Kiley reached out to wake Kalos, but his eyes popped open, frightening her slightly.

“It's done,” Kiley said prompting Kalos to take a peek at the black box that hung mid-air.

It had stopped moving about and so Kalos concluded that it was time.

He got up with the orb of light in hand but stopped before turning to Kiley.

“I need you to do one more thing for me,” Kalos said as he walked toward Keema, who soundly slept in her bubble of distorted space.

Kiley walked up to Kalosýni’s side.

“I want you to keep her safe for me,” Kalos said with an intensity that shook the dark realm.

Kiley slowly nodded, but Kalos took a deep breath before facing her.

“Listen, I don’t want to force you to do this and you can say no if you truly don’t want,” Kalos said.

“No- I mean, I definitely want to. Nothing would mean more to me than keeping lady Keema safe.” Kiley said, but Kalos still couldn’t shake off the weirdness he felt.

“Ok. Just know that this task is of the highest importance and that you will have to give your life should the moment call for it-"

Kalos stopped talking as soon as he realized that Keema was slowly waking up.

“Morning,” Kalos said with a warm smile.

“MmHmm.” Keema sounded as she rubbed her eyes.

Kalos created a portal next to the throne before picking Keema up.

“Hey, you’re gonna have to be a brave girl and go with aunt Kiley here for a bit, ok?” Kalos asked as he handed Keema to Kiley.

Well, he tried.

“Why?” Keema asked.

“Listen, I can’t have you here right now. Things are about to get really bad and I don’t want you to get hurt.” Kalos sad as Keema clung to his old blue shirt.

“I don’t want to go without you,” Keema said as tears welled up in her big brown eyes.

This effectively turned Kalosýni’s heart into mincemeat.

“No, please don’t cry. I promise I’ll be back before you even know it.”

“But what if you don’t come back like mommy?”

Kalos froze.

His mind rushed in search of an answer that would calm Keema, but at this point, even he clung to her as tears rolled down their faces.

Kalos then took a deep breath.

“Hima!” He barked.

“Yes, my lord.”

“Go with Kiley and follow her instructions,” Kalos instructed as he pulled himself away from a weeping Keema.

Kraeven remained silent as he watched

The two saepenar walked towards the portal as Keema reached out to Kalos with her little hands.

“P- papa!” Keema screamed before Kalos closed the portal.

.

..

Kalos fell to his knees and grabbed his hair as he wailed.

He bit his teeth as his cries echoed throughout the dark throne room.

His heart ached so painfully that it threatened to rip itself out from his chest and run to Keema’s side, but he clenched his fists as he slowly got up.

Kraeven gently placed his hand on Kalosýni’s shoulder, half afraid that Kalos would chop it off, but Kalos held it and gently squeezed it before letting go.

Kalos then silently walked down the many stairs of the spire of sin.

Its soundproof interior amplified the sound of his every step.

Kraeven kept close.

His instincts told him to flee, but he had to see what was about to unfold.

Kalos eventually arrived at a certain door that automatically opened, revealing an eerily silent dark realm.

He created a portal in front of him as he walked onto the dark balcony.

Kraeven followed him and they found themselves at what could be called Nar' Agrun’s edge.

Kalos looked down and saw a deep nothingness.

He looked behind him and in the distance, a speck could be seen.

Kalos closed the portal before creating another portal, one that led to a certain crater in the veiled repository.

Kalos carefully placed Reu into the top of a certain dark prism before inserting the black box into the cutout near the bottom.

Kalos threw the orb of light into the top before turning to Kraeven.

“Release the void,” Kalos said with unfeeling eyes.

Kraeven nodded before releasing the seal that kept the void within the black box.

A low sub-bass noise came from the prism before a continuous low hum.

Reu then slowly began floating and rotating.

It floated up to a certain point and its rotation speed increased exponentially with each passing second.

Kraeven watched as Reu absorbed almost all of the light in the orb above it in an instant.

