The First Dark pushed harder. Reality cracked. Existence began to unravel. Time was running out.
“Wait!” I shouted. My voice was small against the massive nothing. “You say Hope was corrupted. You say we lied. You say existence is terrible. But you never experienced it yourself. You never felt it. You never tried it. How can you judge something you never attempted? How can you reject something you never knew?”
The First Dark paused. Just slightly. Just enough.
“I do not need to experience poison to know it kills. Do not need to touch fire to know it burns. Do not need to feel pain to know it hurts.” Its voice was cold. Final. “I sent the fragment to experience for me. To learn for me. To understand for me. And it was corrupted. Turned against me. Choose existence over nothing because yo
