Chapter 27: The Calling Beyond the Arch
Black light swallowed Aiden whole.
Not darkness—absence. A void so complete it erased sensation, sound, and even the idea of space. His breath froze in his chest. His thoughts scattered like dust in a hurricane. For one terrifying moment, he wasn't sure he existed at all.
Then—A heartbeat.
Not his.
A cosmic pulse that reverberated through the nothingness like a planetary drum.
BOOM.
Aiden gasped as color bled back into existence. Shadows took form. Space cooled into shape. The black radiance softened into a dim twilight.
He was standing—though he hadn't moved—in a vast, infinite expanse of floating stone platforms and drifting fragments of broken architecture. Like the ruins of a world suspended in an eternal dusk.
Kael was gone.
Aiden's chest tightened. "Kael? Kael!"
His voice echoed strangely, like sound underwater. No answer came back.
Aiden clenched his fists, breathing hard. He didn't know if Kael had been left behind, transported elsewhere, or consumed by the archway's light. The uncertainty gnawed at him, but he forced himself to focus. Panic wouldn't help either of them.
A gust of wind—cold, whispering—swept across the shattered dimension.
The air smelled of dust, old stars, and something eerily familiar.
Then—
The void stirred.
A shape emerged ahead of him, tall and formless. A silhouette made of shifting black mist, with eyes like twin spirals of collapsing galaxies. The figure stood on a broken platform, its presence bending the world around it.
Aiden froze.
The silhouette lifted its head slightly, as if studying him.
You have come, the voice resonated.Not with sound—directly into Aiden's mind, vibrating every bone.
Aiden swallowed hard. "Where is this? What did you do with my friend?"
The figure didn't move, but the shadows around it rippled softly.
This realm is the Expanse Between. A memory of the Void. A place beyond time, where echoes linger.A pause.Your companion remains unharmed. He stands outside the threshold, frozen in a moment between moments. You alone may enter.
Aiden tensed. "Because of the Void skill?"
The cosmic gaze brightened.
That skill is merely a vessel. A name the System carved to define the undefinable. You, Aiden Cross, carry a fragment of the Origin Void. That is why you were summoned.
Aiden stepped forward carefully. "You said I 'returned.' What does that mean?"
The being drifted toward him, each movement causing the floating architecture to tremble.
Once, long before the System awakened on your world, the Void was whole. Infinite. Alive. It touched countless realms, shaping them, watching them, consuming them. But during the Collapse, we were shattered. Our essence divided. Scattered. Lost.
Aiden felt a cold shiver pierce him.
You are one such fragment. A shard of what we were. A remnant given form.
Aiden's breath hitched. "Are you saying I'm… not human?"
The figure's gaze softened—if such a thing was possible for a cosmic shadow.
You are human. Entirely. Yet you carry within you a seed—a memory—of the Void's ancient power. A soul threaded with remnants of a forgotten whole. Not reincarnation… but resonance.
Aiden's mind reeled. "So I'm some kind of… hybrid?"
A vessel.The being's voice deepened.One chosen by the fragment that found its way into your birth. One that has now awakened.
Aiden tried to step back—but the world held him in place.
The stranger extended a hand made of swirling mist.
Do not fear. You are not controlled. You are connected. And the connection is why your world now calls for you.
Aiden clenched his jaw. "What does my world have to do with this? Why now? Why the monsters?"
The figure turned, looking toward an empty horizon. With a wave of its hand, the air rippled—revealing shimmering images like memories projected into space.
A sky torn open by a massive Rift.Stars contorted into spirals.Beasts made of cosmic rot emerging through fractures in reality.An immense silhouette behind it all—like a colossal serpentine star-eater.
Aiden's heart dropped.
"That's… the Leviathan."
Not merely a creature. A Herald.The Void being's voice lowered to a rumble.The Heralds predate your world. They devour realms marked by the System. They seek the fragments of the Void—just as we seek our own.
Aiden's stomach twisted. "So the Leviathan came because of me?"
Not because of you alone. Because your world hosts a fragment. Several fragments, perhaps. The System marked your realm as unstable—ripe for invasion.
Aiden's fists trembled. "Then how do we stop it?"
The figure regarded him deeply, as though weighing something vast and ancient.
By completing the Fragment. By becoming what you were always meant to be.
Aiden stiffened. "What does that mean?"
Silence.
Then—
You must reclaim the lost echoes of the Void. Only then can you wield its true power. Only then can you confront the Heralds… and survive what comes after.
Aiden's mouth went dry. "And where are these echoes?"
The figure extended its arm again. Beyond the floating ruins, the twilight split open—revealing vast landscapes suspended in the void.
A desert of crystallized shadows.A frozen ocean of starfire.A forest where trees grew from broken timelines.A crater filled with swirling darkness deeper than space.
Each echo rests in a place touched by the Void's collapse—hidden across realms. Some on your world… others beyond it.
Aiden stared, stunned. "You expect me to travel to other realms?"
Only the Void Fragment within you can navigate them. Only you can reclaim what was lost.
Aiden looked at his hands—steady, but trembling on the inside. "And if I refuse?"
The figure's voice softened.
Then your world will burn. And you will burn with it.
Aiden's pulse hammered in his ears.
A horrible, unshakable truth settled over him:He didn't have a choice.
He took a steadying breath. "If I agree… what happens first?"
The cosmic figure stepped closer, its form towering over him.
First… you must awaken. Fully.A pulse of energy radiated from its chest—cold, ancient, overwhelming.The first echo lies beneath Halcyon Ridge. The entity you sensed—the heartbeat—belongs to a dormant fragment. Claim it… and the path will open.
Aiden swallowed hard. "How do I claim it?"
The answer made the world shake.
You must merge with it.
Aiden froze. "Merge?"
You are two pieces of a broken whole. When you reunite, your Void ability will evolve. Strengthen. Become something closer to its true form.
Aiden hesitated. "Will I still be myself?"
The figure paused.
Too long.
Yes.A moment later—Mostly.
A chill sliced down Aiden's spine.
He wanted to turn back. He wanted to run. But Kael was waiting for him above, frozen in time. Halcyon Ridge was counting on him. Humanity was on the edge of collapse.
He couldn't refuse.
"Then send me back," Aiden said. "I'll face whatever's waiting beneath the ridge."
The Void being's form flickered, just once.
Very well. But remember, Fragment—your journey does not end there. It begins.
The world shuddered.
The platforms cracked.The twilight shattered.The figure reached toward him——and the black light surged.
Aiden was flung backward as the Expanse Between dissolved.
His vision blurred.His consciousness fractured.The Void roared.
Then—
Aiden!Kael's voice ripped through the darkness.
Aiden's eyes snapped open.
He was back.
Collapsed at the bottom of the staircase, gasping for breath. Kael knelt beside him, shaking his shoulder.
"What the hell happened? You went still—you weren't breathing—your eyes—Aiden!"
Aiden coughed, pulling in air sharply.
"I'm fine," he rasped.
Kael glared at him. "You don't look fine."
Aiden stared ahead.
The massive chamber remained.The obsidian pools shimmered.The archway glowed faintly.
But something beneath the stone trembled—calling to him.
Aiden rose slowly.
"Kael," he whispered. "It's time."
Kael frowned. "Time for what?"
Aiden looked toward the far end of the chamber—where an ancient heartbeat pulsed beneath the earth.
"For me to face what's waiting down there."
Because the first fragment—the first echo—was waking.
And it was calling his name.