At the Edge of the Gates

The path didn't so much continue as simply stop pretending it was a path.

Ahead of them, the floor cracked in broad uneven slabs, some rising, some sinking. Great spikes of dark crystal jutted up at haphazard angles, glowing faintly from within like dying coals. Thin mists drifted between them, swirling in slow eddies that almost seemed curious.

Hollowfang moved first, padding carefully across the fractured ground. Its hackles were high, lips curled in a constant low snarl that rumbled like a distant storm. Despair Maw followed, vast jaws opening every few steps to taste the air, body tensed for some threat it couldn't yet name.

Ember stayed close to Raen, her hand not quite gripping his but brushing his knuckles in tiny, repeated touches. Her runes were dark, conserving energy, but he could feel the low simmer of her power just under her skin — a living furnace waiting to be unleashed.

[System Notice: Proximity — Primordial Gates]

[Domain Authority: Elevated. Expect Direct Manifestation.]

Raen let out a slow breath. Memoryweaver felt heavy in his hand, its edge dulling not from lack of sharpness but sheer weight — like it too understood the magnitude of what lay ahead.

They moved carefully between the jagged pillars. Each one hummed with a low vibration that settled deep in Raen's bones. Occasionally, lines of faint silver raced across their surfaces, then vanished. Like nerves firing under skin.

At the far end of this shattered expanse rose two towering slabs of black stone — so tall they vanished into shadow, so wide they looked more like cliffs than doors. Symbols crawled across them in tangled patterns, constantly shifting, devouring themselves and rewriting anew.

Hollowfang stopped dead, a sharp bark bursting from its throat. Despair Maw let out a low, thrumming moan. Ember pressed closer to Raen's side, breath catching.

Then the space between those vast gates rippled.

It started small — just a distortion in the air, a faint shimmer like heat over desert sand. Then it stretched, widened, and finally tore open.

Out stepped… something.

Not a beast. Not a twisted echo of them. This was different. It wore a shape vaguely human — tall, robed in dark strands that hung like weeping moss, head wreathed in a shifting crown of tiny, burning voids. Its hands ended in long, graceful fingers, but each fingertip dripped slow streams of shadow that sizzled where they hit the stone.

Its face was nothing. Just smooth, featureless dark. But somehow Raen felt its attention — sharp, precise, like being pinned by countless tiny needles.

[System Notice: Avatar of Abyssal Core Manifest]

[Directive: Final Negotiation / Containment]

It spoke, though the featureless face never moved. Its voice was layered, dozens of pitches all overlapping, masculine and feminine and neither all at once.

"Raen Tiberis. Curse-bound. Memory-marked. Beast-bonded. You have walked too far, torn too deep. Before this goes where neither of us can return, consider: we need not be enemies."

Raen let out a bark of laughter. It sounded more tired than amused. "I've refused your illusions. Your poisons. Your promises of thrones. Why would I bargain now?"

The figure tilted its head. Its shadow crown flared, tiny voids opening wider. "Because I no longer offer you a seat above others. I offer you a seat beside me. Rule this realm as its equal. Temper its hunger with your will. Spare your beasts the price of waging a war against a god's raw nature."

Hollowfang snarled, stepping between Raen and the figure, teeth bared. Despair Maw's massive jaws cracked open in a silent threat. Ember's hand dropped to Raen's, gripping it so tight it hurt.

Raen stared at the avatar. "And if I say no?"

"Then you proceed to the Gates. And there, I cannot play at conversation. I must defend my own core — not out of malice, but necessity. And you will be destroyed, along with everything that clings to you."

A faint tremor ran through the ground. The pillars around them pulsed faster, cracks opening along their bases to bleed thin streams of silver that hissed where they touched the air.

Raen lifted Memoryweaver. Its glow was faint, but steady. "Then that's what we do."

The figure was silent for a moment. Then it let out a long, low sound — like breath passing through broken reeds. Almost a sigh.

"I would have preferred partnership. I am old beyond your comprehension, Raen Tiberis. Old enough to know loneliness. Old enough to fear ceasing to be."

Raen's jaw tightened. Something almost like pity sparked — quickly smothered. "Then you shouldn't have built your eternity on devouring everything that could have stood beside you."

The avatar extended a hand. The tips split into long threads of dark light that danced across the space between them, hovering a hair's breadth from Raen's chest.

"Last chance. Become part of me. Live forever in unbroken unity. No more fear of betrayal. No more fragile loves that fade or die."

Raen didn't move. Didn't even blink. Hollowfang growled low, pressing so close its shoulder knocked against his thigh. Ember leaned in, her breath steady despite her eyes shining wet.

"No," Raen said. "I'd rather die a thousand times with them — by choice, by accident, by cruel fate — than live one perfect eternity as your echo."

The avatar didn't recoil. It simply straightened, the voids in its crown flaring so bright they almost left afterimages. The hand withdrew, curling slowly into a fist.

"Then you will meet the Gates. And you will be unmade, not by hatred, but by inevitability."

It stepped backward, vanishing into the dark rift between the colossal slabs. The tear sealed after it, leaving only the towering Gates standing silent and still.

[System Notice: Final Confrontation Path Unlocked]

[Domain Integrity Falling — Abyssal Core Exposure Imminent]

Raen let out a long, shaking breath. Memoryweaver settled again under his ribs, pulsing slow but certain. Ember squeezed his hand until he looked down at her. Her smile was faint, crooked.

"You know you just turned down a god's plea for company, right?"

He actually laughed — a rough, tired sound. "It's never been about company. It's about ownership. And we've had enough of that."

Hollowfang pressed forward, licking Ember's wrist. Despair Maw loomed behind them, vast jaws opening in what was unmistakably a laugh — low and rumbling, echoing off the broken pillars.

Together, they turned to face the Gates.

The path beyond would not be illusions or trials or clever temptations. It would be the raw, exposed heart of the Abyss — terrified, cornered, and ready to tear them apart if it meant surviving.

Raen only tightened his grip on Memoryweaver. "Let's finish what we started."

And with beasts at his side and Ember's hand in his, he stepped forward.