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Yuna's claws scraped against the uneven ground as the darkness swallowed her whole. The familiar world was gone. The trees, the cabin, the sounds of her companions—they were all erased, replaced by an endless black expanse. The air around her felt thick and heavy, almost like it had substance, pressing in from all sides. There was no horizon here, no up, no down. The void was endless, and she had no idea where to go.
She froze, her wings instinctively spreading in an attempt to balance herself, but there was no surface beneath her. Her heart pounded in her chest as panic rose, clawing at her thoughts. She couldn't breathe, not like she needed to. The air felt different here, colder, as if the very substance of life had been drained away.
"Where am I?" she whispered, her voice sounding small and insignificant against the vast, suffocating silence.
Suddenly, a ripple of energy coursed through the air, the ground beneath her quaking in response. The pulse was familiar. It was the Voidborne entities. She'd felt their presence before, that strange energy. Had they somehow known she would end up here? Was this their doing?
A voice, low and ominous, echoed in the endless blackness. "You don't belong here."
Yuna's blood ran cold. Her heart skipped a beat. She could feel the words like a shiver down her spine, not just in her ears, but in her very bones.
"I didn't choose to be here," she snapped, her voice shaky but defiant. "Who are you?"
The air around her shifted, a strange pulse vibrating through it, as though the very Void was alive, listening, responding to her. She flared her wings instinctively, her muscles tense, ready to fight if necessary. But there was nothing to fight. Nothing to hold onto. Just darkness.
"You have no place in the Void," the voice replied, now clearer, almost mocking. "You are part of it now."
The shadows surrounding her twisted and began to take form, shifting into a figure—tall, dark, humanoid, but not quite human. Its glowing eyes fixed on her with an unyielding intensity, and Yuna could feel the pressure in her chest building as if it were trying to suffocate her.
"I don't belong here," she repeated, her voice firmer, though her paws were trembling. "Let me go."
The figure made no movement, but its presence seemed to swallow up the space around her. "You have been chosen," it said, and the air grew colder, thick with an unseen force. "The Void calls to those who have crossed the line between worlds."
Suddenly, Yuna felt something pulling at her—a force she couldn't see but could feel deep inside her. It was as if the very fabric of the Void was pulling her apart, warping her existence. She gasped as the weight of the presence around her intensified.
"Chosen?!" she hissed, staggering back, her tail flicking nervously behind her. "I don't want to be part of this! Let me go!"
But the figure didn't respond. Instead, it shifted, and the world around her distorted. A deep rumble shook the ground, and Yuna felt herself being torn away, her body yanked across the endless abyss.
The Voidborne entities had not only noticed her presence, but now they were manipulating it, their corrupted influence reaching into this dimension, using her as a pawn to further their own cryptic goals. In that moment, Yuna realized that her arrival here wasn't just a random event. She had been drawn into the Void's influence, pulled toward its center.
She tried to resist, her wings struggling to find purchase in the empty air, but it was no use. The darkness wrapped around her, blurring her vision, and the ground seemed to vanish completely. And then, in the next moment, everything was silent.
When Yuna's senses returned, she found herself crashing onto something solid, and the world around her was no longer the featureless black void. She gasped for air, her body aching from the fall. But before she could fully recover, she heard voices—human voices.
It wasn't the Voidborne, but humans.
The figures around her were armored and spoke in hushed tones. She could barely make out their words, but the urgency in their voices was clear.
"We found her," one said, his voice low but triumphant.
"Is it... it?" another voice asked, a bit higher-pitched, filled with awe.
Yuna's head swam, and she struggled to rise. She instinctively crouched low, preparing herself to flee, but her body still felt heavy from the effects of the Void. Her wings twitched in an attempt to lift her, but they felt weak, uncooperative.
"Careful," one of the humans said, and before she could react, they rushed toward her, capturing her with skill that she hadn't expected.
"What are you doing?" Yuna demanded, her voice weak, but her fury rising. "Let me go!"
But the humans were relentless. They dragged her, her claws scraping against the rough ground. They didn't answer her questions, but their eyes glimmered with something she didn't understand.
She was captured. Taken from the strange, suffocating void, and now at the mercy of these humans—strangers, in armor, with weapons she didn't recognize. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as they pushed her forward, not knowing where they were taking her, but knowing one thing: she had been brought to this place for a reason.
The Void had set her path into motion, but now, the humans had taken control of her fate.
And Yuna wasn't sure whether to fight or to bide her time.