The Sky-Barge cut through the clouds like a spear thrown by a god. Its massive iron hull, etched with runes of protection from three different kingdoms, vibrated with the hum of the anti-gravity magma core. Below, the Atlantic Ocean was a churning expanse of slate-grey water, angry and restless. Above, the sky was dying.
Simon stood at the helm, gripping the railing. He looked up. It wasn't just a metaphor anymore. The stars were literally going out. A creeping, unnatural darkness was spreading from the horizon, swallowing the constellations one by one. It was a shroud, a physical barrier being erected by the Void King to cut the earth off from the cosmic energy of the sun and stars.
"We have four hours of sunlight left," Joanna announced, walking up beside him. She was holding a sextant made of coral and glass, trying to get a reading, but her hands were shaking slightly. "After that... if the Shroud closes completely, Evelyn's powers will be dampened. Starlight needs a source, Simon. If he blocks the sky, she's running on battery power."
Simon looked back at Evelyn. She was sitting on a crate near the center of the deck, meditating. A faint, white aura pulsed around her, but it flickered every time the ship hit a pocket of turbulence. Beside her, Peace was sharpening her flame-whip, the rhythmic shhh-shhh of the whetstone the only sound cutting through the wind.
"Then we break the projector before sunset," Simon said grimly.
"We are approaching the coordinates," the Dragon Captain shouted from the navigation deck. "The Maw! Dead ahead!"
Simon looked forward.
On the horizon, the world simply... stopped.
There was no storm. There were no waves. There was a wall of fog. It wasn't the white, fluffy mist of a morning lake. It was a heavy, stagnant grey vapor that rose from the water to the stratosphere. It looked like a bruised wall of cotton. The ocean currents flowed into it and vanished. The wind blew against it and died.
"The Bermuda Triangle," Peace muttered, joining them at the rail. She sniffed the air and recoiled. "It smells like old graves. No sulfur. No salt. Just... dust."
"The sensors are dead," the Captain reported, his voice rising in panic. "Compasses are spinning. The magma-core is fluctuating. We are flying blind."
"Not blind," Simon said. He tapped the triangular mark on his chest. It was glowing softly Gold, Teal, and Blue swirling around a White center. "The Void is loud. I can hear it singing."
He turned to his army. The deck was packed with the elite of three nations. Dragons in red armor, Wolves in grey leather, Merfolk in blue scale-mail. They looked terrified. They were apex predators in their own domains, but facing this wall of nothingness stripped away their bravado.
"LISTEN TO ME!" Simon's voice, amplified by the Alpha command, boomed over the deck. "What lies ahead is not just a storm. It is a psychological weapon. The Void does not just attack the body; it attacks the mind. It will show you your worst fears. It will try to make you turn on each other."
He walked down the line, meeting their eyes.
"Do not trust your eyes," Simon warned. "Trust the Link. I will hold the connection open. If you feel cold... if you feel alone... reach for the White Light. Reach for me. We go in together, and we come out together."
He returned to the helm. "Take us in."
The Sky-Barge surged forward.
The moment the prow hit the fog, sound vankished. The roar of the wind, the hum of the engine, the heartbeat of the crew it was all silenced instantly.
Simon blinked.
One second, he was standing on the crowded deck of the Sky-Barge.
The next second, he was alone.
The ship was gone. The ocean was gone.
He was standing in the ruins of the Moonlight Pack House. The timber was burning with cold, violet fire. Bodies lay scattered on the grass—his father, his mother, the pack.
"You were too slow," a voice whispered.
Simon spun around. Standing there was... himself.
But it wasn't the Simon he knew. This version had scales that were rusted and black. His eyes were bleeding Void-energy. He held Wave-Cutter and the blade was dripping with silver blood Starlight blood.
"You thought you could balance them?" the Shadow-Simon sneered. "Wolf. Dragon. Shark. They are enemies, little Prince. You can't make fire and water kiss without creating steam that burns everyone you love."
The Shadow-Simon stepped aside. Behind him lay three bodies.
Evelyn, her light extinguished, her chest caved in.
Peace, frozen solid, her fire turned to ice.
Joanna, desiccated and dry on the burning grass.
"You did this," Shadow-Simon hissed. "The Tribrid is unstable. You lost control. You ate them."
