Chapter 36: Descent Into Oblivion

Darkness swallowed everything.

It wasn't the absence of light—it was something deeper, something absolute. A void that pressed against Kai's senses, suffocating and endless, stripping away everything but the raw awareness that he was falling.

He had felt weightlessness before. The moment before a space shuttle left Earth's atmosphere, the surreal detachment of drifting in zero gravity. But this was different. He wasn't simply floating—he was being pulled.

A force unlike anything he had ever encountered dragged him down, deeper and deeper into the abyss. His fragment burned against his chest, flickering wildly, as if struggling to resist whatever force had ensnared him.

Then, with a sudden and violent lurch, he stopped.

His feet found solid ground—or at least, something like ground. The surface beneath him was smooth, featureless, and cold. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it.

And then the whispers began.

Soft, indistinct, like voices just beyond the edge of comprehension. They echoed in the void, countless and overlapping, pressing into his mind with the weight of ancient knowledge.

Kai clenched his jaw, forcing himself to remain still. Panic wouldn't help him now. He had to think, had to understand.

Where the hell was he?

He forced himself to move forward, one step at a time. The void offered no resistance, no indication of distance or direction. It was like walking through a dream, each step simultaneously grounding and meaningless.

Then, a light.

It was faint at first—a distant shimmer, like a crack in the darkness itself. But as he moved toward it, the whispers grew louder.

And then, abruptly, the void ripped open.

Kai staggered back as the darkness peeled away like shattered glass, revealing a towering structure before him. It wasn't made of stone or metal. It was something else, something that shifted and pulsed as if alive.

And at its center, a throne.

A figure sat upon it.

Not human. Not alien. Not anything that should exist.

It was wrapped in flowing obsidian strands, shifting and curling around its form like smoke caught in an unseen current. Its face was a hollow mask of nothingness, its eyes twin voids that devoured light.

And then, it spoke.

"You are the anomaly."

The voice wasn't sound. It bypassed his ears entirely, sinking into his mind with the weight of a thousand collapsing stars.

Kai's breath hitched. His fragment pulsed, heat flooding his veins, but he couldn't move. He was trapped in the presence of something far beyond him.

The figure stood.

Reality shuddered.

"You were not meant to survive," it continued, stepping forward. "You were not meant to awaken."

Kai gritted his teeth, his fists clenching at his sides. "And yet, here I am."

The void trembled.

A chuckle. Cold, distant, utterly devoid of amusement.

"Yes," the entity mused. "Here you are."

Kai's mind raced. He had faced impossible odds before. He had fought creatures beyond human comprehension. He had wielded power that defied logic.

But this?

This was different.

This wasn't just an enemy.

This was the source.

"The fragments," Kai said slowly, his voice steady despite the chaos around him. "They came from you, didn't they?"

The figure stopped. Silence stretched between them, thick and suffocating.

And then—

A shift.

A pulse of energy so vast it sent cracks spiderwebbing through the void itself.

"You think you understand," the figure said, tilting its head. "But you do not."

The ground beneath Kai's feet trembled. The throne behind the entity began to dissolve, its form unraveling into strands of pure energy.

"You have taken power that was never meant for you," it continued. "You wield forces beyond your comprehension."

Kai swallowed hard. His mind flashed back to the moment the Moon shattered. The moment he first awakened.

Had this entity been watching him all along?

Had it chosen him?

Or was he just another piece in a game he didn't understand?

The whispers surged, rising to a deafening roar. The air itself seemed to fracture, reality twisting as the entity raised a single hand.

"You are a mistake."

The void collapsed.

A shockwave of pure force erupted outward, slamming into Kai like a tidal wave. He barely had time to react before the ground vanished beneath him, and once again, he was falling.

But this time, he wasn't alone.

The entity was falling with him.

And it was smiling.