Silence.
Not the silence of peace, but the kind that crushes the lungs. The kind that feels like the world itself is holding its breath.
Elara blinked awake to find herself lying on cold stone—or what was left of it. The chamber around her no longer looked like a chamber at all. Walls floated in fragments, suspended in an endless black void. Pieces of broken floor hovered aimlessly, as though gravity had forgotten which way was down.
Her lantern shards were gone. Only faint burns remained across her palms, each throb echoing up her arms.
And her timer—
[00 Hours : 58 Minutes Remaining]
She gasped, clutching her wrist. Her throat tightened. "Under an hour…"
The digits glowed cruelly, each second dripping away louder than her own heartbeat.
She forced herself to sit up. "Aelric?"
Her voice cracked.
---
He was there.
At the far edge of the broken platform, slumped against a jagged stone pillar. His body was half ash, half fire—charred skin flaking from his corrupted side, black tendrils twitching weakly from his ribs. His breath came in shallow bursts, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth.
And still—he grinned.
"About time you woke up," he rasped, his voice broken like shattered glass.
Elara's chest caved in relief. She crawled toward him, trembling, ignoring the pain in her palms.
"You're alive," she whispered. "You're actually alive."
"Of course I am," Aelric muttered, his good eye glinting with stubborn pride. "Takes more than a god to put me down."
But as she got closer, she saw the truth. His corrupted side was spreading even when he wasn't moving—like a fire consuming dry wood. The veins of black flame crawled slowly across his neck, inching closer to his last human eye.
Elara bit her lip until she tasted blood. "You're burning yourself away."
Aelric chuckled, coughing blood with it. "Then I'll burn bright enough to blind them all."
---
She wanted to scream at him, to tell him to stop talking like that, but the air shifted.
The void trembled.
Every fragment of stone groaned as if pulled by an unseen tide.
From the center of the broken cocoon, light bled. Not golden anymore. Not radiant. Something darker, heavier. Each pulse of it was slow, deliberate—like a giant heartbeat.
And with each beat, Elara's timer ticked faster.
[00 Hours : 55 Minutes Remaining]
Her stomach dropped. She grabbed Aelric's arm desperately. "It's still here. The god—it's not gone."
Aelric tilted his head, spitting blood onto the stone. His grin sharpened despite the pain.
"Good. That means I can kill it twice."
---
"No!" Elara snapped, her voice breaking into hysteria. "Look at you! You can't even stand, and I've got less than an hour left. If you push again—if you burn yourself anymore—you won't come back this time."
For once, her words pierced him.
Aelric's grin faltered. His good eye softened, studying her face through the dim glow.
"Elara…" He exhaled slowly, his corrupted side twitching violently as if protesting the pause. "…When did you start crying this much for me?"
Her hands shook as she grabbed his shirt, pressing her forehead against his chest. His body was fever-hot, trembling beneath her touch.
"I don't care when. I just—" Her voice broke. "I just don't want you to vanish. Not like this. Not when I—"
She stopped herself. The words lodged in her throat like knives.
Aelric chuckled weakly. "Not when you what?"
She shook her head furiously, refusing to say it.
---
Before he could push further, the cocoon pulsed again.
The fragments of stone shuddered, some breaking apart into dust. The void echoed with a new sound—not the hymn, but a low, steady breathing. Something immense, something alive, inhaling and exhaling behind the thin veil of reality.
Elara shivered. Her timer dropped again.
[00 Hours : 52 Minutes Remaining]
She clutched Aelric's corrupted hand despite the searing heat, ignoring how it burned her skin.
"What do we do?" she whispered. "We can't fight it like this. Not now."
Aelric's head tilted back against the stone. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then—
"We don't fight it."
Elara froze. "…What?"
His grin returned, weaker, bloodier, but real.
"We buy time. That's all we've ever done, right? Borrowed seconds. One after another. Long enough to spit in death's face."
She wanted to argue, but his words sank into her bones. Borrowed seconds. That was all they had left.
---
The void groaned louder. The broken cocoon cracked wider.
A sliver of a face emerged—a mouth too vast for comprehension, lips of light bending in impossible angles. The sound of its breathing grew sharper, rattling Elara's bones.
Her heart hammered as she whispered, "It's waking."
Aelric coughed blood again, but his grin twisted into something almost savage.
"Then let's make sure it regrets opening its eyes."
---
But he didn't move.
His body trembled violently, every twitch of his corrupted side eating more of his flesh.
Elara grabbed him tighter, tears flooding her face. "Don't. Please. Not yet."
For once—he didn't resist.
Instead, he leaned his head against hers, their foreheads touching in the flickering light. His breath was shallow, ragged, burning.
"Elara," he whispered.
She held her breath.
"…If I lose myself, you drag me back. No matter what it takes."
Her voice cracked, but she forced the words out. "I will. I swear I will."
His grin softened—almost gentle. "Then we've already won."
---
The void pulsed again.
Their borrowed seconds slipped away.
And the god finally stirred.