Lyria's POV
I woke up screaming.
Except I wasn't screaming—I was singing. My voice poured out in a language I didn't recognize, words that tasted like starlight and burned like ice. The song shaped reality around me, making the darkness bend and twist.
"Stop!" someone shouted. "Lyria, you have to stop singing!"
Lyria. That was my name. Wasn't it?
I tried to stop, but the song had a mind of its own. It kept pouring out, note after note, reshaping everything it touched. The void around me cracked like glass.
Hands grabbed my shoulders—cold hands that felt familiar. "Look at me! LOOK AT ME!"
I opened eyes I didn't remember closing. A man's face swam into focus. Silver eyes. Dark hair. Desperate expression. He looked... important. Like I should know him.
"Who are you?" I sang, because apparently I couldn't speak anymore, only sing.
Pain flashed across his face. "You don't remember me."
"Should I?"
"I'm Kael." His grip tightened. "We came here together. We chose to learn the Old Magic together. You... you said we'd do it together."
Kael. The name meant nothing. Everything meant nothing. My mind felt like a book with all the pages torn out—I knew there should be something there, but I couldn't remember what.
"What's happening to me?" I sang.
"The Old Magic is remaking you. Void warned us this would happen—you'd lose your memories, your identity." Kael's voice cracked. "But you're supposed to gain them back. You're supposed to become something new, something stronger. You're not supposed to forget forever."
"Forever is a long time," a third voice said.
Void materialized beside us, looking almost concerned. "Interesting. The transformation is progressing faster than expected. She's already forgotten her entire past and is rebuilding from scratch."
"Fix her!" Kael snarled.
"I can't. This is the process. She has to break before she can remake herself." Void studied me like I was a fascinating experiment. "Though I admit, I didn't expect her to forget you specifically. That's... unfortunate."
Something in Kael's expression broke. He looked at me like I'd died, even though I was right there.
"Lyria, please." He cupped my face with both hands. His skin was so cold it burned. "Try to remember. We met in a temple. I saved you from hunters. You healed me when I was dying. We sang together to stop monsters. You held my hand and chose to face this with me."
I searched his desperate silver eyes, trying to find some spark of recognition. Nothing. He was a stranger.
But... he was a stranger who was crying. And something about his tears made my chest ache.
"I'm sorry," I sang softly. "I don't remember any of that."
"Then I'll make you remember." Kael pressed his forehead against mine. "I'll tell you everything, show you everything, until you—"
"We don't have time for romantic reunions," Void interrupted. "The Supreme Deity's army just broke through my outer defenses. We have maybe two minutes before they reach us."
As if summoned by his words, golden light exploded through the darkness. Divine soldiers poured in, thousands of them, all armed with weapons that glowed with holy fire.
"SURRENDER THE TRAITORS!" a voice boomed.
Kael immediately moved in front of me, shadows gathering around his hands. But I could see he was exhausted, barely standing. Whatever had happened before I lost my memories had taken everything out of him.
"You can't fight them all," I sang.
"Watch me," he growled.
"How touching," Void said dryly. "The broken god protecting the broken goddess. Very romantic. Very stupid."
The first wave of soldiers charged. Kael met them with walls of silence, freezing them mid-stride. But more came. And more. He couldn't hold them all back.
A soldier broke through his defense and lunged at me with a spear of light. I didn't think—I just opened my mouth and sang.
The soldier exploded into starlight.
I stared at my hands in shock. I did that? Just by singing?
"Yes!" Void actually sounded excited. "She's accessing the Old Magic instinctively. Her voice is rewriting reality on a fundamental level. This is fascinating!"
More soldiers charged. More explosions of starlight. My song protected me without me even trying. But something felt wrong. Each note took a piece of me—not my memories this time, but something deeper. My emotions. My ability to care.
"Void," I sang, and my voice sounded distant even to myself. "What's happening? Why do I feel... empty?"
"Ah, yes. Side effect of the Old Magic." Void watched the battle with clinical interest. "To command reality, you must detach from it. Emotions, connections, love—all of that ties you to reality. The more you use the magic, the less you'll feel. Eventually, you'll become like me. Pure consciousness without the messiness of feelings."
"No." Kael's voice was firm. "That's not what we agreed to."
"I never said the transformation would be pleasant," Void replied. "Only that it would make you powerful."
More soldiers came. I sang. They dissolved. With each song, I felt less. The ache in my chest when I looked at Kael's desperate face was fading. Soon I wouldn't feel anything at all.
Was power worth losing my humanity?
