There was no light deep in the mantle, and no sound.
The Ark rested in the transition zone between the lithosphere and the core, its hull warped slightly by the pressure and geothermal heat, like a fishbone lodged in a giant beast's throat. Lin Ye walked alone down a narrow, man-made passage into the depths. He had long since removed his wrist armor, and the Purification Prism pendant lay clenched in his palm, as cool as a pebble.
Ahead, there was none of Soval's noisy mimicry, none of those purple-black walls of thorns. There was only a gray-white spore, half a person's height, floating quietly above an undercurrent of magma.
It did not attack. It did not even radiate malice. It merely glowed gently, like a dusty lamp in an old teahouse.
Lin Ye stopped.
"I know you're not Soval," he said, his voice swallowed completely by the rock. "You're a bud sent out by the main body, aren't you? He spent all that time making trouble out in the open, while you watched from below."
The spore swelled and contracted slightly. For the first time, the Void's true body spread an image directly across his mind in an undisguised, low-frequency pulse-not a threat, but an exquisitely tender promise:
"You're tired. Kaguya is tired too. Soval was merely a clumsy interpreter. If you surrender the full authority of Origin to me, I will let the Shinobi World remain forever in a dream without war. No Blood Moon, no spores, no misunderstandings you must return to explain over and over. All you need to do is... stop carrying it all."
There were no threats, only the utmost understanding.
Soval had been right. What the Void did best was devour "waiting."
Lin Ye looked down at the Purification Prism in his hand.