Chapter 16 — March of the Pale Sky
Dawn came reluctantly, dragging its light over the broken ridges east of Arclight Fortress. The sky was washed pale, like something had drained the color straight out of it, leaving a chalk–white sheen that made even seasoned soldiers uneasy. Aiden stood at the ramparts long before the horns sounded, watching the horizon bend and flux with residual Void particles. His presence here, alone, seemed to steady the air. The Void inside him pulsed—a quiet, steady thrum—as if it were waking too.
He flexed his hand, letting the dark energy ripple faintly across his palm before he closed his fingers. The power was growing, quicker now, almost aggressively so. He hadn't used Void Collapse again since the night of the siege. Even thinking about it made his bones ache. But something told him he would need it again. Maybe sooner than he wanted.
Footsteps broke the silence behind him. "You're up early again," Elena said, breath visible in the cold air. She wore reinforced leather over her mage coat, her staff strapped across her back. The circles beneath her eyes hadn't faded since the attack.
"I couldn't sleep," Aiden replied.
"None of us can," she said quietly. "The scouts from the eastern perimeter came back. They're saying the Pale Sky breach opened again last night. They heard… voices."
"Voices?"
"Not human ones."
Aiden didn't answer. If the Pale Sky breach—one of the first dimensional distortions detected on Earth—was becoming active again, then the invasion wasn't slowing down. It was accelerating.
Elena stepped beside him on the rampart. Soldiers marched below, tightening formation lines, checking mana-infused rifles, bolting down equipment crates. The entire fortress felt different—more tense, more focused, as if everyone instinctively knew they were inching toward something monumental.
"How's Lucas?" Aiden finally asked.
Elena exhaled. "He pretends he's fine. But he's not. His arm hasn't healed. The medics did everything they could."
"Is he still fighting?"
"You know him. He'll fight until breathing becomes optional."
Aiden gave a faint smile at that. Lucas wasn't built to sit out. But the wound he'd taken—something left by a Reaver Beast—was refusing to regenerate using normal healing spells.
"It's because the monster that injured him was from beyond the Outer Sphere," Aiden murmured. "Its energy signature isn't compatible with anything we know."
Elena nodded stiffly. "That's what the healers said."
Silence settled between them, broken only by the distant grinding of gears and shouted orders. Aiden's senses sharpened. The chill wind carried something else—an echo, faint but unmistakable. A whisper of distortion. A change in pressure.
"Do you feel that?" Aiden asked.
Elena froze. "Yes."
The sky trembled.
Not violently. Not like thunder. It was subtle, a thin rippling pulse that crawled along the clouds, splitting pale wisps apart like someone dragging their finger through wet paint.
Then—
A soft hum. A tone too low to be natural.
Aiden's Void sense flared. His grip tightened on the stone railing.
"Something's coming," he said.
"Something big," Elena whispered.
The next moment, a horn blared from the western tower. Soldiers rushed toward the walls, boots hammering the stone.
Major Riven sprinted up the stairs, hair wild, cloak trailing like a shadow behind him.
"Aiden! Elena! With me," he barked. "The breach near the Pale Sky line just destabilized. We're getting readings off the charts."
"How far?" Aiden asked.
"Far enough that if it fully tears open, we lose the whole northeast sector within minutes," Riven growled. "Gear up. Command wants you there immediately."
Elena's eyes widened. "Already? We barely recovered from the last attack."
"The world isn't going to wait for us to catch our breath," Riven snapped.
Aiden turned without another word and followed. They raced down the spiral steps, passing squads mobilizing for deployment. He grabbed his equipment from the armory—reinforced leather coat lined with Void-resistant threading, twin short blades magnetically sheathed at his hips, and his gauntlet inscribed with stabilization runes.
The Void pulsed again. Not in agitation this time, but in anticipation.
As they boarded the transport vehicle, Elena looked sideways at him.
"You're feeling it again, aren't you? That pull."
Aiden strapped himself into the bench and met her gaze. "The Void reacts to breaches. And something about this one… feels familiar."
"Familiar how?"
He didn't answer. Because he couldn't explain it. The feeling was instinctive, buried somewhere deep in the marrow of his evolving power.
The engine roared, and the vehicle tore across the rough terrain, sending dust clouds swirling behind them. Lucas sat across from them, arm bandaged, still gripping his spear like he'd never let go again.
"You look terrible," Lucas said, grinning weakly.
