The night had stretched far too long.
Even with the stars out, the sky looked bruised. The kind of sky you'd see before a storm—but no clouds ever came. Raizen stood at the edge of the shifting canyon, a jagged expanse that twisted and changed with the movement of constellations. The locals called it the Starshard Maw.
Few returned from its depths. Fewer still spoke of what they saw.
Raizen wasn't here to speak. He was here to find.
He stepped forward. The wind around the canyon howled—not from pressure, but refusal. As if the land itself knew what was buried inside and wanted no one to disturb it.
Kael lingered a few meters back. "You sure this is the place?"
Raizen's gaze was firm. "I've followed the energy signatures. The gate left more than a mark. It showed me fragments. Locations where void cultivators died… or hid."
Kael hesitated. "And this one?"
Raizen's voice dropped. "This one was erased from history. But not completely. The realm tried to forget, but the void doesn't forget. It stores."
With a breath, Raizen leapt forward—straight into the canyon.
---
He didn't fall.
He floated—time stretching as gravity gave way to something deeper. Each meter down became heavier, not in weight but in memory. Images flickered past—fights, screams, symbols burned into stone.
Then, the void settled.
He landed softly.
Below was a massive circular platform, surrounded by jagged black crystals and violet fog. In the center stood a gate—not like the one from before, but still ancient. Its frame was carved with runes depicting… humans.
Only they weren't fighting.
They were hiding.
Kael dropped behind him moments later, slightly off balance. "That's… ominous."
Raizen nodded once and stepped forward. The closer he got, the more pressure wrapped around him. Not danger—just sorrow. Something here had given up long ago.
He placed a hand on the gate.
It opened without resistance.
Inside was darkness. Not blinding, not evil. Just dark. Quiet. Still.
Raizen walked in. Kael hesitated, then followed.
What they found inside was… a city.
Ruins of a void city.
Towers floating on shards of crystal. Roads made of compressed energy. Statues of void cultivators—some half-complete, some crumbling. It looked like a sanctuary that had never been finished.
Kael whispered, "They were building this to survive, weren't they?"
Raizen said nothing. He knelt beside a broken statue. Its face had been removed—intentionally, perhaps.
But its robes bore the mark of the void root.
"Whoever built this place," Raizen said softly, "was trying to create a haven. A city for those like me. Before the world hunted them down."
They moved deeper into the city. The buildings were empty. But the energy was not.
The void was dense here—pure. Undisturbed. And deeper in, Raizen felt it.
Something was calling him.
They reached the core—a circular chamber with a single floating sphere in its center. Inside the sphere was a man.
Or what remained of one.
His body was translucent, barely held together by void energy. His eyes were closed. But the second Raizen stepped closer… they opened.
---
The sphere cracked.
The man's eyes glowed faintly. He didn't attack. He didn't speak.
Instead, a voice entered Raizen's mind.
> "You are late."
Raizen didn't flinch. "Who are you?"
> "I was the last Void Sovereign of this realm. I watched as they hunted us. As they erased our names. As they called us cursed."
The man's form flickered. Pain rippled through the chamber.
> "We hid. We fought. We bled. We built this place to last until one worthy came."
Raizen narrowed his eyes. "Worthy of what?"
> "Of finishing what we started."
The sphere shattered. The energy rushed into Raizen—not like a possession, not like a gift. More like… a transfer of memories.
He staggered.
Images tore through his mind—of void cultivators burned alive, of sects betraying their own children, of false alliances. The realm had turned on its own long ago.
And the Void Sovereign… had watched it all.
> "You walk alone. But you are not alone."
> "We left fragments in seven tombs. In seven corners of this world."
> "Each one… will teach you not how to fight, but why."
> "Only then… can you face what waits at the end."
Raizen's mind cleared.
The chamber darkened.
Kael grabbed his arm. "You okay?"
Raizen looked up slowly. His eyes had changed—deeper. Sharper.
"Yeah," he said. "But this world isn't."
---
As they left the city, the entire tomb began to shift.
Towers collapsed into energy. The ground melted. The void began absorbing itself. This inheritance was never meant to last beyond its purpose.
And it had fulfilled it.
Raizen didn't rush.
He watched it fall. And when the last piece vanished into mist, he turned away.
His power hadn't grown explosively.
But something more important had.
His purpose.
This realm wasn't his prison.
It was his battlefield.
And the devourer wouldn't find it ripe.
Not if Raizen had anything to say about it.