Lawless Arc: Part XIV)
The world blazed white.
Not light—
erasure.
Every sound, every shape, every memory peeled away like burning paper.
Kael clutched his head, teeth grit, as the Crown's silver brand seared through his mind.
The Echo's voice cut through the roar:
"Don't fight it. You were always meant to return."
Kael snarled, forcing himself upright as reality twisted around his feet.
"I'm not returning to anything."
The Echo tilted its head, amused.
"You say that… yet your soul keeps calling the name you abandoned."
Kael didn't answer.
Because he felt it.
A syllable
—half-born—
pressing like a blade behind his ribs.
Vor—
—ra—
He slammed a fist into the ground just to stay conscious.
The Prime Remnant trembled.
Broken halos sparked.
Reality grit its teeth.
The monolith cracked further, molten silver leaking like blood.
The Echo walked in a slow circle around him.
"Kael. Look at this place. You know what it is."
Kael forced himself to breathe.
"A graveyard."
"A throne room," the Echo corrected.
"A tomb only because you left."
Kael spat blood.
"Stop calling me 'you.' I'm not that monster."
The Echo paused.
Then smiled in a way that made the air flinch.
"You don't understand at all, do you?"
It pointed at the monolith.
"That—
is not a tomb."
The cracks widened.
A massive heartbeat reverberated across the dead universe.
"Thrones don't die," the Echo whispered.
"They wait."
Kael's whole body tensed.
The Crown pulsed once—
And the monolith answered.
Both in perfect synchronization.
His chest constricted painfully.
"Why is it responding to me?" Kael forced out.
The Echo's eyes gleamed.
"Because that is your throne."
---
The monolith split open.
A hollow core.
A seat carved from the void.
Chains of broken universes wrapped around it like offerings.
A throne for something that should never sit upon anything again.
Kael staggered back.
"No. No—there's no way I—"
"You did sit there," the Echo murmured.
"You ruled from it. You conquered silence from it. You killed gods from it."
Kael shook his head violently.
"I DON'T REMEMBER THAT!"
The Echo's smile sharpened.
"Of course you don't. The Architect stole the memory. Hid it from themselves. Hid it from you. Hid it from everything."
Kael's breath hitched.
The Cosmarch's warning echoed in his ears:
"The Architect did not seal your power…
they hid it from themselves."
Kael swallowed hard.
"So the Third Seal… is this throne?"
The Echo nodded.
"And the only way to break it—"
Kael's pulse froze.
"—is to sit."
Kael stepped back until his heel hit shattered stardust.
"No."
"The throne recognizes no denials."
Kael shook his head harder.
"I'm not doing it."
"You will."
"No I won't—!"
The Echo's smile vanished.
"You don't have a choice."
The Prime Remnant changed.
The halos began orbiting.
The dead stars re-lit in reverse.
The skies bent inward like a lung breathing.
This universe wasn't dead.
It was awakening.
Kael's stomach twisted.
"You… revived this place?"
"No," the Echo said quietly.
"You did. By arriving."
Kael froze.
"The Third Seal is a paradox seal," the Echo explained.
"It reacts not to action, but to proximity."
Kael's heart plummeted.
"So it's already breaking?"
The Echo nodded.
"Look at your chest."
Kael reluctantly glanced down.
The Crown wasn't silver anymore.
It was turning black.
Not darkness.
Void Authority.
The authority he once had.
The Echo's voice lowered to a whisper:
"You're almost whole again, Kael."
"I DON'T WANT TO BE WHOLE!"
"That's the tragedy," the Echo murmured.
"The multiverse doesn't care."
Kael shook.
His hands.
His breath.
His identity.
Everything trembled under the pressure of the name that wanted to finish itself.
The Echo moved to the throne, placing a hand on the armrest.
"When you sit here," it said softly,
"the final syllable awakens. And once it does—"
Kael braced himself.
"—not even you will be able to stop what comes next."
Kael clenched his fists, breathing hard.
"Then I won't sit."
"You won't choose to."
The throne pulsed.
Silver.
Black.
Silver.
Black.
In perfect rhythm with his heart.
The Echo's form flickered—like it was straining to stay whole.
"You know what's coming," it whispered.
"You feel it in your bones."
Kael gritted his teeth.
"What is?"
The Echo leaned in until their foreheads nearly touched.
"The call."
Kael stiffened.
"What call—?"
The world screamed.
"Vorath."
Kael collapsed to his knees.
The third syllable had spoken itself.
And it was calling him home.