The world was a deep gloomy grey, oppressive as it carried with it the acrid stench of burnt flesh and ozone, like a storm was about to happen or had just passed.

  Hot—almost scalding — heat marinated the atmosphere, generated, no doubt, from the thick mist that blanketed everything.

  Damien grimaced, idly wishing that this mist not obstruct his view, and luckily, to his surprise, it seemed to disperse subtly at that moment, reducing in intensity.

  Its dispersion opened his view to the swirling, turbulent gray skies, with a sea of deeper grey flames roiling angrily like the surface of a stormy ocean.

  The land was a vast graveyard filled with giant bones—most of which were so huge Damien had to tilt his head upwards to see where they peaked—and tall ashy mounds that reeked of death and rot.

  "Nice place you've got here, eh?" A voice said, snapping Damien from his grim awe to look at the withered-looking old man standing a few feet away from him.

  His hair was a stark white wisp, and his skin clung to his bones like dried up parchment, brittle with signs of age, almost like a mummy, rather than a living breathing being.

  The old man wore a black robe and was leaning heavily on a long twisted wooden staff with his yellow teeth opening up into a smile.

  "Hello Damien."

  "Old man Tesulsn," he greeted. "It's been a while. I didn't expect to see you so soon."

  The mysterious old man raised an eyebrow. "Didn't we just see about two weeks ago?"

  "Oh, you're correct," Damien said slowly. So much had happened in the past few weeks that it seemed months had passed. "So what are you doing here?"

  The man didn't answer. Instead he asked his own question. "Do you know where we are?"

  Damien looked around once again at the vast graveyard filled with the titanic bones of long dead creatures he had no names for. He glanced up at the turmoiled sky, an ominous sight for whatever reason.

  "I take it we're in a mind scape—my mind scape," Damien answered. It didn't take long to realize. "Though I'm confused as to why it looks like this. Almost like my soul space, except my soul space doesn't have these bones and ashes of dead creatures, and it also doesn't smell like death itself just took a dump in it."

  Come to think of it, was there air in his soul space? Damien shrugged, oh well...

  The old man nodded slowly as he too looked around. "In its nascent state, the mind scape takes on a feature closer to the potential of the being, or exactly like it... Like a mirror into your future."

  Damien glanced around with a skeptical look. "Don't tell me I'll become one of these bones in the future."

  The old man chuckled. "That would be a sight to see." He shook his head. "But no, the state of this place is a doorway into future your potential, what you could unleash in the near or distant future."

  Damien paused his thoughts right there and then, and then with a new look he took in the many subtle details he hadn't taken in before. The cracked and shattered titanic bones, many of which had the indents of a fist on their surface, like somebody had punched through the heads and into their cranium.

  He took in the land and the deep long trench that ran along its surface and into the distance, leaking a heat greater than those up top. He took in the deep cracks and tiny fissures that ran through the air, and the tendrils of black smoke that spilled out of them.

  Damien took all of this in with widened eyes. "I did all this?"

  "You could, if your path goes the way it should."

  He turned to the old man. "Why do you sound so unsure?"

  Old man Tesulsn raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think so?"

  "Don't play cow with me, old man. You know something. Stop taking me on a wild goose chase and just tell me."

  There was a brief moment of silence after Damien's outburst, enough to make anybody else shiver in fear of what they'd just done. But Damien didn't, instead he stared at the old man, waiting for his answer.

  He wouldn't claim to know the old man very well, but he seemed like someone who rarely got angry, if at all he did. Old man Tesulsn seemed like one of those ancient sages who lived centuries in the mountains, away from civilization as they spewed out random cryptic words.

  Eventually, the man spoke. "I assume you know about the recent schism between the Celestials?"

  Damien frowned. Sure, he'd known that a fight had happened and that The Celestial of the Air had been killed, Sundered, whatever. But he didn't realize it was so big that a schism had been formed.

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  "Only a little," he said. "I know that Celestials were Sundered, Celestials like the Seal of Air."

  The old man nodded. "Well, The Grand Celestial, Throne of Divination, found itself on the negative end of the fight—'Sundered', as you say," he chuckled with a strange look. "Because of this, the power has now been left unattained, which has made everything that has to do with Divination a bit... Wonky, among other things."

  Damien frowned and then asked. "Was that the reason the hollow wasn't detected before it was summoned?"

  Old man Tesulsn smiled. "Smart, I like it." He nodded. "Yes, intrusions like the one taking place now should have been long detected before it happened. If not by the Sovereigns of the local star nations then the Cults of Order, Divination, Karma, light, and even Darkness."

  "Darkness? What does darkness have to do with far-seeing?"

  The man waved his hands dismissively. "Topic for another time. So as I was saying, paths are changing, destinies are dying. Whatever protection your father thought he laid on you is sure to crumble at any time, and then his enemies will come for you."

  Sighing, Damien rolled his eyes. "Enough with the doomsday talk! Merak and Gray can't stop spewing doom and death, and now you?!" He narrowed his eyes on the old man. "Are you in cahoots with them? Did Gray put you up to this?"

