The collapse of the Empire of Shadows had left them standing in a space that defied description not void, not chaos, but something between. Where thrones had once risen and fallen in eternal succession, now there was only raw potential waiting to be shaped by conscious will. The death of the Abyss had removed the foundation upon which cosmic order had been built, leaving Selena and Dante suspended in a moment of unprecedented possibility.
And in that moment of infinite choice, the throne that only Selena could see began to change.
It had been calling to her since it first manifested, offering sovereignty and perfect alignment with her essential nature. But now, freed from the Abyss's constrained possibility, the throne transformed into something different. The living bone of its construction remained, but it no longer pulsed with the rhythm of cosmic machinery. The black flames that crowned it still burned, but their fire no longer spoke of predetermined purpose.
