Cedric Veyra's smile was a knife.
He stood at the alley's mouth, moonlight glinting off the void-black veins snaking up his neck. His eyes, once the same sharp green as Ethan's, now glowed like embers in a furnace. The air around him warped, as if reality itself recoiled.
Mara shoved Ethan behind her, dagger raised.
"You're supposed to be dead."
"Death's negotiable," Cedric growled, flexing a hand. Shadows coiled around his fingers like serpents. "Especially when the Thirteenth Star owes you a favor."
Ethan's grip tightened on the codex. It hummed, its symbols flaring crimson. "What do you want?"
"The same as you, nephew." Cedric stepped forward, his boots crunching gravel to dust. "To finish what Liora started."
The Keeper flickered into existence atop a dumpster, his tattered coat blending with the shadows.
"Liora's dead. Her mistakes live on."
Cedric's grin widened. "Speaking of mistakes—you shouldn't have betrayed her, Keeper."
The Keeper's form rippled.
"I saved her."
"You failed her." Cedric snapped his fingers.
The alley twisted. Walls folded inward, bricks dissolving into smoke. Mara cursed as the ground liquefied, swallowing her to the knees.
Ethan leap, codex blazing, but Cedric's shadows lashed out—a whip of pure void that seared the air.
"Down!" Mara yanked Ethan aside. The whip grazed his shoulder, burning through fabric and flesh.
Ethan hissed, clutching the wound. Black curls writhed beneath his skin.
"Poetic, isn't it?" Cedric advanced. "The Duskheir's heir, killed by his own blood."
The codex screamed in Ethan's hands. Light erupted, shredding the shadows. Cedric staggered, his void-flesh sizzling.
"Run!" Mara hurled a smoke pellet. The alley filled with pungent fog.
They fled through Hollow's End's skeletal streets, Cedric's laughter echoing behind them.
"He's the Star's vessel now," Mara panted, ducking into a boarded-up chapel. "Feeds it pain. Your pain."
Ethan slumped against a pew, the codex's light dimming. The wound on his shoulder pulsed, tendrils creeping toward his heart.
"How do we stop him?"
Mara hesitated. "The Star's anchored to this world by Veyra blood. To sever it, you'd need…"
"What?"
"A sacrifice. Someone tied to its original pact."
The locket around Ethan's neck burned.
Liora's dagger. Her blood.
The chapel doors exploded.
Cedric strode in, shadows pooling at his feet.
"Sentiment always was your weakness, Mara. You should've let the Order kill him."
Mara lunged, daggers flashing. Cedric batted her aside like a gnat. She hit the altar, wood splintering.
"Pathetic." Cedric loomed over Ethan, void-blade forming in his grip. "You're just like Liora. Too scared to embrace the Star's gift."
Ethan's vision blurred. The codex's symbols seared his palms, merging with the void's poison in his veins.
Power or death.
He chose power.
Light and shadow collided.
Ethan's scream tore the air as the codex fused with the void's corruption, etching glowing sigils into his skin. Cedric's blade shattered.
"You're a fool!" Cedric roared, cracks spreading across his void-flesh. "The Star will consume you!"
"Then I'll take it with me."
Ethan slammed his palm onto Cedric's chest.
The chapel erupted in a supernova of starlight and screams.
When the light faded, Cedric was gone. Mara crouched in the rubble, bloodied but alive. Ethan knelt, his arms laced with glowing sigils and black clasp—a living paradox.
The Keeper materialized, his static-edged form flickering.
"You've made a dangerous enemy. The Star won't forget this."
"Good." Ethan stood, the codex's hum now part of his pulse. "Let it come."
Outside, dawn broke over Hollow's End. The Thirteenth Star glared on the horizon, swollen and green.
It was hungry.