The silence left in Endless's wake was unbearable.

The wind howled through the Hollow like a whisper from the abyss. Dust and charred earth lingered where the Nullcarvers had once stood—wiped from existence, their qi severed from the world as if their stories had never begun.

Naena stood solemnly, eyes closed. Mourning.

Kaelen remained motionless, one hand on the broken hilt of his sword. The other, clenched at his side.

Lila leaned against him quietly, her expression unreadable. Behind them, Kelvin brooded in silence, his scythe's aura slowly dissipating. Guinevere's flames flickered with uncertainty, and Morris stood stiffly, as if unwilling to exhale.

Then—Ethan spoke.

"So that's it?"

He took a step forward, his tone razor sharp and laced with bitter sarcasm.

"The great Celestials. The mighty guardians of this world… sitting on their golden clouds watching a monster erase people from existence like it's a game?"

Everyone turned to him, startled.

Ethan's voice rose.

"They can see everything. They can smite anything. But Endless—Endless—is waltzing around, killing whoever he pleases, and they just hand us a deadline?! Two years—or they strip Kaelen of everything?! What kind of divine joke is that?!"

His hands trembled, mist swirling around him erratically.

"Why not do it themselves if it's that damn important?!"

Naena opened her eyes.

They were calm, but heavy. She met Ethan's rage with centuries of sorrow in her gaze.

"Because no one knows why… except the Celestials themselves."

A pause. The wind stilled.

"Even the Hybrids do not understand them. Their will is their own. Perhaps it is a test. A judgment. A balance we mortals cannot comprehend."

Ethan scoffed. "Well, that's convenient."

Naena did not argue. There was no argument that could make sense of what the heavens refused to explain.

The Hollow returned to silence… but Kaelen's thoughts had not.

He had remained quiet this whole time—eyes shadowed by his hair, face carved in stone.

Finally, he raised his head and turned toward Naena.

"Is there a place… somewhere hidden—somewhere safe—that Lila can stay while we finish training?"

The question startled everyone.

Lila's head whipped toward him. "Kaelen—"

He cut her off with a gentle look.

"Please, Naena. Somewhere even the elves or Endless can't easily find."

Naena studied him. Then nodded solemnly.

"Yes. There is a cavern network deep beneath the base of the Hollow. Its passages are known only to the Juggernauts and the monarch of the tribe. And since the Juggernauts have already gone extinct, am the only one who know. One of them leads to the Veil Chamber—a place shielded from all external perception. Not even a Seer or Eternal could pierce its veil… unless they were already inside."

Kaelen turned to Lila now, stepping closer.

She stared up at him, eyes flickering with panic and resistance.

"No."

Kaelen reached out and gently grasped her shoulders.

"Lila. I need you to be safe."

"I'm not leaving your side again," she whispered.

"You won't be," he said softly. "Not really. You'll just be… waiting a bit longer. Protected. I can't fight or train knowing he's watching you."

Her lips trembled. "You saw what he said. I'm an important piece to him. If you're not there—"

"That's why we have to get stronger. Finish our training. Get that sword fixed. Master the seven paths. We need everything we can get before we confront him again."

"But Kaelen—"

He touched her cheek, brushing her blue hair aside.

"I need you alive."

She closed her eyes, fighting the tears. The latest chapters are uploaded first on *.

Behind her, Guinevere bit her lip, Kelvin averted his gaze, and even Ethan looked down in conflicted silence.

Lila opened her eyes.

"What if I lose you?"

Kaelen's expression didn't waver.

"Then I'll haunt you until you come pull me out of the afterlife."

A quiet, fragile smile cracked on her face.

"You better keep that promise…"

They stood like that for a few more seconds—longer than anyone dared interrupt.

Then finally, Naena stepped forward.

"We'll begin preparations for her escort. Since am the only one who knows the location of this place, I and a few of my best remaining tribesmen will see her to the Veil Chamber by dawn."

Lila nodded faintly, her hand tightening around Kaelen's.

As she slowly stepped away, her hazel-blue eyes never left him.

And as she disappeared into the Hollow's inner sanctum with Naena and two silent tribesmen at her side, Kaelen remained in place… unmoving… like a statue carved in the shape of resolve.

Kelvin stepped up beside him.

"You just sent the most important piece of yourself away."

