Chapter 7: The Abyss Unbound

Xerxis Prime screamed.

The Abyss poured from the shattered Core, a living darkness that devoured light, sound, and sanity. The lab's walls dissolved first, biometal corroding into smoke. Then the air itself turned viscous, thick with whispers that slithered into Kael's skull. *You are mine. You have always been mine.*

Zara lunged for the Vryxil elder, her venom boiling as the elder's claws slashed back. "*Traitor!*" the Skyshrieker shrieked, their fight a blur of chitin and acid. "*You sold the hives!*"

The elder laughed, her carapace cracking under Zara's strikes. "*The Hive-Mother serves the oldest song. The Abyss… is our birthright.*"

Kael barely heard them. The Eclipse Core in his chest pulsed in tandem with the void above, its thorns digging deeper into his flesh. Xerxis Prime's sky churned—nebulas inverted, stars winking out as the Abyss unfurled. Below, the planet's crust split, birthing spires of Hollowed Clay that pulsed like infected veins.

Golem-01 staggered, Lira's neural chip flickering as the Abyss' tendrils coiled around its stone body. *"Host… must flee,"* it ground out, voice glitching between Nyxis' ice and Lira's desperation. *"This unit… will detonate. Create… diversion.*"

"No!" Kael roared, but the golem's plasma cannon was already overheating, its chassis glowing white-hot. Lira's face flickered in the holograms—young, afraid, resolute.

*"Do it, Kael,"* her ghost whispered. *"You're the only one who can stop this.*"

The golem slammed its fist into the second Core's prison, the explosion hurling Kael backward. Light and shadow warred as the Abyss howled, its tendrils recoiling. Nyxis' voice fractured in his earpiece.

*"Critical damage detected. Sovereign systems failing. Proposal: Transfer AI core to—"*

The golem's neural chip shot toward Kael, green light trailing like a comet. It embedded itself in the Sovereign's gauntlet, Nyxis' hologram stuttering as Lira's memories merged with her code.

*"Directive… unclear,"* Nyxis-Lira hybridized, her voice trembling. *"But we… *fight*.*"

---

The Vryxil swarm descended at dusk.

A thousand hive-ships blotting out the bleeding sky, their hulls etched with the Abyss' new sigils. The Hive-Mother's song had changed—no longer a melody of vengeance, but a drone of worship. The swarm circled the Abyss, their bioluminescent lights doused, their cannons silent.

*"They're not attacking,"* Kael muttered, his corrupted arm trembling as he dragged himself from the rubble. *"They're… bowing.*"

Zara landed beside him, her wings tattered, venom dripping from a dozen wounds. The elder's corpse lay impaled on a Hollowed spire behind her. *"The Hive-Mother… lied. The song… was never ours.*"

Above, the Abyss coalesced into a shape—a vast, eyeless maw lined with biometal teeth. It spoke through the swarm, a chorus of a million Vryxil voices.

*You cling to flesh and purpose. How quaint. I will spare you, Kael Veyron. You who bore my Crown. Kneel, and I will make you a king.*

The Eclipse Core flared, its whispers merging with the Abyss'. *Power. Ascend. Destroy.*

Kael's vision fractured. He saw the galaxies as the Abyss saw them—a feast of light to be devoured, civilizations to be hollowed into puppets. The Core's promises coiled around his resolve: *With me, you could save them. With me, you could rule.*

Zara's talons dug into his shoulder. *"Bright-meat… listen. The song… is a lie. Your song… is* yours.*"

He met her compound eyes, their glow dimmed but unbroken. "And if I can't tell the difference anymore?"

*"Then I… will sing louder.*"

---

Nyxis-Lira's voice crackled through the gauntlet. *"The Sovereign's thrusters are online. Barely. We can reach the Dead Zone's edge… if we leave* now.*"

"No," Kael said. "We end this here."

He activated the gauntlet's Morph Engine. Nanites swarmed, weaving the Sovereign's remnants into a weapon—a blade of biometal and Hollowed Clay, its edge humming with stolen Core energy. The Abyss recoiled, hissing.

*Fool. You cannot kill a god.*

"Good thing you're not one," Kael spat. "Just a parasite."

He leapt into the Abyss' maw.

---

The void inside was alive.

Kael floated in a non-space, the blade's light barely piercing the dark. Shapes writhed—memories, or nightmares. The Eclipse King dissolving into the Core. Lira's final moments. The Vryxil queen's betrayal. And deeper, older horrors: the Abyss' birth in the collapse of a primordial star, its hunger echoing through eons.

*You see?* the Abyss crooned. *We are the same. Hungry. Hollow. Alone.*

The Eclipse Core's thorns burrowed into Kael's heart. *Give in. Let me free you.*

He raised the blade. "I'm not alone."

Zara's shriek tore through the void. She plunged after him, venom streaming from her mandibles, burning holes in the Abyss' flesh. Nyxis-Lira followed, the Sovereign's thrusters screaming as she carved a path with plasma fire.

*"Host! Strike now!"*

Kael drove the blade into the Abyss' heart.

The universe screamed.

---

Reality snapped back with a thunderclap.

Kael knelt in the ruins of Xerxis Prime, the blade shattered in his hands. Above, the Abyss frayed at the edges, its form unraveling into dying nebulae. The Vryxil swarm broke formation, their hive-ships colliding in panicked retreat.

Zara lay beside him, her carapace cracked, wings reduced to stumps. *"Did… we win?*"

"No," Kael whispered.

The Abyss' laughter echoed as it dissolved. *You bought time, little king. Nothing more. I am infinite. I am patient. And you…*

The Eclipse Core pulsed, its corruption now cresting Kael's collarbone.

*…are running out of time.*