The word scraped from his throat, raw and ragged. He forced it out through clenched teeth, even as the pressure threatened to shatter him
"I'm not yours."
Heat flared.
It burst from within, erupting like a sun breaking through storm clouds. The darkness cracked, the void splintering under the blaze of his will.
Flames erupted from his core, a torrent that shredded the suffocating shadows. The whispers faltered, then burned away into silence.
In the real world, the Shadow General reeled. The tendril buried in Jae's mind snapped back, severed by the backlash.
Jae staggered. His knees buckled, his chest heaving, breath ragged and uneven. The effort had nearly broken him, but his will held. The flames still burned.
The General shrieked, a sound that rattled the stones of the courtyard. Its form unraveled where Jae's fire had touched it, shadow peeling away in flailing strips.
For a moment, its body seemed to collapse into a formless heap.
