The world had become a hollow shell of what it once was. The very fabric of existence had unraveled, piece by piece, as the sky bled into an endless void of swirling blackness. It was as if reality itself had been consumed, leaving only emptiness in its wake.
Jack's eyes fluttered open, and he gasped for air, his chest heaving. His limbs were heavy, his head throbbing with the aftershocks of his battle against the Dark Lord. For a moment, he wondered if it had all been a dream—the destruction, the power, the inevitable loss. But as he looked around, he saw nothing but devastation.
The ground beneath him had cracked and split, revealing chasms that seemed to stretch down into an endless abyss. The air was thick with the scent of burning earth and the echoes of a world dying in its final moments.
He struggled to rise, his body trembling, and as he looked around, he saw Nyssa, still alive but barely. She lay on the ground, her face pale, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"Nyssa…" Jack croaked, his voice hoarse.
She turned toward him, her expression a mix of fear and determination. "Jack… it's over."
But even as she spoke, Jack knew that it wasn't over. The world might have collapsed, but the true battle was still ahead. The Dark Lord had been sealed—temporarily—but he was far from defeated. Jack had made the ultimate sacrifice to trap the entity in the void, but the seal wouldn't hold forever. The Devourer was too powerful, too ancient. It would find a way to escape.
"Is it?" Jack asked, his voice filled with dread.
Nyssa slowly stood, wincing with each movement. "We… we stopped it, for now. But at what cost?"
Jack's eyes swept across the shattered landscape, the remnants of a world that had once been whole. The air crackled with residual energy, and in the distance, he could see the flickering remnants of magic—broken spells that were slowly disintegrating.
The seal he had created was weak. It would not last long.
A Fading Hope
As they trudged through the ruined landscape, Jack's mind kept racing, trying to find a way to undo what had been done. What had they sacrificed for this temporary reprieve? What would they have to endure next?
The Sigil, the Heart of Elandir, the ancient rituals—they had all been steps toward stopping the Dark Lord. But none of them had worked. And now, with Auren gone and the remnants of their allies scattered, Jack felt the crushing weight of his failure.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. His eyes narrowed as he looked toward the horizon. Something was wrong. He could feel it—the pull of something dark, something wrong, stirring beneath the surface of reality.
"What is it?" Nyssa asked, sensing his unease.
Jack didn't answer at first. He was too focused on the growing disturbance. There, on the horizon, a figure stood—a boy, no older than twelve, gazing out toward the sea. His presence felt wrong, unnatural, like a shadow that didn't belong.
Jack's heart skipped a beat.
He had seen that figure before. Or at least, he had seen him in his dreams—visions of a future that hadn't yet come to pass.
The boy turned slowly, as if sensing Jack's gaze. His eyes—those eyes—were the same as Kael's. But they weren't Kael's. Not anymore.
"Jack," the boy said, his voice a whisper carried on the wind. "You freed me once. You'll do it again. This time, you'll beg for it."
Jack's blood ran cold.
The Hollow Truth
In that moment, the truth hit Jack like a tidal wave. He had never been the hero. He had never been meant to stop the Dark Lord. No matter what he did, no matter what sacrifices he made, the cycle would continue. The Devourer was a force of nature, a being beyond time and space. It was bound to rise again, and when it did, it would bring an even greater destruction than before.
The boy smiled, his lips curling into an eerily familiar grin.
Jack staggered backward, his mind reeling. "What are you? Who are you?"
The boy's smile widened. "I am the end and the beginning. I am the one who will make you beg for your salvation. I am the one who will remake the world in my image."
And with that, the world began to crack open once more.
The sky shattered, the stars falling from the heavens like broken glass. The very earth trembled beneath their feet, as if reality itself was losing its grip. The boy's form flickered and began to dissolve, his figure shifting between a child, Kael, and something far darker—a being made of pure shadow and void.
"No…" Jack whispered, his heart breaking.
Nyssa gasped. "Jack, we need to run—now!"
But Jack couldn't move. His legs felt like lead, and his mind was clouded with the overwhelming realization that everything they had fought for had been in vain.
The boy—the new incarnation of the Dark Lord—was rising, and there was nothing they could do to stop him.
"Jack," the boy whispered again, his voice now deep and resonant. "You are the key. You always were."
And as the world collapsed into darkness, Jack knew that the second sundering had begun.
Final Words:
The skies crack like glass.
A scream echoes across time.
The second sundering begins.
Part two is the second sundering
It will be more intriguing
More captivating .