Chapter 113 The Plan, the Fallout, and the Passive-Aggressive Royalty
We’ve officially reached the “desperate and mildly unhinged” phase of our journey.
The Void is spreading. Milo is missing. Entire villages are vanishing like bad memories. And the King of Aeloria has sent us a letter that somehow manages to be both passive-aggressive and aggressively passive.
Thessa read it aloud while sipping tea she conjured from a flame kettle.
“To the esteemed survivors of the Flameborn Initiative,” she began, voice dripping with disdain.
“It has come to my attention that your former companion, Milo of the Rift, has begun casually annihilating portions of my kingdom. While I understand emotional instability is common among magical adolescents, I must remind you that Aeloria is not a sandbox for cosmic tantrums.”
Kael snorted. “He wrote that with a feather quill, didn’t he?”
“Probably while wearing silk gloves,” Lira muttered. “And crying over his reflection.”
Thessa continued. “Please resolve this matter swiftly. I am currently hosting a diplomatic summit and would prefer not to explain why the western provinces are now whispering in Void tongues. Yours with mild irritation, King of Aeloria.
Zeke clapped. “Ten out of ten. Pettiest royal correspondence I’ve ever heard.”
Yuel raised a brow. “Did he sign it with a scented wax seal again?” leaning forward and sniffing.
Ellira nodded. “Lavender and disappointment.”
I folded the letter and shoved it into my satchel. “We’re going into the Void.”
Everyone stared at me.
“Mo,” Kael said slowly, “are you sure you’re not just trying to tell on Milo to your dead mother?”
I blinked. “What?”
“You know,” he continued, “like, ‘Milo broke reality again, Mum. Can you ground him from existence?’”
Thessa snorted. “Honestly, I’d support that plan.”
Aine, ever the calm center of our chaos, stepped forward. “The Void is unstable. But it’s also connected to Milo’s mind. If we enter it, we may be able to reach him before he’s completely consumed.”
“Or,” Zeke added helpfully, “we get turned into abstract concepts and spend eternity arguing with sentient regret.”
“Sounds like my last relationship,” Yuel muttered.
We gathered supplies.
Flameborn wards. Void-resistant armor. Aine’s calming tea blend. Zeke insisted on bringing a grappling hook “for dramatic effect,” and Kael packed seven swords, which felt excessive until I remembered he names them and talks to them like emotionally neglected pets.
Ellira drew a map of the Void’s current expansion. It looked like a spiderweb made of nightmares.
“Every time Milo feels something,” she explained, “the Void reacts. Regret creates storms. Anger creates fractures. Joy creates illusions.”
“Joy?” I asked. “He still feels joy?”
“Apparently,” she said. “He smiled when he erased the last village.”
Thessa grimaced. “That’s not joy. That’s Void-induced smugness.”
Lira rolled her eyes. “We need to move fast. The ley lines are collapsing. If we wait too long, we won’t be able to enter the Void without becoming part of it.”
Aine placed a hand on my shoulder. “You’re the only one who can reach him, Mo.”
I nodded.
But I didn’t feel brave.
I felt like a girl about to walk into her best friend’s mind and find out he’s become a god with abandonment issues.
We entered the Void at dusk.
The portal shimmered like a wound in the air, pulsing with violet light. The wind whispered Milo’s name. And mine.
“Mo…”
“You came…”
“I missed you…”
I stepped through first.
The world twisted.
And then everything went silent.
The Void was… wrong.
Not dark. Not empty.
It was full.
Of memories. Of broken thoughts. Of places that never existed and people who never lived.
We stood on a floating platform made of shattered palace tiles. Above us, the sky was a swirling storm of Milo’s emotions—rage, sorrow, guilt, and something else. Something colder.
Thessa conjured a flame to light our path. It flickered, struggling against the Void’s pull.
Kael drew two swords and muttered to them. “Stay sharp, babies. We’re in the belly of the trauma beast.”
Zeke looked around. “I give it five minutes before we meet a manifestation of Milo’s unresolved childhood.”
Yuel groaned. “I swear, if it’s a talking teddy bear, I’m out.”
Ellira pointed to a distant structure. “That’s the core. Milo’s center. If we reach it, we might be able to speak to him directly.”
Lira frowned. “Or we get devoured by his self-loathing.”
Aine closed her eyes. “He’s watching us.”
I felt it too.
Like a gaze behind my thoughts.
We walked.
The Void shifted around us.
At one point, we passed a version of the palace where Talon was still alive—laughing, training, teasing Milo. It was a memory. A lie. But it hurt.
Thessa stopped. “He remembers Talon.”
Kael touched the illusion. It dissolved. “He misses him.”
Zeke sighed. “We all do.”
Aine whispered, “That’s why he’s dangerous. He’s trying to rebuild a world where Talon never died. But every time he does, reality breaks.”
We reached the core.
It was a tower made of mirrored glass, floating in a sea of violet flame.
Inside, Milo waited.
He looked… different.
Older. Sharper. His eyes were pure Void, but his smile was familiar.
“Mo,” he said. “You brought friends.”
I stepped forward. “We came to bring you back.”
He tilted his head. “Back to what? Guilt? Pain? The King’s passive-aggressive letters?”
Thessa raised a hand. “We brought one, actually. Want to read it?”
Milo laughed. “I already did. He’s very disappointed in me.”
Kael stepped beside me. “You’re hurting people, Milo.”
“I’m healing them,” he replied. “No more pain. No more loss. Just… silence.”
Ellira pointed to the sea of flame. “That’s not healing. That’s erasure.”
Zeke waved his grappling hook. “Also, you owe me eyebrows.”
Milo looked at me.
“You still believe in me?”
I nodded. “Always.”
He smiled.
And then the tower exploded.
We were thrown back.
The Void surged.
Milo rose into the air, surrounded by swirling flame and shadow.
“I tried,” he said. “I really did. But the world doesn’t want me. It wants a hero. And I’m not that.”
Aine stepped forward. “You are.”
He looked at her.
And for a moment, he hesitated.
Then the Void screamed.
And Milo vanished.
We were left in the ruins.
The Void pulsed.
And the battle began.