Kael's breath steadied as the echoes of battle faded. The confrontation with Jorin had proven one undeniable truth—the Abyssal Flow reacted to him differently than it did to anyone else. It wasn't just a weapon, nor simply a force to be mastered. It was alive, shifting in response to his instincts, his emotions—his very presence.
Alyss stepped beside him, eyes sharp. "You felt it, didn't you?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. He had felt something during the fight—a whisper within the Flow, guiding him not just to counter attacks, but to shape the battlefield itself.
"I didn't just react," Kael finally admitted. "The Flow… moved with me."
Alyss exhaled, as if confirming something she had suspected. "That's because you're walking toward something greater. And the Abyss knows it."
The air shifted.
Kael turned instinctively—energy swirled in the distance, the currents bending in unnatural patterns. The ruins around them flickered for the briefest moment, as if reality had fractured.
Then he heard it.
Not words. Not voices. Something deeper. Something woven into the very essence of the Abyssal Flow.
A presence.
The Deva had found him.
Echoes of a Forgotten Race
The world shimmered, and the energy around Kael folded inward.
Shapes emerged from the abyss—forms that seemed neither fully solid nor entirely void. Their figures pulsed, shifting between tangible existence and intangible echoes.
Alyss stepped back, watching but not interfering. She had never seen them before—not like this.
One of the figures raised its hand, the Flow bending around it in perfect harmony. The currents did not resist them. They moved as if the Abyss itself had crafted their existence.
"You stand before the Abyss untethered," the presence spoke—not aloud, but through the Flow itself. The words vibrated through Kael's Void Anchor. "And yet you have not yet chosen its path."
Kael swallowed, feeling the weight of the statement. "What does the Abyss want from me?"
"You misunderstand," the figure said. "The Abyss does not demand. It waits. But for you—" It paused, as if measuring Kael's soul itself. "—it has already begun shaping the path forward."
Alyss glanced at Kael, but she remained silent. This was his moment.
The Deva shifted, their forms pulsing as the Abyssal Flow intensified.
"Step forward, Kael Veydris," the presence urged. "And witness the truth behind your Flow."
Kael's heartbeat was steady.
And then, he took the step.