The Warden fell with a sound that shook the island. Its enormous body crashed through the petrified trees, carving a trench in the ground. Smoke rose from the creature's split chest, the glowing runes dimming, its last roar fading into the mist.
Rayon stood over it, breath steady, blood dripping from his fists. His coat was shredded and soaked, the air around him trembling faintly with the hum of residual strings.
"Dead," he muttered, almost disappointed.
Erethon's voice echoed from within, lazy and amused. "You make it sound like you wanted more."
Rayon smirked. "Maybe I did."
He turned as the ground beneath the Warden began to crack. Lines of silver light pulsed from its corpse, tracing strange, ancient symbols into the dirt. The symbols spread outward, forming a spiral—a seal that had just lost its guardian.
"Oh," Erethon murmured, tone sharpening. "Now that's interesting. You just broke something you probably shouldn't have."
The earth trembled.
The spiral split open, revealing a yawning chasm beneath the island. From its depths came the sound of chains grinding against stone. Cold, heavy, metallic.
Rayon peered down. "What the hell…"
He jumped.
The descent was endless—black walls slick with moisture, faint lights glimmering like dying stars. He landed at the bottom, his boots sinking into ash. The air here was thick—dense enough to taste. It reeked of something old, something that didn't belong in the world above.
And then he heard it.
A slow, deliberate breath.
Chains clinked in rhythm with the sound, each movement echoing with impossible weight. And when Rayon's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw it.
A serpent.
Massive and coiled around a stone pillar, its scales the color of obsidian, glistening faintly as if swallowing light itself. Four enormous wings stretched from its back, tattered and bound by ethereal seals. Its eyes—if you could call them that—were pits of swirling gold, burning with intellect and hunger.
Rayon's strings flared unconsciously, reacting to the pressure of its existence.
"Well," Rayon muttered. "You don't see that every day."
A voice slipped into his mind—smooth, deep, ancient. It didn't echo in the air but inside his skull.
"Another trespasser."
The serpent's mouth didn't move, but its words crawled through his thoughts like smoke.
"How long… has it been since I've tasted a living mind?"
Rayon frowned, holding his ground. "You talk a lot for something chained up."
The serpent's laughter was low and terrible. "Brave words… from something so fragile."
Rayon's vision flickered. For a moment, the world twisted—the air warped, the ground bled black. The serpent wasn't just speaking; it was pushing, reaching into his mind, trying to pull the strings of his will.
Erethon's voice snapped sharp inside him. "Don't move. It's probing you."
Rayon clenched his jaw. "Yeah, I can feel that."
Then another voice joined the struggle—Erethon's, but darker now, like the sound of an ancient gate creaking open.
"You picked the wrong host to play with, snake."
The air shattered.
In an instant, Erethon's presence erupted, black threads of his essence slashing through the mental haze like blades. The serpent recoiled, hissing, its mental grip snapping like glass.
"What—what are you?" the beast snarled, genuine shock trembling in its voice.
Erethon's laughter rolled through the void of Rayon's mind, cold and echoing. "Something older than you. Something you were probably made to fear."
Rayon blinked as his vision cleared. The serpent trembled faintly in its chains, its arrogance cracked. For the first time, its golden eyes regarded him not as prey—but as a vessel of something it didn't understand.
"Now," Rayon said quietly, stepping closer, "let's talk properly."
The serpent's wings twitched, and a ripple of energy surged through the chamber, pressing at him from every direction. Its voice softened, almost reverent.
"You carry it within you… the Hollow. The absence that devours the weave. Tell me, boy… has the world above forgotten me?"
Rayon looked up at the ancient creature, smirking faintly. "If they remembered you, they'd have destroyed you."
The serpent's lips curled into a chilling semblance of a smile. "Then perhaps… you and I are not so different."
Erethon hummed in his head. "Careful, Rayon. That thing's dangerous. More dangerous than Nexus ever was."
Rayon cracked his neck, eyes glinting in the dim light. "Ho?. I was starting to get bored again."