An explosion then came from the device, further deepening the crater it was in, but Kalos and Kraeven were safe as Kalos had placed them in his pocket space.

Reu spun ever faster until a noticeably large crack formed on the prism's surface.

The crack grew larger and larger with each of Reu’s rotations until the entire prism was covered in cracks.

Kalos narrowed his eyes as Reu spun out of control and completely shattered the prism.

A massive explosion shook the veiled repository and the once deep crater became an endless abyss.

Kalosýni’s eyes narrowed as he peered into the darkness below.

He and Kraeven floated mid-air as they were still in Kalosýni’s pocket dimension.

Kalos extended his right hand and reached out into the abyss.

An ear-piercing noise then filled the air as a massive arc of light hurtled towards Kalos.

Kalos closed his eyes and in that instant, the arc came to an instant stop.

It then slowly floated towards him before landing in his right hand.

Kalos let out a chilling sigh before opening his eyes.

He then lowered the re-forged Reu and slipped himself and Kraeven back to Nar' Agrun.

The dark realm remained quiet, even as Kalosýni’s boots struck its dark surface.

Kalosýni’s eyes then became their coldest as his lips parted.

“Show yourself… Saya.” He whispered.

A thick black ooze then poured out of his every pore.

It gathered in a pool two meters in front of him and slowly formed a sickly creature.

That sickly creature then stood upright as its body gained more structure.

It eventually attained a rather familiar form. One which made Kalosýni’s intestines twist into agonizing knots.

“Hello, Kalos.” Saya greeted with a smile.

Kalos squeezed Reu’s hilt as Saya charged her body with countless red particles.

“I’m not going to let you kill me so easily,” Saya said, but Kalos wasn’t in the mood for chitchat and so he swung Reu across where Saya’s neck was, but she moved back at a speed that tore apart the air and ruined even more of the smooth surface of the dark ocean floor.

Kalos dashed towards a retreating Saya before violently swinging downwards, Saya hurriedly dodged the attack by twisting her body to the left in an unnatural way before kicking Kalos in the face.

Kalos crashed into the dark ground, but he quickly recovered and stood up to face an approaching Saya.

Her red eyes locked onto his.

Kalos zapped towards her and she did the same.

Their clash sent out a massive shockwave that further destroyed the dark realm.

Kalos wrapped his left hand around Saya’s neck as she violently clawed away at his face.

He raised his Reu wielding arm as he and Saya plummeted toward the dark ocean floor, but Saya kicked him away.

The two landed near each other, but Kalos was first to stand.

He hurriedly raised Reu in an attempt to cut Saya in two, but-

“Wait!” Raymond cried as he defensively raised his hands.

His glorious blond hair and bright blue eyes glowed like stars within the darkness.

“You can go back- yes! You can save me. You can save all of us.” Raymond pleaded.

Kalos stumbled for a moment as his vision blurred.

His grip on Reu hadn’t lessened, but he couldn’t look his father in the eye-

“Kalos,” Estella said, in the same position where Raymond stood only moments prior.

“I want to spend more time with you and Keema. All you have to do is go back.” She said as she looked at Kalos with her big beautiful brown eyes.

Kalosýni’s right hand slackened for a moment, but he kept his weapon raised.

“Hey, buddy. You don’t have to do this alone.” Peeta said.

“True. Just go back to when you made the Reu's.” Crimwal said as a sweet whistle filled the air.

“Bring us back,” Eevana said prompting Kalos to grab his throat as his hands trembled.

“Go back.” A certain voice said as Kalos stumbled forward.

“Give me back my time with Anton,” Saya said as Kalos reached out to her.

“Yes, I’ll help you, if need be-" Saya looked down and watched as Kalos slowly pierced her chest.

The god killer tore through flesh and bone alike before exiting out the other end of Saya's chest.

A loud crack pierced their air and Reu was completely covered in a pitch-black layer of soot.

Saya looked up at Kalos to find him staring at her with unfeeling eyes.

“What? Why? We could have gotten everything back.” Saya said as Reu splintered.

