Epilogue – Whispers of the Void
Night had fallen upon a silent world.
The wind carried the scent of ashes, and yet… peace lingered in the air.
Amid the quiet ruins, Ryo stood beneath the vast, starlit sky.
His eyes, once clouded by doubt, now held a calm flame — one born from a hundred years of solitude within the Void.
He was no longer afraid.
Not of his power.
Not of himself.
> "Fear is only a veil over the truth."
– Gabriel
Behind him, the remnants of the battlefield still smoldered, but the village endured.
The screams, the doubts, the accusations — all of it faded into the night wind.
Ryo knew that the words of men no longer mattered. What mattered was the vow he had made to himself.
> "I no longer seek redemption… only understanding."
He placed his hand on the ground, feeling the faint pulse of life beneath the earth.
The void inside him still whispered — cold, patient.
But this time, he did not resist it.
He listened.
Gabriel's voice, calm and deep, echoed one last time within him:
> "You have walked between light and shadow…
But remember, Ryo — the true enemy does not come from the Void.
It is born within the hearts of men."
A breeze passed through the ruins, gentle and final.
Then silence reclaimed the world.
Balance had returned… for now.
Yet somewhere, beyond the horizon, powers long forgotten were beginning to stir.
And the stars — the silent witnesses of fate — began to tremble.
> Thus ends Volume I of "The Eternal Echoes of the Void."
But this… is only the beginning.