The city groaned beneath the weight of its own collapse, as if the earth itself could no longer bear witness to its decay. Buildings crumbled like dry paper, their stone foundations cracking and splitting under the pulsing force of the Heart. Lycius's feet sank into the ground as if the city was trying to pull him into its depths. His pulse matched the rhythm of the beating Heart — fast, frantic, unstoppable.
The woman stood unmoving, her presence both ethereal and crushing. Her form shimmered, her eyes like twin moons burning with ancient sorrow. "You think you've chosen freedom, Lycius," she murmured, her voice wrapping around him like a deathly embrace. "But there is no freedom here. There never has been."
Lycius swallowed hard, every instinct telling him to run, to flee from the inevitable, but there was nowhere to go. "I chose this for them. For everyone who's trapped here. I won't let the city fall without a fight."
Her lips curled into a sad smile. "You don't understand. The Heart never falls. It swallows all that dares challenge it. You are too late. The price of your defiance is already paid."
Suddenly, the city's pulse quickened, sending tremors through the ground. The tendrils of the Heart surged from the cracks, vast and innumerable, like rivers of blood rising from the earth. They reached for Lycius, their movements swift, inevitable.
The air burned with an unbearable pressure as Lycius sprinted, his legs shaking beneath him. A tendril lashed at him, sharp as a blade, but he dodged it at the last moment. Pain seared his chest, but he couldn't stop. He wouldn't stop.
"You cannot win," the woman called, her voice echoing across the ruins. "You are not the first to rebel against the Heart. But you will be the last."
Lycius's breath was ragged, his chest heaving with each desperate gasp. The weight of her words clung to him, but he refused to falter. He had come too far, fought too hard. There was no turning back now. His will surged, pushing back the pain and the doubt.
The tendrils of the Heart closed in, their oppressive force suffocating him, but he fought with everything he had.
---