The Null Sanctum was not a place one entered.
It was a wound in the cosmos—a void where forgotten systems bled memory, where divine code unraveled like ancient scrolls set ablaze. It floated beyond order and chaos, suspended in a broken frame of unrealized timelines.
Darius stepped into it.
His new form shimmered—half light, half negation. Each footstep left behind symbols that decayed into dust and then reformed backward in time. Nyx and Kaela followed at a distance, their bodies still recovering from the ritual, their eyes glazed with awe and unease.
The deeper they ventured, the more fragmented the space became. Walls flickered between dimensions, floors existed only when observed, and echoes whispered things no mouth had spoken.
And then… they found him.
Or what remained of him.
Suspended within a fractured data-prism, the Architect's ghost stirred.
