The air was heavy, thick with mist that shimmered like ink in water.
Each breath I took left a trail of frost behind, even though the air wasn't cold—it was empty.
I sat up slowly, feeling the strange rhythm of a heartbeat that wasn't entirely mine. My hands trembled as I looked at them—delicate, pale, almost translucent. I could see faint runes pulsing beneath the skin like veins of light.
What… am I?
The surface of the black lake rippled. My reflection tilted her head, even though I hadn't moved. Her lips curved into a faint smile.
"Serena."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. Smooth, melodic—like the world itself speaking.
"You have taken your first breath as my daughter. Tell me—do you regret it?"
I swallowed, the sound echoing in the endless silence.
"Who are you really?"
"The beginning that never was. The end that always will be. Mortals once called me the Void."
It spoke with calm omnipotence, yet there was warmth—almost parental—woven into its words.
"Why me?" I whispered. "Why choose a broken soul like mine?"
"Because you screamed louder than the gods could ignore."
A chill ran through me.
The lake's reflection shifted again. The face in the water no longer looked like mine—it was something vast, faceless, a silhouette of galaxies and collapsing stars.
"You desired vengeance. That desire burns brighter than any prayer. Such hunger… it calls to me."
The runes in my arms flared brighter, pain surging through every nerve. I gasped, clutching my chest as shadow bled out of me, forming faint threads that floated and coiled around my fingers.
"You now wield a fragment of my essence—Entropy."
The shadows hardened into a small black sphere, pulsing like a heartbeat. When I focused, it obeyed—stretching into tendrils, blades, wings, whatever my mind imagined.
I could feel its hunger.
It wanted to devour. To consume.
"Careful," the Void warned, its voice softening. "My power does not differentiate between enemy and self. Until you master it, it will eat everything—including you."
I released the shadows, and the lake absorbed them like they'd never existed.
For a long time, I just breathed, staring at the faint reflection of stars that weren't really there.
"So what now?" I asked.
"Now, you return."
"Return?"
"To the world that broke you. You will live again—but under a different sky, in a body that bears my mark. Seek your purpose, or vengeance, as you wish. Both paths lead back to me."
The water rippled again, forming a doorway of swirling darkness. I could see faint outlines—a world of light, towers, clouds, and magic—so alive compared to the nothingness here.
My heart—her heart—pounded in anticipation.
"Ren is dead," I whispered. "Serena will live."
"Then go, my daughter."
The Void's tone carried something like pride… or sorrow. I couldn't tell.
I stepped forward. The moment my foot touched the portal, energy rushed through me—pure, formless, infinite.
When I opened my eyes again, sunlight burned my retinas.
I gasped, blinking rapidly as warmth replaced the eternal chill.
I was lying in a field of silver grass beneath twin moons. Strange constellations glimmered in the sky. In the distance, I could see a grand city crowned by spires of crystal—Aetherion, as a whisper in my mind told me.
A group of travelers passed nearby. One of them—a girl with crimson hair—noticed me and ran over.
"Hey! Are you okay? You're hurt!"
I looked up at her outstretched hand. For a moment, I almost forgot how to speak.
"...Yeah. I think I just woke up from a really long dream."
She smiled, not knowing that the girl she'd found wasn't from this world—nor that the darkness in my heart would soon reshape everything around me.
And somewhere, beyond the stars, the Void chuckled softly.
"The daughter walks the mortal path… Let us see who bleeds first."