The sky in **Nimora** groaned, while the wind sang a funeral hymn above their heads, as if every stone in this world had known sorrow and shriveled beneath it.
Adam stood in the middle of the courtyard of an abandoned temple, his clothes torn from battle, his veins pulsing, his face reflecting the ferocity of a spirit that no longer looked human.
Behind him, Zera staggered, her hand pressed against her bleeding side where the poisoned arrow had struck.
She whispered faintly:
— *"Adam… the monster isn't the only enemy… the gate has opened."*
He turned to her, his eyes glowing with a terrifying blue:
— *"I know… but we can't turn back. Not after everything we've seen."*
Before them stood the colossal creature born of shadows of doubt and the regrets of souls: **the Carthos**.
Its body was made of thousands of interwoven arms, crying, laughing, and wailing all at once. It walked slowly, as though the earth itself cracked under its weight.
Labobo screamed from afar, trembling as he floated:
— *"It feeds on pain! The more you suffer, the stronger it becomes!"*
But Adam was no longer the same young man. His gaze was steady, devoid of fear. He drew out the *Heart of Regret* from his pocket, opened it, and unleashed a burst of dark crimson light, beginning the transformation.
A black-red aura rose around him, and his form began to change, as though the spirits of the ancients, his grandmother's power, and Nimora's cruelty had merged within him.
He said:
— *"I am the one fated to carry all sins… and I will not let them devour the ones I love."*
He charged toward Carthos, and the battle erupted.
---
## Blood in the Sky, Regret in the Earth
The fight was brutal. Every strike from Carthos left a crater in the ground, and every touch from Adam's hand echoed with a scream that tore through the void.
But with each passing minute, Carthos grew more frenzied, as if Adam's very presence was awakening a dormant chaos within it.
Zera, crawling on the ground, reached for her severed pendant, whispering:
— *"Don't let him die… not now…"*
In a single devastating blow, Carthos hurled Adam into the temple wall. Stone shattered, dust filled the air.
The world fell silent.
Then the earth trembled again. Adam emerged from the rubble, his body drenched in blood. But on his forehead a new mark had appeared — an inverted star encircled by unknown runes.
---
## The Complete Transformation
Labobo cried out:
— *"Stop, Adam! That power isn't yours alone — it belongs to all who came before us!"*
But Adam wasn't listening.
He raised his right hand, unleashing shards of crimson from the *Heart of Regret*. They latched onto Carthos, devouring its limbs one by one. Each arm of the beast crumbled into black ash and fell to the earth.
The sky turned scarlet, and time itself seemed to slow.
Zera's voice returned, trembling, faint:
— *"Adam… who are you now?"*
But he didn't answer. He simply walked toward Carthos, now reduced to its trunk and a head full of eyes.
The monster laughed, saying:
— *"Even if you kill me… you won't leave here as you entered."*
Adam smiled — a bitter smile.
Then he raised his hand one last time, delivering a spiritual strike unlike any heard before… and Carthos vanished.
---
## After the Blood
Adam collapsed to his knees, breathing like a man who had drowned in an ocean of fire.
Zera, barely able to walk, approached and sat before him, placing her hand on his face as it slowly returned to normal.
She whispered:
— *"You were something else in that moment…"*
— *"And I never want to be that again."*
Then she drew from her clothes an old parchment, marked with a symbol — the same as the seal that had appeared on Adam's forehead.
She said:
— *"Adam, you are not only her grandson… You are the lock and the key."*
Adam lifted his head, tears gathering in his eyes, but he let out a short laugh and said:
— *"Beautiful… then from now on, we'll start opening doors."*
---
### 🧩 Quote of the Part:
> *"When the stones begin to bleed, know that you are no longer in your world… but within yourself."*
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