The first thing Kael heard when he woke
was nothing.
Not silence.
Not absence.
A deeper void than anything he had ever felt.
His eyes snapped open.
The void was gone.
Replaced with—
Lightless hallways.
Uncountable doors made of equations and paradox.
A labyrinth that bent backwards and forwards at the same time.
He was floating inside the Backside of Reality.
A place no living thing should ever perceive.
A place only two beings could enter:
The Architect.
And the one whose name could kill stars.
Kael pushed himself upright, groaning.
His head throbbed.
His chest burned.
And the Crown hovered silently above him, still dim, still cold.
"What… happened?"
No answer.
The Architect wasn't here.
The sealed version wasn't here.
The Sovereign wasn't here.
He was alone.
Until reality clicked.
A door opened.
Not by hinge.
By agreement.
Someone stepped through.
A woman made entirely of quasar-light and gravitational thread.
Eyes filled with orbiting galaxies.
Voice soft as collapsing matter.
The Cosmarch.
A being second only to the Architect in authority.
The regulator of every stable universe.
She looked at Kael.
And flinched.
Actually flinched.
"You should not exist here," she whispered.
Kael frowned. "I didn't exactly walk in on purpose."
She watched him—
not with hatred,
not with fear,
but with something worse:
Recognition.
"You are the one who broke the First Silence," she said quietly.
"The one who devoured nine Sovereigns."
"The one whose name cannot be pronounced without unraveling light."
Kael's breath caught.
"No. I'm not him. I don't remember any of that."
The Cosmarch's eyes dimmed.
"That is the only reason the Realms still stand."
Kael swallowed hard.
"What do you want from me?"
Her gaze sharpened.
"I came because reality detected your name reconstruction reaching 95%."
Kael froze.
"How… far can it go before something bad happens?"
Her voice didn't tremble.
It cracked.
"At 100%…
the multiverse will kneel."
Kael's stomach dropped.
"And if I don't want that?"
"Then prevent the Third Syllable from completing," she said.
"Destroy it. Reject it. Break your own path."
Kael shook his head.
"I tried. I'm trying. But the void keeps pulling it out of me—"
"That is because the void remembers who you were."
Her hand rose.
Three symbols glowed on her palm.
A star.
A fracture.
A crown.
She pressed them into the air—
and the entire Backside of Reality trembled.
"Do you know what this place is, Kael?"
"Not a clue."
"This is where reality hides from the things it fears."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"And I'm one of those things?"
"You are the thing."
Kael staggered back.
"No. Stop lying. I'm not—"
"You are not Kael," the Cosmarch said softly.
"You are the echo of a name that can kill everything."
Kael's heart pounded.
"Then tell me the full name."
She recoiled visibly.
"No."
"WHY NOT?!"
"Because if I speak it," she whispered,
"you will kill me without meaning to."
Kael's chest tightened.
The Crown flickered once—
annoyed.
The Cosmarch stiffened.
"That… Crown of yours… it is thinking again."
Kael grit his teeth.
"What does that even mean?"
"It means," she said,
"that it is waiting for you to become who you once were.
And it is getting impatient."
Kael sucked in a sharp breath.
The Cosmarch stepped back.
"My time is almost gone. The multiverse cannot sustain your presence here."
"Wait—!"
She raised a single finger.
"You must break the path before the void finishes your name."
"How?!"
"Find the Third Seal."
Kael blinked.
"The Architect said the Third Seal would—"
The Cosmarch cut him off.
"The Architect no longer controls your fate."
A chill crawled up Kael's spine.
"What does that mean?"
The Cosmarch's body began unraveling—
stars dimming,
galaxies collapsing into light-threads.
Her final whisper twisted the entire labyrinth:
"The Architect did not seal your power…"
"…they hid it from themselves."
Kael's eyes widened.
"What—?!"
"Find the Third Seal, Kael."
"And pray you break it before your name breaks everything else."
And then—
She vanished.
The labyrinth shook violently.
The Crown pulsed.
Kael clenched his fists.
"Fine.
I'll find the Third Seal."
The void echoed behind the walls of reality.
"Vor—"
"—rath—"
Kael exhaled sharply.
"…and I'll stop that name from finishing."
He didn't know how.
But he would.
Because if he didn't—
The multiverse wasn't ready.
Not for him.
Not for the name that hunted him.
Not for the thing he used to be.
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