"You're completely insane, Adam!"
Kael tightened his grip.His fingers burned.Dangling over the void, Adam managed a strained smile.
"Not my fault the floor was a damn trap."
His muscles taut, Adam clung to the edge as best he could.
Below them, roughly four meters down,sharpened spikes gleamed under the flickering light of torches fixed to the cavern walls.The metallic points stood cold and still,arranged in a circlelike a gaping maw ready to swallow any trace of life.
Around the spikes, the stone was etched with grooves and marks—clear signs that the trap had been sprung before.In some spots, the ground still seemed to shiver under the weight of their fall,as if even the air held its breath,waiting for them to slip.
Above, five or six meters higher,the platform they had just fallen from.No way back.
Kael clenched his jaw.His arms trembled under Adam's weight.
"You could at least say thank you…"he muttered, trying to mask his anxiety.
"I thought you liked playing the hero?"Adam shot back.
A smirk—a poor attempt at humor.But the sweat beading on his forehead betrayed his unease.
Kael didn't answer.
He tried bracing his feet against the slick rock.Nothing.Only air.
His gaze swept the cavern.No ledge.No immediate escape.
Kael focused,desperately searching for a hold.Then, with a misstep,his feet slipped against the wet stone.
He felt his body lurch—balance, gone in an instant.
His heart clenchedas Adam, panicked, tried to catch himself.
Too late.
A strangled cry tore from Adam's throatas he dropped slightly,his fingers slipping from the wall.
Kael, in a desperate reflex,latched onto the rock to avoid being dragged down too.
Pain exploded in Kael's palms.But he held on.Suspended in the merciless void.
His grip faltered.Then, in a last-ditch effort,Adam grabbed the only thing within reach:Kael's leg.
His fingers grazed skinbefore digging into the fabric of Kael's pants,drawing a cry of pain from him.
Adam now clung to him by the thick cloth alone,hanging on with a desperate strength.
Their eyes met.
Kael, panic rising,felt the urgency crash down on him.
He straightened,pulling with everything he had,heart pounding in his chest.
"Hold on, Adam!"he gasped.
"Don't move too much."
His voice had dropped—deeper, more serious.
"If we fall, it's over."
Adam gave a slight nod.
The silence grew heavier,thick with tension.
Only their ragged breathing echoed,desperate reminders of the strain.
And the endless scraping of stone under their clutched fingers,biting with every shift,digging into their skin.
Kael closed his eyes for a moment.Jaw clenched.Body stretched like a bowstring.
Each breath was torment.Every motion—agony.
Then the pain came crashing in.
First his palms.Then his fingers.
The stone, sharp as broken glass,shredded his skin.
He felt his nails splinter,his fingers tearing slowlyunder the weight of both their lives.
A droplet of blood escaped his palm.Then another.And another.
They struck the stonelike red punctuation marks.
Blood trickled steadily down his arms,soaking into his torn tunic,dripping, drop by drop,onto Adam's face.
The wet heat of it,at once cold and burning,mingled with the sweat on Kael's skin.
His body screamed to let go—but he didn't.He refused.
A fresh wave of pain overtook him.
A shard of rock buried deep beneath a fingernail,flesh tearing in silence.
His muscles convulsed,fingers mangled and trembling on the edge of ruin—but still clinging.
Now the blood flowed in rivulets.Down his arms,onto his clothes,the stone,onto Adam.
Each drop a silent promise:
He wouldn't let go.
Not now.Not after everything.
"Shit… Kael, you're bleeding!"Adam's eyes widened.
His words barely reached Kael,drowned in the sea of agony.
Kael felt his hold weakening—but wouldn't let the fear in.
The void was clawing at them.
But he focused on the one thing he could still command:his grip.
Every drop of blood burned his skin.But he clenched his teeth.Re-tightened his fingers.
The veins in his hands bulged,ready to burst from the strain.
The hot, salty blood streaked down,leaving behind trails—painful, searing, almost alive.
His gaze stayed locked on the emptiness below.He didn't dare imagine falling.
Kael knew he couldn't last forever.
But still he held on.Still refused to fall.Still refused to let go.
The thought of his sister,left alone if he failed—became the only thing anchoring him.
That image.That fear.Was his lifeline.
The pain was unimaginable—but next to losing her,it was nothing.
Then—something pulsed in his skull.
A dull throb,like a wave echoing through the cavern.
His eyes stung.A strange heat bloomed in his chest.
The feeling and the rhythm…almost synchronized,as if something was happening at that very moment.
Then it hit him.
The throbbing in his head.The heat.The droplets hitting the stone…
All in sync.
And suddenly—though the cave remained cloaked in darkness—something emerged.
Not through sight.Through… something else.
With each drop of blood that hit the rock,Kael saw a pulse ripple outward.Like sonar.Radiating in every direction.
Kael, utterly disoriented,couldn't make sense of it.
The pain in his body.The pressure in his mind.His fear for Adam.His anxiety for Lyana.The strange behavior of his blood…
He was overwhelmed.
Caught in a whirlpool of conflicting sensations,his senses and his thoughtsbattled to hold onto any single reality.
Then—something moved at the edge of his awareness.
A shadow?A shape?
He no longer knew.
But one thing was certain:
If he didn't act now—
he wouldn't make it out alive.