Kalosýni’s mind went straight to work.

He needed a way to create an enhanced Reu without magic, which was impossible.

His powers as an autarch allowed him to freely move through the void, but that was pretty much it.

Kraeven crossed his arms as one of the saepenar helped the other regrow its hand.

“Kraeven,” Kalos called.

“Yes?”

“I need you to create something for me,” Kalos said as he got up.

“What?” Kraeven asked as he followed Kalos to a point just in front of the throne.

With the tap of a foot, Kalos opened a portal to the veiled repository, much to Kraeven’s surprise.

“Follow me,” Kalos said before walking into the portal with Keema in hand.

“What is this place?” Kraeven asked as they stepped into what looked like a gigantic crater.

Kraeven looked up to see that the sky was completely red and the air was filled with all manner of screams.

“This is the veiled repository. A chaotic realm filled with agents of chaos and destruction. This is where Anton locked away beings that would surely have destroyed our world, were it not for his foresight.” Kalos said as he led Kraeven toward a dark prism at the centre of the crater.

He gently placed Keema down before warping the space around her, reducing the noise she heard.

Kalos then lifted the rather large black rectangle prism out of the ground, revealing its true form.

It was hollow and had a peculiar cut-out near its base.

“What is that?” Kraeven asked.

“It’s a machine that I create to enhance my Reu’s,” Kalos said with an expressionless face.

“I absorbed the void and stuck it between a ton of light and darkness. This resulted in a weapon that could bend the very laws of the universe.” Kalos said as he brushed away some of the dirt that still clung to the prisms dark face.

“And it still wasn’t enough?” Kraeven asked.

Kalos sighed before offering Keema his hand. Keema accepted it before the two returned to the still open portal and they entered it to find two saepenar kneeling.

“Mmm… I need your help.” Kalos said as the two raised their heads.

“It would be our greatest pleasure.” The one to the right said.

“First off, you two need names. Mmm… Kiley sounds about right, no?” Kalos suggested as Kraeven approached.

“A most wonderful name,” Kiley said with a bow.

“Good. Any suggestions Kraeven?” Kalos asked.

“Mmm… Hima sounds nice, I guess.” Kraeven said.

“Good. Now, I need one of you to look for a certain magical blueprint within me.” Kalos said.

“Does this have anything to do with the hole in the machine?” Kraeven asked.

“Yes. To kill an autarch, you need the void and I somehow managed to create a device that pulls and stored the void. Although the process itself can take up to two years.” Kalos said with a sigh.

He then felt something tugging at his worn clothes.

He looked to find a yawning Keema and so he walked up to the throne, sat Keema down and covered her in his jacket.

Kalos then return to the saepenar’s and sat on the cold hard obsidian floor.

“The process should only require one of you,” Kalos said, prompting the saepenar to look at each other.

“I’ll do it,” Kiley said before sitting in front of Kalos.

The two looked at each other, although Kalosýni’s gaze was slightly lower.

“Ok, I’m going to send out what I assume are my divine particles. Use your fluffy things to detect them and we’ll go from there.” Kalos said to which Kiley nodded.

Kalosýni’s eyes began glowing red as sparks of red appeared in his neck-length hair.

Kiley closed her eyes and focused all of her attention on Kalosýni’s presence.

Then she realized that he didn’t have one.

No matter how long she waited or how hard she focused, it felt as though Kalos wasn’t even there.

Kiley opened her eyes to see that Kalos was indeed there.

His red particles gently floated towards her, but no matter how many floated by, she couldn’t sense any of them and so she allowed her antennae to flare out as they searched for Kalosýni’s essence.

Then suddenly, darkness.

.

..

Kiley awoke above an endless sea of death and chaos.

Her eyes trembled as they fell upon Kalos, except he hung in the air, bound by chains that reached out into the infinite.

His scar ridden body and closed eyes seared themselves into Kiley’s mind, but she shook herself out of her trance before looking down.

Within the sea of corpses and death, Kiley spotted a peculiar blue light.

It flickered slightly, but it was bright enough to shine throw the mass of dead.

Kiley took a deep breath, or the astral equivalent, before jumping into the ocean of death.

She was immediately assaulted by an excruciating level of pain as the souls of the dead clawed away at her essence.

They scratched, bit and tore but Kiley didn’t stop her descent toward the dim blue light.

She reached out to touch and in that moment, it felt as though she was one with Kalos.

.

..

Kiley awoke and found herself in Kalosýni’s arms.

She looked up into his deep dark red eyes and awkwardly got sat up on her own after realizing that Kraeven and her sister were staring at her.

“Well? Did it work?” Kraeven asked.

Kiley raised her hands before sending a certain amount of darkness into them.

She then created a medium-sized black device.

It looked as though it was made from the same stuff that made up the spire of sin.

Kalos rested his head against the armrest of the throne before sighing.

“Creating it is the easy part. Gathering enough of the void is going to take forever.” Kalos said.

“Mmm… about that. I’m pretty sure I could reduce the time spent on harvesting.”

“Says the man who doesn’t even know how the device works,” Kalos said as he closed his eyes.

“I’m serious. My proficiency with darkness is much higher than yours. We also have to factor in the fact that you were under a ton of stress at the time.” Kraeven said, prompting Kalos to open an eye.

“Oh? Then let us see what you can do. Pump a ton of darkness into the little sucker. It needs to be capable of withstanding literal cosmic amounts of power.” Kalos said as he crossed his arms.

