[Emperor Cassius's POV—Within theVoid]
The first thing I felt was cold.
Not the kind that numbed the skin—but the kind that seeped into bone, heavy and endless, like time itself had stopped breathing. And when I opened my eyes and found myself standing in a place that was not the void Thalein described. It wasn't black, nor empty—it was… alive.
Lights flickered above me, humming faintly, trapped inside long glass tubes. Strange carriages of metal and glass rushed by on glimmering black paths. People moved quickly—eyes down, faces pale, carrying strange glowing boxes in their hands.
"What… is this weird place?" I whispered, frowning as the air filled with the scent of smoke and metal.
And then—among that river of strangers—I saw her.
