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Just then, the two of them woke up, so I opened a portal and returned to the cave. I didn't tell them immediately. Instead, I waited for them to get ready before we left. Once they were prepared, we took off, with me leading the way.
"How weird."
Vera murmured after noticing how different today's journey felt.
"What's weird?"
Tik asked.
"You're supposed to lead the way, not him."
She whispered.
"It is. I'm sure we're heading towards yesterday's location."
'Ah, yes. I can use an answer.'
"Tik, tell me about the Abyss Ocean."
"Orun?"
"What's that?"
"That's the draconic name for the Abyss Ocean. Just like Parvak and the Realms, Orun is a Realm in the Universal Framework."
"The Universal Framework?"
Vera asked.
"Yeah. Any large organised system is considered as a whole rather than as a group of smaller systems. Perfect cosmological term for Kalidor, right?"
She nodded, grinning.
"Umm."
"It doesn't matter what the Stars or any species calls it. What we the dragons decide is what's final."
'So even Ela doesn't know the in-depths of Kalidor?'
"Any idea where the Gate is?"
"Gate? Do you mean the portal that connects one Realm to the other?"
"Yes."
"There are no Gates in Parvak."
She replied. I froze mid-walk. Did I misheard her to what.
"What?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry I forgot to tell you sooner."
She scratched her hair clumsily.
"If there's no Gates, how did you get in?"
"Before Parvak was claimed, we used to come here hoping to secure and claim the Realm. Back then, the entrance and exit were carried out in the presence of the Grand Duke himself."
'If there's no Gate. Then what did I see earlier?'
The question lingered in my mind as unease crept through me.
Without wasting another moment, I opened a portal beneath our feet. Space folded quietly, and the ground vanished as the three of us slipped through the tear in reality.
We reappeared at the place I had visited before.
The instant my boots touched the ground, a chill ran across my skin. Goosebumps rose along my arms as a quiet tension settled in the air, thick enough to feel. Nothing had changed in the surroundings, yet the atmosphere felt different, as though the place itself had become aware of our presence.
'Someone was here.'
"How rude of you to keep an old man waiting."
The voice came from behind us, calm yet sharp with faint amusement. The words carried easily through the still air, making the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end.
I slowly turned, my gaze settling on the Gate.
Two figures stood before it. The first was an old man with long silver hair that fell neatly past his shoulders. His posture was relaxed, almost casual, as though he had been standing there for quite some time without the slightest hint of impatience. His eyes, however, were keen and observant, quietly studying us.
Behind him loomed a second presence. It was humanoid in shape, yet calling it human would have been generous. A towering mass of darkness stood silently at the old man's back, its form vaguely outlined but never fully defined, like a shadow given weight and substance.
For a moment, none of us spoke. The old man simply watched, the faintest trace of a smile touching his lips, as if he had been expecting us all along.
'Void Dragons?'
Before I could reply, a beam of darkness tore through the air and shot straight towards us.
"Stand back."
I stepped forward and raised a veil of energy around the two behind me.
The barrier shimmered faintly as the attack closed in, its surface rippling under the pressure of the oncoming force. At the last moment, I swung my arm and struck the beam aside, diverting its path.
The dark energy veered sharply away and crashed into the distant ground, where it burst apart in a dull explosion that sent fragments of shadow scattering across the earth.
"If I had known I would be meeting an old man. I might have taken my time wasting even more of yours, considering how little of it you have left."
The towering darkness growled, its voice rough and seething with contempt.
The old man lifted a single hand. The gesture was small, yet the creature immediately fell silent.
"You will have your way soon enough, Draal."
The old man said calmly. His gaze then shifted back to me, his expression sharpening with interest.
"So… Outsider."
"What do you want, Hollow Prince?"
I asked first. Both of them flinched, the reaction was brief but unmistakable, a flicker of surprise crossing the old man's composed face while the towering shadow behind him stirred uneasily. Neither of them had expected me to know the title he carried yet, those guys from yesterday made it clear someone was waiting for me.
"You're well informed, great. There's nothing to talk about but delivering your judgment. A Star in Kalidor, invading our territory, disrupting Pyrral..."
"You don't need to list all my evil deeds. Besides, if I'm already guilty, what's stopping you from delivering your worthless judgment?"
