The void-wave had passed, leaving behind a silence so absolute it made Shia's ears ring. She floated in nothingness—not darkness, but true void, where concepts like up and down held no meaning. Her emerald lattice had shattered when the barrier failed, yet somehow she remained conscious, suspended in the space between existence and oblivion.
Reed is gone.
The thought struck her like a physical blow. Through the Network's dying echoes, she had felt his final heartbeat fade as the spire consumed him. The man who had promised to bring back the dead had become death's latest offering, and she... she had failed to save him.
But failure was a luxury she couldn't afford. Not when void corruption pulsed through her veins like liquid midnight, not when hundreds of Legion souls were scattered across this lightless expanse, and not when The Dark itself seemed to be watching her with cosmic hunger.
