Silence.
The roar of the gods, the clash of blades, the cries of the dying—everything was gone.
Only stillness remained.
Lyra opened her eyes, gasping. She was floating in a void without color, weight, or sound. No sky, no earth—only an endless sea of light and shadow. Her own body flickered, translucent, as though she were half a memory.
"Rian?" her voice echoed weakly, rippling through the emptiness.
No answer came. Only a faint hum responded—gentle, rhythmic, like the beat of a sleeping heart.
She turned, and far away she saw it: a single star burning amid the darkness.
Small, fragile, yet impossibly bright.
Her chest tightened. "That light…"
As she drifted closer, fragments of the world appeared around her—floating shards of the past. She saw the battlefield, the soldiers' faces, Kael's final smile, Rian's golden eyes before they turned white. Each vision shimmered, then dissolved like mist.
Then she saw him.
Rian stood within the heart of that lone star, motionless. His eyes were closed, his hands clasped around what remained of his sword—now reduced to pure starlight.
His form flickered, fading in and out, as if he were caught between existence and oblivion.
Lyra reached out. "Rian! Please—wake up!"
The moment her fingertips brushed the edge of the light, warmth surged through her—soft, vast, familiar. It wasn't pain. It was peace.
A whisper filled the void.
"Lyra…"
She froze. "Rian?"
His voice came from everywhere and nowhere, gentle as a breeze.
"The world has ended, hasn't it?"
Tears welled in her eyes. "It's breaking apart, yes… but it can still be remade. You can come back!"
Rian's image smiled faintly. "The Star Wolf's power wasn't meant to preserve—it was meant to begin anew. Every star must die before it shines again."
Lyra shook her head violently. "No. I won't let you vanish into myths!"
"You can't stop it." His voice softened. "But you can carry it. The light doesn't belong to me—it never did. It's meant for those who remember."
The star pulsed brighter, the void trembling. Lyra's body began to dissolve, her form breaking into tiny motes of light.
She screamed, reaching for him. "Rian!"
He opened his eyes at last. In them, she saw the entire sky reflected—millions of stars burning like memories.
"Find me," he whispered. "No matter what world you wake in."
And then the light consumed everything.
When Lyra opened her eyes again, she was lying on soft grass beneath a new dawn. The air smelled of spring, untouched and pure.
But the sky above was empty—no moon, no gods, no familiar constellations.
Only one star gleamed faintly at the horizon, flickering like a heartbeat.
Lyra placed her hand over her chest, whispering,
"I'll find you."