> "Stage Nine complete.
Transferring to Stage Ten…"
The automated voice of the Tower was the last thing Arian heard before he plunged into the void.
Darkness—without beginning or end.
No ground. No sky.
Only emptiness, swallowing everything—even thought itself.
Moments passed… or perhaps centuries. He could no longer tell.
He no longer felt his body.
He no longer heard his breath… and then even that was gone.
He began to lose everything—his name, his form, the reason he existed.
Until—
A voice echoed within him, deep and resonant, as if rising from the depths of his very being.
> "So this is how it ends… the heir of the Unknown Lord, kneeling before the dark?"
Arian—what remained of him—stirred.
He saw nothing, yet light began to seep through, outlining the figure of a man standing amid the void.
White hair drifting in a wind that did not exist, gray eyes calm as still waters, and a black robe trailing endless shadows.
Ethereos.
But his voice wasn't that of someone speaking to him—it was as if it came from within, each word echoing through his soul.
> "Have you forgotten your vow? Your ancestor waits. The blood spilled for you still demands its reckoning."
Arian tried to speak, but no sound came.
The shadows coiled around him, testing, judging.
> "If you are to fall here, let your body vanish.
But the soul of the Unknown Lord—
it does not kneel."
Then the gray light flared within Arian's eyes,
and the darkness around him trembled as if afraid.
The light burst forth, shattering the void like fragile glass,
and the Tower's voice returned once more:
> "Stage Ten… complete."
But this time, Arian was not the same.
His face was calm, his eyes gleaming with a distant light.
Within him, a quiet whisper lingered—
> "Remember… darkness is not destroyed. It is tamed."