The silence of the lower decks was broken only by the creaking of the hull and the soft hum of arcane wards. Deep within the ship's belly, away from the wary eyes of the crew, the hidden figure crouched beside the sealed containment box. Their breath was shallow, movements careful.
Inside the box, the seventh shard pulsed not with light, but with something darker. Something hungry.
They reached out.
But before they could touch it, a voice behind them froze their blood.
"You shouldn't be here."
Thorne.
He stepped from the shadows, staff lowered but eyes burning with suspicion. The traitor turned, shadows wrapping around their face but only for a second. Enough for Thorne to gasp in recognition.
"You... It's you."
The Confrontation Above Deck
Leon stared out across the stormy sea, mind racing. The Hollow Star's influence was growing. With every mile they drew closer, his thoughts grew louder, emotions more intense. His dreams had become visions of thrones made of ash, of kingdoms kneeling before him, of blood-soaked crowns.
And always, in the corner of his dreamscape, a figure cloaked in shadows, wearing his face.
Seraphine joined him, wrapping a cloak around her shoulders.
"Zerrak's words haunt you," she said softly.
"I trusted everyone on this ship," Leon replied. "But now... I can't even trust my reflection."
Betrayal Revealed
A thundering crash came from below deck.
Leon and Seraphine rushed down, Kael close behind.
In the shard chamber, they found Thorne wounded, clutching a bleeding arm and standing above him was Elias, the quiet engineer. The one who had always stayed in the background. The one who had studied the Dominion Key's structure far too carefully.
"I never wanted it to be this way," Elias said. "But the Hollow Star calls to me and it shows the truth. You think you're saving the world, Leon? You're just another tyrant in waiting."
He slammed his palm on the box. The shard burst free, embedding itself in his chest.
A wave of energy exploded outward.
The Awakening
Elias rose, glowing with a dark radiance. His eyes had turned to pools of night. The Dominion Key at Leon's hip vibrated violently, shards screaming in resonance.
"You were always the decoy," Elias whispered. "The Key was never meant for you. I was chosen by the Hollow Star long before you touched that relic."
Leon stepped forward, face carved from stone.
"Then let's see who destiny truly favors."
---
The Duel of Keys
The chamber pulsed with raw energy. Sigils etched into the hull flared and cracked as the containment runes failed, unable to handle the magnitude of power Elias now radiated. The stolen shard in his chest glowed with a corrupt brilliance, distorting the air around him like a heat haze.
Leon stood his ground, the Dominion Key in his grip reacting violently. Its pieces buzzed, echoing a deep, discordant hum as though enraged.
"You stole its voice," Leon said coldly. "Now it screams."
Elias floated above the ground, strands of dark energy coiling from his fingertips. "I liberated it. You would have caged the shards I will unleash them."
He thrust his hands forward. Arcs of shadow lashed out.
Leon raised the Dominion Key. The weapon twisted, reshaping in his hand, adapting to the threat. One shard extended into a blade of radiant blue, another flared into a shield of flame. The clash of light and darkness cracked the chamber walls.
The crew, sensing the battle, descended, only to be forced back by the storm of energy tearing through the lower deck.
Above Deck: Chaos Brews
Kael, Seraphine, and Thorne fought to stabilize the ship as waves pounded the hull. The sea itself seemed to respond to Elias's awakening. Whirlpools spun in erratic spirals, clouds blackened the skies, and lightning slashed the horizon.
"Whatever that shard did to him," Kael shouted over the wind, "it's calling something from beyond the veil!"
Seraphine closed her eyes, reaching inward. She could feel it a ripple in the Source beyond the world, a beacon like a signal flare. Elias's body had become a lighthouse for the abyss.
Below Deck: Collision of Wills
Leon moved like a storm. Each strike of the Dominion Key was matched with a burst of precision. But Elias… Elias fought like a force of nature. His body was no longer entirely human. Bones bent wrong. Shadows poured from his wounds instead of blood.
"You think you understand power," Elias hissed, blocking a blow with a spectral wing. "But power doesn't choose. It devours."
Leon didn't answer. He concentrated, bringing together three shards. They fused, spinning in a tight orbit. Then
"Release Protocol: Judgment Break."
A brilliant arc of light cleaved through the dark, striking Elias squarely in the chest. The shard embedded in him shrieked.
For a heartbeat, Elias collapsed. Smoke poured from the wound.
But then…
He smiled.
"You're too late. It's already here."
The Sky Cracks
Above, a rift tore open in the sky.
Something massive stirred within something ancient and watching.
And from the depths of the Hollow Star, a voice echoed not in words, but in command.
The Dominion Key trembled in Leon's hand.
So did his soul.
---
The Voice That Commands the Void
The sky split open like glass under strain.
Above the shattered deck of the Aetherion, a spiraling tear hung in the air, its edges rimmed with shimmering, impossible geometry angles that bent perception, colors that did not belong in this world. And from within, a shadow deeper than night itself coiled through the breach.
Leon fell to one knee, the Dominion Key pulsing in his hand, not with power but fear.
He had felt gods move.
He had stood against Titans.
But this?
This voice this presence didn't speak in language. It commanded reality. Even the laws of cause and effect seemed to hesitate.
The rift widened.
Within it, eyes opened thousands of them. Some were shaped like stars, others like mirrors that reflected Leon's face twisted into something monstrous. They stared not at the world, but into the concept of it.
Elias rose from the wreckage, his form barely recognizable. He was laughing now gurgling, wheezing, a sound like jagged stone scraping metal. The shard in his chest was burning him from the inside out, but he didn't care.
"Do you see it now?" he screamed over the howling wind. "The Dominion Keys were never weapons! They were warnings!"
Leon gritted his teeth. His vision blurred from the raw energy of the rift. Around him, the ship's metal began to melt. Gravity distorted. Time hiccupped, reversing for split seconds before lurching forward again.
But he didn't run.
He stood.
And whispered, "Protocol Two: Sealbind."
The Dominion Key roared.
Across the Continent
Far beyond the chaos, in the throne chamber of the Empire of Ash, High Regent Malvek rose from his obsidian seat. His eyes turned white.
He too had felt the shift. The veil between the realms was thinning prematurely. And worse…
The Hollow Star was bleeding through.
He snapped his fingers. Three messengers appeared, kneeling instantly.
"Summon the Heralds," he said coldly. "And wake the Bound Wyrms. The last cycle was a lie."
Back on the Aetherion
"Leon!" Seraphine's voice cut through the maelstrom. She and Kael had forced their way to the lower deck, their bodies glowing with overdrawn power. "If you keep channeling that much through the Key!"
"I know!" he shouted back. "But if I don't close it, everything falls!"
The rift rippled as if aware of his intent.
From it, a tendril of void lashed out, wrapping around Elias and yanking him skyward like a puppet on invisible threads. His body convulsed, his mouth open in an endless scream. And through him, the Hollow Star began to speak.
Words with no meaning. Words with all meaning.
Every living thing on the ship clutched their heads. Blood dripped from eyes, ears, mouths. Even the wind howled in agony.
Leon clenched the Dominion Key with both hands.
"I said" he roared, invoking every shard he had bound.
"SEAL."
A blinding surge of force exploded from the Key. It raced toward the rift, sweeping past Elias, piercing the open mouth of the Hollow Star's voice.
And for a second…
The world held its breath.
Then
Silence.
The rift slammed shut.
Elias dropped like a stone, body limp.
Leon collapsed, barely conscious. The Dominion Key fell from his grip, inert and cracked.
But the damage was done.
The Hollow Star had seen.
And it would remember.