Darkness was not the absence of light.
Alex understood that the moment he tried to blink.
Light existed here—faint, distorted, leaking from cracks in reality like blood from an old wound. It clung to shadows instead of chasing them away. The VoidVerse did not obey natural laws; it rewrote them.
Alex stood on a surface that felt solid beneath his boots, yet pulsed slowly, rhythmically, like a living heart. The air was heavy, pressing against his lungs, each breath tasting faintly metallic.
No sky stretched above him.
No ground extended beyond him.
The VoidVerse surrounded him in every direction, endless structures rising and collapsing in impossible geometries—towers made of compressed darkness, bridges looping into themselves, rivers of black light flowing upward instead of down.
The Core inside him reacted instantly.
It flared—not violently, but alert.
The VoidVerse responded.
The world noticed him.
A pressure closed in, not crushing, not attacking—evaluating.
Alex swallowed hard. "I didn't come here to rule."
The VoidVerse did not care.
Something moved beneath the surface of reality, like a predator turning in its sleep.
Then she appeared.
The Void Empress stepped forward as if she had always been there, darkness parting for her like obedient servants. In this realm, she was not imposing force—she was law.
Here, she was whole.
"Breathe, Alex," she said calmly. "The VoidVerse reacts poorly to panic."
Alex clenched his fists. "You dragged me here."
She smiled faintly. "I removed you from an environment that would have torn you apart within weeks."
"You threatened billions of lives to force Lyra," Alex snapped.
"Yes," she replied without hesitation.
The honesty hit harder than any excuse.
"Did it work?" she asked.
Alex said nothing.
"That silence is your answer," she continued. "You came because you care. That already makes you different from the version of you who created this place."
Alex froze. "Created this place?"
The Void Empress gestured, and reality peeled open.
Alex gasped as the VoidVerse revealed its truth.
Worlds—dead, broken, unfinished—layered together like a graveyard stitched into architecture. Cities fused into landscapes. Oceans frozen mid-collapse. Stars extinguished but preserved as decoration.
"This is not destruction," the Void Empress said softly. "It is preservation after failure."
Alex's chest tightened. "You're harvesting universes."
"I am recycling inevitability," she corrected. "Every universe ends. I simply decide what remains useful afterward."
Alex looked away. "And Lyra?"
For the first time, the Void Empress hesitated.
"She is my greatest failure," she said. "And my greatest experiment."
She led him deeper.
The VoidVerse reshaped itself with every step, creating paths only long enough to be walked upon. Alex felt the Core being pulled—not forced, but invited.
"You feel it," she said. "The compatibility."
Alex nodded reluctantly. "This place resonates with me."
"It should," she replied. "The VoidVerse was built around a broken Core."
Alex stopped walking.
"What?"
She turned to face him fully.
"Before you," she said, "there was another Multiverse Core."
Cold spread through Alex's veins.
"The first," she continued. "He tried to save everything. Failed. Then he tried to control everything. Failed again."
Alex whispered, "And the VoidVerse…"
"Is the scar he left behind," she finished. "A kingdom built from collapse."
Alex shook his head. "I don't remember any of this."
"Memory is mercy," she said gently. "You were never meant to carry all of it."
She raised her hand.
The VoidVerse froze.
Then she showed him.
Not images.
Not visions.
Experiences.
Alex stood in countless realities at once, making impossible choices. Saving one universe meant abandoning another. Every decision cut something away.
Hope.
Fear.
Love.
Until only calculation remained.
Until existence itself became an equation.
Alex screamed as the experience ended, collapsing to his knees.
"I became a monster," he whispered.
The Void Empress knelt beside him. "You became efficient."
Alex looked up, shaking. "And Lyra?"
Her voice softened. "She stayed with you. Until you erased her."
Alex's heart stopped. "I killed her?"
"No," she said. "You removed her from every reality. So she wouldn't have to watch what you became."
Alex felt hollow.
"That is why she exists now," the Void Empress continued. "Reconstructed. Bound by commands. A failsafe you designed."
Alex clenched his fists. "I won't repeat that mistake."
The Void Empress studied him carefully.
"That," she said, "is why I brought you here."
Elsewhere, Lyra Nox screamed.
The moment Alex vanished, the Final Protocol ignited inside her mind, tearing through her thoughts like a blade.
EXECUTE THE CORE.
"No!" she cried, collapsing to the floor.
Kael Ardyn grabbed her shoulders. "Lyra, listen to me."
"I can feel him," she sobbed. "The VoidVerse is changing him."
Kael's expression darkened. "Then we don't have much time."
"You can reach him," Lyra said desperately.
Kael hesitated. "If I interfere, I risk tearing a hole straight into the Void."
Lyra met his eyes. "Then tear it."
Kael closed his eyes.
"Very well," he said quietly. "But understand this—if he accepts that throne, you may not recognize what returns."
Lyra wiped her tears. "I'll take that risk."
Back in the VoidVerse, Alex stood before a throne.
Forged from compressed universes, its surface alive with trapped constellations and frozen screams. The Core inside Alex surged violently, resonating with it.
"This is where the first Core ruled," the Void Empress said. "And where you once ruled."
Alex stared at it, horrified—and tempted.
"You want me to sit," he said.
"I want you to stop pretending choice is freedom," she replied. "Rule collapse. Prevent chaos."
Alex shook his head. "That's not balance."
"That is reality," she said. "Balance is a luxury of stable systems. The multiverse is not stable."
She stepped closer. "Sit. Feel what it means to stop reacting."
Alex reached toward the throne—
And stopped.
A voice cut through the VoidVerse like lightning.
"Alex!"
Lyra's voice.
Reality screamed.
A裂 opened in the VoidVerse—clean, controlled, human-made.
Alex spun around. "Lyra!"
Her projection flickered, unstable but real.
"Don't listen to her," Lyra shouted. "This place lies!"
The Void Empress smiled. "Does it?"
Alex's chest burned.
He stepped back from the throne.
"I won't become that again," he said.
The VoidVerse shook violently.
The Void Empress's smile faded.
"Then you choose chaos," she said coldly.
Alex met her gaze. "I choose people."
The Core flared—not with domination, but defiance.
The VoidVerse howled.
END OF CHAPTER 7
NEXT CHAPTER TEASE:
Alex makes his first true stand against the Void Empress… and Lyra pays the price for reaching him.