Kraeven nodded Kiley handed him the device.

He closed his eyes as he analysed its magical structure.

“Wait a minute… this is just a box with a bunch of pincers in it,” Kraeven said as he shot Kalos a sceptic look.

“Uh- yes. Honestly, there is ingenuity in its simplicity.” Kalos said while comically shifting his eyes.

Kraeven rolled his eyes before resuming his analysis on the device.

“Ok, I’ve found several ways I can enhance the device's yields,” Kraeven said as he sent even more darkness into the device.

This time, the thing rattled and shook in his hands. Countless holes appeared on its surface and it plumes of black smoke poured out of them.

“Ok, this should be enough,” Kraeven said.

Kalos nodded before slowly raising his right hand, creating a small hole in space that threatened to suck everything into it, but Kraeven hurriedly stuck the open end of the device into the hole, effectively plugging it.

Loud hissing noises then started coming out from the device as it worked.

“That’s new,” Kalos commented.

“Yes. You see, I assumed the reason why it took you so long to harvest enough of the void was that the pincers wore away as time passed. At some point they became dull and so I decided to implement a system of vents that cools that pincers and allows any of us to pump darkness directly into the device, strengthening the pincers.” Kraeven said.

“Good. Actually, very good. In fact, wouldn’t this be doubly faster if the device had a constant supply of darkness?” Kalos asked as he stood up.

“Probably.”

“Good. Oi, Kiley and Hima. I need you two to feed this thing until Kraeven and I return.” Kalos said as he opened a portal into what looked like Nesrafaar.

“What’s there in Nesrafaar?” Kraeven asked as Kalos placed Keema in a separate space.

He didn’t trust the saepenar enough to leave them with his little one and so he placed her in what could be considered a special pocket.

“An enhanced Reu is made up of three parts. An extreme amount of darkness, an extreme amount of light and trapped between the two is the void. We have the darkness and the void.” Kalos said as they stepped into the realm of light.

“Now we need the light,” Kalos said as his eyes beheld a vast megalopolis in the sky.

Pure white buildings floated precariously in the air, although they weren’t floating.

Kalos looked down and saw that the ground he stood on was invisible. Well, invisible to him.

Anyone with magic could probably see the faint lines that dictated what and what not to step on, but Kalos raised his nose, took a deep breath and sighed before a crushing feeling overcame him.

This sent out a massive wave of red particles and two spread out across the realm.

It wasn’t long before elafriá started approaching from every conceivable direction.

They all wore their armour and wielded their weapons, but Kalos didn’t move.

“What are you and what brings you here?” One of the elafriá asked loudly as more made their way toward Kalos, who was about to open his mouth to speak when two elafriá popped out of the crowd.

“My lord!” They both said simultaneously.

“Err… who are you again?” Kalos asked as he placed his hand on Rue’s hilt.

“My name is Rigel, I was spared by one of your people in the past,” Rigel said.

“And my name is Yvonne. You spared my life during the bloody battles of the Nadir war.” Yvonne said.

Kalos tilted his head as he tried remembering the two beautiful white-haired individuals.

“You know that thing?” One of the elafriá asked.

“Isn’t he that human who massacred our leaders?” another asked.

“Not likely. I can’t sense any magic coming from him.”

“Oh, I’m that man alright and I did try to reason with you suicidal lot, but you wouldn’t listen,” Kalos said.

Silence followed as the elafriá put the pieces together.

“You have yet to answer our question. What brings you here?” The elafriá from before asked.

“I need light and a lot of it. I hope you don’t mind, but I’ll be taking a chunk of this realm-"

“Ludacris!” The elafriá yelled.

“First you kill our paragons, then you slaughter us-"

“You all literally jumped to your deaths, but sure.”

“- then you came back and say that you’re going to take a piece of our home. You truly are a monster. Brothers! Attack-"

Kalos raised his hand, locking all of the elafriá in space.

Kraeven’s eyes widened as the elafriá were emitting massive amounts of magical energy, it’s just that none of it was heading toward Kalos.

Kalos fiddled with Reu as he looked around.

“Also, it’s not like I’m taking a dangerous amount. Although I don’t know what amount I’m looking for either.” Kalos said.

“So this could be potentially dangerous,” Kraeven said.

“Yes and no. I only want enough to trap a little bit of the void in Reu.”

“Sounds reckless,” Kraeven said.

“I know. But I’m going to end this and if the world ends as a result, I’ll just take Keema and we’ll live somewhere else.” Kalos said flatly.

“That’s not to say that I won’t try my best to ensure the world isn’t destroyed,” Kalos said, much to Kraeven’s relief.

Kalos raised his hand and as he closed it into a fist, an incredible amount of Nesrafaar’s light gathered there.

A gigantic arc of magic shot out into the sky as the magic in Kalosýni’s hand became too much for even reality to bear.

Kalos stopped the absorption process.

In his hand was a ball of light, which looked like it was going to explode at any moment.

Kalos casually waved his hand, freeing all of the elafriá.

He then walked back into his still open portal to find Hima and Kiley sending their darkness into the machine as it worked.

Kalos checked up on Keema to find that she was still asleep.

Kraeven joined the saepenar as they worked while Kalos closed the portal.

He then sat up against the large armrests of the dark throne as his eyes slowly fell.