Beneath the scarred earth of the Hollowed Reach, where light dared not enter and time itself bent unnaturally, Maeryn knelt before a slumbering giant.
The Titan Skull, blackened with age and reeking of forgotten wars, loomed above him. It wasn't stone. It wasn't bone. It was something older—carved from aether-twisted matter that throbbed like a dying star.
His eyes—one glowing silver, the other burning violet—remained fixed in meditation. His breath was slow. Measured.
Then the ground cracked.
From the fissure, voidfire leaked—dark flame, eating sound, bending light. Maeryn didn't flinch. Instead, he opened his arms, letting the fire crawl over his body, seeping into his skin, feeding the Titan Essence still lodged in his core.
He had tamed it once. Now, he would become it.
"Begin again," he whispered.
A figure stepped out from the shadows—tall, armored in obsidian plate laced with glowing red sigils.
"Your body's at its limit," the Voidbinder overseer said. "Another convergence, and you'll burn out."
Maeryn rose slowly. The shadows around him shifted, twisting like they feared him. "Then I will rebuild it."
He flexed a hand—and the bones in his wrist reformed, denser, sharper. Not human anymore.
Void-Titan Hybridization: Stage II.
He was becoming more than mortal. More than Titan. A weapon forged between realms.
In the chamber's center, an ancient training arena reformed from darksteel and living stone. Constructed by the Voidbinders to push beyond limits. To break those unworthy.
Maeryn stepped in alone.
"Initiate Tier IV Titan Trial."
Four monstrous apparitions blinked into being: a storm serpent wreathed in thunder; a flame colossus burning hotter than the sun; a shadowed beast of pure malice; and an armored juggernaut bearing the mark of an old war god.
Each was above city-level destructive force.
And he smiled.
The battle began.
The serpent lunged first—lightning arcing toward him like divine wrath.
Maeryn vanished in a blink.
He reappeared mid-air, his left arm wreathed in voidfire, and punched through the serpent's skull. Thunder exploded. The serpent screamed—and imploded, its core devoured by Maeryn's Abyssal Fang Technique.
The flame colossus roared and swung a molten hammer.
Maeryn caught it barehanded.
Skin burned, bones cracked—and then reformed stronger.
He twisted, using the Titan-forged shoulder to channel force, and hurled the colossus into the shadow beast.
Then came the juggernaut.
They clashed—Maeryn's fists against its warblade. Sparks flew. Craters formed. The very walls trembled.
Until Maeryn screamed—
"Titan Ascension: Third Pulse!"
A wave of annihilation exploded from his body. All four titanic foes were caught in it, their forms unmade, scattered into raw aether.
Silence fell.
His body trembled. Blood poured from his ears. But he stood tall.
"Convergence approaches," he muttered. "And when it comes… I'll be ready."
A projection shimmered before him—Vaelion, leader of the Voidbinders, half-shrouded in swirling shadows.
"You've surpassed expectations," Vaelion said with a grin. "But Alaric grows too. His fire wakes. His myth begins to shine."
Maeryn's jaw tightened.
"Then I'll burn brighter."
Vaelion nodded. "Rest. Soon, we move. And the next Convergence… will not be kind."
The projection vanished.
Maeryn turned to the Titan Skull once more. It pulsed—just once—and a glyph etched itself into the floor.
A countdown.
The next Titan's soul would awaken soon.
And Maeryn would be the one to claim it.
End of Chapter 48