Chapter 8 — The One Who Calls From Beyond
The courtyard froze beneath a silence so heavy it felt physical, pressing against every throat, stealing every breath. Dust drifted lazily through the fractured air where the dome had shattered, and sparks hissed from broken generators, but no one moved.
Everyone was staring at the figure standing within the ruptured perimeter.
A humanoid shape wrapped in swirling void.A presence older than the Gates themselves.And eyes—those pale, unblinking eyes—that fixed on Aiden with terrifying precision.
The entity stepped forward.
The ground darkened beneath its foot, stone turning soft and ink-like before solidifying again. Reality warped subtly around it with each movement, as though the world struggled to process its existence.
Aiden barely felt Ren grab his arm.
"Don't move," the commander whispered urgently. "It's targeting you."
Aiden didn't answer. Couldn't answer. His pulse hammered so violently he felt it in his skull. His knees threatened to buckle again, but a strange cold inside his veins held him upright.
Lyra Vance stood a few meters behind them, tablet shaking in her hands. "Commander… readings are completely off the scale. This isn't a Voidspawn. Not even close."
The entity tilted its head. "Incorrect."
Its voice cracked across the courtyard like layered echoes—some deep, some whisper-thin, overlapping as though spoken through multiple throats at once.
"I am beyond the spawn."It took another step."I am beyond the lesser echoes."
Its eyes locked on Aiden again.
"I am the one who first reached through the darkness of the outer rings. I am the Warden of the Primordial Rift. And you—"
Aiden's breath caught as a pressure slammed against his chest, freezing him in place.
"—are mine."
The world lurched.
The courtyard dissolved. The shelter. The shattered dome. All of it blurred into streaks of white and black, sucked away like ink washed from paper.
Aiden's lungs seized.
He was falling.
No—he was standing—no—drifting—
Somewhere that wasn't a place. A realm between light and shadow. A horizon that stretched in all directions and in none. An ocean not of water but of swirling nothingness.
And in the center of that nothing stood the entity…Now fully formed.
Here, without the constraints of reality, it was clear:
It was tall, but not monstrous—humanoid in shape, elegant in posture, almost regal. Its body was composed of layered void currents shaped like armor, shifting without rhythm. Its face was smooth and blank, except for those pale eyes.
It raised a hand.
And Aiden felt the pull again—powerful enough to drag him forward.
He resisted instinctively. His void mark flared with pain.
The entity paused, studying the reaction with faint curiosity.
"Fascinating," it murmured. "The mark has chosen well."
Aiden managed to force out a breath. "What… what do you want from me?"
A ripple passed through the void. Not sound. Not vibration. Something else.
"Understanding," it said. "Completion."Its pale eyes narrowed."Reclamation."
Aiden shook his head. "I'm not yours. I didn't ask for this mark."
"And yet the mark answered you," the entity replied simply. "The Voidbound skill awakened because the Void recognized its heir. Even in your human shape, the core remembers."
"My what?" Aiden snapped. "I'm human. I'm not—whatever you think I am."
The entity stepped closer.
"Your world believes the Gates are accidental tears," it said softly. "Random anomalies. Unstable fractures connecting incompatible realms."Its eyes gleamed."But the truth is older. More deliberate."
Aiden swallowed. "You're saying someone created the Gates?"
"Someone," the figure echoed with a faint, eerie amusement, "or something. The Primordial Rift was not a natural phenomenon. It was crafted by my kind in an age before your sun formed. We shaped paths between worlds."
It touched the air and it rippled like liquid.
"But long before humans existed, long before your world orbited its star, there was a war. A schism between those who wished to control the outer universe…"Its voice deepened."…and those who wished to destroy it."
Aiden stared. "Where do I fit in to any of this?"
The figure's eyes brightened.
"You were born with a dormant echo. A fragment of what we lost. The Voidbound mark is a remnant of the lineage that once commanded the darkness between stars."
It stepped closer. The void currents swirled around it like a cloak.
"You, Aiden Cross… are the last living descendant of the bloodline that sealed the Primordial Rift. Your ancestors vanished before the war ended. We believed the lineage extinguished."
Aiden's heart dropped.
"That can't be true."
"We sensed your awakening the moment the collapsed Gate touched your soul. That resonance—" The figure's hand brushed the space between them. "—was unmistakable."
Aiden backed away, shaking his head. "I'm not some chosen heir. I'm not part of some ancient bloodline. I lived a normal life. My parents were normal. My entire family—"
"Your family," the figure interrupted, "carried the echo unknowingly. It lay dormant for generations. Until the day the Void called."
Aiden's voice cracked. "Why me? Why now?"
The void around them seemed to pulse.
"Because the war is returning," the entity answered quietly. "The outer universe is stirring. The Gates are collapsing not from instability… but because something is pushing through."
Aiden's breath stilled.
"Something?"
The figure's pale eyes dimmed. "Something that should never awaken."
A tremor spread through the void realm. Waves of distortion rippled outward like shockwaves.
The figure lifted its head sharply. "We are out of time."
The realm shook as if struck by a colossal force.
Aiden staggered. "What's happening?!"
"Your world is calling you back," the figure said. "The barrier between this space and your reality is destabilizing."
The void mark on Aiden's hand blazed with blinding purple-black light.
The creature extended a hand—not threateningly, but as if offering something.
"Aiden Cross," it said, voice echoing with layered resonance, "your awakening was not a mistake. You stand at the threshold of the same path your bloodline once walked. And soon, you will face the same enemy."
Aiden hesitated.
"Why tell me all this?"
The entity's pale eyes softened almost imperceptibly.
"Because when the outer stars fall silent… you will be the only one capable of closing the final Rift."
The void beneath Aiden's feet cracked like glass.
The realm ruptured.
He fell—again.
Voices blurred around him. Lights. Shouts. The physical world snapped back like a whip.
He collapsed onto the fractured courtyard ground, gasping.
Ren Halvors was beside him instantly. "Aiden! Aiden, can you hear me?!"
Aiden choked on air, blinking as the world spun.
Lyra rushed forward. "His readings are spiking—Void saturation at 320%—that's impossible—"
Aiden grabbed Ren's arm, eyes wide with panic, voice raw.
"Ren… it spoke to me."
Ren tensed. "What did it say?"
Aiden's breath trembled.
"It said…"He swallowed hard."It said I'm the last heir of something called the Primordial Rift."
Lyra's face drained of color.
"And it told me…" Aiden continued, voice hollow, "that a war older than the universe is coming."
Ren froze.
The courtyard fell silent around them.
But the entity outside the broken dome—now fading like a dissolving mirage—left behind one final echo, drifting through the air like a whisper of dust.
"Prepare, Voidbound.""The outer stars are waking."
Aiden's mark pulsed with icy dread.
And he knew—
Chapter 8 ended with the world no longer the same.