The silence after Eryon's departure was not peace.
It was a waiting breath — the kind that comes before something far worse than war.
The rift in the sky had not closed. It pulsed faintly, like a wound refusing to heal. Light bled from its edges, dripping into the world below. Every drop of it birthed whispers — prayers, screams, memories of gods long dead. The divine realm was unraveling, and through that unraveling, something else was climbing out.
Sid and Nox stood together atop the shattered basin, the landscape stretching endlessly before them — black glass plains, rivers of molten silver, mountains suspended mid-collapse. It was a graveyard for creation.
Nox's voice was quiet. "He's gone."
Sid didn't respond. His gaze was fixed on the rift. His heartbeat synced with its pulse — steady, slow, dangerous.
Eryon's words wouldn't leave his head.
"You were never meant to worship us… only to surpass us."
He had wanted to reject it — the arrogance of divinity reborn in mortal flesh.
But the more he tried, the more truth he found buried inside it.
The gods had feared freedom. The demons had abused it.
And he was walking the line between the two.
Then, the air changed.
The wind turned cold — unnaturally cold, as if someone had pulled the heat out of existence itself. The molten rivers solidified mid-flow. The rift trembled, and from its depth came laughter. Not the laughter of joy, but the kind that cuts through worlds like a blade.
Sid's eyes narrowed. "Velgrin."
The rift split wider.
And from within stepped a figure wrapped in shadows — not like absence, but like possession. The darkness clung to him lovingly, forming a crown of shifting serpents, wings of smoke, and armor carved from obsidian light.
Velgrin.
He had changed.
The last time Sid saw him, Velgrin was a prince of the abyss — charming, cruel, but bound by form.
Now, he was the abyss.
Every breath distorted the air; every step cracked the ground. Behind him, an army of silhouettes followed — not demons, not mortals, but fragments of forgotten divinities, each bearing a single burning eye.
Velgrin smiled, and the world flinched.
"Did you enjoy your sermon, Sid?" he asked, his tone mocking and regal. "The god of fear speaking of courage… almost poetic, isn't it?"
Sid didn't answer. The ground around him shimmered, faint threads of black and gold coiling around his feet. His aura had changed too — not pure, not corrupted. Balanced. Dangerous.
Nox stepped forward, blades drawn. "Velgrin. You were supposed to be sealed."
Velgrin's grin widened. "Was I? Eryon's seal died the moment he doubted himself. A god's fear is the sweetest key, don't you think?"
He raised a hand, and the army behind him bowed.
"While you were busy debating morality with ghosts, I took something far more valuable."
Sid's voice was cold. "What did you take?"
Velgrin's eyes gleamed — two pits of molten red. "The residue of Eryon's divinity. His fading will, his abandoned flame… and the remnants of the Seal of Dawn."
Nox's breath caught. "That's impossible."
Velgrin laughed softly. "Impossible died with the gods."
He spread his arms, and for a heartbeat, the horizon bent. Cities reappeared where ruins had been, time itself convulsing. Then everything collapsed again, leaving a scar of shifting light.
"Creation," Velgrin whispered, "is clay to those who refuse to be defined. And I—" his grin sharpened— "refuse."
Sid stepped forward. "You're not rebuilding it. You're replacing it."
Velgrin inclined his head. "Ah, you do understand. I'm proud."
He began walking toward Sid, unhurried.
"I've seen what happens when gods try to control chaos. I've seen what happens when chaos tries to destroy order. Both fail for the same reason—they cling to absolutes. But me?" He extended a hand. "I'll build a world that survives contradiction."
Sid glared. "A world ruled by you."
Velgrin chuckled. "Ruled? No, Sid. Shared. You, me, the demon, even the corpses of the gods — all of us, threads in a single endless paradox. No chains, no obedience… just will."
His tone was almost gentle. Almost human.
Nox stepped in front of Sid. "You're lying. You don't want freedom. You want dominion through chaos. You'll tear everything apart."
Velgrin's expression softened. "Dominion, freedom — words, Nox. You of all people should know the truth: only those who act define what exists. The rest are stories waiting to be rewritten."
He looked at Sid again, his voice turning low. "Tell me, Unbound One — when you burned your own fate to defy Eryon, when you silenced Ravh'Zereth's scream — didn't you feel it? The thrill of reshaping everything that thought it owned you?"