"You look worse," Aiden shot back.
Lucas laughed, then winced as pain flared across his wounded arm. "Yeah. I feel worse, too."
"You shouldn't be here," Elena said firmly.
"And miss the world ending? No chance."
Riven groaned. "If you all don't shut up, I'm jumping out."
Tension eased briefly. But only briefly.
The Pale Sky perimeter rose on the horizon—shattered towers, broken earth, and the massive circular crater where the first breach had surfaced months ago. The air around it shimmered like a warped mirror.
Aiden narrowed his gaze.
The distortion was growing.
The ground around it vibrated.
"What's the reading?" Riven demanded over the radio.
A static burst answered. Then— "Off… off-scale… energy signature… unknown element mixed with cosmic…"
The signal cut.
The convoy halted.
Aiden stepped out, boots crunching on brittle ash. The breach pulsed with pale-blue radiance. Shapes moved inside the swirling fog. Wisps of white, like drifting cloth. But they weren't cloth.
"Aiden…" Elena's voice wavered. "Are those—"
They stepped out of the fog.
Humanoid.
Tall.
Pale.
Eyes blank.
The Pale Sky Shades.
But different.
These moved with intent. They carried faint, spiraling symbols etched along their arms. Their heads twitched unnaturally, adjusting to the environment in short, sharp motions.
The first one turned toward them.
Its mouth opened.
No sound came out.
But every soldier who stood closest staggered, clutching their ears as if struck by a silent scream.
"Hold formation!" Riven roared.
The Shades surged forward.
Aiden didn't wait.
His Void ignited.
He sprinted ahead of the front line, slamming a burst of compressed darkness into the ground. Shockwaves tore outward, shredding the soil and slowing the Shades' advance.
Elena followed with a sweeping fire arc that caught three Shades and blasted them backward. Lucas leaped in, spear spinning into a blur, his movements more desperate than precise but still lethal.
Riven shouted orders, light-clad soldiers firing mana rifles in controlled bursts. Bolts of pure energy splintered against the Shades' pale, brittle bodies.
But there were more coming.
Many more.
Aiden cleaved through two Shades with a Void–infused strike, but as he turned toward a third, something shifted in the breach.
The fog condensed.
Darkened.
Twisted.
A hand emerged.
Long fingers.
Human-like, but impossibly thin, glowing with deep blue streaks.
Aiden's breath hitched.
He stepped back.
Everyone felt it—this newcomer was not like the others.
A figure stepped through the breach.
Cloaked in drifting pale fabric.
Face obscured by a porcelain mask carved with spirals.
It raised its head.
Looked directly at Aiden.
Then sounded a voice—clear, smooth, and terrifyingly calm.
"You are the one touched by the Void."
Elena froze. Lucas almost dropped his spear.
Aiden lifted his chin.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
The masked figure tilted its head.
"I am…" It paused, as if tasting the name. "Severin. Herald of the Outer Constellum. And the universe trembles because you exist."
The wind seemed to die.
Aiden's Void surged in response, a deep, instinctive growl in his core.
Severin lifted one hand toward him.
"I have come," he said softly, "to test the worth of the one who carries the Void Flame."
Aiden's pulse roared in his ears.
The Shades around Severin kneeled, bowing their formless heads.
Riven stepped forward, raising his blade. "Aiden, fall back. That thing is—"
Severin flicked his fingers.
A shockwave blasted outward.
Riven was thrown twenty meters back.
Soldiers collapsed.
Elena screamed.
Aiden alone remained standing, though barely.
His vision blurred, but the Void steadied him.
Severin's mask tilted once more. "Yes. Your body already bends. Your essence already adapts. You are not human anymore."
Aiden gritted his teeth. "I am."
"You will not remain so."
Severin raised his hand again—but this time, Aiden moved first.
The Void roared through him, a surge unlike anything he had felt since awakening.
He launched forward, blades drawn, energy flaring.
Severin did not step back.
He only raised one slender finger.
The moment Aiden struck—
The world inverted.
Colors bled away.
Sound vanished.
And Aiden stood in a white void, alone.
Severin's voice whispered behind him.
"Let us begin."
The world snapped back into focus just as Aiden collapsed to one knee in the physical world, gasping, vision spinning.
Elena ran toward him. "Aiden! What happened?!"
He didn't answer.
Because he wasn't sure he understood.
But he knew one thing:
The invasion had just changed.
And the real war had officially begun.