Silence.
Then-Kael gasped as he regained consciousness, his body weightless. A strange sensation gripped him, like drifting through a vast, unseen ocean.
Darkness surrounded him. No walls. No floor. Just an endless void.
"Liyara? Garran?" His voice barely carried, swallowed by the emptiness.
A faint shimmer appeared in the distance. A figure-no, figures-emerged, their forms fluid, shifting like shadows cast on water. Their glowing eyes bore into him, their presence ancient and suffocating.
"You were warned."
The words weren't spoken but felt, vibrating through his bones. Kael's mind reeled as visions flooded his thoughts-flashes of worlds crumbling, civilizations erased, an unrelenting force sweeping through the cosmos.
A Death Wave.
His breath hitched. "No... this already happened. It's in the past." "
The figures moved closer, their whispers slithering into his mind.
"The past is the future. The Cycle never ends."
A sudden force yanked him backward. Light exploded around him, searing his vision.
And then-
Kael awoke with a violent gasp, his body hitting cold metal. The bunker's corridors were back, the hum of energy thrumming beneath him. Liyara and Garran lay nearby, just beginning to stir.
But the symbols on the walls had changed. They no longer pulsed rhythmically.
They were counting down.
Something was coming.