The hum of Razor's Edge's engines was a small comfort as Kael Varn piloted through the void, the dying light of Korrath's system fading behind them. His ring glowed faintly, its green aura flickering like a candle in a storm. The temple's collapse, the anchor's destruction, Sala's split-second betrayal none of it sat right. He'd fought, bled, and somehow come out alive, but the Voidveil's whisper lingered in his head: You're not enough. You never will be.
Lirra Syn and Toren Kade flew alongside, their green trails steady but tense. Sala Vereth was with them, her golden form a silent enigma. Kael kept her in his peripheral, his gut screaming that she was trouble. That flash of red-black in her eyes hadn't been his imagination his ring had felt it, a pulse of wrongness that matched the Voidveil's hunger. But Lirra hadn't said anything, and Toren's calm was unshaken. Was Kael paranoid, or was he the only one seeing it?
He keyed the comms, keeping his voice light. "So, we smashed another creepy crystal. Drinks on me when we get back to Oa, right?"
Lirra's response was clipped, her mandibles' faint click audible even through the link. "Focus, Kael. We're not safe yet."
Toren's crystals chimed, a note of caution. "The anchor's destruction weakened the Voidveil, but its presence lingers. I feel it."
Sala's voice followed, smooth and measured. "Korrath was a step, not a solution. The Voidveil adapts. We must be ready."
Kael's grip tightened on the controls, his ring humming with unease. "Ready for what, Sala? You got any more secrets to share?"
A pause, heavy with unspoken tension. Lirra cut in before Sala could reply. "Enough, Kael. We're a team. Act like it."
He bit back a retort, but his eyes stayed on Sala's trail. Team or not, he wasn't buying her act. Not after Korrath.
The nav pinged, signaling their approach to Oa. Kael braced for the jump, but his ring flared, a vision flashing Oa's spires cracked, the Battery dark, Lanterns falling under a red-black tide. He gasped, shaking it off, but the image clung like oil. "Lirra," he said, his voice low. "Something's wrong."
Her telepathy brushed his mind, a fleeting touch that caught the vision's echo. "I feel it too," she said, her tone grim. "Prepare for anything."
They dropped out of hyperspace, and Oa loomed ahead not the shining beacon Kael had first seen, but a battlefield. The Central Power Battery's light was dim, its green glow choked by red-black veins that pulsed like a virus. Lanterns fought in orbit, their constructs clashing with Voidveil entities tendrils, colossi, and new forms, amorphous and sharp, that seemed to learn with every strike. The Citadel's defenses fired, green beams cutting through the dark, but the Voidveil pressed harder, as if Oa itself was its prize.
"Hell," Kael muttered, his ring blazing as he dove Razor's Edge into the chaos. "They didn't wait for us to RSVP."
Lirra's voice was steel. "Kael, protect the Citadel's perimeter. Toren, reinforce the Battery's guard. Sala, with me we're cutting to the core."
Sala nodded, her golden light flaring, but Kael's ring hummed, a warning he couldn't ignore. "Lirra, watch her," he said, too quiet for Sala to hear.
Lirra's telepathy touched him again, sharp with frustration but laced with trust. "I am. Stay alive, Kael."
He grinned, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Always do."
Lirra Syn led Sala through the fray, her constructs a swarm of blades slicing through Voidveil tendrils with surgical precision. Her telepathy scanned the battlefield, catching flashes of fear, resolve, and pain from her fellow Lanterns. The Voidveil was different now smarter, more coordinated, as if the anchor's destruction had woken something bigger. Her mandibles clicked, a reflex she couldn't suppress. Korrath had been a victory, but it felt like a trap, and Sala's silence wasn't helping.
"Sala," Lirra said, her voice low as they neared the Battery's chamber. "What did you see in the temple? You froze."
Sala's golden eyes met hers, unreadable. "The Voidveil's truth. It shows us what we hide. You felt it too Kryon, your squad, your guilt."
Lirra's claws tightened, her telepathy recoiling from Sala's bluntness. "That's not your business."
"It's all our business," Sala said, her ring flaring as she blocked a tendril aimed at Lirra's back. "The Voidveil uses our cracks. If we don't face them, we fall."
Lirra didn't answer, her mind racing. Sala was right Kryon haunted her, a wound the Voidveil could exploit but trust was fraying, and Sala's cryptic words only deepened her doubt. She pushed forward, her constructs clearing a path to the Battery, but the red-black veins were thicker now, pulsing with a rhythm that matched her heartbeat.
Inside the chamber, the Battery loomed, its light flickering like a dying star. Lanterns guarded it, their rings straining to contain the corruption, but the air was heavy with despair. Lirra's telepathy caught a whisper not from the Battery, but from deeper, a voice that wasn't human, wasn't Lantern. We see you. We know you.
Sala raised her ring, scanning the veins. "The anchor's destruction disrupted the Voidveil's network, but it's rerouting. Something's amplifying it here, on Oa."
Lirra's mandibles stilled. "Another traitor?"
Sala's silence was answer enough.
