The world was quiet again.
The Citadel of Woe had fallen, and with it, the shadow of King Mordain was erased from the living world. Gideon stood at the edge of the collapsed fortress, watching the early morning sun pour golden light over the distant hills. The wind carried the scent of dew and ash. His armor, once gleaming with the stolen spirits of the fallen, now bore the dull stains of blood and battle.
Lilith sat on a rock nearby, her knees tucked to her chest. Her silver hair fluttered with each breeze, and her crimson eyes stared at the ruins behind them. Selene and Darius were tending to their wounds in silence, the weight of survival heavy on their shoulders.
And yet, something felt unfinished.
Gideon closed his eyes. For a moment, he could still hear Lina's voice—soft, distant, like a whisper on the wind.
"Thank you, Papa. And thank you for loving again."
But the world wasn't healed. It had only begun to bleed differently.
The people they saved welcomed the fall of the Citadel, cheering the death of the Eternal Warden. Villages lit bonfires and chanted Gideon's name, "The Ghost Slayer," but behind their eyes was fear—of what he had become, and what the world might become without its greatest villain to keep the other monsters in check.
Three weeks had passed.
Gideon and his companions wandered the lower kingdoms, now free of Mordain's influence, but not free of chaos. Without the anchor of fear, the demons that once served under Mordain scattered like wildfire. Bandits masquerading as rebel kings seized power. Cultists emerged from the shadows to fill the vacuum. And worst of all, strange phenomena began occurring—entire villages disappearing overnight, rivers running black, and the dead whispering from beneath the earth.
Lilith had started waking from nightmares, screaming.
"I saw her again," she whispered one night, curled beside Gideon. "A woman with eyes like mine… She was smiling, but it felt like a trap."
Gideon wrapped his arm around her, his grip strong but trembling.
"You're safe. I'm here."
But he was lying—to her, and to himself.
The mark on his chest, the Mark of the Void, had not faded after Mordain's death. It had begun pulsing again—stronger. Hungrier.
Selene noticed first.
"You're losing sleep," she said one evening, watching him sharpen his blade by the campfire. "You think it's over, but you know it's not. You're still changing."
He didn't respond. He couldn't. Because deep inside, something was changing. His reflection sometimes moved before he did. His shadow lingered too long. He heard voices in the wind when he walked alone—voices he didn't recognize.
One night, in the ruins of a forgotten temple, Gideon found a mural hidden beneath cracked stone. It depicted a man with eyes like his, covered in the same mark—the Voidwalker. The inscription read:
"He who takes from the dead shall never walk among the living again."
Lilith touched the mural, and a strange glow bloomed around her fingertips.
"She's watching us," she whispered, eyes wide. "She's waking up."
"Who?" Selene asked, her hand resting on her blade.
Lilith turned to them slowly.
"My mother."
The fire flickered low. The group exchanged stunned glances. Gideon felt a cold wave rise through his spine.
Lilith had never spoken of her past, not even once. They had found her in the aftermath of the Demon Lord's fall, and she had never remembered anything—until now.
"She was sealed away," Lilith continued, her voice distant. "Trapped by Mordain. But he wasn't trying to protect the world. He was trying to keep her power for himself."
Darius knelt by the inscription, reading it again. "This isn't just a warning. It's prophecy. If what Lilith is saying is true, then we didn't end the threat… We may have freed something worse."
Gideon's grip on his sword tightened.
The darkness he had fought so hard to extinguish wasn't gone.
It had simply changed shape.
Elsewhere…
In a cave hidden deep beneath the ruined lands of the north, ancient chains cracked like old bones. A cocoon of blackened crystal pulsed with life. And inside it… something opened its eyes.
Crimson eyes.