Chapter 14
The shadows around Draziel writhed like serpents, tendrils coiling in the air, dragging heat from the world. The trees near him *withered* in seconds. The ground cracked under his feet.
Ashreth flinched. "You fool. You're tearing the veil—"
*CRACK.*
A fissure split the sky above them. Just a hairline at first, but from it poured a *howl* — a deep, hollow moan like the voice of a thousand lost souls. The stars overhead flickered.
Sylas took a step back, eyes wide. "That's not just Void magic."
"No," Ryann said quietly. "It's something else."
Ashreth lunged again, but this time his movement distorted mid-air. He *froze* mid-lunge — stuck in place as if time itself had paused.
Draziel looked up slowly, a second set of glowing eyes flickering behind his own — like an echo of something *older* watching through him.
"Leave," he said, but his voice was layered, deeper. "Or be unmade."
One of the remaining Veilcasters screamed and tried to teleport — only to vanish mid-spell, erased from the world as if he never existed.
Ashreth growled. "*Break the connection!*" He stabbed a dagger into his own arm, and the illusion snapped — he reappeared, stumbling free of the time-lock.
But it was too late.
The rift above expanded.
Shadows poured downward like liquid smoke, dripping in slow, unnatural motion. One shadow brushed a tree — and the tree *crumbled to ash.*
Draziel staggered.
The tendrils pulling from his back flickered violently, no longer under his control.
"I can't…" he gasped. "It's too much…"
Ryann rushed forward, ignoring the pull of the shadows. "Then *let it go!* Push it back!"
"I don't know how!"
The wind howled.
Reality fractured.
Until—
*A sharp, searing light cut through the darkness.*
Ryann held out both hands, summoning a sigil of pure Essence — one shaped like a flame. It clashed with the Void and stabilized it slightly, allowing Draziel to *breathe.*
Sylas threw his dagger, pinning a Veilcaster attempting to complete a ritual circle. "We're out of time!"
Draziel fell to one knee, voice hoarse. "I need… anchor me."
Ryann dropped beside him. "Focus on your name. *Who you are.* You're not just Void."
He closed his eyes.
In the darkness behind his thoughts, he saw *them*—the laughter of Darin, the cold betrayal of Mira, the way his own blood stained the stone floor—
No.
He wasn't that broken man anymore.
*He was Draziel Vale.*
A deep breath.
The Void retracted, resisting, fighting… then collapsed inward like a dying storm. The sky sealed. The rift faded.
Ashreth vanished into the smoke, retreating.
Silence.
Then—
"Is it over?" Sylas asked.
"For now," Ryann murmured.
Draziel stood slowly, still shaken, but his voice was steady. "No. It's only begun."
---
The scorched clearing lay silent, save for the crackle of smoldering wood and the soft rasp of Draziel's breath. His cloak fluttered weakly as the last remnants of the Void curled inward and dissolved into the ether.
Ryann steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. "You pulled it back."
"No," he said softly. "It pulled *me*… I just stopped fighting."
She didn't respond. Not yet. There was fear in her eyes — not of *him*, but of what he might become.
Sylas crouched beside a charred sigil the Veilcasters had tried to inscribe. He scraped some ash aside and frowned. "They weren't here just to kill you. They were trying to *bind* you."
"To what?" Draziel asked.
"To *it*," Sylas muttered. "The thing that tried to come through."
They all fell silent.
Above, the night sky was whole again… but wrong. One of the stars was *missing.*
---
*Elsewhere…*
Beyond the Veil, where shadow bled into reality, a figure stepped out from a circle of blackened stone. He wore no armor, no weapons. Just a hood and a pale ring around each iris that glowed faintly.
He had watched everything — from the moment the rift opened to the second Draziel forced it closed.
"He survived," the figure whispered, lips curling into a smile. "And he's unlocked the Gate."
Behind him, robed silhouettes knelt one by one.
"Shall we retrieve him?" one asked.
"No. Let him wander a little longer," the man replied. "A weapon unaware of its full potential is far more dangerous."
He turned and vanished into shadow.
---
*Back in the forest…*
Draziel, Ryann, and Sylas sat around the low campfire. No words. No food. Just tension and flickering flames.
"I'm sorry," Draziel said finally. "If I'd lost control…"
"But you didn't," Ryann interrupted. "You *chose* to fight it back. That matters."
Sylas leaned back. "I've seen Void magic before. Yours isn't pure Void. There's something else in there—something older."
Draziel didn't respond.
He could still *feel* it — that hollow, limitless dark, humming at the edge of his mind. The Void wasn't gone. It was *waiting.*
But now he understood one thing clearly:
Whatever had awakened inside him… *others* had felt it too.
They wouldn't be left alone for long.
---