  "Good that you've had sufficient warning, then," the old man said, again, blatantly ignoring Damien's question.

  Damien sighed. "Did you come here just to spill Doom warnings or for something else? 'cause I don't believe you took a trip from wherever distant land you go whenever you aren't here to simply spill some cryptic words about my death and destruction." He stared at the man with a serious look. "Why are you here, old man?"

  "Why, of course, to watch a show!" He smiled with that frustrating knowing look of his, like he alone was privy to knowledge the rest of the world wasn't.

  "Uhh," Damien began, making a show of looking around. "I'm lost. What show is this?"

  "Don't worry, it will all be clear to you any second now." He smiled. "Ahh, it seems your fellow actors are now arriving."

  Damien frowned and glanced around. "What fellow—" he began, but when he turned back, the old man was gone.

  He shook his head. "How does he keep doing that?"

  Before Damien could ponder the answer to that question, multiple vague silhouettes walked out of the misty curtain that covered the land, clothed in pressure so intense that the world as he saw shivered.

  ***

  Up above the world, the battle was going... less than expected. With her appearance and the subsequent departure of both dragons, Kairen had expected that the hollow would follow soon after, falling either by the hand of the Desolate Duchess or her fellow Herald.

  That... Wasn't so certain now.

  The star system of the Verrille home world shook and cracked as a tremendous amount of power flashed around.

  Shadow blanketed space, turning it a deep hue of twilight as it fought for supremacy over the void black essence that continued to seep into the system, corroding space itself with its eroding substance.

  White gold energy flashed after it, repairing and renewing everything that was broken and corrupted, and Infusing life back into them.

  That wasn't all the life ascendant did, though.

  Sickly green energy warped space for light-years around as it sought authority over corrosion itself, grasping against the one made of black essence. But Kairen knew that was a tall order.

  In its base state, life was not a corrosive energy, while the essence of the unreal, on the other hand, was corrosion made manifest. It was like the concept of fire dragging against that of light for light itself, just because in its warped state, it could generate light.

  And although Kairen knew that the life ascendant wasn't going to take over the corrosive essence of the unreal in the long run, she still made the Hollow fight for it.

  The mere presence of another will contending against it slowed the creature significantly and kept its essence from devouring them all.

  Duchess Attrevia moved in, trailed along by the Sun spirit of the system. Together, they rained destruction on such magnitude that the atmosphere actively boiled and crackled for light years around.

  With her deep understanding over the concept of destruction, Attrevia split and sectioned off the portion of space occupied by the two planets away from the greater whole.

  This first line barrier, enhanced by the invigorating power of Order, prevented the planets from being reduced to dust as a result of the backwash from the powers released.

  Massive whips of solar flares, so hot that they melted space, tore into the dark territory of the hollow, lashing deep only to be met by the essence ruination that snuffed them out like a flame to water.

  The Desolate Duchess came in next, warping space and time as she flickered from one place to another, flicking her ordinary looking walking stick and shattering space all around in a show of utter wrath.

  Worryingly, the woman was pushed back the more the battle went on, but she wasn't deterred. Destruction and Ruination might have shared similar characteristics, but only one paved a way for creation to take place.

  The Duchess, weakened significantly from fighting with just one third of her full power, made a truly awe inspiring display as she moved around, seemingly without problem as she leisurely delivered hits that ignored time and space to arrive instantaneously at the location of her target.

  Through this all, Kairen weaved from left to right, strengthening and reinforcing the defenses laid on the duo planets as well as reinforcing the powers of the other Primarchs.

  She could've taken on a front line role, she knew, but against a creature such as this, attacking would've required every bit of her will and essence, both of which could've been doled out into strengthening the different aspects of this battle.

  Down below, one of the planets was in full chaos as a planetary invasion took place, demons from the Mind clan pouring out In waves as they laid siege to the powerful Lese House.

  Her heart wanted to interfere, but her mind as well as the rules set down stayed her hands.

  The Cosmic rules of war hadn't been broken yet, and she wasn't allowed to interfere until it was.

  Kairen turned her attention back to the battle just as a soul wrenching scream echoed out from the hollow, washing against the attacks of the other Ascendants and swallowing them in an ocean of inky black darkness.

  And then blood red energy shone from the wave of inky darkness, increasing the dreadful aura and the deep sense of unease that Kairen felt.

  The life ascendant retreated, summoning her Territory into reality and strengthening her defenses manifold. The Duchess did the same, a landscape of shattered earth and ruined crimson skies rising to surround her for light-years apart.

  The light of the Sun glowed as it too increased its influence on the space, heating space so much that the essence of space melted around it, destroying any paths the ruination wave of the hollow could use to get to it.

  All their defenses stood, withstanding the wave of ruination like a rock against an immense tide. All except Narkyra Verrille, whose Territory was swallowed up in the wave of red darkness, and then she too was consumed.