The Final Riftborn

The Silence After the End

Nothingness.

For the first time since the dawn of creation, the Rift was gone.

Ethan stood at the center of the void, his golden-shadow flames flickering in the vast emptiness. There was no wind. No sound. No sensation of time passing. Just a stillness so absolute it pressed against his existence like an unseen force.

It was not silence in the way mortals understood it. It was the absence of even the idea of sound.

For the first time, there was no war. No enemy waiting in the shadows. No battle left to fight.

And yet—he was still here.

His power pulsed in slow, steady waves, radiating outward like a heartbeat in an empty universe. His body—if it could even be called that anymore—remained whole. Unbroken. As if untouched by the battle that had just ended.

But deep inside, something felt wrong.