Kael fought on the Citadel's perimeter, his ring's constructs sharper now shields that held, spears that struck true. He wasn't a rookie anymore, not after Korrath, but the Voidveil's entities were relentless, their forms shifting to counter every move. His ring fed him instincts dodge here, strike there but the psychic weight was worse, dragging up doubts he thought he'd buried: You're a fraud. You'll fail them.
"Screw you," he growled, firing a green net that trapped a colossus long enough for another Lantern to finish it. His ring blazed, fueled by the same stubborn spark that had kept him flying through guild traps and pirate ambushes. He wasn't a hero, but he wasn't quitting either.
Toren's voice crackled through the comms. "Kael, the Battery's guard is faltering. We need you."
"On my way," Kael said, banking Razor's Edge toward the Citadel. He dodged a tendril, his ring forming a blade that sliced it apart, but a new entity emerged a humanoid shape, its eyes glowing red-black, its ring corrupted. Another Lantern, turned like Voryn.
"Damn it," Kael muttered, raising a shield as the corrupted Lantern attacked, their constructs jagged and wrong. He countered, his ring straining, but the enemy's power was overwhelming, fed by the Voidveil's hunger.
Then Toren was there, his crystalline beams shattering the corrupted Lantern's armor. "Together," Toren said, his voice calm but urgent.
Kael nodded, their rings uniting a green fist and a crystal lance that drove the enemy back. The corrupted Lantern fell, their ring sparking, but Kael's relief was short-lived. The Battery's light dimmed further, a pulse that shook the Citadel.
"Lirra," Kael said through the comms, his voice tight. "Whatever you're doing, do it fast."
In the Battery's chamber, Lirra and Sala faced a new horror. The red-black veins had coalesced, forming a rift above the Battery a smaller version of Korrath's, but growing. Tendrils lashed out, and Lirra's constructs barely held them back. Her telepathy probed the rift, catching a voice ancient, cold, amused. You cannot stop what you created.
Sala's ring flared, her constructs weaving a barrier around the rift, but her eyes flickered again, red-black for a heartbeat. Lirra saw it, her telepathy confirming the truth: Sala wasn't corrupted not fully but the Voidveil had touched her, planted a seed.
"Sala," Lirra said, her voice low, her ring ready. "Step back. Now."
Sala's golden face was unreadable, but she obeyed, her barrier holding. "You don't trust me," she said, not a question.
"I don't trust this," Lirra said, nodding at the rift. "What's in you?"
Sala's eyes softened, a rare vulnerability. "The Voidveil sees everything, Lirra. It saw me on Korrath, years ago. I resisted, but it never leaves. You know that."
Lirra's mandibles clicked, her telepathy probing deeper. Sala's mind was a fortress, but cracks showed guilt, fear, a moment of weakness long buried. The Voidveil hadn't broken her, but it was trying.
Before Lirra could respond, the rift pulsed, and a figure emerged not a Lantern, but a construct of shadow, its form shifting between faces: Voryn, the First Lanterns, even Lirra's lost squad. It spoke, its voice a chorus of despair. "You built us. You feed us. Surrender, and we spare you."
Lirra's ring blazed, her constructs slashing at the figure, but it reformed, laughing. Sala joined her, their rings united, but the rift grew, tendrils reaching for the Battery's core.
Kael and Toren burst into the chamber, their rings glowing. Kael's eyes locked on Sala, his ring humming with suspicion, but he focused on the figure, firing a massive green hammer that staggered it. "Nice party," he said, panting. "Mind if we crash?"
Lirra's telepathy linked them, a silent command: Together. They struck as one Lirra's blades, Toren's beams, Kael's force, Sala's precision. The figure screamed, its form unraveling, but the rift held, its voice echoing: You cannot kill what you are.
Sala's ring flickered again, and she faltered, her barrier weakening. Kael saw it, his ring flaring as he grabbed her arm. "Stay with us, Sala. Don't let it win."
Her eyes cleared, and she nodded, her constructs snapping back. But the rift pulsed, and a new vision hit them Oa's fall, the Battery dark, the Voidveil spreading to every sector. Lirra's telepathy caught the truth: the rift wasn't just a gate. It was a signal, calling something bigger.
"We can't close it," Lirra said, her voice raw. "Not here."
Toren's crystals glowed fiercely. "Then we destroy the source."
Kael's ring hummed, a vision guiding him a planet, hidden in shadow, where the Voidveil's heart pulsed. "I know where," he said, his voice steady despite the chaos. "The ring's showing me."
Lirra met his eyes, trust outweighing doubt. "Lead on."
They fought their way out, the rift's tendrils pursuing, Sala's ring steady but her face haunted. As Razor's Edge lifted off, Oa's light flickered, a heartbeat on the edge of stopping. Kael set the coordinates, his ring guiding him to a place no Lantern had seen a world where the Voidveil waited, not as a shadow, but as a truth.
Lirra's voice came through the comms, quiet but firm. "Whatever's out there, Kael, we face it together."
He grinned, his ring blazing. "Wouldn't have it any other way."
But as they jumped to hyperspace, Sala's eyes lingered on the stars, a red-black flicker buried deep, and the Voidveil's whisper followed: You are ours.