The night sky above the Void Frontier trembled. Stars flickered like they were bracing for something ancient—something that should not have awakened. Deep within the fractured realm, the Silent Star began to breathe again.
Eldric stood at the edge of the floating citadel, watching reality drift beneath him in shattered, glowing fragments. Golden threads of fate flickered in his eyes, each one vibrating with warnings he could not yet decipher.
Behind him, Ethan Cross slowly regained consciousness after the brutal clash of the previous chapter. His chest pulsed with an unfamiliar force—warm, limitless, and terrifying, as if a living cosmos had taken shelter inside him.
"What… is happening to me?" Ethan whispered.
Aetherial sparks swirled around him, forming a constellation-like symbol in the air—the mark of a cosmic authority that had vanished from all history.
Lyra teleported beside him, her expression shaken.
"That symbol… it belongs to the Silent Starbearer.
But that title died out millions of cycles ago."
Ethan clenched his hands as the energy inside him intensified.
A pulse ran through his body—steady, powerful, ancient.
The sky tore open with a deafening crack.
A massive rift split through the heavens, and from within stepped Vahl'Serath, the Harbinger of Entropy. His colossal body was forged from cracked cosmic stone, molten starlight burning within each fissure. Even the floating citadel shuddered under his presence.
His voice rolled through the realm like collapsing galaxies:
"So… the Silent Star reawakens.
And its chosen vessel is a mortal child?"
Ethan staggered backward, the symbol on his chest flaring brighter.
Eldric moved in front of him, his aura rising like a storm forged of lightning and prophecy.
"Harbinger of Entropy," Eldric warned, "you were sealed for a reason. Return to your void."
Vahl'Serath tilted his head, amused.
"Sealed? A dying star broke your seal, seer.
The universe is shifting… and this mortal carries a power that should have remained forgotten."
The pulse inside Ethan synchronized with his heartbeat.
A whisper echoed through his mind—deep, distant, older than time itself:
"You are its vessel now.
Rise."
Ethan's eyes flashed white.
A shockwave exploded outward, knocking Vahl'Serath backward and sending cracks through the citadel's foundation. Even Eldric and Lyra stared in disbelief.
Ethan stood, breathing heavily, a radiant aura blooming around him like armor of living starlight.
Vahl'Serath let out a thunderous laugh.
"Fascinating.
Then allow me to test what the Silent Star has chosen."
He raised his arm, summoning cosmic fire.
Lyra shouted, "Ethan, move!"
But Ethan didn't move.
He ascended.
Light wrapped around him, forming a luminous mantle of power.
His voice echoed with layered tones—his own, and something far older.
"I'm done running."
He thrust his fist forward.
The Silent Star's pulse erupted in a blinding blast.
The resulting clash shook the entire realm—resonating across dimensions, galaxies, and all futures tied to the prophecy of the Silent Starbearer.
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