The abyss screamed.
The Silent Maw descended, jaws stretching wide enough to eclipse worlds, each tooth hungering for finality. Shadows fractured under its weight, and the faceless figure's command still tore through Rick's soul—
"Kneel."
His body bent, chains convulsing, blood spilling from his mouth in rivers of crimson light. Every beat of the colossal Heart shook him apart. His will splintered. His vision drowned in white fire.
And then—
Silence.
The Maw froze mid-collapse. The faceless figure's form flickered, static devouring its edges. The titanic shadows around the Heart recoiled as though struck by something unseen.
A new presence had entered.
Not loud.
Not violent.
But absolute.
From the endless dark, a man walked forward. No chains bound him. No Maw could touch him. The abyss itself seemed to bend around his steps, the void rippling as if unwilling to defy his passage.
His form was simple—no armor, no crown, no monstrous limbs. Just the outline of a man draped in a long robe, his hands clasped calmly behind his back. His hair shimmered faintly silver under the fractured light, and his eyes… his eyes were steady, unmoving, as if they had already seen the end of all things and found it unworthy.
Rick's breath caught.
Even the faceless figure—the one who had called him Vessel—wavered. Its faceless head tilted, like a predator sensing something greater than itself.
The newcomer did not raise his voice. He simply spoke, low yet resonant, the sound carrying through every vein of the abyss.
"Enough."
The Maw stopped struggling. The shadows trembled. Even the Heart skipped a single beat, as though startled.
Rick collapsed forward onto his knees—not from surrender, but from release. For the first time, the chains slackened. The unbearable pressure cracked open, leaving only pain and breath.
The man's calm gaze fell upon Rick, then shifted toward the faceless figure.
"I will not allow this vessel to be claimed."
The void itself seemed to hesitate at his words.
The faceless figure seethed, its voice layering into a storm of hatred.
"You… interfere?"
The newcomer did not flinch.
"I do not interfere. I correct."
He turned once more to Rick, his tone softening, almost human.
"My name is Babasaheb. And I have come because your struggle is not yours alone. The Devil you fear… is not beyond saving. But the thing that rides him must be cast out."
Rick's chest flared with light, his chains spasming at the name. Piu's voice still echoed faintly in the distance, desperate, alive. Sun's memory burned at the edges of his mind.
Babasaheb extended one hand, palm open—not demanding, not forcing. Simply offering.
"Stand, Rick. Do not kneel to the void. Stand with me. With us. For if the Devil falls, it will not only be his soul that is lost."
The faceless figure shrieked, its voice splitting into a thousand broken screams. The Maw writhed, jaws grinding against silence itself. The abyss twisted violently, as if trying to crush this new presence.
But Babasaheb did not move. He stood still, robes swaying gently in the void-winds, unshaken.
His presence alone was defiance.
The Heart thundered once more, but now it was not only hunger. It was something else. Something shifting. Something stirring.
Rick's body convulsed, torn between collapse and awakening. His mind echoed with the words he had just heard:
Not yours alone.
---
The Cliffhanger (≈750–800 words)
The Maw roared again, louder than before, its descent shaking the abyss as if worlds were crumbling into dust. Its jagged teeth split reality itself, slicing rivers of shadow into fragments. Every snap was annihilation made manifest.
Yet Babasaheb stood unmoving.
Rick clutched at his chest, blood and light spilling in equal measure, torn between surrender and the spark still burning inside him. He raised his gaze toward the calm figure, voice cracking.
"Why… me? Why can't it just… end?"
Babasaheb's eyes met his, still and steady. "Because endings are illusions. And because even here—" he lifted a finger, pointing not at Rick's wound, not at the Maw, but at the faint shimmer in the dark where a girl's voice had once cried his name— "you are still heard."
"Piu…" Rick whispered. His vision blurred, not from pain this time, but from memory.
The faceless figure screeched, the sound ripping into Rick's skull.
"Do not listen! You are bound! You are chosen!"
The chains flared crimson, wrapping tighter, trying to tear him back into submission. But for the first time, Rick felt something resist from within—not strength, not willpower, but presence. His own.
Babasaheb spoke again, not to Rick this time, but to the void itself.
"This corruption cannot anchor where truth stands."
He stepped forward. Just one step.
The abyss convulsed. Shadows shattered like glass underfoot. The Maw recoiled as if burned. The faceless figure stumbled, its form splitting into dozens of flickering images before stitching itself back together.
"You…" it hissed, voice fractured with fury. "You are not supposed to be here."
"I am always where I am needed," Babasaheb replied.
His voice was not thunder. It was not fire. It was simply certain, and that certainty cut deeper than any blade.
Rick tried to rise. His arms shook violently, but one chain snapped loose. The sound was small, almost lost in the chaos, but it echoed like a bell.
The Maw's rage deepened, its cavernous throat glowing with collapsing stars. It lunged, jaws descending toward both Rick and Babasaheb, reality bending under its hunger.
This time, Babasaheb raised his hand. Slowly. Calmly.
He did not summon fire. He did not summon lightning. He simply opened his palm to the void.
And the Maw stopped.
Its colossal jaws froze inches away, teeth trembling, unable to close. The titanic beast roared, but the sound was strangled, muffled, as if the abyss itself was holding its breath.
Rick's eyes widened. He could not comprehend what he was seeing. But in that stillness, hope flickered.
The faceless figure shrieked, desperate now.
"Impossible! The Maw is eternal! It devours everything!"
Babasaheb's eyes narrowed. "Then let it try."
The Maw writhed, chains rattled, the Heart thundered in agony—but the calm man did not falter.
Rick's body shook violently. His wound blazed with uncontrollable light, threatening to tear him apart from the inside. He screamed, his voice a mixture of pain and defiance.
"Why me?! Why can't it take me instead?!"
Babasaheb's gaze fell on him once more, softer now.
"Because even in despair, you ask for others before yourself. That is why you are not its vessel. That is why you can stand."
Another chain shattered. The sound rang like a sword drawn from its sheath.
The abyss quaked. The Maw howled, retreating slightly, its endless hunger faltering.
But the faceless figure did not relent. Its form split and multiplied, dozens of silhouettes encircling them, each whispering the same word over and over—
"Kneel. Kneel. Kneel."
Rick clutched his head, agony surging. The whispers were endless, filling his mind with suffocating commands. His knees buckled. His breath faltered.
Babasaheb closed his eyes. For a moment, even he seemed still, almost human. Then he spoke—
"Then I will stand for him."
Light erupted.
Not from Rick's wound. Not from the Heart. But from Babasaheb himself. A sphere of radiance blossomed outward, swallowing the whispers, burning through the faceless shadows. The Maw shrieked, recoiling, jaws snapping shut not in triumph, but in fear.
Rick collapsed onto his hands, gasping, the chains around him flickering wildly.
For the first time, the abyss trembled not as predator—
—but as prey.
The faceless figure staggered, its form glitching into nothing, then reappearing with a roar of pure hatred. "This is not over! He is mine!"
Babasaheb opened his eyes again, calm and unshaken.
"No. He is his own."
The abyss convulsed violently. The Maw surged again, the figure multiplied into hundreds, the Heart throbbed with destructive force. Rick's wound exploded in light, tearing at his flesh.
And Babasaheb simply whispered, voice calm, unbroken—
"Then let the war begin."
The abyss collapsed into chaos.
---
To be continued…