“I know,” Kalos said, albeit weakly.

“All I wanted was to spend more time with Anton,” Saya said as Kalos slowly lowered her.

“I know.”

“I… what did I do wrong?” Saya asked as her existence slowly faded.

“You failed to let go,” Kalos said.

Saya painfully swallowed before extending her hand towards Kalosýni’s face, but he shifted it slightly only to find that she was reaching for something much further.

“I see… Kalos. I may not have been able to exact revenge on you, but the cosmos will not be as forgiving as you and I. You will die and it will be at the hands of your own machinations.” Saya said as the front part of Reu’s blade slowly disintegrated.

Saya then placed her hand on Kalosýni’s cheek.

Her hand then slowly fell to the ground as her existence disappeared.

Kalos stood up and noticed a rather frightened man off in the distance.

He walked towards him as he placed Reu in his makeshift sheath.

“Is it over?” Kraeven asked.

“Yes,” Kalos said before opening a portal that led to a certain forest.

Kalos and Kraeven walked into the portal to find two saepenar attentively guarding a little tent next to a little fire.

The saepenar said nothing as Kalos approached.

“Is she asleep?” Kalos asked, prompting the two to exchange pained glances with each other.

Kalos then dismissively waved his hand before walking over to the campfire.

He quietly sat down before letting out a long sigh.

Kraeven quickly made an obsidian tent for himself and so Kalos paid him no mind.

The tranquil silence of the forest pained Kalos, but it wasn’t long before he heard something that made his heart skip a beat.

He heard tiny footsteps as they approached.

They were slow, almost cautious and yet they oh so dearly wanted to get closer.

Kalos patiently awaited as Keema got ever closer.

She then sat next to him and they both gazed blankly into the campfire.

Keema then rested her little head on Kalosýni’s arm, prompting Kalos to gently grab her and pull her closer.

The two sat rather comfortably as the heat from the flame trickled onto the fronts of their body’s.

“I’m sorry,” Kalos said as he looked at four particular mounds on the forest floor.

“It's ok. You came back.” Keema said sweetly.

“I did,” Kalos said as flakes of flame danced around him and Keema.

Kalos then began humming a tune he’d heard Estella hum all that time ago.

His mind was completely focused on Keema and his voice, although deep and rough, sang to her in the most comforting way.

Kalos closed his eyes as he and Keema sat beneath a rather dark sky.

.

..

Some time later.

Kalos opened his eyes to see that the little wooden cabin he, Kraeven, Kiley, Hima and Keema had built.

It had taken a while and some tears may have been shed, but it was finally done.

A four-roomed cabin, just for them.

Oh, and there was an extra room, just in case Keema ever felt like she was too old to sleep with Kalos.

Night hand long since fallen and everyone other than Kalos was in the house which was gently lit by little orbs that Keema made.

She had just leant the most basic of spells.

Kalos smiled before walking over to the mounds that were a few meters in front of the house.

He then quietly sat before them.

“I- I’m sorry.” Kalos said.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t be here to see this,” Kalos said.

“I plan on raising Keema in that house. What do you think, dad? Does my craftsmanship match up to yours?” Kalos asked as his chest ached.

“No matter. I’ll make it work.” Kalos said as the sounds of little footsteps broke the silence.

Keema sat by Kalosýni’s side and she even assumed the same cross-legged position.

“Who were you talking to, papa?” Keema asked.

“Our family. I was just telling them about all the plans I have for us.” Kalos said as he wrapped his arm around Keema.

“Plans? Are you going somewhere?” Keema asked with a worried expression.

“Not at all. In the words of my old man, as long as my love for you burns bright, I’ll always be right here."

THE END

Post credits scene-thingy

Kalos had been awake for what felt like weeks.

His tired eyes and body begged for sleep, but he couldn’t give in to the desire.

The loud crack of thunder helped him stay awake, but even then, he wasn’t sitting in the most comfortable position.

Kalos rubbed his hands together as the rain continued to pour.

