The second horn blast shook the chamber so violently that dust poured from the ceiling like gray rain.
Kael flinched as the sound reverberated through his ribs: deeper, heavier, angrier than the horns of ordinary Hunters.
The next wave was coming.
And the next wave wouldn't be a scouting team.
They were sending elites.
Kael wiped blood from his cheek. His hands shook. Not from exhaustion—he'd been bruised, cut, grazed—but he'd survived.
He was shaking because he had no power.
His Hollowborn core, his monstrous gift—remained dead. Silent.
As if the Void Woman's very presence smothered him from the inside out.
He was helpless, and she was awakening.
The Void Woman hovered inches off the ground now, her hair lifting as though drawn upward by invisible tides. Three broken chains lay coiled around her feet, steaming like severed veins.
The three remaining chains trembled violently, strained to their limit.
Kael stumbled backward. "Stop. Just—stop for a second. You already destroyed three chains in less than a minute."
"They were old," she said calmly.
"That's not comforting!"
Her faceless head turned toward him, and even without eyes, Kael felt seen, fully, frighteningly seen.
"You fear me."
"Yes!" he snapped. "You just erased three armed men in a heartbeat."
"They were divine fragments, not men," she corrected. "And they came here to kill you. To preserve the gods' dominance. I merely removed obstacles."
"That's not what removal looks like!"
She tilted her head with that subtle, unnerving curiosity.
"Kael… do you want to live?"
He stared at her.
Her tone wasn't threatening. It wasn't manipulative.
It was a simple, chilling question.
"Of course I want to live."
"Then free me."
He ran a hand through his hair. "You don't understand, if I free you, you might destroy everything. Including me."
Her voice lowered.
"Would you rather die at the hands of the gods' pets?"
Another horn blast. This one sounded like the cry of a dying star.
Kael's stomach dropped.
"That one," the Void Woman whispered, "belongs to a Stormblood Bishop."
Kael swore under his breath.
A Bishop could command lightning storms with a gesture. Whole battalions trembled at their approach. If one had been dispatched this deep…
"They know," Kael murmured. "They know I'm down here."
"They sensed me," she corrected. "Not you."
His eyes widened.
"You were sealed for centuries. Why would they sense you now?"
"Because you touched me," she whispered. "And it woke a part of me that the gods never intended to wake again."
The remaining chains glowed faintly, struggling to contain her shifting aura.
Every second, more cracks climbed up the pillars that housed the divine seals.
Kael backed away until his spine hit the wall.
"You're destabilizing this place."
"This place was built to fail if I ever woke," she said. "The gods do not gamble risks."
The third horn blast shattered part of the staircase. The sound was so powerful Kael covered his ears, teeth rattling.
The temple itself was beginning to die.
Footsteps thundered down the tunnel: heavy, armored, disciplined.
Kael's breath quickened.
"They're here."
The Void Woman lifted her face toward the stairway.
"Well then," she whispered,
"so am I."
The first figure stepped into view.
A Bishop.
He wore armor of storm-forged silver, etched with spirals of lightning. His eyes glowed electric-blue, irises flickering with miniature bolts.
He was accompanied by six elite Hunters, each one wearing a different fragment insignia: Wrathblood, Stoneblood, Stormblood, Heartblood, Shadeblood, Seerblood.
A full bloodline spread.
Kael felt sick.
A Hunter could kill him.
A group like this could massacre a kingdom.
"Void Entity," the Bishop's voice echoed, amplified by divine resonance, "you are commanded to be sealed once more. Compliance will earn you mercy."
The Void Woman laughed.
The Bishop flinched.
Kael flinched.
Her laugh echoed like a ripple of collapsing starlight—beautiful and terrifying, sweet and venomous. It filled the temple like smoke, like a lullaby made from screams.
"Mercy," she repeated. "From the children of the gods? How adorable."
The Bishop thrust out a hand.
A spear of lightning materialized and struck the floor one pace from Kael's foot, exploding stone in a burst of white-blue fire.
Kael staggered back with a strangled curse.
The Bishop's voice hardened.
"Stand aside, Hollowborn. You are to die after we reseal the Void."
Kael stared at him.
"I'd love to stand aside," he said breathlessly. "Really. But if I move even an inch toward the tunnel, she'll kill me. And if I move toward her, you'll kill me."
The Bishop smirked.
"Then kneel. And die on your knees."
He raised his hand to unleash another bolt, and then the Void Woman spoke.
"She is touching your thoughts."
Kael froze.
The Bishop froze.
"What?"
"She is touching all your thoughts," she repeated, louder, so the whole chamber heard.
"Stormblood Bishop… your fear is showing."
The Bishop's aura crackled with uncontrolled lightning.
The Void Woman lifted her hand.
Not fast, not aggressive.
But the chains strained.
And this time, one snapped halfway through before stopping.
Not fully broken.
Just cracked.
A warning.
The tunnel shuddered. Sparks leapt wildly from the Bishop's armor.
"Hunters!" he barked. "Form the Sixfold Circle!"
The elite Hunters obeyed instantly.
They spread out, forming a formation around Kael and the Void Woman—each representing a different bloodline.
Kael swore under his breath again.
The Sixfold Circle meant one thing:
Execution by divine synergy.
The air vibrated as each Hunter activated their fragment.
Wrathblood's aura burned.
Stormblood crackled.
Stoneblood hardened the ground like metal.
Shadeblood's shadow stretched unnaturally long.
Heartblood's pulse controlled the rhythm of the chamber.
Seerblood's eyes glowed with prophecy.
All six aimed at the Void Woman.
She whispered:
"Kael."
His head snapped toward her.
"If you free the fourth chain," she murmured, "I can end this."
"End them," he corrected. "You'll end them."
"Yes."
"And the temple."
"Yes."
"And possibly me."
"Yes."
She sounded so calm about it.
Kael's pulse hammered.
"Why do you need me to free it?" he demanded. "You broke the others yourself."
Her faceless head tilted.
"The first three were weakened. But these—the last three—hold the gods' strongest seals. They respond only to will. Mortal will."
"So you're saying," Kael said, voice rising,
"that I have to choose to unleash you."
"Yes."
"So if the world ends, it's my fault."
"Yes."
Footsteps pounded in unison. Hunters tightened formation.
The Bishop raised his hand.
"On my mark… "
"Kael," she whispered,
"choose."
His heart slammed against his ribs.
His skin prickled with terror.
The Bishop's aura surged,
The Hunters aimed—
The chains around her glowed white-hot—
Kael lunged.
He grabbed the fourth chain.
It felt like lightning and ice and holy fire all at once, burning through his palms.
The Bishop screamed:
"NOW!"
Hunters unleashed their combined divine strike.
Kael yanked the chain—
And something exploded.
Not light.
Not darkness.
A shockwave of void.
The chain shattered.
The force launched Kael across the chamber.
He slammed into a pillar, vision blanking—
And when he blinked the dust away, he froze.
She wasn't floating anymore.
She was standing.
Feet on the ground.
Head raised.
Power spiraled around her like a black sun flare.
And her face, her smooth, eyeless face shifted.
A seam began to tear down the center, slowly, like something behind the skin wanted out.
The Bishop dropped to his knees, choking, electricity sputtering wildly.
The Hunters screamed as their divine fragments flickered violently.
Kael's breath caught.
"What's happening?" he whispered.
She turned toward him—
and though she had no eyes, he felt her gaze.
"You freed chain four," she whispered.
"The void remembers its face."
And then,
The skin along her face split open.
Revealing nothing.
A hole, a void.
A gravitational well shaped like a human eye socket.
Her first true eye.
The Universe blinked.