The Null Warden moved like silence given form.
Each step it took left no sound. No weight. But the air shifted, as if it had to make room for something that did not belong.
I raised the torch, but its flame had not returned.
There was no light. Just the memory of it.
The beast stood still now. Watching. Waiting.
It was made of void, stitched together by the light of dying stars. Its mask, floating where a face should be, turned slightly.
I felt it then.
Not fear. Not pain.
Absence.
I didn't matter. Not to it. Not to this place.
And if I hesitated, not even to myself.
My legs wanted to lock up. My mind tried to stall. But something else moved first.
Instinct. Or desperation.
I ran.
The moment I crossed the center of the arena, the Warden moved.
It didn't sprint. It drifted.
One step. Then another.
And suddenly it was in front of me.
I swung the torch. Not as a weapon. Just something to prove I was still there.
The torch passed through its arm. No resistance. No impact.
My chest tightened.
It raised its hand.
There was no glow. No build-up.
Just a stillness.
Then I was flying backward.
I hit the stone hard. My back screamed. But I could still feel pain.
I could still feel.
The Warden tilted its head again. It didn't approach.
It was testing me.
I stood. Shaky. But standing.
I didn't have a weapon. I didn't have a plan.
But I had breath. And breath meant I wasn't gone yet.
I moved again. Slower this time. Watching its arms. Watching its mask.
Then I noticed something.
The light around its joints flickered.
Dimmer when it attacked. Brighter when it paused.
I reached for that rhythm. Like stepping between beats in a song I didn't know.
It raised its hand again.
This time I moved before it finished.
The blast missed.
I was behind it. No time to think.
I slammed the torch into the crack behind its ribs.
Nothing happened.
But it turned.
Its mask looked at me, and for the first time, I felt its attention.
It wasn't a gaze.
It was a question.
"Why do you still stand?"
The voice wasn't loud. It echoed from inside me.
I opened my mouth. No words came.
The Warden stepped forward.
And swung.
I didn't think. I reached out.
Not with my hand.
With something deeper.
I didn't know what I was doing. Only that I didn't want to vanish.
Something inside me answered.
There was no light. No sound. No resistance.
My hand touched its arm.
And the world around that point—stopped.
Not paused. Not slowed.
It was gone.
The Warden's arm faded at the elbow. Like it had never existed. The attack never came.
A silence deeper than silence followed.
The Warden pulled back.
The cracks in its body glowed brighter.
And I felt something drift into my mind.
A word, not spoken.
Unbeing.
The power to erase.
The power to say "no" to existence itself.
It felt as if the Null Warden forgot something.
I didn't know what it meant yet.
But for now, I was still here.