The Dead Zone was not empty.
It was a wound in the galaxy, a sprawling maw where stars went to die. The Sovereign shuddered as it breached the periphery, Nyxis' sensors overloading with static. Nebulas coiled like serpents, their violet-and-crimson gases threaded with the skeletal remains of battleships. Asteroids hung suspended in impossible formations—some frozen mid-collision, others orbiting nothing, caught in gravitational eddies that defied physics. Kael gripped the pilot's console, his Eclipse Core throbbing in time with the Hive-Mother's song. It had grown louder, sharper, a blade carving directions into his mind.
*"Adjust course,"* he ordered. *"Bearing zero-two-seven."*
Nyxis' hologram flickered, her voice glitching. *"Unwise. Sector contains… unknown energy signatures. Proposal: Retreat."*
"We don't retreat," Kael snapped. Behind him, Zara scuttled across the ceiling, her wings twitching. The Skyshrieker had refused to perch near the Vryxil elder, who stood silently at the rear of the bridge, her antennae weaving cryptic patterns.
*"The Hive-Mother's song… falters here,"* Zara hissed. *"Dead Zone… resists."*
The elder stepped forward, her claws clicking. *"The song is pure. Your doubt… weakens it."*
Golem-01 stomped between them, its plasma cannon humming. *"Hostile intent detected. Proposal: Eject intruder."*
"Stand down," Kael said, though his Core flared in agreement with the golem. "We need her."
*"For now,"* the golem rumbled, Lira's voice bleeding through.
The Sovereign lurched. Alarms blared as a gravitational eddy seized the ship, spinning it toward a cluster of derelicts—ancient Vryxil hive-ships, their carapaces petrified, and Eclipse King-era cruisers crusted with biometal tumors.
*"Evasive maneuvers!"* Kael shouted.
*"Impossible,"* Nyxis said. *"Navigation systems compromised. Dead Zone's anomalies… defy computation."*
"Then *improvise*!"
Zara dropped onto the console, her talons stabbing holographic controls. *"Hive-Mother… guides. Follow the song!"*
The elder chittered, venom dripping. *"You hear her? Or the Abyss?"*
Kael didn't answer. He closed his eyes, letting the Hive-Mother's melody slice through the chaos. Left. Down. *Through.*
"Full thrusters! Now!"
The Sovereign plunged into the derelict cluster. Biometal screeched as wings sheared through fossilized hive-ships, their hulls crumbling to dust. The eddy released, spitting them into calm void. Ahead, a planet hung shrouded in a black haze—Xerxis Prime.
Or what was left of it.
The throneworld was a corpse. Continents had been peeled back, revealing molten rock and the skeletal remains of cities. At its northern pole gaped a crater, its edges glittering with Crimson Crystal growths.
*"Second Core signature confirmed,"* Nyxis said. *"Location: Crater's epicenter."*
Golem-01's neural chip flared. *"Lira's memories: The crater is artificial. The Eclipse King's final weapon… detonated here."*
"To bury his failures," Kael muttered.
*"Or his sins,"* the elder said.
---
The ruins swallowed them.
The Sovereign descended into the crater, its nanites repelling acid rains that ate through hull plating. Below, the lab awaited—a nightmare of biometal and Vryxil architecture. Ribbed tunnels, etched with hive-glyphs, spiraled into the planet's heart. Zara hissed at the symbols.
*"Old words… warnings. *Beware the Abyss' cradle.*"*
Kael activated his exosuit. "Too late for that."
They disembarked into a cavernous chamber, the air thick with the stench of decay and ozone. The walls pulsed with bioluminescent fungi, their light reflecting off shards of Hollowed Clay. At the room's center stood a vault, its surface scarred with claw marks.
*"Second Core containment unit,"* Nyxis said. *"Breach attempts: 47. All failed."*
Golem-01 lumbered forward, fists crackling. *"Proposal: Force entry."*
"Wait." Kael traced the vault's markings—Vryxil runes, twisted by biometal corrosion. *"The Abyss' cradle.* This isn't a lab. It's a *tomb*."
The elder clicked her mandibles. *"The Hive-Mother's song… reveals truths. Open it."*
Zara lunged, pinning the elder to the wall. *"You… knew. Knew what slept here!"*
The elder laughed, venom pooling. *"All songs have verses, little sister. Even yours."*
Kael's Core surged. The vault's runes glowed, responding to his presence. The doors groaned open.
Cold poured out.
Inside floated the second Eclipse Core—a mirror of Kael's, but inverted. Its light was a void, its surface crawling with smoke-like tendrils. Chains of Hollowed Clay bound it, each link etched with Vryxil prayers.
*"Not a Core,"* Kael whispered. *"A prison."*
The Abyss stirred.
*At last,* it crooned. *You've come to free me.*
---
**Lira's Ghost**
The visions struck without warning.
Kael staggered as the second Core's resonance merged with his own. The lab dissolved, replaced by a memory not his own—a younger Lira, her hands trembling as she hacked into the Eclipse King's archives.
*"They're lying to us,"* she whispered to a fellow saboteur, their faces hidden. *"The King didn't create the Cores. He found them. They're… alive. And the Abyss isn't a metaphor. It's a* thing. *A god the Vryxil worshipped until it turned on them."*
The feed glitched. Lira stood in the vault, her tools scattering as the second Core writhed. *"It's not a power source—it's a* door. *And he's trying to open it!"*
A Hollowed Lord emerged, biometal claws shredding her comrades. Lira fled, clutching a neural chip—the same chip now in Golem-01's chest.
*"Don't let it out,"* her ghost pleaded in Kael's mind. *"Whatever they promised you… it's lying."*
---
The chamber shook. Acid rain hissed through cracks in the ceiling.
The elder scuttled toward the second Core, her claws outstretched. *"The Hive-Mother's bargain… fulfilled."*
Zara intercepted her, venom spraying. *"Traitor! You serve the Abyss!"*
*"We all do,"* the elder hissed, grappling with her.
Golem-01 aimed its cannon at the Core. *"Directive: Destroy target."*
*"No!"* Kael shouted. "The chains—they're the only thing holding the Abyss back!"
The tendrils of smoke thickened, wrapping around the golem. Lira's voice screamed. *"Kael! It's using the song! Don't listen—"*
The Abyss laughed. *You think yourselves saviors? You are* pawns. *The Hive-Mother desired the Core's power. The elder desired freedom. And you… you desired* purpose.
Kael's Eclipse Core burned. Biometal veins snaked across his face. "What are you?"
*The first song. The last silence. The Eclipse King dared to bind me, so I hollowed his soul. Now…*
The chains snapped.
*…I will hollow the stars.*