'Disrespect and arrogance lead to fueling hatred of the victim. I'm doing it on purpose to see his reaction. I've already gotten enough from Draal, but something tells me that Old Man is the real deal.'
"What a problem child."
He sighs instead.
"Have it your way, Draal."
At his master's words, the darkness-born creature attacked head-on, fist aimed at my head.
'This is darkness. I can counter that.'
I lazily raised my void-cloaked palm and halted the incoming punch.
The impact struck the barrier and the earth beneath me cracked violently, shards of stone bursting outward as shockwaves flattened the terrain behind me. Dust and debris hung in the air, swirling in the sudden silence.
'So much force. I didn't expect it to feel this… light.'
I twisted my hand and struck his chin. The blow sent him soaring into the sky, his massive form vanishing for the moment. For now, he was gone.
"Hehehe."
The old man chuckled softly, the sound carrying an amused edge.
"Strong as expected."
Almost instantly, I sensed movement before I saw it.
A mass of darkness descending was rapidly. Rather than meeting it head-on, I took a few measured steps backwards at precisely the right moment, letting the assault crash into empty ground. The dark figure struck the earth and skidded across it, scattering clumps of soil and stone in its wake.
"This isn't helping."
I muttered.
The next instant, a kick connected with his head and sent him hurtling towards the Gate. Draal disappeared through it, leaving a brief echo of the impact behind.
"How long does this have to keep going?"
Draal's growl rumbled through the air. An intense aura radiated from the Gate as he surged forward once more.
"How dare you!"
"That's enough."
The old man warned, his tone calm yet firm.
"You will only suffer more if you keep forcing this."
Draal paid no heed. Humiliation had taken hold of him, and the byproduct was anger, raw, uncontrollable fury. His aura flared, twisting the air around him as he prepared to strike again. It was not calculated aggression, but the desperation of someone refusing to accept defeat.
"Die!"
He lunged, his body twisting into a hulking bear-shaped monstrosity, each claw vast enough to snuff me out in a single swipe. That's if he managed to get close enough. The distance between us was small, but that's wide enough for me.
I blurred past him, my body slipping into intangibility, phasing through his bulk like a shadow through mist. By the time I emerged behind him, the deed was done.
My void-stained hand tore through the darkness and shadow, slicing cleanly through his neck in a single, merciless motion. His head fell away, the body collapsing with a heavy thud before dissolving into oblivion as though it had never existed.
'Naturally, ripping the head from a darkness-born entity would normally achieve nothing permanent. Such creatures are not bound by the same rules as flesh and bone. Yet when the void becomes involved, the outcome changes entirely. The void does not destroy in the conventional sense; it erases, unmaking things until there is nothing left to return. At least that's what I can use it for now.'
A thought flashed through my mind, something illogical, yet it's true.
'Darkness is the absence of light, that's intangible, concept rather than a substance. Shadow is a thing cast in a place where light can't pass through. It's something we see, but it's also intangible.
I guess if you mix the two, it can shape into something tangible. Shadows are black by default, a reflection of absence. Mixing them with pure darkness might allow something tangible to emerge, a substance that exists while still denying existence.'
My fingers touched my chin as I sank into thought, considering the idea more deeply. It was an odd line of reasoning, yet it felt strangely logical.
If void could erase and darkness could nullify, and shadow could give shape to the unseen, then perhaps the three together were capable of creating something entirely new, a force that existed beyond conventional understanding.
'Let's say it's true, and that's how Draal was created. But the real question is, how is void manifesting when it's the absence of anything?'
This wasn't a random question. It was prepared for Enta who can weave nihility.
'I told you it's a paradox. It goes against the Arché Matrix.'
He replied. That kind of reply that closes the conversation. But I'm far from letting this slide.
A new idea struck me like a sudden realisation.
"The Matrix, the Energy Fragments must be a creation of that Matrix. That would make Energy itself a system."
My eyes widened as the thought settled.
It explained too much. If Energy behaved like an operating system, with fragments acting as components rather than random metaphysical phenomena, then the structure of the Existence was far more deliberate than I had assumed.
"So that's why the Energy Fragments feel like an operating system."
I murmured to myself.
