The chair was still warm.
Kael sat in the porcelain throne. He grabbed the cables. He jammed the inputs into his own flesh—into the meat of his Obsidian arm.
"Kael, don't," Elric begged. "That machine kills kings."
"I'm not a king," Kael said. "I'm a Knight."
He looked at Elric.
"Write it down, scholar. Write it all down."
"Kael—"
"Contact."
Kael closed his eyes.
The pain was infinite. Then, it was gone.
He wasn't in the Spire. He was standing on a surface of grey water. The sky was white.
In front of him, the universe curved.
The Deep One wasn't a monster here. It was a geometry. An equation of consumption. It looked at him with a trillion eyes.
FLESH,* it said. *TINY. FINITE.
"I am Kael," he said.
YOU ARE DUST,* the entity replied. *THE BARRIER IS BROKEN. WE WILL FEAST.
"You can feast," Kael said. "And you will strip this world bare in a day. And then you will be hungry again."
The entity paused. The ocean rippled.
TRUE.
"Or," Kael said, holding up his Obsidian Hand. "You can have a conduit. A bridge. You don't eat the world. You eat me."
YOU ARE TOO SMALL.
"I am the Void," Kael said. "I carry your mark. I carry the Ash. And I have the Ring of the First."
He showed the ring. It shone in this grey place like a star.
"I will be the Warden," Kael said. "I will stand at the gate. You feed on my connection. I filter it. You get your energy. The world keeps its life."
A BATTERY,* the entity mused. *LIKE THE MACHINE. BUT WILLING.
"Yes," Kael said. "Voluntary."
ETERNITY IS A LONG time TO BURN, LITTLE KNIGHT.
Kael looked at his hand. He thought of Elric. Of Valerius. Of the Prince. Of the ash covering his home.
"I swore an oath," Kael said. "To hold the line."
The entity descended.
ACCEPTED.