A month earlier, Planet Dagobah, Dark Cave.
Darth Malthael stood deep within the cave, terrifying Dark Side Force rippling around his body as though even the air itself were screaming.
Fragments of the Dark Reaper lay beside him. This Sith artifact had originally been modified by him and was never meant to be infused with the Dark Side Force. Now, Darth Malthael had forcibly reversed its function, and combined with the terrifying power within the Dark Cave, it had directly blown the evil artifact into pieces.
This artifact of the ancient Sith Empire had originally been capable of absorbing the Force from an entire planet. But the Dark Side Force condensed within the Dark Cave over thousands of years, combined with the Force Darth Malthael had repeatedly absorbed over the past decade or so, had long exceeded its limits.
The darkness around Darth Malthael had now become almost tangible. Countless spectral wraiths howled around him, and with every step he took, all things around him withered and died.
"Ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" His manic laughter shook loose stones from the ceiling. A scarlet bolt of lightning tore through the thick darkness, piercing straight through the entire Dark Cave and blasting a hole through its roof all the way to the mountaintop.
Excess rainwater from Planet Dagobah poured continuously through the opening, quickly gathering into a puddle on the ground. Before long, the cave would be swallowed by rainwater.
Darth Malthael staggered out, like a humanoid source of death. Nothing could approach him.
He boarded the Neimoidian Scyk-class shuttle he had arrived in, issued orders to the navigation droid, then stood in the cabin and stared through the viewport at the dark expanse of space. From time to time, crazed chuckles escaped his lips.