"Totemic Chaos... I can't believe I've lived to see the day when I would perform it for a stranger."
Crimson steam escaped the old shaman's lips as she released a heavy sigh, her frail body trembling beneath the strain of the forbidden technique. She struggled to remain upright before slowly sinking to her knees, her wrinkled fingers pressing against the ground for support.
Even her already white hair seemed to grow paler by the second, losing what little luster it had retained over the years. The wrinkles across her face deepened, and her skin grew increasingly thin, as though decades were passing through her body in a matter of moments.
It was almost as if her remaining lifespan were being drawn out through the countless crimson strands, each carrying a fragment of her vitality into the towering totem beside her.
