[All the “Voidling language” in this story is invented and intended purely for entertainment]
In the twilight era, as the law of increasing entropy devours the universe, the mechanical graveyards of the Rust Belt star region echo with the laments of a dying civilization. The Void Church chants incantations in the Voidling language. Wherever its Corruption Script appears, stars rot and natural laws collapse. Its purpose is to free the ancient god “Entropy,” imprisoned at the source of the Creation Echo, and hasten the heat death of all things.
Raen Varek, a one-armed mercenary captain, carries a blood feud against those who sacrificed his younger brother using the Voidling language. He bears the resilience of life engraved on his mechanical gauntlet. Kairos, a Corruption-Speaker who defected from the Church, has a tattoo over his left eye that seals the power of the void. Every incantation he speaks devours a piece of him. When the Voidling Codex, bearing the “Sourcepoint Coordinates,” emerges, the two fight to the death among the ruins of a crashed starship. Raen’s fist smashes toward his enemy’s skull, while Kairos’s Corruption Script points to a void hive stirring beneath the ground.
Forced into a “forbidden alliance,” they venture deep into the cosmic graveyard: crossing the remnants of a psionic empire, deciphering Corruption Script inscriptions that twist space and time, and confronting the Church’s silent battle hymn in a rust-domed city where machines and flesh coexist. Raen discovers that the Voidling language is actually a shackle sealing the ancient god, while the Corruption Script Kairos writes at the cost of his humanity is becoming the last spark keeping civilization alive.
When Church spies begin the Great Silence Ritual, swarms of insects engulf the star systems and cracks spread through the ancient god’s prison. Raen strikes his gauntlet against the planet’s memory and awakens the Creation Echo. Kairos forges his true name into the lock’s core, turning half his body to crystal as he guards the abyss for all eternity. In the starry heavens, only a single line of Corruption Script still flickers among the ruins: ⌇⫯ ⌒⃗⫯̊ (“Bloom”)
In an age of despair, it is the most unlikely star that kindles a glimmer of light for another.
