CHAPTER 112. THE ONE THAT WAS CHOSEN
Chapter 112: The One That Was Chosen
—Two Who Stand Alone—
The void didn't echo.
It swallowed.
The space between realms, folded like creased silk and pulled apart by clashing wills, writhed with soul storms and entropy veins.
And in it—Kamharida danced.
Not elegantly. Not gently.
But with precision like ancient scripture carved in war.
Before her stood Mirex, the Shrouded.
Cloak in tatters now, bleeding streams of corrupt soul threads, one side of his chest scorched from a direct strike.
His left hand trembled.
His right—still raised in defiance.
''You shouldn't be able to keep up,'' he said, voice layered and static.
''Your power was a gift. I earned mine through annihilation.''
Kamharida's eyes pulsed silver-violet. She didn't smile.
''And that's why you'll never understand why she chose me.''
Her blade wasn't visible—only the pressure where it passed.
A cut appeared across the fabric of his shadowcloak. Another.
Then a third.
Mirex twisted backward, soul energy buckling as he hurled dark flame and structured fear—techniques stolen from ancient planes, weaved with forbidden core-etching.
Kamharida shattered them all mid-flight.
He staggered, eyes narrowing.
''You still love her,'' he whispered.
Kamharida's aura exploded once more, distorting the void around them.
''That has nothing to do with what I'm about to do to you.''
And then she vanished—reappeared above him, heel already dropping.
Mirex's defense cracked like frozen glass.
---
Elsewhere.
Far below that holy war in the dark—a shadow chamber pulsed.
Karen Lockwood's body convulsed.
She lay atop the old stone of the Veil's binding circle, eyes rolled back, breath ragged.
Her scythe lay beside her, vibrating.
The eight members of the Veil Council stood around her, patient and unblinking.
Ramses lingered near the edge, arms crossed, wary.
Nyel broke the silence.
''Her body is fragmenting. She won't survive contact with the Abyss a second time.''
But before another word could follow, the air stilled.
Not from outside.
From within.
Karen's mouth opened—
And she screamed.
Not in pain.
But in a voice that did not belong to a mortal girl.
Abyssal sigils carved themselves in the air around her.
The circle broke.
The stone cracked.
And the Abyss answered.
All at once, her soul spiral burned through two entire cycles.
7th.
Straight to 9th.
Power surged from her core, not wild, but focused, like a pact had been made.
Her Proto Domain—Shadow Bloom—compressed tightly around her body.
Armor formed from it, alive with flickering dark petals.
Her scythe floated into her hand on its own, surrounded by ribbons of black light that bent gravity.
Ramses took a step forward, lips parting—
''Karen—''
She turned to him.
And the Abyss struck.
A flash.
Then silence.
When the light faded, Ramses was on the floor—soul chest caved in, one eye ruined, teeth scattered beside blood.
Karen stood over him, breathing hard, eyes flickering violently between lucidity and something deeper.
''Don't speak my name,'' she said quietly.
Nyel raised a hand, but Mirex's voice arrived through a projection slit in the ceiling—flat and stern.
''Stand down.''
The others looked up.
''She belongs to the Abyss. Let her burn herself out. If she lives through it… she'll be more useful than all of you combined.''
Karen collapsed to one knee, shaking, holding herself together with pure will. Her domain trembled, her breath shallow—but she was conscious.
And she was still evolving.
---
Back in the void—
Kamharida drove Mirex into the fractured floor, blade pressed against his throat. Her eyes burned with something too old for fury.
Mirex's cloak was ruined. Half his face visible now—gray, sunken, but not broken.
''You would've made a better progenitor than her,'' he spat, blood in his teeth.
Kamharida didn't reply.
She just pressed harder.
But didn't kill him.
Because something else pulled at her awareness.
Her eyes shifted.
And she knew: Karen had awakened.
---