I shifted my awareness into Etherium, letting the higher plane envelop me.
The world changed subtly, not visually, but in the way sensations arrived. Everything felt thinner, like I was peering behind a veil. I examined my void-stained fingertips, expecting some sign of the underlying code or structure. Clarivide revealed nothing and Umbryss remained silent, showing no indication that anything was being concealed. Yet I refused to accept the absence of evidence as proof.
They wanted me to believe there was nothing to see. I did not buy it.
Stubbornness lingered in me, a quiet refusal to move on. If something existed beneath the surface, I intended to uncover it. Sensing my determination, Clarivide and Eclipter finally vibrated with subtle energy, revealing the unknown.
(Why Eclipter and not Umbryss? Eclipter governs uncertainty; Umbryss sticks strictly to obscurity.)
Reality shifted. And there it was, nothing but tiny particles of 'transparent blackness' if that's real, was swirling around my fingers. No Bindions to hold them together, no Morphytes to shape them. Only a few Fragments orbited the anomaly, identical in glow yet unmistakable in presence.
Pneura, Paradexon, and Thaumel traced the anomaly's boundary. Polylogion and Logosark rewrote the rules just enough to keep the hole open without letting it tear everything apart. They were carefully revealing it... and carefully containing it.
(Like the SCP Foundation containing an anomaly;)
Void isn't chaos invading reality. It's non‑reality pretending to be real. Ordinary Fragments can't touch it; only those who translate or police Existence itself can fold it into being.
Unlike anomalies made by Paradexon and Thaumel, void requires Logosark and Polylogion just to restrain it, opening only when the system allows.
'How funny. Void can erase Laws through Logosark... but can it erase Logosark? Probably not.'
Erasing a Law is easy. Erasing the scaffolding that makes Laws coherent is another thing entirely. That job belongs to the Twin Fragments, and even they rarely attempt it.
The fact that the Fragments cooperate to let a nonexistent force exist, capture it, control it, and distribute it is...
'Unbelievable.'
'New word added to dictionary.'
'Yeah. It's really something else.'
The Fragments were not random. They were components, parts of a greater system, operating with rules I had yet to fully understand.
I exhaled slowly, absorbing the implications. If this was a Matrix, then the Existence, perhaps something beyond that too was constructed. And if it was constructed, it could be understood or even changed
'Whatever created this Matrix...'
"How long are you going to keep daydreaming?"
The Old One's voice cut through my thoughts, snapping me back to the present.
I hadn't been ignoring him; I had simply drifted into contemplation, minimising the situation for a moment while I examined ideas that felt more pressing.
"Sorry."
I replied, shaking off the distraction.
"I didn't have a huge topic to ponder. Are you going to attack me now?"
"I wouldn't have come here myself."
He said.
His aura radiated outward, a quiet but undeniable pressure in the air. It rolled off him like heat, a reminder that he was not a harmless old man despite appearances.
"Do you know…"
He paused deliberately, letting the words hang in the space between us.
His body shifted, the transformation was not sudden, but it was unmistakable. His form expanded and changed, the illusion of age falling away. Muscles coiled beneath his skin, and his posture straightened with a predatory grace. Features that had once seemed worn and human now took on something sharper, more primal.
"…the True Descendants of Abyssal Calamities are forbidden to use our draconic form in Kalidor?"
The statement lingered. When he finished speaking, the old man was no longer an old man.
The transformation had completed. His presence altered, heavier and more commanding, like a force of nature given shape. Where a frail figure had stood moments ago, something far more formidable remained, a being tied to ancient power and rules I did not yet fully understand.
Youth had overtaken him, long silver hair cascading like liquid moonlight, skin flawless and pale against the knight's armour wrought entirely from living darkness. The plates rippled with a slow, sentient pulse, as though the void itself had been forged into steel.
Both hands rested on the pommel of the sword, its point grounded before him, eyes closed in a calm yet unyielding vigil. An otherworldly beauty that radiated quiet menace. The transformation carried an otherworldly beauty cloaked in quiet menace, radiant and cold, with a serene perfection that whispered of something profoundly wrong.
[[IMAGE]]
[[IMAGE]]
"I am Mordryth, the second and last True Descendent of Baeleryon."
To be continued...