Chapter 15: Echoes of the Void

The Academy's Scar

The once-grand halls of Crimson Imperial Academy stood as a skeletal reminder of Erathia's fragility. Scaffolding clawed at broken stained glass, and the scent of charred stone lingered like a ghost. Students huddled in cloistered groups, their whispers threading through the ruins: "The Sovereign's gone, but at what cost?" "Lady Valois rules over rubble." "Liana Hart died for nothing."

Priam Lockhart ignored them, his boots crunching over debris as he climbed the fractured steps to Seraphine's makeshift war room—a repurposed lecture hall still strewn with singed textbooks. Inside, Seraphine de Valois paced before a map of Erathia, her crimson nails stabbing at rebel-held territories.

"Lord Garrick's defected," she snarled, tossing a scroll onto the table. "He's rallying the western lords under the banner of 'restoring honor.' As if honor feeds the starving."

Roland Vayne, his arm slung in a bloodstained bandage, frowned. "We need to retaliate. Show strength."

"Strength?" Seraphine laughed bitterly. "Half my army is ash. The other half is one missed meal from desertion."

Priam leaned against the doorway, arms crossed. "Then maybe stop acting like a tyrant and start playing diplomat."

Seraphine's violet eyes flashed. "Careful, Lockhart. I didn't save your life to tolerate insolence."

"You saved me because I'm useful," he shot back. "And right now, I'm the only one who can find Liana."

The room chilled.

"Liana is gone," Roland said quietly. "Even Lucien said—"

"Lucien's a liar," Priam interrupted. "And Liana's alive. I've seen her."

Visions in the Dark

She stood in a starless expanse, her body translucent, the Voidrender shard glowing like a dying ember in her chest. "Priam," she whispered, her voice echoing across the void. "It's not over. It's waiting. Listening."

The Abyssal Sovereign's laughter rumbled, distant but hungry.

Priam woke drenched in sweat, the academy's infirmary silent save for his ragged breaths. The visions had started the night Liana vanished—fragments of her trapped in the void, pleading, warning. Guilt was a blade in his gut. He'd handed her the dagger. He'd let her fall.

The Traitor's Gambit

Lucien found him in the library, poring over a moldering Hartwell grimoire.

"Still chasing ghosts?" he drawled, plucking an apple from the shadows and biting into it. Juice dripped like venom.

"What do you want, Blackthorn?"

"To offer a trade." Lucien tossed a voidsteel key onto the table. It pulsed faintly, its teeth shaped like serpents. "This opens the Abyssal Gate—a temporary rift to the void. Use it, and you might pull your precious Liana back. But…"

"But?"

"Every second the gate is open, the Sovereign gets closer to slipping through." Lucien's smirk was razor-thin. "Save the girl, doom the world. Poetic, isn't it?"

Priam gripped the key, its cold seeping into his bones. "Why help me?"

"Because watching you suffer is delightful." Lucien leaned closer, his breath frost. "And because Erathia's too dull without a little chaos."

Seraphine's Ultimatum

"You're a fool," Seraphine hissed, her magic crackling as Priam revealed the key. The council chamber's few loyal nobles glanced between them, uneasy.

"Liana's our only hope of sealing the void permanently," Priam argued. "The Hartwell bloodline—"

"Is extinct," Seraphine snapped. "And even if she lives, she's a liability. Cedric's remnants are already calling her a void-witch. Rallying behind her name to justify rebellion."

Roland stepped forward. "Lockhart, if the Sovereign returns…"

"It will return," Priam said. "With or without Liana. She's the only one who's faced it and survived."

Silence hung like a noose. Seraphine's gaze bore into him, calculating. Finally, she waved a dismissive hand.

"Go. Dig your grave. But when the Sovereign crawls out, don't expect me to mourn you."

The Ritual

The Blackthorn Vault was colder than he remembered. Priam etched the ritual circle in salt and ash, the voidsteel key burning in his palm. Lucien leaned against the wall, watching.

"Last chance to back out, hero."

"Don't flatter yourself," Priam muttered. "You'd miss the show."

He turned the key.

The air split, a jagged tear glowing violet and black. The void beyond whispered—a cacophony of Liana's voice, the Sovereign's growls, and a thousand screams.

Abyssal Gate Opened

Timer: 00:10:00

Priam stepped through.

The Void's Price

Liana floated in the abyss, her form flickering. The shard in her chest pulsed in time with the Sovereign's distant heartbeat.

"You shouldn't have come," she whispered.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." He reached for her, but the void twisted, tendrils binding his limbs.

"Mine," the Sovereign hissed, its presence crushing.

Priam's mimicry magic flared—Seraphine's dark energy, Liana's light, Lucien's voidsteel—all colliding in a storm. The tendrils loosened.

"Take my hand!"

Liana grasped him, her touch ice and fire. The shard flared—

The gate shuddered.

Timer: 00:01:23

The Choice

They tumbled back into the vault, the rift snapping shut. Liana gasped, alive but changed—her hair streaked with void-black, her eyes twin pools of starlight.

The academy bells tolled. Seraphine's voice boomed through enchanted speakers:

"All forces to the eastern gates. Rebel armies approach."

Lucien grinned. "Looks like the fun's starting."

Priam helped Liana stand, her grip trembling. "What did the Sovereign say to you?"

She met his gaze, terrified. "It's not it we need to fear. It's what's coming with it."

Outside, the sky darkened—not with clouds, but with wings.

New Threat Unlocked:

Voidspawn Horde: The Sovereign's vanguard.

End of Chapter 15