Chapter 11: The Hollow Prince

The desert winds had changed.

They carried whispers now—thin, broken things that barely reached the ears but scraped across the mind like rusted knives. Aion felt them even as he and Kael approached the ruin-laced basin Itheon had called the Cradle of Lies.

It was where the Fractured Circle once fell. And where, Itheon said, a part of Seln's past had been buried.

Aion could feel it. A pull. Something tied to the Null. Something that knew his name long before he was born.

---

The crater was massive—wide enough to hold a city, yet hidden beneath broken mirage-fields. In its center: a shattered monolith, half-submerged in black sand. Ghostly fragments of old Laws flickered around it, trapped mid-collapse, twitching like dying fireflies.

"It's like something tried to erase the past here," Kael whispered.

"Not something," Aion said quietly. "Someone."

---

Beneath the monolith was a crypt.

And at its heart, encased in chained obsidian glass, floated a body.

Or what remained of one.

It was tall, regal—dressed in war-scarred robes of Nullsteel. Its face was hidden behind a jagged mask carved from bone and void-crystal. No heartbeat. No breath. But it watched.

A plaque read only:

> "Vaelith — First of the Nullborn. The Hollow Prince."

Aion's vision reeled. The Null inside him stirred like it recognized a parent—or a threat.

Kael stepped back. "That's not just a corpse. That's… waiting."

Itheon appeared behind them, his voice grim.

"He was the strongest Nullborn before you. The one who chose conquest over control. When the Empire couldn't kill him, they locked him out of time."

Aion couldn't look away. "Why?"

"Because he believed the Null wasn't just a force—it was a right. And he wanted to erase the Founding Laws themselves."

Kael cursed. "And Seln… what does he have to do with this?"

Itheon hesitated.

"He was the one who helped lock Vaelith away."

---

Meanwhile, deep within Scoria, Maelrik stood before the Crimson Engine, surrounded by the remaining Cardinals.

The engine pulsed with a new rhythm—like it had found a heartbeat. A pulse in sync with something buried far away.

Maelrik smiled. "The Hollow Prince stirs."

He turned to Veyra.

"Find the Nullborn. Find the man who betrayed us. And if the Prince awakens—"

He placed a black coin into Veyra's palm.

"Burn the world to stop him."

---

Back at the crypt, Aion placed his hand on the obsidian glass.

He heard a voice, cold and hollow:

"Your blood sings of erasure. You are not like Seln."

Aion's heart pounded.

"You are like me."