Page 59 of Crowned By the Shadow
And Thorn, my heart, my anchor, my strength. His hand tightened around mine, a silent promise that we would face whatever lay ahead together.
I turned back to the guardians, my chin lifted in defiance. “We understand,” I said, my voice ringing with conviction. “And we accept the consequences, whatever they may be.”
The beings inclined their heads, a glimmer of respect in their ageless eyes. “Then go forth, Eclipse Child,” one intoned. “Stepinto the Abyss Between Stars and face your destiny, and may the balance be restored.”
With those words, they faded back into the mists, leaving us alone at the threshold of the Empress’s prison.
I took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the artifacts in my hands, the power thrumming through my veins. This was it, the moment everything had been building towards, the final battle that would determine the fate of all realms.
“Together,” I whispered, looking at my companions, no, my family.
“Together,” they echoed, their voices a chorus of determination and love.
And with that, we stepped forward into the heart of the abyss, ready to face whatever trials lay ahead, and to fight with everything we had to save the worlds we held dear.
I stepped forward once more, the very fabric of reality bending around me as the cosmic energies swirled and eddied. The Abyss Between Stars stretched out in all directions, an endless expanse of shimmering mists and distant constellations that seemed to pulse with ancient power.
At the heart of this ethereal void, I saw it. The prison was a massive crystalline structure suspended in the emptiness, glowing with an inner light that flickered and danced like captured starlight. It was the cage that had held the Void Dragon Empress, but even from this distance, I could see that something was wrong.
Hairline fractures spider-webbed across the crystal’s surface as tendrils of shadow seeped out like wisps of black smoke. The prison was breaking down, its ancient enchantments unraveling under the relentless pressure of the Empress’s power.
As we drew closer, the structure seemed to pulse with malevolent energy, the darkness within straining against its confines. I gripped the Veilshard Pendant tightly, feeling itsreassuring warmth against my palm. Beside me, Thorn and Wyn stood ready, their faces set with grim determination.
At the very center of the prison, a figure took shape amidst the swirling energies, a silhouette of obsidian scales and unfurling wings, eyes like collapsing galaxies staring out at us with ancient hunger. The Void Dragon Empress in her true form, her power growing with each passing moment as the barriers weakened.
“By the gods,” Ronan breathed, his voice tight with fear and awe. “She’s really breaking through.”
I nodded, my heart hammering against my ribs as I stared at the being that had haunted my dreams and visions for so long. The Empress was magnificent in her terrible beauty, a primordial force given flesh and form. But beneath that dark majesty, I sensed something else, a hunger that could never be sated, a void that would consume everything in its path.
“We have to stop her,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “Before she breaks free completely.”
Wyn stepped forward, starlight and shadow dancing across her skin as she raised her hands. “The prison is failing,” she confirmed, her new senses attuned to the flow of cosmic energies. “But there’s still time. The artifacts can reinforce it. They can buy us a chance to find another way.”
I looked down at the Veilshard Pendant, then at the Starforged Mirror and Eclipsed Crown we had brought with us. Three artifacts of immense power, each one a key to maintaining the balance between realms. Together, they might be enough to hold the Empress back, but at what cost?
As if sensing my thoughts, Thorn’s hand found mine, his fingers lacing through my own. “Whatever it takes,” he said softly, his fiery gaze meeting mine. “We’re in this together.”
I nodded, drawing strength from his presence, from the unbreakable bond we shared. Turning back to the prison, Iraised the pendant high, feeling its power thrum through my veins like molten starlight.
Before I could even think of anything to say, a laugh like shattering crystal echoed back to me, the Empress’s form becoming more distinct as she pressed against her weakening cage. “Foolish child,” she purred, her voice resonating on multiple planes at once. “You think you can stop me with trinkets and swords? I am the end of all things, the hunger that devours stars.”
“Not anymore,” Wyn countered, shadows gathering around her like a cloak. “We know what you are, Empress. What you once were, before the void corrupted you.”
A flicker of something passed across the Empress’s inhuman face. Surprise, perhaps even fear. “You understand nothing,” she hissed, her form rippling with barely contained power. “I am transformation incarnate, the inevitable change that awaits all things.”
“No,” I said firmly, feeling the artifacts’ power building within me like a rising tide. “You’re a blight on creation itself. A corruption that must be cleansed.”
With those words, I unleashed the pendant’s energy directly into the fracturing prison walls, a surge of silver-gold light that burned like captured sunlight against the encroaching darkness. The Starforged Mirror and Eclipsed Crown flared in response, their ancient magic interweaving with mine in a symphony of cosmic power.
For a breathless moment, it seemed to work. The cracks in the crystal began to mend themselves as the light from the artifacts suffused every facet with radiant energy. The Empress recoiled as if burned, her shadowy form shrinking back from this onslaught of purifying magic.
But then, just as victory seemed within reach, something shifted, a subtle alteration in the very fabric of reality thatsent tremors through my bones like distant thunder. The prison shuddered as new fractures raced across its surface faster than we could repair them. Shadows poured out in oily tendrils that writhed with malevolent hunger.
And at their heart emerged the Void Dragon Empress reborn, scales glistening like polished obsidian under starlight while twin vortices of collapsing galaxies stared down at us framed by lashes crafted from purest darkness itself. On her brow rested an ebony crown encrusted with jewels that seemed to absorb any light that was around her, while talons scored deep grooves into reality’s foundations beneath her feet.
“Did you truly believe it would be so easy?” she asked almost gently, despite madness glinting behind ageless eyes. “The void cannot be contained forever. I am its avatar, its herald. And within minutes I will be free and you shall be the first to fall to the new world order.”
With a gesture that stretched space itself, she flexed her massive wings, and the prison shrank around her, or maybe she grew to fill it. Either way, I knew that if she got free, all of creation would tremble in her terrible shadow.
