—Child of the Void.
The Final Sin.
The last executioner.
And still… human.
With one final, soul-tearing strike, Ariel pierced the creature's core, unraveling its being. The monster spasmed—reality screamed—and then it was gone.
Unwritten.
Erased.
His body slowed.
His breathing calmed.
The battle, over.
"…Ilya."
The thought shattered through the numb haze like a scream in a tomb.
Ariel turned, rifted space with a whisper, and slipped into his dimension—the one place he believed was safe. The one pocket of void where he had hidden Ilya… and those precious few left.
Warmth returned to his expression.
The faintest curve of hope at the edge of his lips.
But then—
Silence.
The kind that doesn't belong.
No heartbeats.
No breaths.
No voices.
The dimension was… empty.
Still.
Dead.
Bodies, lifeless, crumpled in twisted poses. Some with hands reaching out. Some huddled together. Ilya's small frame sat in the center, arms wrapped around her knees, head resting on her shoulder—
Eyes closed.
Not asleep.
Not dreaming.
Gone.
Ariel staggered forward. "No… no no no no—"
His hands trembled as he reached out, clutching her fragile body as if his soul could will hers back into existence.
Then—they spoke.
[You have slain a human… Ilya]
The Echoes of Origin whispered.
Voices like wind through bones.
Like guilt made into music.
[You have slain a human… Isaac]
[You have slain a human… Mika]
[You have slain a human… Walter]
One by one.
Names.
Lives.
Memories.
Spoken. Erased.
Ariel screamed, but no sound came. The Void devoured it.
He sank to his knees, the truth caving in on him.
He had done this.
He who was meant to protect.
He who swore he'd never lose her.
He who became a god… and forgot to remain a brother.
His power had been too great.
His dimension—a place of pure Void—was never meant for life.
And so it took it all.
The world.
His companions.
His reason.
Her.
Tears wouldn't fall. The Void did not permit such luxuries.
Ariel looked up.
There was no heaven above.
No light to reach toward.
Only himself.
Alone.
Broken.
Cursed by power.
Devoured by guilt.
Named by the very thing he sought to escape.
"Voice of the Void," they called him.
And now?
Silence.