Chapter 22: Into the Unknown

Kael took the first step forward, the weight of the voidspawn's words still heavy in his mind. The ground beneath his boots was no longer stone but something else entirely—smooth, dark, and shifting like liquid caught between solid and intangible states. Sylva hesitated beside him, her emerald eyes scanning the path ahead.

The air was thick with silence, unnatural and absolute. No echoes bounced off unseen walls, no sound of footsteps followed them. Even their breaths felt stolen, swallowed by the void itself.

Behind them, the cavern they had come from had vanished. The floating platforms had crumbled into the abyss, leaving no way back.

No escape.

Kael exhaled through his nose, keeping his grip firm on his sword. The path ahead stretched endlessly into the void, illuminated by faint strands of silver light woven into the dark surface. They pulsed gently, forming an intricate pattern that twisted and shifted, almost like a living map.

Sylva ran her fingers along the glowing threads. "This… this isn't natural," she murmured.

Kael gave her a sidelong glance. "Nothing here is."

Her fingers lingered on one of the patterns, tracing its shape. The glow beneath her fingertips brightened for a split second before vanishing entirely. The path beneath them suddenly rippled, and Kael felt a strange pulling sensation in his chest.

And then—

A voice.

Not spoken aloud, but one that rang through their minds, cold and distant, yet undeniably there.

"The Void remembers."

Sylva inhaled sharply, her fingers snapping away from the glowing lines. Kael felt his own pulse quicken as the threads of silver light shifted again, forming new patterns beneath their feet. This time, they weren't just glowing lines.

They were words.

Kael narrowed his eyes, struggling to make sense of them. The language was old, ancient even, but fragments of it felt oddly familiar. He had seen similar symbols in the ruined texts of Eldrath's archives.

"What is forgotten does not fade. What is lost is never gone."

Sylva whispered the words aloud, her voice barely audible. She turned to Kael, her brows furrowed. "This place isn't just a passage."

Kael nodded slowly. "It's a memory."

Before Sylva could respond, the air around them shifted. The darkness ahead of them shimmered, and suddenly, the void wasn't empty anymore.

It was full.

Shadows moved, forming indistinct figures, flickering between existence and nothingness. They surrounded Kael and Sylva, shifting like smoke caught in unseen currents. And then—

A city appeared.

Not a ruined city, not a place of decay, but something else entirely. Massive towers of silver and black stretched into the void above them, woven with threads of glowing energy. The streets were filled with figures—people, their faces blurred but their forms clear. They moved with purpose, their voices murmuring in a language Kael could almost understand.

But the most disturbing part?

None of them seemed to see Kael and Sylva.

It was like they weren't even there.

"This…" Sylva swallowed. "This isn't real."

Kael turned in a slow circle, scanning the city. He could feel it. The weight of its existence pressed against his mind, making his thoughts sluggish.

No. This wasn't a dream. It wasn't an illusion.

This was the past.

And they were walking through it.

The Forgotten City

They moved cautiously through the streets, stepping carefully as if the figures around them might suddenly see them if they made too much noise. The buildings loomed overhead, smooth and flawless, made of a material Kael couldn't recognize. Strange symbols adorned the walls, pulsing with faint light.

Sylva paused beside one of the buildings, running her fingers along the inscriptions. "This writing… it's similar to the symbols in the ruins back in Eldrath."

Kael frowned. "Can you read it?"

She hesitated. "Not fully. But I can recognize a few words."

"What do they say?"

She traced a line of text, her brows knitting together. "Something about 'the convergence'… and 'the watchers.'"

Kael's grip on his sword tightened. "The voidspawn called this a broken path. If this city was part of that path…"

Sylva finished his thought. "Then something broke it."

They continued walking, their eyes flicking between the ghostly figures around them. The people—if that's what they had been—seemed unaware of their presence, locked in the motions of a life long since erased. Some carried strange devices, others spoke into the air, their voices layered with an echo of something unnatural.

And then, the whispers returned.

"They walked too far."

Kael spun around, but there was no one there. The whisper hadn't come from the figures. It had come from the void itself.

Sylva went rigid beside him. "You heard that?"

Kael gave a slow nod, his pulse thrumming. "We need to keep moving."

The whispers didn't stop. They slithered through the air, weaving between the half-formed buildings and shifting figures.

"They reached beyond the veil."

"They sought what was not theirs to claim."

"And so they were unmade."

A chill ran down Kael's spine.

Sylva exhaled sharply. "I don't think we should be here."

Kael agreed. Every instinct screamed at him to turn back, but there was no back. Only forward.

And then, the city changed.

The figures around them froze, their blurred faces suddenly turning—locking onto Kael and Sylva.

Sylva stiffened. "Kael…"

The whispers grew louder.

"You do not belong."

The figures began to move—not walking, not running, but shifting. One second they were in the distance, the next they were closer, flickering like candlelight caught in the wind. Their forms twisted, unraveling into strands of darkness before reforming again.

And then the screaming started.

A single, piercing wail that shattered the silence. The figures convulsed, their blurred faces warping into something horrific, mouths stretching far too wide, eyes melting into hollow voids.

Kael grabbed Sylva's arm. "Run!"

They sprinted through the streets as the figures collapsed into pools of writhing blackness, their forms melting into the ground before surging forward like a living tide. The city itself began to fracture, the buildings splitting, dissolving into shards of light and shadow.

The path beneath them cracked.

Kael leaped onto a floating platform as the street behind them vanished, swallowed by the rising void. Sylva landed beside him, her breath ragged.

The last remnants of the city collapsed, dissolving into the abyss.

The figures were gone.

And ahead of them—

A massive gate stood at the end of the fractured path.

It was unlike anything Kael had ever seen. Towering, adorned with shifting symbols that pulsed like a heartbeat. The surface was neither metal nor stone, but something in between.

And at its center, a single sigil glowed—the same mark Kael had seen in his dreams.

Sylva took a shaky breath. "This is it."

Kael swallowed. The whispers had gone silent. The voidspawn's warning echoed in his mind.

"Once you enter its depths, you may never return."

He looked at Sylva. She met his gaze, and despite the fear in her eyes, there was something else.

Resolve.

Kael exhaled and stepped forward.

The gate opened.

And the void swallowed them whole.