A stifling silence pervaded the Void Citadel.
No wind. No sound. No movement.
Only the constantly throbbing hum of the Void Core at the center of the fortress had the temerity to remind the world that something ancient something unimaginable was stirring.
Jairaj stood in the center of the Void Convergence Chamber, his body surrounded by an otherworldly radiance. The enormous obsidian rings that surrounded him moved in slow rotation, their magical voidrunes throbbing with an otherworldly energy. The hovering runes distorted in unnatural ways, violating even the magic and logic that governed them.
At his side was Vensera, her violet eyes burning. Once a mere gatekeeper, she had grown nay, transformed a Voidbound Seer in her own right, her body integrated with the forgotten knowledge of all the worlds. Her voice was different. It was filled with a thousand all speaking from beyond knowledge in the void.
The three are stirring," Vensera told him, her voice like resonating crystal in a cave of darkness. "They know the King has come back.Jairaj's eyes narrowed. "The Three Void
Titans?
Vensera nodded. "Born of chaos. Fed by fear. Felled by the First Crownless King your predecessor. But they were never truly destroyed… merely bound."
Jairaj tightened his fist. He could sense it now like a vibration in his own bones. A shudder echoing through the fibers of existence.
"They wish to consume the throne," she continued. "To become the Void within."
The runes abruptly broke.
A surge of energy burst from the Convergence Chamber and ripped a roiling, darkened tear in space. Jairaj moved forward unhesitating. His shadow cloak billowed, formless in the maelstrom of gravity.
Out of the schism came three visions not well developed, but sufficient to shake the Void.
K'Tharion, Devourer of Minds - A mass of twisting tentacles and drifting eyes, its shape fluid, reforming itself every instant it was glimpsed. Reality twisted under its gaze. Thought was its instrument. Madness is its kingdom.
Vaelra, Womb of Endless Dread A humanoid, hollow form with an abyssal chest, from which screams whispered countless. Her very step gave birth to fear made flesh. Even memories distorted when she drew near.
Mor'khal, the Inverting Beast A giant constructed of inverted geometry, his form a perpetually turning maze. Gravity was folded in his presence. His roars shook events past and present through the fabric of time.
They weren't here yet… but their shadows were.
Their very essence had started seeping into the world.
In the Void Library, Asher the Hollow Scribe rummaged through old dusty tomes with his out-stretched skeletal fingers.
My lord is coming more swiftly than prophecy," he breathed. "The Titans stir early…
He was holding a scroll of black bone wax in his hand.
The Seal of Erasure. To be employed only if the Void Titans had escaped.
But Jairaj… Jairaj didn't want to seal them once more.
He intended to conquer them.
Somewhere in the Ashen Realms, out of mortal grasp…
A hooded person knelt before a smoldering ring of sigils.
A voice spoke through the fire: "He has returned. The Void bends again."
The man rose. His eyes were bleeding darkness.
"Thus the Crownless again defies the Three. Let him. I have waited too long for anarchy to reassert itself."
At the same time, in the Throne Hall of the Citadel, Jairaj sat upon the shard throne suspended in the air not yet realized, a throne yet to be in existence until the three Titans were defeated.
Vensera is by his side. "Do you know the price of what is to come?"
I do, he said.
"To absorb their essence is to flirt with oblivion. One wrong thought, one fracture in your will, and you become one of them."
"I am already fractured," Jairaj replied, gazing into the endless vortex beyond the glass walls. "But I'm not broken."
His hands opened.
A voidlight sword coalesced -- crackling with unstable power. The Eidolon Fang, crafted from the shards of the First Crownless King's remorse.
Vensera bowed. "Then the Rise has begun."
In the Plane of Inverted Stars, where time had gone backward…
K'Tharion focused its numerous eyes upon a fresh ripple. It communicated within mind, not within voice.
He comes to us. Not to destroy. Not to seal. But to claim.
Another voice responded, hollow and feminine:
Then let him try. I hunger for a new king to shatter.
The Beast howled. Galaxies dimmed.
Meanwhile, in the Citadel, Jairaj was standing at the balcony.
Three Titans," he gasped.
"Three Trials."
Vensera agreed.
"And three Crowns to earn," she said.
"Only then will the Void truly kneel."
A slow smile lined Jairaj's lips cold and silent.
"I won't merely dominate the Void… He dropped his voice, sounding more commanding.
"I will become its final shape."