Tartarusios burst into the Corridor — the ancient passage said to be the only path joining the worlds of reality to one another — and the colossal vessel surged forward like a blade cast into infinity, its enormous frame trembling as streams of pale energy raced across its hull. Beyond the great viewing glass of the control chamber there was no sky, no stars and no recognizable void, only an endless current stretching ahead of them, a realm suspended between existence and oblivion. Rivers of silver mist coiled around impossible structures that appeared and vanished in the same instant and distant fragments of worlds drifted through the haze like memories creation itself had abandoned.
Youri lay slumped in the captain's chair at the center of the control room. His body felt heavy — not from his injuries alone, but from an exhaustion far deeper than flesh. His gaze stayed fixed on the flowing horizon of the Corridor while strange lights drifted across the glass and lit his face with pale reflections. A faint smile rested on his lips as he thought to himself, Now this looks peaceful. For the first time in what felt like centuries, there was silence — no roaring monsters, no collapsing domains, no screams of battle, no burning skies. Only stillness.
The massive control chamber around him was mostly dormant. Rows of ancient consoles wrapped around the circular room, their surfaces etched with symbols from a language older than empires. High above, pillars curved inward toward a vaulted ceiling where faint currents of energy crawled through veins of crystal and dark metal.
Then the silence broke as a voice echoed through the chamber — deep and mechanical, yet oddly elegant. It wasn't Terrian, nor any language Youri recognized, but flowing tones with a strange rhythm to them. Sacrosian. Youri frowned, and the smile left his face. He pushed himself slowly upright in the chair. "What was that?" he muttered.
The voice repeated itself, the same alien language flowing through the chamber again, and Youri looked around warily. The room was still dark, though faint sparks of energy now flickered across several of the nearby consoles — and then, suddenly, a metallic clank echoed overhead.
He looked up. From the ceiling, a long mechanical antenna was descending slowly toward him on articulated arms hidden in the chamber walls, a device that looked more like an ancient instrument than modern machinery, its bronze-like shell covered with glowing inscriptions and rotating crystal lenses. It came down directly in front of him, and Youri stepped back by instinct. "What now…" he muttered.
The antenna stopped only inches from his face. A brilliant beam of pale light burst from its core and scanned him instantly from head to toe. Youri flinched — and the whole chamber came alive. One by one the dormant systems surged into life; screens activated, ancient panels lit up, holographic symbols appeared across the walls, and the floor itself vibrated softly beneath his feet. And when the voice returned, it spoke in perfect Terrian.
"System active. Language update complete. Identity scan complete. Command inheritance confirmed. Ownership transfer initiated. Changing registered ownership from ████████ to Youri Kronos."
Youri froze, and his eyes went wide. "Wait — wait!" He stepped toward the antenna. "What?"
The voice answered without hesitation. "Requested system update completed successfully."
He stared at the machine. "What requested update?"
"Ownership reassignment and command authorization transfer."
His confusion deepened. "Who told you to do that?"
"You issued the command shortly before entry into the Corridor."
He frowned. "I never—" And then realization struck him, and his face slowly changed. Leonora — or rather, Lea. He remembered now: her hands moving across the controls before she stepped away, the strange commands, the quiet determination in her eyes. He let out a slow breath. "So she did that," he whispered. The realization settled heavily inside him. Even then, she had made sure that he would survive.
He lowered himself slowly back into the captain's chair as the antenna withdrew silently into the ceiling. Around him Tartarusios went on waking, ancient systems humming with renewed life and whole sections of the chamber glowing now with flowing energy. Great holographic displays formed around the chair and surrounded him with navigation data and ancient symbols still translating themselves into Terrian. Youri leaned back. His eyes drifted toward the Corridor again, the dreamlike current stretching endlessly ahead, and for several moments he simply watched it.
"Where are we right now?" he asked quietly.
"We are within the Corridor," the AI answered at once. "The dreamscape of creation and ruin. The single path connecting worlds, civilizations and realms."
He looked at the mist outside. "Dreamscape…"
"The Corridor predates recorded history. It is not governed by conventional space or time. Passage through it permits transit between the Pillars of Existence."
He frowned. "Pillars of Existence?"
"Affirmative."
He leaned forward slightly. "And where exactly are we headed?"
The AI paused only briefly. "Eternes."
The name meant nothing to him, and his eyes narrowed. "Eternes?"
"Affirmative. The third and final Pillar of Existence."
His confusion only grew, and he looked around at the glowing systems. "What is Eternes?"
"It is your world."
He blinked. "My world?"
"Affirmative."
Before he could ask anything more, the Corridor changed. Without warning the silver fog around Tartarusios thickened violently. The view beyond the glass vanished beneath layers of spiraling mist, and the ship lurched, hard. Warning lights flashed across the chamber, the floor shook violently, and Youri grabbed the chair. "What happened?"
"Unstable Corridor fluctuation detected."
Outside, the fog twisted unnaturally and great shadows moved within it. For brief moments Youri thought he saw whole landscapes buried in the haze — cities, oceans, stars, and impossible shapes drifting beyond understanding. The lights flickered again — and then there was silence. The turbulence stopped. The fog split apart, and suddenly there was space. Real space — dark, cold, endless. The Corridor vanished behind them as though it had never been, and before Tartarusios stretched a familiar universe full of stars.
Youri stared, and for several moments he couldn't speak. He was back — back in his world, back in reality. And yet something inside him refused to celebrate. He rose slowly from the chair and stepped toward the viewing glass. The stars reflected in his face, but his expression stayed hollow. Tartarus had changed him — not merely his body, not merely his mind, but something deeper and quieter. He thought of Leonora, of her mask falling away, of her words. You are not my Youri. The memory cut deeper than any blade.
All that time he had fought to return. He had fought monsters, crossed impossible realms, and faced death again and again. What had waited at the end had not been a reunion. It had been loss. He laid a hand against the glass while the stars drifted silently ahead. Somewhere out there lay home. And yet home no longer felt like home.
"Arrival within Eternes territory projected shortly," the AI said.
Youri said nothing. He only watched the darkness. A man had gone into Tartarus looking for revenge, survival, and a way home, but the man who came back aboard Tartarusios was not the same. Something had been left behind beneath those crimson skies — something he might never reclaim. And though he stood once more beneath the stars of his own reality, that emptiness would stay with him for a very long time.