Kael couldn't move.
He stared through the enormous doorway.
Beyond it was his first universe.
The universe he remembered dying.
The universe where everything had ended.
The universe where Eryx had sacrificed himself.
Yet it was still there.
Stars burned in the distance.
Galaxies slowly turned.
Planets floated through the darkness.
It looked peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Kael stepped closer.
"That can't be real."
Eryx stood beside him.
"I remember it."
"So do I."
Kael looked at him.
"We watched it die."
Eryx nodded.
"We did."
The silver-eyed Kael stood on the other side of the doorway.
"You watched a version of it die."
Kael's eyes narrowed.
"A version?"
The silver-eyed Kael turned around.
"Your creators learned very early that destroying a universe was meaningless."
He raised his hand.
The stars beyond the doorway changed.
Kael suddenly saw thousands of versions of the same universe.
Some were burning.
Some were frozen.
Some were completely empty.
Some had never been created.
And some were filled with life.
"They kept making them."
Kael stared.
"Why?"
"To test you."
The words hit harder than any attack.
Eryx stepped forward.
"Test us for what?"
The silver-eyed Kael looked at him.
"To see which version of you would survive."
The child-like third piece of Eryx began shaking.
Kael noticed.
"You remember something."
The child nodded.
"I remember the rooms."
"What rooms?"
"The ones where they kept us."
Kael's expression darkened.
The child continued.
"There were so many."
He pointed through the doorway.
"Every universe had another us."
Kael looked into the distance.
Thousands of stars suddenly became thousands of eyes.
Watching.
Observing.
Waiting.
The same eyes from the laboratory.
Kael clenched his fists.
"So they didn't create one experiment."
"No."
The silver-eyed Kael answered.
"They created an infinite experiment."
Silence followed.
Then Aetherion spoke.
"Kael."
"What?"
"You need to leave."
Kael frowned.
"Why?"
"Because this isn't your first universe."
Kael looked at the doorway.
"Then what is it?"
Aetherion hesitated.
"The control universe."
Kael's eyes widened.
Eryx looked at Aetherion.
"What does that mean?"
"It means everything that happened to Kael was being monitored from there."
Kael looked back at the silver-eyed figure.
"You knew."
"Yes."
"You've been there?"
"Yes."
"When?"
The silver-eyed Kael looked toward the stars.
"Before you were born."
Kael's heart began beating faster.
Then the Hunger inside him whispered.
Not through Aetherion.
Not through his mind.
Directly into his soul.
Don't go there.
Kael froze.
The Hunger had never spoken like that before.
"Why?"
A second voice answered.
Because that is where I was born.
Kael's eyes widened.
The Hunger.
The First Hunger.
It had always been connected to him.
But this was different.
The silver-eyed Kael looked at him.
"You finally heard it."
Kael stared.
"You knew about the Hunger too."
"I helped create the conditions for it."
Kael's expression became cold.
"You're lying."
"No."
The silver-eyed Kael stepped aside.
"Look."
The doorway expanded.
Kael saw a laboratory.
Not one from the memories.
A much larger one.
Thousands of chambers filled the enormous structure.
Inside each chamber was a sleeping Kael.
Beside each one was an Eryx.
And beside them—
something else.
A black mass.
A different Hunger.
Kael's breathing stopped.
"There are thousands of them."
Eryx stared in disbelief.
"What did they do?"
The silver-eyed Kael answered quietly.
"They tried to create a being that could consume anything."
Kael looked at the black masses.
"And every attempt failed."
"No."
The silver-eyed Kael looked at Kael.
"Every attempt became something different."
The black masses suddenly began moving.
One of them opened an eye.
Then another.
Then another.
Thousands of Hungers awakened.
Kael felt the Hunger inside him recoil.
For the first time, it wasn't afraid of death.
It was afraid of recognition.
Kael whispered:
"They're like me."
The Hunger answered.
No.
Kael looked confused.
They are what I could have become.
Suddenly, the entire laboratory shook.
The silver-eyed Kael's expression changed.
"They've awakened."
Eryx raised his weapon.
"Who?"
The silver-eyed Kael looked toward the far end of the laboratory.
"Not who."
He paused.
"Which one."
A massive chamber opened.
Something stepped out.
It was humanoid.
But it had no face.
No eyes.
No mouth.
Only a black body covered in cracks of white light.
Kael immediately felt something familiar.
The same presence.
The same ancient feeling.
The same thing that had existed before creation.
The creature looked toward the doorway.
Then it looked directly at Kael.
And for the first time…
Kael heard it speak.
"You finally came home."
The doorway exploded open.
A wave of darkness rushed toward them.
Eryx grabbed Kael.
"MOVE!"
Kael summoned creation.
Nothing happened.
He summoned destruction.
Nothing.
Transformation.
Nothing.
The silver-eyed Kael walked past him.
"You still don't understand."
Kael looked at him.
"What?"
The silver-eyed Kael smiled.
"You were never supposed to fight this thing."
He pointed toward the creature.
"You were supposed to become it."
Kael's eyes widened.
The Hunger inside him screamed.
RUN.
And the Last Core suddenly began beating like a heart.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then Kael heard a voice from inside it.
His own voice.
A voice from before his first death.
"If you're hearing this…"
Kael froze.
The voice continued.
"…then everything has already gone wrong."
TO BE CONTINUED...