The void hummed as if it hadn't yet decided whether to swallow or spare them.
Silas moved first, stepping lightly across the fragments of broken roadway that hung suspended in the Cataclysm's endless wound. His shards floated wide now, scanning, whispering back faint pulses of warning. Behind him, Kaelen followed, slower, her wounded arm bound in strips of cloth torn from her cloak.
Every step made the silence feel heavier. The horizon above shifted, colors bleeding like oil over water, twisting into a kaleidoscope of shapes that weren't meant for human eyes. Kaelen flinched when a tower in the distance folded in on itself, collapsing into an endless spiral of light before vanishing completely.
She broke the silence first. "They knew your name."
Silas didn't turn. "They've always known."
"Then… why now? Why attack with so many?"
His shards tightened, faint light flickering off their edges. "Because I've grown. The closer I get to breaking their chains, the more desperate they'll become."
Kaelen's grip on her blade tightened. She didn't answer, but her eyes lingered on him as though searching for something human beneath the calm, merciless tone.
The path ahead narrowed into a bridge of fractured steel beams. Below, the void pulsed in slow breaths, a sea of broken light and distorted whispers. They crossed in silence until Kaelen stopped abruptly, her gaze distant.
"Silas… do you hear that?"
He paused. His shards angled upward, listening. For a moment, there was only the crackle of the Cataclysm. Then—voices. Countless voices, overlapping, muttering, begging, laughing, weeping. Not the echoes of the dead, but clearer, sharper, almost alive.
Silas' jaw tightened. "They've set another snare."
The air above them split, glitch-lines tearing across the false sky. From those cracks descended Conclave drones—smaller than the soldiers they'd faced, but more numerous. Spheres of black metal etched with glowing runes, their surfaces rippling with static.
Dozens. No—hundreds.
Kaelen swore under her breath, her blade ringing free. "We can't fight that many."
Silas' shards spun into a cyclone around him, their hum deepening until the void itself seemed to vibrate. His eyes glowed faintly with hybrid resonance.
"We don't run."
The drones dropped like a storm.
Shards lanced upward, carving spirals of destruction through the swarm. Dozens shattered instantly, bursting into static fragments, but more closed in. Their beams cut across the bridge, searing steel and stone. Kaelen darted between blasts, parrying strikes when she could, narrowly dodging when she couldn't.
One beam grazed her shoulder, scorching through cloth and flesh. She cried out, stumbling. A drone closed in for the kill.
Silas moved before thought. His shards curved sharply, intercepting in a lethal arc. The drone exploded inches from Kaelen, the shockwave pushing her back. Silas didn't look at her, but his voice was cold and commanding.
"Stay on your feet."
She swallowed the pain and nodded, raising her blade again.
The bridge groaned beneath them as more beams tore through its supports. The swarm pressed closer, the air a blur of light and steel. Silas stood in the center of the storm, his shards whirling faster and faster until they blurred into a radiant sphere. His veins burned, hybrid power surging, the Cataclysm itself bending under the resonance.
Then he released it.
The sphere burst outward in a shockwave of shards, a thousand blades moving as one. The drones shredded in a chorus of static, the bridge cracking under the force. Kaelen shielded her eyes against the storm of light and debris.
When the glow faded, silence returned. The drones were gone—erased, not even fragments remaining. The bridge was half-destroyed, crumbling beneath their feet.
Kaelen staggered, looking at him with wide eyes. His shards hovered calm again, but his body trembled faintly, hybrid resonance still pulsing.
"You…" she whispered. "That wasn't human."
Silas turned his gaze to her, expression unreadable. "It never was."
The bridge gave a final groan, then collapsed. Silas seized Kaelen's arm and leapt, shards forming a spiral of platforms beneath their feet, guiding their fall toward a lower fragment of roadway. They landed hard, stone cracking beneath the impact.
Kaelen fell to her knees, gasping. Silas stood unmoving, shards still orbiting, his gaze fixed on the horizon where the void pulsed brighter than before.
"They won't stop," he said softly, almost to himself. "Not until I erase them. Or until they erase me."
Kaelen looked up at him, her voice steady despite her exhaustion. "Then we make sure it's the first."
For the first time since the ambush began, Silas allowed himself the smallest flicker of something like a smile. Not warmth—never warmth—but the acknowledgment of a spark.
The void shifted again, the horizon trembling with unstable light. Somewhere beyond the fractured skyline, the Conclave was already watching, already preparing the next net.
Silas raised his hand. His shards aligned like stars in a constellation, humming softly.
"Then let them come."
And together, they walked deeper into the Cataclysm's broken path.