The void swallowed everything.
No sky. No light. No sound. Just gray infinity stretching over dead black stone. At its center rose a throne of twisted bone and silence, and upon it sat Eredan-Mir—a figure of shadow-wrought flesh, crowned in nothingness, his hollow gaze devouring the last traces of warmth from the world.
Caelen's curse screamed. The silence here wasn't peace. It was agony disguised as stillness. A silence that smothered. His body trembled under its weight.
Elira stood beside him, her grip tight on his arm, her magic flickering like a candle in frost. "This is it," she murmured. "The heart of his power."
Eredan-Mir's gaze snapped to them.
"You dare step into my domain?" His voice was the sound of shattering glass, sharp and echoing. "You—Ashbound—are already dying. Broken. Hollow. What do you hope to prove?"
Caelen stepped forward, the Weeping Blade trembling in his hand, its glow barely a whisper. "I didn't come to prove anything. I came to end you. To stop you from turning Aerthalin into a graveyard of feeling."
The shadow-king stood, darkness coiling like smoke from his frame. "End me?" he said with cold amusement. "I offer the world peace. No grief. No rage. No fear. Just stillness. You, of all people, should understand."
"I do," Caelen said. His voice was steady, but every word bled from him like a wound. "I know what pain is. I live it. But I also know what comes with it—love, joy, kindness. You'd destroy all of it."
Eredan-Mir's eyes narrowed. "Weaknesses."
"They're what make us human," Elira said, stepping beside Caelen, her voice fierce and unwavering. "And I would rather burn with them than live in your empty world."
The ground cracked.
From the stone crawled Hollows, creatures of void and sorrow—bone and shadow twisted into hunger. Dozens, then hundreds, rising from the throne's base.
Eredan-Mir raised a hand. "Then die with your pain. You'll be the last to feel."
Caelen raised the blade, its edge flickering with the sorrow of ten thousand souls. Elira's aura flared, her light pushing against the dark. Side by side, they stood beneath the Hollow Throne.
The final battle had begun.