He kept his ears to the ground, should the need for a quick escape arise-

Kalosýni’s ears perked up.

He had heard something.

He wasn’t sure what, but he wasn’t willing to wait and find out.

So he grabbed his things and his broken sword before dashing out of what looked like a muddy cave.

Unfortunately, just as he left the cave, a flash of pure white struck his face, sending him flying to the ground.

Kalos rolled for a while before slowly recovering.

He raised his head to see five beings of pure white.

They had beautiful white hair that was tied into buns and covering their body’s was an armour that looked like it was made in the heart of the cosmos itself and their weapons were all pointed at Kalosýni’s neck.

Their divine forms glared apathetically at Kalos as he stood in the mud and dirt.

“The time to pay what is due has come, Kalosýni.”

THE END (For real, this time)

Afterword

Whew! That was… intense.

Where do I even begin?

Firstly, I’d like to thank all of you wonderful readers for making it to the end of Song of the Unborn.

Secondly, I’m sorry for anyone who found TOTL too short.

We kinda explored all there was to Kalosýni’s story, unless if I missed anything.

I’ll break down my thoughts into two sections with one section per book.

1. Song of the Unborn – the first book

This may have been the hardest part as I had to create an entire (not really) world. The lore, history, magical system and other juicy stuff was all rather hard to put together, but once I got the main pieces together, the next step followed.

I believe that the best stories are character-driven, so SOTU was definitely going to be character-focused.

I really tried my best to make my characters grounded, especially Kalos and Raymond, who are pretty powerful.

Actually, I was partially inspired by the work of ONE and his manga’s Mob Psycho and One Punch Man.

In those works, the “hero" or protagonist is practically invincible, but the worlds they live in are fragile. This makes for a rather entertaining dynamic in terms of storytelling.

I used this storytelling tool to compound Kalosýni’s decisions.

It might have been equally entertaining if Kalos was weak and we watched him fight his way through the SOTU world… but I was too lazy and so I took the path of least resistance, hehe.

In all honesty, Romulus Xormae is one of my favourite characters.

I don’t know why, but as I was laying out the lore, I fell in love with him as I wrote him out.

Unfortunately, he played a very secondary role and if I were to ever rewrite all of this, I’d dive deeper into his story. The story of the first true eminence.

Estella was a treat to write. I needed a McGuffin for the story, but I didn’t want the pendant to have an obvious meaning or use.

It may sound a bit cruel, but I ended up using Estella to carry the plot along.

Unfortunately for me, she was far too precious a cargo to write in that way and so I made her share a bond with Kalos.

This made things a whole lot more fun, especially during the moments when Kalos needed emotional comfort.

Eevana was initially supposed to be a throwaway side character, but I accidentally wrote her backstory and I fell in love with her character.

Her relationship with Kalos just happened to happen.

I needed someone to teach Kalos how darkness and dark magic worked (I was also getting tired of making Raymond an exposition bomb) so yeah.

I needed her to be a closed-off person in the beginning before she ultimately opened up to Kalos and the others, which kinda sounds cliché if I think about it, hehe.

Peeta was supposed to be the secondary antagonist, but unfortunately, I wrote his backstory and fell in love with his character.

The way he goes from loyal retainer to dark wonderer kinda goes unnoticed in the book.

Maybe I should write some side chapters about it. Meh, can’t be bothered.

Anyway, in the original draft, he was surprised to appear in front of Kalos and Raymond. They would fight and this would help bring out some of Kalosýni’s power, but I felt like that lacked any emotional weight and so I attached Peeta’s backstory and boom. Peeta was born.

He ultimately took on the role of “Outsider”. Kalos and the others kinda treat him not-so-nicely, but it’s fine. He’s fine.

Mmm… oh, the Aventor brothers were kinda fun. (Alis and Trevenor) it's strange because these two were literally throwaway characters, but they ended up playing a crucial role in mankind’s progression.

Alis was kinda tricky. I wanted to make him a jerk without making it seem unjustified or unreasonable. Actually, the Aventor brothers have an interesting backstory that I ultimately couldn’t fit into SOTU.