Simon felt a scream rise in his throat. The grief was physical. It slammed into him, buckling his knees. The vision was so real the smell of the burning bodies, the silence of the dead valley. I failed. I am the monster.
He fell to his knees, his hands gripping the ash-covered ground.
*'No...'*
A tiny spark flared in his chest. The mark. The Triangle.
'This isn't real.'
Simon closed his eyes. He stopped looking with the Wolf. He stopped feeling with the Dragon. He stopped sensing with the Ocean.
He reached out with the Soul-Link.
It was faint, buried under layers of static and fear, but it was there. Three distinct heartbeats. They were terrified, they were screaming in their own minds, but they were alive.
Simon opened his eyes. They glowed White.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
He unleashed a pulse of White Energy. It wasn't an attack outward; it was an internal purge. The shockwave shattered the illusion.
The burning Pack House dissolved into grey mist. The dead bodies vanished.
Simon was back on the deck of the Sky-Barge. But it was chaos.
Warriors were screaming, swinging weapons at empty air. A Dragon guard was clawing at his own eyes. A Wolf was curled in a ball, whimpering.
And his mates were trapped.
Vignette 1: The Bird in the Cage
Peace was no longer on the ship. She was in a cage. A small, iron birdcage suspended over a black abyss.
She was tiny. Weak. Her wings were clipped, the stumps raw and bleeding. Her fire was gone; when she tried to breathe, only cold smoke came out.
Outside the cage, giants were laughing.
"Look at the little lizard," King Marcus's voice boomed, distorted and cruel. "She thinks she is a Dragon. She is just a spark. A disappointment."
"You let the fire go out, daughter," the giant Marcus sneered, poking the cage with a finger the size of a tree. "You are cold. Useless."
Peace screamed, throwing herself against the bars. "I AM THE HEIR! I AM FIRE!"
But the bars didn't melt. They grew colder. The cold seeped into her skin, turning her copper scales grey. She was freezing. She was dying. She was nothing.
'Peace.'
The voice was warm. It didn't sound like her father. It sounded like... him.
'You are not a spark. You are the Inferno.'
A hand reached through the mist—not the giant hand, but a human hand covered in gold scales. It grabbed the bars of the cage.
Heat real, blistering heat flooded the illusion. The iron bars glowed red, then white, then melted into slag.
Peace gasped, the illusion shattering. She was standing on the deck, her whip ignited, ready to strike an invisible enemy. Simon was standing in front of her, his hand on her shoulder, grounding her.
"Come back to me," Simon ordered.
Peace blinked, the tears evaporating from her hot cheeks. "Simon?"
"Focus," Simon said. "Help me find the others."
Vignette 2: The Dried River
Joanna was crawling.
She was in a desert. An endless expanse of white, scorching sand. The sun beat down on her, a cruel white eye.
She had no legs. She had her tail, but it was dry, the scales flaking off like dead skin. She dragged herself forward, gasping. Her throat was full of dust.
Water. I need water.
But there was none. The ocean was a myth. She was alone on the surface, dying of exposure.
"Just a fish out of water," a voice mocked. It was Mark, the traitor. He stood over her, pouring a canteen of water onto the sand, just out of her reach. "You don't belong here, Princess. You are just a puddle waiting to dry up."
Joanna reached out, her hand trembling. "Please..."
"Beg," Mark laughed. "Admit you are weak."
'Joanna.'
The voice rippled through the heat haze. It sounded like the tide.
'The Ocean is not a place. It is blood. It is in you.'
A wave crashed over the desert. Not water from the sky, but water erupting from the sand itself. Simon stood there, holding Wave-Cutter, the blade dripping with seafoam.
He offered her a hand.
"Take my hand," Simon said. "The tide is rising."
Joanna grabbed his hand. The desert dissolved into mist. She was back on the ship, clutching her trident so hard the shaft had cracked.
She gasped, inhaling the damp fog. "I... I was dry."
"You're safe," Simon said, pulling her to his side. "Peace, guard her. I have to get Evelyn."
Vignette 3: The Starless Night
Evelyn was floating in nothingness.
There was no up, no down. No ground, no sky. Just absolute, suffocating darkness.
She tried to summon her light. She clapped her hands. She screamed the incantations.
Nothing happened.
"The light is dead," a thousand whispers hissed in her ear. "The stars have gone out, little girl. You are just a battery that ran out of charge."
