Chapter 325: Report to the Loom

Starlight and white fire fought over Selene’s body as the last of Korrath’s core entered her veins. The empty space where the rift spat her out still danced with the unstable energy. She remained on her knees for a long moment, eyes downcast, hands pressing into the glowing hole in her chest. The foreign power inside of her continued reshaping her.

Grief coiled sharp and cold at the back of her throat. All of the pulses of energy reminded her of him. His stubborn insistence that she would live, that she had to, the wet warmth of his mouth against her skin as he forced the core into her hands, the last words pressed into her skull before he shoved her through the rift. She let the memories burn. Let them turn to ash and fuel and something stronger.

The white fire flared along her starlight in long, permanent lines. The black hollows of her eyes held small embers that would not be extinguished. As she pushed herself to her feet, the air around her bent at odd angles. The twin sensations of erasure and termination had not disappeared, but they had fused together into something much narrower. A thought could unmake and end everything at once.

Selene flexed her fingers experimentally. The space around her rippled.

She sent out a narrow channel of communication, encryption humming at the edges, the kind only the Apex Spire used for its most delicate messages.

The other end answered after a moment of fighting through the sealed channels of the outside universe.

Vaelor’s presence pressed at her own, steady as always. "Report."

Selene’s voice sounded steady when she replied, though the embers in her line of sight burned brightest. "Korrath is dead. He removed his own core and forced it into me before tearing open a new rift and shoving me through. The hybrid signature we were tracking was a high level decoy. The forces defending it were beyond expectations. Several units acted at progenitor levels, and they had been cooperating for a long time. One particularly strange entity of a pale color resisted general erasure protocols."

There was a long pause on the other end. When Vaelor spoke again, his voice was colder. "Korrath is dead."

Selene’s fingers twitched slightly. "Yes."

"And you carry his core."

"I have integrated it. My power levels have expanded."

Another pause. Vaelor sounded almost grim when he spoke again. "Aeloria sealed off that universe for a reason. We assumed she was hiding and recovering, but she has been growing quite without our guidance. It seems that you were not attacked by a single force meant to kill one of my Reavers, but an organized group of enemies. Your decoy took both of you out at great effort, and the forces that finished the task were able to withstand a hunter’s charges before retrieving Korrath’s body."

Selene remained silent as he spoke. She let him draw his own conclusions.

Vaelor’s voice grew thoughtful. Almost to himself, he murmured, "What manner of universe has Aeloria cultivated? One that holds not only one of my Reavers’ cores, but an entire collection of subordinates that could withstand a Loom’s erosion? Even the decoy hybrid was necessary for your retrieval. It took both of you nearly to your limits to kill a single opponent, and the rest who fought you had to abandon Korrath’s body to withdraw."

The communications channel rippled as Vaelor apparently pushed himself vertical, staring out at the sealed space where the battle had been. "She has been busy indeed. It seems that very little interference from the Loom has touched that region for some time. It is hardly just a grieving sister who has hidden herself away, but a hunter who has been given leave to operate without interference for far too long."

Selene’s new edges of whiter fire flared once in warning. "Orders?"

Vaelor’s voice softened almost imperceptibly. "Steady your new form, and then return to the hunt. Do not engage the main hybrid until you have scouted his defenses. Korrath’s death is not meant to be repeated. If you feel the need to pursue further, report to me first so I might understand what Aeloria has uncovered in her time of solitude."

"Understood."

Her channel shut off. Selene stood alone once more in the broken space where the rift had tossed her out. The foreign energy burned and coiled inside her, reshaping her with every heartbeat. The grief had not dulled in the slightest. If anything, it had become worse, twisted into something sharper and much more dangerous. She turned her thoughts toward the distant Vampire Realm and the deeper seals beyond it, the ones that still kept the true hybrid contained within.

Korrath’s body and his final gift had bought her a future and a step up in power. She would not waste either.

Far, far away, Aeloria still watched Lucifer meditate, the echoes of the Reaver’s demise still settling in her bones. The universe she had cultivated revealed its secrets to her slowly, as always.

Selene turned, white fire trailing behind her, and carved a new path through the outer defenses. The second of the Reavers moved with renewed purpose, carrying the last portion of the first with her.

Elsewhere

The residual energies did not dissipate cleanly.

Termination, a violent ripping of a core, and the heavy signatures of Origin Clan fighting at progenitor-equivalent levels, plus an encrypted burst from Selene about Loom itself, all sent their echoes rippling through the seals on the edges of existence. The accumulated pulses did not simply vanish into the void. They resonated.

Far beyond the sealed region, in a place beyond reckoning, something ancient stirred.

The First Progenitor opened her eyes.

She had been sleeping through eons of self-imposed stasis, and the disturbance was enough to send a ripple of awareness through her consciousness. The recent tumult had potential, certainly, but it was the death of a Loom Reaver and the violent conjoining of his core that had cut through her slumber like a dagger. Her awareness stretched out, probing at the sealed away region where Aeloria’s creation had been hidden away from the rest of existence.

Curiosity took hold.

Within the starfire domain, Aeloria’s head snapped up as her awareness met a second presence. The meditative state of her companion remained undisturbed, but the feel of something vast and patient watching over the outer edges of her creation sent a flush of apprehension over her

The First Progenitor had taken notice.

Aeloria’s lips compressed into a thin line. She had anticipated the First Progenitor’s reaction to Korrath’s death, not that it had been immediate. The death of the Loom Reaver and his subordinate was unfortunate, but necessary. She had expected few things to come out of it, but a reaction so soon after was not one of them. At least, not until several more such displays had taken place.

She turned her gaze from the slumbering form of Lucifer to the distant, unreachable void once more. The game had just gained another player.