Kaelen nodded, his fist clenched tightly as he replied.

"And I'm going to make sure that when she comes back… I'll be strong enough to protect her from everything."

–––––

Meanwhile.....

A grim wind howled across the jagged hills as Alen the Dark Magi, cloaked in his usual midnight shroud, walked silently beside the Chaos Twins—Aron and Selene. Before them, a desolate landscape gave way to the blood-soaked outskirts of the Orc and Goblin territories.

The ruins of primitive outposts dotted the horizon, their wooden spikes and crude banners rustling weakly in the wind. From a distance, grotesque silhouettes could be seen—orcish guards, goblin scouts—grunting and patrolling as they circled the area warily.

Selene crouched down, one hand pressed to the rocky ground. Her hair shimmered faintly with residual chaos mana.

"There's a scouting group approaching from the west," she whispered, "and a full battalion near the river gorge. If we go around the ridge, we can sneak in undetected."

"Agreed," Aron added, cracking his neck. "We don't need unnecessary bloodshed."

But Alen, walking just ahead of them, stopped abruptly.

"Sneak?" His voice was like cold steel dragged over obsidian. "I don't sneak."

He extended his left hand toward the distant goblin group. In that moment, the air thickened—and then ruptured.

A ring of runes ignited around his palm, glowing crimson and violet. In the blink of an eye, the ground beneath the orcs and goblins shattered as black spires erupted upward, impaling everything in their path. Screams echoed briefly… before silence reclaimed the land.

Aron's eyes widened. "Damn it, Dark Magi—!"

"They're pests," Alen muttered, his voice devoid of remorse. "This is mercy."

And then he moved.

Inhumanly fast, he leapt into the fray with a trail of dark glyphs spinning around him. Where his feet touched the ground, chaos fissures opened. Whole sections of the orc battalion collapsed into an abyss of shadows. Goblin mages tried to summon defenses, but they were too slow. Alen raised a single finger—and they were torn apart by void spikes.

Selene stood behind, her arms folded. "He must still be angry about being sent to do errands."

"And now we have a crater for a trail," Aron muttered, already drawing out his chaos mana in case survivors retaliated.

Just then—a distortion in the air.

Space itself folded with a low hum before splitting apart, and out stepped Endless.

His presence alone twisted the mana in the air, turning everything cold and still. Even the wind recoiled.

He said nothing at first. Just stood, staring at the carnage Alen had created.

His gaze was heavy.

Stormy.

Aron and Selene instinctively straightened. Even Alen, as arrogant as he was, halted his slaughter and turned toward Endless.

"You're early," Alen said dryly yet respectfully . "We were just cleaning the path."

Endless's voice rumbled like tectonic plates shifting beneath a mountain.

"I felt the Voidcloak," he said. "And the scent of the Celestials lingers in the air… they've tampered with something again. Those damn bastards..."

Alen raised an eyebrow in surprise. "And what will you do?"

Endless's eyes—dark as a dying star—focused on the valley below, where distant Orc reinforcements could be seen forming ranks, roaring in battle cries.

Then he smiled.

It wasn't a smile of joy.

It was destruction incarnate.

"I will remind this world what despair feels like."

And then he descended.

The sky above the Orc valley imploded into darkness as Endless extended his palm.

A crimson moon appeared above his head, and the entire landscape beneath it was crushed by a sudden gravitational collapse. The earth cracked, air thinned, and mana itself recoiled. Orcs screamed in agony as their bodies were pulled into ribbons of flesh and bone by invisible hands.

Death swept like a tide.

Entire platoons were reduced to dust before their weapons could be raised.

A goblin shaman cast a final desperate spell—only to be snuffed out like a candle under Endless's gaze. Time froze around him. Then the goblin simply ceased to exist, erased from the very fabric of reality.

Alen and the Chaos Twins watched in silence.

Even they—creatures of chaos and blood—felt the divine cruelty in Endless's expression. He wasn't angry anymore.

He was entertaining himself.

When the massacre subsided, the land before the trio had become a black crater of glass, ash, and bone dust. Nothing living remained.

Endless turned toward them with a casual sigh.

"Now then… the Labyrinth. Take me to Kael Dragonyx. It's time my plan begins motion."

And with that, he began to walk—leaving behind a trail of death and a sky that refused to shine above him.