She felt the darkness pressing against her skin. It was oily. It was heavy. It was trying to enter her mouth, her nose, her eyes.
"Simon?" she called out.
"He can't hear you," the whispers laughed. "He is a creature of the Void now. He left you in the dark. Because that is all you are. A shadow without a sun."
Evelyn curled into a ball, floating in the void. Despair washed over her. I am useless. I am just a flashlight in a world that has learned to eat light.
'Evelyn.'
It wasn't a voice. It was a heartbeat. Thump-thump.
'You are not the reflection. You are the Source.'
A beam of light cut through the darkness. It wasn't white; it was Prismatic. Gold, Blue, Teal.
Simon appeared in the void, glowing like a supernova. He didn't reach for her. He knelt before her.
"Light me up, Star," Simon whispered. "I can't see without you."
Evelyn looked at him. He needed her. The Alpha, the Dragon, the King... he was kneeling in the dark, asking for her help.
The despair vanished.
"I am the Starlight," Evelyn whispered.
She opened her eyes. They blazed violet.
"LUX AETERNA!"
She didn't just glow. She exploded.
The explosion of Starlight on the deck of the Sky-Barge was blinding. It hit the fog bank like a nuclear detonation. The grey mist shrieked an actual, vocal scream of pain and burned away.
The illusions shattered for everyone.
The Dragon guards stopped clawing at their eyes. The Wolves stood up, shaking their heads. The Merfolk stopped gasping for air.
The fog cleared.
The Sky-Barge burst out of the wall of mist and into the center of the Maw.
The sight that greeted them silenced the entire crew.
They were in the eye of the storm. The ocean here was calm, black as oil. Above, the sky was completely open, but there were no stars—only a swirling vortex of purple clouds.
And in the center of the black ocean, rising from the depths, was the Citadel of the Void.
It wasn't a building. It was a colossal spire made of twisted black metal and bone, towering thousands of feet into the air. It pulsed with a necrotic violet light.
Floating around the spire were hundreds of Void Wyverns. Swimming at its base were Leviathan-Hollows.
And at the very top of the spire, pulsing like a lighthouse beam, was the Eye.
"We found it," Simon said, standing at the helm with his three mates. He was breathing hard, the mental strain of anchoring the crew taking its toll.
"That's big," Peace noted, hefting her spear.
"It's an abomination," Joanna spat, checking her hydration levels.
"It's the dark," Evelyn said, her hands still glowing. "And we are going to burn it down."
Simon drew Wave-Cutter. The blade hummed, sensing the massive concentration of enemy magic.
"Captain," Simon said to the Dragon pilot. "Ramming speed."
"Sir?" the Captain asked, eyeing the massive fortress.
"You heard me," Simon growled, his eyes shifting to the vertical slits of the Dragon. "Target the base of the spire. We are going to knock on the front door."
The Sky-Barge surged forward, engines screaming.
As they approached, the Eye atop the tower swiveled. The yellow gaze locked onto the ship.
A voice, booming and terrible, filled the minds of everyone on board.
"WELCOME, CHILDREN. I HAVE PREPARED A GRAVE FOR EACH OF YOU."
"He's polite," Peace grinned, cracking her whip. "I like him. I'm going to enjoy killing him."
"Shields up!" Simon commanded.
A beam of violet energy shot from the Eye, aimed directly at the Sky-Barge.
"Evelyn! Now!"
Evelyn raised her hands. "PRISMATIC SHIELD!"
She didn't use just her magic. She channeled Simon's link. The shield that formed around the ship wasn't white. It was a swirling barrier of Fire, Water, and Light.
The violet beam hit the shield.
BOOM.
The ship shook violently, but the shield held.
"Hold the line!" Simon roared. "We are the Alliance! And we do not break!"
The Sky-Barge crashed into the lower levels of the Citadel, metal screeching against bone-stone. The impact threw everyone forward.
The ramp dropped.
"FOR THE MOONLIGHT! FOR THE FLAME! FOR THE TIDE!"
Simon led the charge. He leaped from the ramp onto the black obsidian walkway of the Citadel, his mates right beside him.
They were four against a kingdom of darkness. But as Simon looked at the endless waves of shadows rushing to meet them, he didn't feel fear.
He felt the balance.
The Wolf howled.
The Dragon burned.
The Ocean crashed.
And the Star shone.
The invasion of the Void had begun.