Peace.
It settled softly over the land like spring rain, nourishing cities and fields, healing old scars left by the Abyss. For months, Kael walked among his creation—a god in mortal flesh—advising kings, settling disputes, and guiding the Celestial Legion as they helped rebuild the world.
But peace never lasts forever.
Far beneath the surface, deep in the roots of the newly formed Crystal Forest, something stirred.
Darkness.
Not the old Abyss. Something… older.
Kael stood at the balcony of Solari's grand palace—the capital of the new world—watching the twin suns rise. Lyra lay asleep inside, her breathing steady, warm. Valen and the Legion were training the city guard in the fields below.
Yet something in the wind made his divine essence tighten.
"Kael," whispered the voice of the Celestial Core, its presence glowing faintly behind his thoughts, "there is movement in the Hollow Deep."
He frowned.
"The Abyss is sealed. Nothing escaped."
"This is not the Abyss," the Core replied. "This is older. Forgotten. Awakening."
A chill passed down Kael's mortal spine.
A messenger burst onto the balcony, breathless and pale.
"Lord Kael—the miners in the Silverreach Mountains... they unearthed a black stone chamber. Symbols older than the First Age are carved upon it. The men… they disappeared. Every one of them."
Kael's heart thumped once, hard.
The darkness beneath this world was never erased—only hidden.
He turned to Lyra as she appeared behind him, blade already belted to her side, eyes sharp.
"You felt it, too?" he asked.
She nodded. "Like breathing dust and hearing whispers. Something wrong is waking."
The Celestial Core pulsed again.
"The Hollow King stirs. The one even the Abyss feared. You must seal him—or he will claim your world before it is truly born."
Kael clenched his fists. After everything—after Yaros, the Abyss, the destruction and the rebirth—another threat lurked, deeper and more ancient than all the rest.
But this time… he was ready.
"Lyra. Valen. Summon the Legion. We ride for Silverreach. Tonight."
Lyra's grin flashed like a blade. "Back to saving the world, are we?"
Kael smiled grimly, the stars flickering faintly in his eyes.
"The peace is over. The real war is just beginning."
And far below, in the pitch-black ruins of the Hollow Deep, two glowing eyes flickered open—slit-pupiled and ancient, older than creation itself.
The Hollow King… was awakening.