The fall ended without warning.

  Or perhaps there had never truly been an end.

  Suddenly… he was there.

  Standing.

  Trembling.

  The surface beneath his feet yielded slightly.

  Not solid.

  Not liquid.

  Something alive.

  The layer stretched in every direction like a dark ocean without a horizon.

  There was no sky above.

  No true ground below.

  Only the Void.

  The place breathed.

  Expanding.

  Contracting.

  As if that entire space were the inside of some colossal creature.

  He tried to take a step.

  The layer rippled beneath his weight.

  Slow waves crossed the darkness, as if he had stepped onto the skin of something ancient…

  Something that had slept there since before the birth of the universe.

  The sound came afterward.

  A dragging noise.

  Slow.

  Heavy.

  Something was moving.

  He turned his head.

  First came the shapes.

  Stains of darkness denser than the void itself.

  Then… contours.

  Creatures.

  Black masses twisting and shifting, like living smoke trying to imitate forms it had never fully understood.

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  Some had limbs.

  Others had only mouths.

  Some possessed eyes.

  Others only hollow cavities that seemed to stare.

  All of them moved.

  Slow.

  Silent.

  Hungry.

  A chill ran down his spine.

  Instinct.

  Primal.

  Urgent.

  Run.

  But run where?

  There was no direction in that place.

  The creatures began sliding across the surface of the layer.

  They did not walk.

  They flowed.

  Like black ink being pulled by an invisible current.

  The distance between them closed.

  He stepped back.

  The layer trembled again.

  Stronger this time.

  The Void seemed to be watching.

  Not the creatures.

  Him.

  As if something in that place had noticed his presence.

  As if his very existence was… strange.

  Wrong.

  An anomaly.

  The creatures kept advancing.

  Silent.

  Inevitable.

  He tried to breathe.

  The air was dense.

  Heavy.

  As if he were breathing through an invisible liquid.

  His thoughts began to fracture.

  Who am I?

  The question emerged…

  But found no answer.

  His name had vanished.

  His past had dissolved.

  All that remained was awareness.

  And fear.

  The creatures were close now.

  Very close.

  One of them opened something that resembled a mouth.

  Rows of jagged structures shifted inside the black mass.

  Another raised limbs far too long to be natural.

  He understood something.

  In that place, there was no mercy.

  No judgment.

  Only survival.

  The first creature lunged.

  And then—

  Two of them collided.

  The black masses crashed together violently.

  Structures tore apart.

  Jaws.

  Claws.

  Fragments of darkness ripped away and devoured.

  He realized something.

  They were not fighting over him.

  They were fighting each other.

  Predators.

  Competing for prey.

  The layer rippled violently under the impact of their struggle.

  The larger creature smashed the smaller one against the dark surface.

  Parts of the smaller creature’s structure shattered.

  Something was thrown into the air.

  It spun silently.

  And fell a few meters away from him.

  A blade.

  Different.

  It was not made of darkness.

  It was solid.

  Ancient.

  Embedded in the layer.

  He tried to focus on it.

  But his vision faltered.

  His essence trembled.

  Something inside him was still disappearing.

  Almost empty.

  And then—

  The image returned.

  Clearer.

  Closer.

  Her.

  Kneeling.

  Eyes filled with tears.

  Tears slowly falling down her face.

  Her voice crossed the void.

  Painfully close.

  “You promise you'll come back?”

  He did not know who she was.

  He did not remember her name.

  He could not recall her face clearly.

  But something inside him answered.

  A bond.

  A promise.

  I promised…

  To whom?

  Who are you?

  The image began to dissolve.

  Like everything in that place.

  But the question remained.

  You promise you'll come back?

  He tried to move.

  His arm dragged a few centimeters.

  The blade remained there.

  Waiting.

  He spoke.

  Quiet.

  But firm.

  “I promised…”

  His voice failed.

  He forced the words again.

  “I refuse… to cease existing in this place.”

  The declaration did not echo.

  No explosion followed.

  But something inside him answered.

  The draining stopped.

  He did not grow stronger.

  He did not regenerate.

  But he stopped disappearing.

  He realized it slowly.

  His essence was no longer fading.

  He crawled.

  Slow.

  Painful.

  Until he reached the blade.

  His

  fingers touched the hilt.

  The moment contact was made—

  The two creatures stopped fighting.

  They turned toward him.

  The anomaly still existed.

  And now…

  It was armed.