A year ago, on a distant, desolate planet far removed from the known realms, something unimaginable stirred beneath a blackened sky. From the void of space, the planet appeared nothing more than a blackened husk—a dead world consumed by rot and decay.
Its surface was a twisted wasteland of charred earth and skeletal remains, a graveyard for creatures of all shapes and sizes that had once thrived on the planet's now-collapsed ecosystems. Cracks in the ground oozed thick, bubbling black liquid, which consumed everything in its path.
Magma flowed in rivers, but even the fire itself was not safe; the black goo swallowed it hungrily, a never-ending cycle of destruction.
In the center of this nightmarish landscape, an ancient skeleton lay still—a massive dragon's skeleton, half-buried in the corrupted earth. Its bones, once gleaming white with power, were now stained with the same dark essence that covered the planet. For years it had remained motionless, dead like the rest of the world.
Until the moment zeph unlocked his soul core.
Two glowing blue eyes flickered to life inside the hollow eye sockets of the dragon's skull. Black goo slithered and writhed over its bones, slowly enveloping the entire skeleton. Where there had once been flesh and muscle, now there was only this dark, sentient force—hungry and powerful.
The creature, if it could even still be called a dragon, rose from its resting place, its gaze piercing through the void of space as it sensed something in the far distance.
It looked toward a planet—a young, vibrant world, filled with life and energy. Zeph's world.
A low, guttural growl emanated from the dragon's throat, filled with hunger and malevolent glee. "That looks tasty," it rasped in a voice that echoed across the wasteland. "Time to eat."
With those words, the entire planet seemed to tremble. The black goo, which had once seeped and slithered across the surface, suddenly surged upward. Like a massive tsunami, it rose into the sky, detaching itself from the dying planet.
The land it left behind was bare, littered only with dry skeletons and rivers of magma. The planet itself groaned, its core destabilizing as the dark force that had sustained it for millennia now abandoned it.
The black goo, now free, began to condense. It shrank down, smaller and smaller, until it took the form of a creature—a sparrow-sized abomination of pure darkness.
With a shriek that cut through the vacuum of space, it shot away from the dead planet, moving faster than light itself. It sped through the cosmos, an unstoppable force of destruction with a singular goal: Zeph's planet.
Behind it, the planet it had once fed upon collapsed. The ground caved inward, the core of the planet destabilizing until it finally imploded in a catastrophic supernova. Molten rock and fire shot out in all directions, spreading debris throughout the nearby star systems. What had once been a world was now nothing but space dust, forgotten and erased.
The Present
In the quiet capital of the Viscounty of Perceiver, Viscount Aldir Perceiver sat at his desk, reviewing a pile of documents that his treasurer had submitted for his approval. The room was dimly lit, the only light coming from the flickering candles on his desk and the soft glow of the moonlight streaming in through the open window.
Outside, the night was serene. The triple moons hung low in the sky, casting a silver glow over the town below. A gentle breeze rustled through the curtains, carrying with it the cool scent of the nearby forest. Everything seemed calm, peaceful—almost idyllic.
Aldir set down the papers and rubbed his temples. Managing the viscounty was no small task, especially with the constant demands from the empire. But tonight, for the first time in weeks, he allowed himself a moment of peace.
He stood up, walking over to the window to take in the night sky, marveling at the beauty of the stars twinkling above.
But then, something caught his attention—a growing light in the sky, brighter than any star. It was small at first, like a distant shooting star. But it grew rapidly, becoming larger and larger with each passing second. Aldir's heart skipped a beat. This was no ordinary meteorite.
The light streaked toward the town with terrifying speed, its brightness intensifying until it was nearly blinding. Aldir's eyes widened in horror as the realization hit him. Whatever this was, it wasn't stopping.
With a deafening roar, the light struck the town.
The impact was instant, a cataclysmic explosion that enveloped the entire capital in a blinding flash of light. Aldir was thrown back from the window, crashing against the floor as the shockwave tore through the room.
Outside, the town was consumed in an instant, as though swallowed by the very stars themselves. The force of the impact sent a ripple through the ground, waking the birds and animals in the surrounding forests. They scattered, fleeing in panic from the epicenter of destruction.