Chapter 16: The Hollow Star Beckons

The wind howled like the whispers of dying gods as Kael stood at the edge of the chasm. The ground beneath him pulsed faintly with a black hue, veins of shadowlight threading through the obsidian stone like dying embers. Before him loomed the Hollow Star—a vast, floating monolith suspended in the void of the Abyssal Cradle.

No stars shone above.

No light dared to touch this place.

Kael's fingers clenched around the fragment—the Shadowbound Sigil—its runes glowing faintly in sync with his heartbeat. As if it knew where it belonged.

> "This is the place…"

The voice returned. Not a whisper this time. Clear. Commanding. Ancient.

"Where the Sovereigns were made. And where they fell."

Kael took a step forward, and the air changed. Not colder—but heavier. As though the weight of countless memories pressed against his chest. Echoes of screams, laughter, and war resonated in the silence. Time here… did not move as it should.

The Hollow Star hovered above a circle of ancient spires, each one covered in sigils he couldn't read, but somehow understood. They were calling to him—not with words, but with longing. As if they had waited… for him.

He walked between the spires, and the world dimmed.

—

Inside the Hollow Star, there was no ground. Just infinite space. And in the center, a throne of black crystal, shattered. Upon it, a figure sat—cloaked in shadow, face veiled by threads of darkness that writhed like living serpents.

Kael couldn't breathe.

> "You've returned... in flesh."

The voice came not from the figure, but from within Kael's own bones. As if the being had always lived inside him. Watching. Waiting.

Kael tried to speak, but his voice broke into mist.

The figure stood.

> "Kael Ardyn. The last heir of the Nullblood line. The truth has been denied to you long enough."

Suddenly, flashes assaulted Kael's mind—images of himself as a child, standing amid ruins, blood on his hands… his mother burning with black flame… a man in white robes watching from afar, smiling with pity.

> "What... what is all this?"

> "Your awakening. Your purpose. And your war."

The shadow extended a hand, revealing a second fragment—this one darker, more violent. It pulsed like a heart torn from a god.

> "Take it. Bind it to the Sigil. Then you shall see the chain that binds all Shadowbloods to the Eclipse Sovereignty."

Kael reached out.

As his hand touched the second fragment, a scream erupted—not from the figure, but from the Hollow Star itself. The spires outside trembled. The void cracked open.

And Kael fell—

Not through space.

But through memories that weren't his.

—

He saw thousands kneeling before a throne of moons. Armies clashing beneath skies of crimson lightning. A boy with silver eyes burning entire worlds with a gesture. A name echoed in the void:

> "Zarith… the First Eclipse."

And behind him…

A shadow deeper than death.

With Kael's face.

Smiling.

—

Kael gasped, stumbling backward.

The Hollow Star had vanished. The fragments now fused and embedded into his chest, pulsing with forbidden light.

The figure was gone.

But one final message remained, burned into his mind:

> "Find the girl of red eyes. Only she remembers the First Eclipse. Only she… can choose what you become."

Kael stood in silence.

Everything he thought he knew… was ash now.

And the war of Sovereigns… had only just begun.

---

✅ End of Chapter 16