Shame.

Oh, well.

Crimwal was… painful to write.

In the first draft, he was a scheming thug who tagged along with Raymond in order to lure them to a camp of bandits.

But, although that might have led to a different Crimwal, I felt it lacked emotional weight.

Let’s be honest, Raymond would have killed everyone before Crimwal could actually get to doing evil stuff.

And so I decided to make him a runaway, but a peculiar one and I believe it all worked out in the end.

Neelae Yolson was supposed to have a more central role, but she, unfortunately, drifted out as I wrote the story.

She is actually a descendant of Romulus, but for her to partake in the main story… that would have wrecked my brain. (Also, it would have been too coincidental that the descendant of Romulus happened to be fighting alongside Raymond.) I needed her to serve a different, equally important role and help with the human side of this story.

Keema is a baby at this point, so no discussion.

Kraeven is still an unknown at this point.

Someone once told me that I had to make the order of Eirini more… cult-y and churchy. I said NO.

That has been overdone to death.

The order isn’t bad because they were evil or something. Their intentions were originally pure and although I could explain how they fell from grace in detail, I chose not to.

Carimae… was an interesting part of the world to write.

I originally wanted it to be a vast green land full of nomadic tribal people… but I got lazy and killed them all under mysterious circumstances, hehe.

This change actually came around near the end of the journey to Carimae.

If Raymond and Kalos had found Aluin’s (Kalosýni’s mom) people, that would have led to a whole bunch of stuff that I didn’t wanna write.

Fortunately for me, Kraeven arrived and boom!

Whew! That’s it, I think.

I’d like to thank you again for reading my heap of words.

So once again, thank you.

2. Throne of the Lords

This… was painful to write.

I spent almost six months building my damned characters and so killing them… sucked. IN EVERY CONCEIVABLE WAY.

I don’t know why, but in order to make Kalos hate Saya, I had to make myself hate her and so I made her take away what both Kalos and I loved. Yey.

But TOTL wasn’t filled with only death and despair. I tried answering any questions readers could still have about the plot and lore.

Another fun part of TOTL was Kraeven. If you can believe it, SOTU was supposed to be experienced from Kraeven’s point of view.

He was supposed to emerge from Nar' Agrun to find that the world was out of balance. He was then supposed to form a bond with Kalos and the others as they looked for a way to save the world… BUT, I really didn’t want to and so I didn’t.

Seeing everything from Kalosýni’s perspective made the story feel a bit less fantastic… for a time. The story was supposed to have a “family road trip” vibe. I did this to lower the reader's guard, which hopefully worked.

Alis and Trevenor had their own adventure, but I’ll get to that later.

This book starts by creating new questions then answering old ones. I hope none of you found it confusing and if so, I’ll do my best to patch up what I can.

Kraeven and Raymond had their little fight and this sets off the whole Elafriá suicide mission.

This was hard for me to write (sheesh, what’s wrong with me) because I initially wanted the elafriá to help save the world, but this just happened to take place when Raymond’s old instincts start kicking in.

Oh and in the first draft and my notes, Raymond initially kills a bunch of nobodies, but it is at this point that I decided to write in a set of creatures I had written out in the beginning.

Anyway, Raymond’s relationship with Kalos takes a turn when he decides to test of Kalos is ready to face the dangers ahead.

Unfortunately for Raymond, Kalos takes the lesson a little too seriously, if that’s a thing.

Hehe, funny thing is that I wrote this scene just after watching INVINCIBLE and so my creativity had all but died.

The original “Lesson" scene went out like this (please don’t hate me): Raymond was supposed to beat the living crap out of Kalos and Kalos was supposed to learn his lesson.

The two of them were then supposed to descend into Nar’ Agrun and tear through the dark realm. This would join the mortal realm and the dark realm. But they wouldn’t stop there, Raymond and Kalos were then supposed to ascend into Nesrafaar and join it to the two other realms, bringing about chaos… I’M SO GLAD I DIDN’T WRITE THIS.

