Chapter 83 — The Thing Beneath the World
The world did not end with an explosion.
It ended with a slow, dreadful awakening.
The fissure in the floor widened, stone screaming as it tore apart. Chunks of the ancient fortress dropped into the red-lit void below, swallowed by swirling heat and shadow. A deep, vibrating sound rolled upward, not a roar, not a cry — something older, heavier, as if the earth itself had inhaled for the first time in centuries.
Raze stood at the edge, golden light still burning around his fists, staring down into the widening abyss.
It stared back.
He couldn't see it clearly. No shape made sense, no familiar form. Only size. Only presence.
Something vast coiled far below, moving like a living continent.
Lyra stumbled beside him, gripping his arm to keep her balance. "Raze… what did he wake up?"
Raze didn't answer immediately. His eyes remained fixed on the darkness.
"I think," he said slowly, "this is what the Hand was really guarding."
Behind them, the broken throne creaked. The Hand struggled upright, cloak shredded, fragments of shadow clinging to its body like torn wings.
"You have doomed us all," it rasped, a thin hint of madness in its voice now. "The world is not meant to see what sleeps below."
Kade limped forward, blood darkening the sleeve of his coat. "Then why seal it down there in the first place?"
"Because we were afraid of it," the Hand replied. "Afraid of what it would become… and of what it would demand."
A pulse shook the fortress again. A crack raced up the walls. Part of the ceiling collapsed somewhere in the distant corridors.
Raze turned. "What is it?"
The Hand's eyes flicked to the abyss, then back to Raze, something like fear staring out from beneath the hood.
"It is the First Hunger. The echo of the world before light ever touched it. It does not want land. It does not want power. It wants only to consume."
Lyra whispered, "You mean… everything?"
The Hand nodded once. "And now it knows that you exist."
A sudden pressure filled the chamber — a consciousness brushing across them, heavy and suffocating. Not speaking… just feeling. Like a titanic mind becoming aware for the first time, stretching.
Raze's heart hammered.
For the first time in his journey, he did not feel like a warrior standing before an enemy.
He felt like an insect at the bottom of a giant's palm.
And then—
A voice slid into his thoughts.
Not words…but meaning.
Come closer.
Raze staggered. His golden aura flared in defiance.
"No," he murmured.
You struck the chains… You freed me… You belong to me.
The floor beneath him began to pull, as if guided by gravity that only affected him. One step. Then another. Not in control of his legs.
"RAZE!" Lyra grabbed him around the waist. "Fight it!"
He clenched his jaw, resistance surging inside him. The Iron Fist burned brighter, and the invisible pull snapped. He fell backward into Lyra, breathing hard.
"You felt that, didn't you?" he rasped.
She nodded, shaken. "It was like being stared at by a star."
The Hand watched, silent, calculating.
"You are bound to it now," it said softly. "The moment you shattered my control, it marked you. Ancient things crave strength. It tasted yours."
Raze pushed himself back to his feet. "Then I'll kill it too."
For the first time, the Hand laughed — not in mockery, but in genuine disbelief.
"You think this is simply a larger beast to be defeated with fists and willpower? This thing devours worlds, boy. Your strength is exactly the reason it is interested in you."
Kade spat blood to the side. "Then we end it before it can rise any further."
Another tremor cut him off.
The entire center of the chamber dropped several feet. Red light intensified. Something massive began climbing. Stone was pushed aside like sand.
A surface broke through the darkness briefly — smooth, black, covered in faint, glowing lines that pulsed like veins. No eye. No mouth. Just living, ancient matter.
It was not shaped for a world of breathing things.
It was shaped for endless void.
Lyra backed away. "That can't fully emerge… right?"
The Hand's expression became grim. "No. Not yet. The seal still holds part of it… barely. But if the fortress collapses…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
They all understood.
Raze closed his eyes for a single breath. In his mind, scattered memories collided — training, pain, loss, every step that had brought him here.
He wasn't just fighting for cities anymore.
He was fighting for existence.
He stepped toward the Hand again, Iron Fist glowing like a miniature sun.
"Then help me stop it."
The Hand's head tilted. "After all I've tried to do to you?"
"You don't get to pretend you were protecting the world," Raze said coldly. "But right now, I don't care about reasons. I care about survival. So choose — help seal it… or die remembering this was your fault."
Silence passed between them.
Then… slowly… the Hand extended a palm.
Dark energy gathered around it — controlled, focused again, not wild this time.
"You would fight beside me… after everything?"
"I'm not fighting beside you," Raze replied. "You're standing behind me."
A small, crooked smile touched the Hand's lips.
"Very well… Iron Fist."
They turned together to face the abyss.
Below them, the massive presence shifted again, sensing resistance. The red light flickered.
Raze lifted his other hand.
Gold and shadow clashed in the air — not colliding, but weaving around each other, forced into a harsh, unwilling alliance.
Symbols burst into existence over the fissure, ancient and blazing. The Hand began chanting in a dead language older than kingdoms, while Raze poured raw will into the seal, forcing its shape with power and refusal.
The ground fought back.
The thing below pushed.
The entire fortress screamed as ancient energies warred with primal hunger.
Lyra and Kade stood back, powerless and yet unable to look away. Wind ripped at their clothes as the chamber became a storm of light and darkness.
And inside that storm —
Raze's mind was pulled downward again.
Into the presence.
This time, he did not resist blindly.
He stared into it.
Why do you want me? he demanded silently.
The answer came, slow and heavy as shifting mountains.
Because you are unfinished.
And unfinished things belong to me.
Raze's jaw set.
You don't own what I choose to become.
For the first time… the presence hesitated.
Confusion rippled through it.
Then anger.
The pressure multiplied. Raze's knees buckled as the seal began to crack.
"Raze!" Lyra screamed.
He snarled, slamming both fists down in mid-air. "NOT TODAY!"
A burst of power surged from him unlike anything before — not rage… not fear… but absolute conviction.
The Iron Fist evolved.
Its golden light deepened, steadied, sharpened into something almost… divine.
And the seal snapped closed.
The red light was crushed back downward. The fissure sealed halfway. The roar faded into a furious, contained rumble beneath thick stone.
Silence fell.
Only broken stone, dust, and exhausted breaths remained.
Raze collapsed to one knee, panting hard.
The Hand staggered, barely standing, power drained.
Lyra ran to him. "You did it…"
"No," Raze whispered, staring at the sealed floor. "I slowed it down."
Kade looked around the crumbling chamber. "Then that means…"
"Yes," the Hand finished in a grave tone. "It will try again. And next time…"
He looked at Raze.
"…It will come for you first."
Above them, somewhere far beyond the ruined ceiling…
The sky began to darken.
Not with clouds.
But with a spreading, unnatural shadow.
As if something massive in the heavens had finally opened its eyes.