"Lyria!" Kael grabbed my arm, pulling me behind a barrier of shadows. "Stop singing! Every time you use the magic, you lose more of yourself!"
"But if I stop, they'll kill us." My sung words were matter-of-fact now, empty of emotion.
"I don't care!" His silver eyes blazed. "I'd rather die with you still being YOU than watch you become an empty shell who doesn't even remember my name!"
"Why does it matter?" I sang. "You're just a stranger to me."
I watched something die in his eyes. It should have hurt me to see. But I felt nothing.
"Because," he said quietly, "two hours ago, you told me you'd rather break yourself than let me face this alone. You held my hand and said 'together.' And I'm not giving up on that Lyria, even if she's forgotten me."
"Then you're a fool," I sang.
"Probably." He smiled, sad and broken. "But I'm a fool who—"
A massive explosion cut him off. The Supreme Deity himself tore through the void, radiating power that made even Void step back.
"ENOUGH!" The first god's voice made reality shake. "Lyria. Kael. You have been found guilty of treason, breaking sacred seals, and consorting with the Primordial Void. Your sentence is death. Immediate. Permanent."
He raised both hands, and divine fire gathered—enough to erase a dozen gods from existence.
"Any last words?" he asked.
I looked at Kael. Even through the growing emptiness inside me, I could see the determination in his face. He was ready to die. Ready to protect me even though I didn't remember him.
That was either very brave or very stupid.
Probably both.
I opened my mouth to sing one last song—a song that would at least take the Supreme Deity with us. But before I could, Void laughed.
"Oh, this is too perfect. You fools have played right into my hands."
The Supreme Deity froze. "What?"
"Did you really think I'd help these two out of kindness?" Void's form expanded, becoming massive. "I've been waiting ten thousand years for someone powerful enough, stupid enough, and desperate enough to serve as vessels. And you just gave them to me."
Horror dawned on the Supreme Deity's face. "No. You wouldn't—"
"Wouldn't use the Old Magic to possess two gods who've conveniently emptied themselves of everything that makes them themselves?" Void's laughter was terrible. "Oh, but I would."
I felt it then—Void's consciousness pressing into my mind, filling all the empty spaces where my memories used to be. I tried to fight, but there was nothing left of me to fight with.
Beside me, Kael collapsed, screaming silently. Void was taking him too.
"Stop!" the Supreme Deity shouted. "Release them!"
"Why would I do that?" Void's voice came from my throat now, wearing my voice like a costume. "I finally have bodies that can withstand my power. Bodies that can move freely in all realms. Do you know what I can do with that?"
The Supreme Deity's army attacked as one. Thousands of divine soldiers, all their power focused on me and Kael.
Void laughed through both our mouths. Our hands raised without our permission. Our voices sang in perfect, terrible harmony.
And the entire army vanished.
Not killed. Not destroyed. Just... erased. Like they'd never existed at all.
The Supreme Deity backed away, actual fear on his face. "What have you become?"
"We," Void said through us, "are what happens when you push creation too far. We are the Nothing that will consume your Something. We are the end of the age of gods."
Through the fog in my mind, I felt Kael's consciousness reaching for mine. Even possessed, even dying, he was trying to find me.
Lyria, his thought whispered. If you can hear me... fight. Please fight.
But I had nothing left to fight with. The emptiness had taken everything. I was just a puppet now, watching Void use my body to destroy the world.
I'm sorry, I thought back, hoping he could hear. I don't remember you. But... I think I would have liked to.
Void turned our bodies toward the Supreme Deity. "Now then. Shall we discuss the terms of your surrender? Or shall we simply erase you and start over?"
The first god, the oldest being in creation besides Void itself, knelt.
"What do you want?" he asked, defeated.
"Everything," Void said through my mouth. "I want it all. And I'm going to take it. Starting with—"
Then something impossible happened.
Deep inside my empty chest, where there should have been nothing, something stirred.
A memory. Not my memory—someone else's. A little girl giving me a silver coin. "Your story was beautiful," she'd said.
Another memory surfaced. Kael's cold hand in mine. "Together," we'd said.
More memories flooded in—not from my past, but from my future. Memories I hadn't made yet, couldn't have made yet. Memories of choosing love over power, connection over emptiness, life over existence.
Void felt it too. "What? How are you—"
The Voice of Truth, I realized. My voice didn't just speak reality—it spoke TRUTH. And the truth was, I wasn't empty. I could never be empty. Because some connections transcend memory, transcend magic, transcend even reality itself.
I opened my mouth, and my voice—MY voice, not Void's—sang one pure note.
The note that meant: No.