The breaking of Dante's chains had consequences that rippled outward through the deep Empire in ways neither of them had anticipated. The chains had not simply been marks placed upon him they had been connections, threads woven through the cosmic machinery that maintained the careful balance between order and chaos, between elevation and constraint. When Selena burned through those integration points and Dante tore the chains free, they had severed something far more significant than personal destiny.
They had damaged the Abyss itself.
The first sign came as a sound not the usual grinding of cosmic machinery or the whisper of the Song of the Fallen, but something far more primal and heartbreaking. It was weeping, vast and inconsolable, emerging from the foundations of the deep Empire as if the structure itself was mourning. The sound carried frequencies that existed below hearing, vibrations that registered in the bones and soul rather than the ears.
