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The sunset poured like pale blood over the walls of **Elmara Castle**, while the wind toyed with tattered banners bearing the emblems of forgotten ages. In this ancient place, which felt like the breath of old beasts, Adam stood amid the wreckage of a battle not yet finished.
Zera's eyes were fixed on him, glowing with a mixture of admiration, fear, and sorrow.
"Do you feel it?" Zera whispered, gently holding her hand as though making sure what stood before her was still human.
Adam didn't answer. His heart beat at a rhythm that did not belong to this world, watching the remains of the monster they had just faced — a nightmare given form from the memories of the dead, three-headed, with voices screaming from within it in an incomprehensible tongue.
But the silence that followed the beast's fall was not the end.
From the shadows, a new echo emerged. It was not material, but pure energy — an enraged spirit forced to die, yet refusing its fate.
Labobo spoke with a trembling tone:
"This isn't just a monster. This is the *Echo of Regret*. All who died here centuries ago… their voices gathered into one being. And this… will not die so easily."
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The ground began to tremble. The walls of the castle split open as if breathing, and the ghosts of the past rose from the earth like thick smoke.
Zera grasped her sword, but Adam's hand stopped her. He said:
"This isn't a time for fighting, but for understanding."
He closed his eyes and pulled out the *Heart of Regret* from his cloak. Its form had changed — no longer a stone, but a living pulse, carrying within it the emotions of thousands of wronged souls.
When he placed it on the ground, everything began to change.
The ghosts became faces, the faces became stories.
Adam saw an entire city burned unjustly, a people exiled, a young sorceress betrayed, and an honorable warrior imprisoned for refusing murderous orders. All of them, with one voice, cried out:
"Will you repeat the same mistake?"
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In that dreadful vision, Adam realized that the true battle was not against monsters, but against the collective memory of **Nimora**.
The world itself was alive — Nimora was not just land, but a consciousness tormented by a bloody history.
Zera fell to her knees, tears in her eyes. She said:
"I am descended from those who caused this. How can I continue this path?"
Adam answered, his voice heavy with truth:
"We do not bear the guilt of our ancestors, but we do bear the responsibility not to repeat them."
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But before this revelation was complete, darkness once again tore through the scene.
The **Embodied Shadow** returned.
Not in its full form, but as a wavering distortion in the air — as if Nimora itself tried to repel it, yet lacked the strength.
Labobo's voice changed, sounding unlike himself:
"The time is near… the Shadow is preparing to summon the *Core of Oblivion*. When that happens, there will be no past, no present, no future."
Adam clasped Zera's hand, then looked up at the fractured sky, where lightning turned crimson — a sign that the balance was collapsing.
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A faint whisper reached his ear — the voice of his grandmother:
"Adam, if you are to restore Nimora to life, you must die in this world at least once."
He understood the message.
Sacrifices awaited. Pain was inevitable.
But he would not retreat.
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**Quote of the Part:**
*"The fear of the past is the first step toward enslaving the future. He who faces his history with honesty forges his destiny with courage."*
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