Sid said nothing.
Because yes — he had felt it. The rush of unmaking, the freedom of power unchained.
And that terrified him more than Velgrin's armies.
Velgrin smiled knowingly. "You did. That's why I chose you."
Sid's eyes widened. "Chose me?"
Velgrin stepped closer, shadows rising like a tide behind him. "You think you became Unbound by accident? No, Sid. Every step, every war, every scar — all of it was guided. Not by gods. Not by fate. But by me."
Time froze.
Nox's blades flickered out of existence, caught in the sudden pressure of Velgrin's revelation. "You're lying."
Velgrin tilted his head. "Am I? Ask him. Ask Sid what he saw in the Birthcry — that moment when the daemon screamed and time shattered. Didn't you see my mark inside the flame?"
Sid's heartbeat roared in his ears.
The memory hit him like a storm — the scream, the fire, the impossible moment where all creation folded in on itself. And inside that light… yes. A symbol.
A circle with nine interlocked chains — and one broken.
Velgrin's sigil.
His stomach dropped. "You… were there."
Velgrin smiled. "I was the first to defy the Seal. The first to slip between what is and what should be. When Eryon's light fractured, I gathered what he cast away — the emotions he refused to own. Rage. Envy. Desire. Fear. I am their shadow."
He spread his arms, voice deepening, resonating across the ruin.
"I am not demon, not god, not man. I am the contradiction that keeps the world from collapsing under truth."
Velgrin's expression softened again, disturbingly sincere.
"Sid. You understand what's coming. The divine order has fallen. Ravh'Zereth stirs beneath the dying firmament. Soon, reality will split between obedience and oblivion."
He extended a hand.
"Stand beside me. Together, we'll forge a world that doesn't need gods or daemons — only will."
Nox's voice was sharp. "Don't listen to him!"
Velgrin's eyes flicked to Nox. "You still think you're his guide? No, little watcher. You're his leash. That's why the gods made you — to whisper obedience when his mind grows dangerous."
Nox froze — because deep down, he knew part of that was true.
Velgrin's grin returned, fanged and cruel. "Come, Sid. Choose. Become the end, or become the beginning."
The air trembled.
Sid closed his eyes. For a long moment, nothing moved.
Then, he breathed — a single steady breath that made the world quiver.
Black fire seeped from his skin, curling like ink through light. His chains — those ethereal marks left from the divine seal — glowed once, then shattered silently. The sound that followed wasn't thunder, but release.
When he opened his eyes, they burned with both light and shadow.
"I've made enough choices for someone else's story," he said.
"I won't be your weapon. Or theirs."
Velgrin's smile faltered, just slightly. "Then you'll be my rival."
Sid stepped forward. "No. I'll be what none of you ever managed to be."
He raised his hand, and the world itself seemed to pause — waiting for a name.
Nox whispered behind him, awe creeping into his tone. "What are you becoming?"
Sid's voice was calm. "The balance between endings."
He thrust his hand forward — and the ground erupted in gold and black flame, colliding midair, devouring each other and birthing a storm of annihilation.
Velgrin laughed, spreading his arms wide, shadows writhing behind him like a living crown. "Yes, Sid! Show me the truth that terrifies gods!"
Their auras collided — creation and void, divine and infernal — and the shockwave tore through dimensions.
The Basin of Shattered Glass ceased to exist.
When the dust settled, the rift still burned above them, now wider, more unstable. Both Sid and Velgrin stood amidst the ruins, breathing heavily, eyes locked. Neither victorious, neither defeated.
Velgrin smirked. "You've grown into something beautiful, Unbound One. But this isn't the end."
He glanced toward the widening crack in the heavens. "The real war is about to begin. The Void Sovereign stirs, and when it wakes… even you will beg for chains."
Then, in a flash of shadow, he was gone — his laughter echoing long after his form vanished.
Sid stood in silence, staring at the void that replaced the sky.
Nox approached slowly, voice trembling. "Sid… what have we started?"
Sid didn't look back.
His answer came soft, quiet, and terrifyingly calm.
"The era of gods has ended.
Now begins the age of the Unbound."