The abyss was no longer empty.
From the fissure, the Ring God stepped through—each movement slow, deliberate, like reality itself strained to allow it passage. Its body was not flesh, but a fusion of shifting fire and voidlight, its frame colossal and yet without form, as if it existed in too many shapes at once. Every breath it took twisted the fragments of stone Vemy stood on, pulling gravity in and out of place.
Vemy's fists shook, Prismarine fire coiling tighter, trying to burn hotter than it ever had before. But instead of dominance, he felt something worse—resonance. His flame pulsed in perfect rhythm with the Ring God's own, as if it were just an echo.
"Do you feel it?" the god's voice slithered, not spoken, but felt inside his veins.
"That spark you worship. That fire you claim as yours. It is a chain, boy. And the other end is in my hand."
The words struck harder than any blow. Vemy staggered, clutching his chest as if to rip the flame out by force.
"No… I forged this fire! It's mine!" His roar cracked the air, Prismarine wings bursting wide. "You don't own me!"
The god only smiled—or something like it, a distortion in the air that mimicked a grin.
Chains of fire erupted from the fissure, countless, alive. They slithered across the void like serpents, wrapping around fragments of stone, piercing through the empty air, searching for him. Each one radiated an impossible weight, the weight of history itself.
Vemy braced, his fire blazing higher, but when the first chain struck against him it wasn't his body it touched—it was his soul.
Pain ripped through him, raw and endless. He gasped, nearly dropping to his knees.
"Vemy!"
The voice cut through the void. Akiar. His storm flared into existence on a fragment not far away, lightning ripping across the abyss like veins of silver. His blade swung, cleaving through one of the chains. The cut was clean, sharp—yet the chain simply rewove itself, reattaching as though his strike had been meaningless.
The Ring God's gaze shifted.
"Storm child. You too were forged of fragments. Did you believe the lightning bent to you?"
The storm around Akiar faltered. His eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, but for the first time he said nothing.
Vemy snarled through clenched teeth, forcing his fire outward to burn one of the chains before it reached him. The Prismarine blaze screamed, flaring brighter, enough to scorch it to ash. For a heartbeat he thought he had resisted.
Then the ash turned, reshaping, reforming into another chain—thicker, heavier—striking harder than before.
The god's voice thundered, shaking them both to their cores.
"You do not wield. You are wielded."
The words reverberated through the abyss, through the fragments of reality still clinging to existence. Even the Thrones' ashes seemed to recoil, as if remembering what it meant to kneel.
Vemy forced himself upright, blood streaking down his chin, vision blurring. His flame wanted to obey the god. His instincts wanted to kneel. But somewhere deeper, something else stirred—something that did not belong to the god, something raw and human.
"I am not your vessel," he growled, forcing the Prismarine blaze to wrap around his fists. "And I'll prove it."
His wings flared wide, launching him toward the fissure, straight toward the Ring God itself.
The god's eyes—if they could be called eyes—flared like dying stars. A hand of pure fire swept toward him, vast and merciless.
Vemy roared and met it head-on. His Prismarine fists collided against the divine flame—
—and for the first time, the Ring God paused.
The void rang with impact, Prismarine fire clashing with the chains of origin. The collision tore light into shreds, sending shockwaves that shattered a dozen floating fragments around them.
The god tilted its head, amused.
"Interesting. You resist… more than expected."
Akiar's storm crackled behind him, the swordsman taking position at Vemy's back. His voice was low, controlled, but edged with fury.
"Don't mistake this for alliance, Vemy. If you fall, that thing devours us all."
Vemy smirked, though blood dripped from his lip. "Then try to keep up."
The god's laughter rolled like thunder. Chains burst outward in every direction. Fire, storm, and Prismarine clashed in the abyss.
And for the first time, the Ring God was not only watching.
It was testing.