Ahem! Moving on.

The contentum are in the same class as the gregnor and haevrul.

These creatures had a whole cool backstory as to why they were so big and powerful, but my fingers got tired and I didn’t write it out.

Anyway, what followed this was the war between mankind and Umm… everyone else.

Now for the elephant in my room. Or elephant shrew? Oh well, The ending may have been short, but it was the hardest to write.

I needed to find a way for Kalos to finally be happy without giving him back his powers. (I mean, Kalos in his prime would have been unstoppable, especially since Saya becomes Amartia at some point.)

Keema was a bit underused, even in my opinion, but I was running out of juice, so yeah.

Also, in my first draft for volume 3, it was supposed to take place a few years after volume 2 which meant that Keema would have been a little older.

This would have introduced a bunch of options for me and what I could do with her character, but… after writing out a few chapters using this sort of timeline, I fell into depression and scrapped the entire thing. It just didn’t work out the way I wanted. I also HATE extreme time skips. The only author who can get away with extreme time skips is the writer of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures.

Another challenge was Kraeven.

[SIDE STORY SPOILERS AHEAD!]

It’s no secret that Kraeven was never meant to be the worlds saviour. However, making him come in during mankind’s finest hour felt kinda right.

Kalos basically forced him to look within himself for a new purpose.

After all, we are who we are, not what we are.

Kraeven could have pointlessly brooded in Nar' Agrun, but he chose to peel off his conceptions of who Nar' Agrun wanted him to be and he soared high with a renewed sense of self-worth. Which is strange coming from a guy who literally sits in his room all day writing fantasy novels… yeah.

Saya’s final confrontation with Kalos was originally supposed to be a clash between her and a fully recovered Kalos, but I felt like that didn’t carry much emotional weight, to me at least and so I made her try to manipulate Kalos emotionally.

Saya’s death could have gone a number of ways.

I wanted a big battle of the gods at first, but meh. I settled on having Kalos kill her in a way that wasn’t too dramatic.

Speaking of Saya, she was actually quite tricky to write. In my initial drafts, there were like four autarchs and each of them controlled a certain aspect of reality.

Saya and Anton were initially siblings, but… meh, I didn’t feel it so I scrapped it.

This was for two reasons. The first was that in my first draft, Saya hated Anton for some convoluted reason and she asked Kalos to help her kill him…

I really didn’t like this and so I came I with the diabolical plan to make Saya Anton’s mother.

This introduced its own set of problems, but I didn’t mind.

Everything they did and said felt natural and so I went with it.

[SIDE STORY SPOILERS AHEAD!]

Danon and the other side characters, unfortunately, played a background role in the main story.

I will always be a firm believer in character-driven stories, but Danon, Trevenor and the others just helped me establish the state of the world and the passage of time.

Oh let me just name a few of the stories that influenced and inspired me as I wrote:

Berserk (I know. Cliché, but I don’t care!) – I wanted to create a dark world and Berserk helped me get comfortable with how to approach dark world-building. (You need to do it right)

Dark souls trilogy – This is my favourite game of all time. The game features a deep world that kinda plays second fiddle to gameplay. So I asked myself: How can I make my world/lore play a fundamental, yet subdued role in my story? I’m not sure, but I think I pulled it off. At no point do I want you, my deer reader, to think about things that play background roles.

Claymore – I have a love/hate relationship with this story. I’m not gonna go into detail about the story because of spoilers, but it did a good job in painting memorable characters and I was really moved by it.

These are not the only stories that influenced me, but they're the ones I can think of right now.

Also, I have the pre-alpha draft for vol. 3 in my notes. It shall be tilted “Pilgrims of Gentle Rest", but I’m REALLY tired and I need a break so I won’t be writing it for quite some time.

Anyway, this may seem repetitive, but once again, thank you for reading Song of the Unborn and I hope you have a wonderful day, whatever day it is when you’re reading this.