CHAPTER 98 — THE EYE OF THE VOID
The deeper Kael, Shadowblades, and Titanbound walked, the more the fracture changed. The air thickened, not with fog or dust, but with presence — as if they were moving through the lungs of some vast, unseen creature. Every breath felt heavier, weighted by something watching, something measuring the rate of their hearts and the tremor of their fear.
The hollow symbol burned with a steady warmth against Kael's chest, guiding him like a heartbeat in the dark. The walls around them pulsed gently, responding to the symbol's rhythm, revealing glimpses of something deeper beneath the stone: veins of black energy, twisting like serpents in trapped currents.
Titanbound clenched his fists, the metal of his knuckles glowing faintly. "Feels like something's following us," he muttered. His voice echoed strangely, stretched and pulled thin by the pressure of the void.
Shadowblades said nothing, but her gaze was sharp. She moved quietly, blades ready, eyes flickering from shadow to shadow. She felt it too — a cold breath on the back of the neck, a shifting of darkness that didn't belong.
Kael slowed as the passage widened before them, opening into a cavern unlike any they had seen since entering the fracture. It was circular, impossibly vast, its ceiling lost somewhere beyond the reach of light. At the center lay an immense pit, perfectly round, edges jagged but smooth, as if carved by something both chaotic and precise.
Weak light flickered above the pit. No torches. No fire. Just the faint shimmer of darkness bending inward, like gravity itself was trying to collapse the space into a single point.
Kael stepped closer, peering into the pit. What he saw made his breath hitch.
Inside the pit was not emptiness.
It was an eye.
A colossal, unblinking eye of void energy, watching them. A pupil made of swirling black fractures. An iris that shifted like broken glass floating on oil. And within its depth — ancient intelligence.
Shadowblades stiffened. Titanbound swore under his breath.
Kael felt the hollow symbol pulse violently, as if recognizing the entity.
Then—
A voice rose from the pit.
Not spoken. Not whispered.
Vibrated directly through bone and breath.
"Finally… the key-bearer arrives."
Kael's heart thumped hard. Not from fear — but from recognition.
"You're the one calling me," he said quietly. "The true presence behind the fracture."
"And you… are late."
The darkness around them rippled as laughter — a sound that contained no humor, only inevitability — echoed through the cavern.
Titanbound stepped forward. "If you're the thing poisoning this world, come up here and fight. No more hiding in holes."
The eye shifted slightly, the pupil narrowing.
"Impulsive. Simple. Predictable. You are not my concern."
Titanbound bristled, heat flaring from his arms.
Shadowblades spoke next, voice low and dangerous. "What are you? A guardian? A creator?"
"Neither."
The darkness deepened around the pit.
"I am the Witness. The Heart. The first fracture. And the last."
Kael felt something twist inside him.
A memory.
A vision.
A sensation of standing in a forest, long before he was born, watching reality tear open like paper. A figure — obscured, vast — stepping through, leaving a trail of corruption.
He staggered slightly, gripping the hollow symbol.
Shadowblades noticed. "Kael? What did it show you?"
"Something… old," Kael whispered. "Something that's been here far longer than any of us realized."
The Witness's voice resonated again.
"The key-bearer remembers. Good. You must face the truth if you hope to survive what comes next."
Kael squared his shoulders. "Why did you call us here?"
The eye widened, as if amused.
"Because the fracture grows. Soon it will reach the realms above… and beyond. I cannot contain it alone."
Titanbound blinked. "Wait — the giant void monster needs our help?"
The Witness's pupil contracted sharply.
"You misunderstand, molten one. I do not require your help. I require your surrender."
Shadowblades tightened her blades. "Explain."
The cavern trembled.
"The fracture is expanding. It will consume worlds. Unless… it finds a new anchor."
Kael felt the hollow symbol heat. A horrible realization spread through him like ice.
"They want me," he whispered.
Shadowblades turned sharply. Titanbound's fists flared with molten light.
Kael stared into the massive void eye.
"You want me to be the anchor."
"Correct."
"What happens if I refuse?" Kael asked darkly.
The ground split with a thunderous crack. Shadows erupted upward like geysers. Tendrils shot into the cavern with terrifying force, smashing against stone, coiling around pillars, seeking flesh.
"Refusal," the Witness said calmly, "means annihilation."
Titanbound roared and slammed his fists into a cluster of tendrils, heat exploding outward. Shadowblades moved with vicious precision, slicing through tendrils that came too close.
Kael held the hollow symbol tight. His energy surged outward, Ironroot tendrils rising from the ground to clash with the void ones. The cavern became a war zone of shadow and light.
The Witness observed them calmly, the giant eye reflecting their struggle with unnerving clarity.
*"You cannot defeat the fracture," it said. "But you can become its master."
Kael gritted his teeth. "You're lying."
"No, Kael Ironroot. I offer truth. Power. Control beyond worlds."
Titanbound shouted over the chaos, "Kael! Don't listen to it!"
Shadowblades cut through a tendril and landed beside Kael. "This thing is trying to manipulate you. It wants control — not balance."
Kael's heart pounded. The symbol pulsed, almost harmonizing with the Witness's voice.
For the first time… Kael felt the fracture calling him personally.
Not as prey.
Not as threat.
But as successor.
He forced the thought away.
"No," he growled. "I don't serve the fracture."
The cavern erupted violently — the Witness was not pleased.
Black geysers shot up from the pit, and the tendrils intensified. Titanbound was thrown backward into a wall, cracking stone. Shadowblades was pulled toward the edge of the pit, clawing at the ground to resist.
Kael unleashed a surge of Ironroot power, roots erupting in a spiral around him, shielding them for a moment.
The Witness spoke again, tone colder.
"You will submit. The fracture must have an anchor. If not you… then one of your allies."
Titanbound froze.
Shadowblades' eyes widened.
Kael's blood ran cold.
"No!" Kael roared. "You cannot take them!"
The Witness's pupil dilated.
"Then surrender yourself."
Kael felt his body weakening, shadows tugging at him like invisible chains. The hollow symbol blazed painfully. The air tightened around him.
Shadowblades struggled to reach him. "Kael — fight it!"
Titanbound forced himself up, burning through tendrils with fiery rage. "We are NOT losing you, bro!"
Kael's vision blurred. The cavern warped into spirals of shadow. The Witness's voice filled his skull.
"Accept. Become the anchor. Save them."
"Refuse… and they die."
Kael screamed, Ironroot power bursting outward. His roots split the cavern floor, wrapping around the pit, around the shadows, around reality itself.
The Witness finally reacted — its massive eye contracted sharply.
Kael staggered forward, barely conscious, but full of fury.
"You want an anchor?" he growled.
"Then come and TAKE ME!"
The cavern quaked. The pit erupted.
Darkness swallowed everything.