Pain tore through every nerve in Kael's body.
Not physical pain.
Something worse.
It felt like his existence itself was stretching apart, like something inside him was growing too fast for his body to contain.
Lira forced him against the cracked stone floor, gripping his shoulders tightly as black veins spread slowly across his arms and neck.
"Kael! Stay with me!"
He barely heard her.
His shadow thrashed violently around the chamber, carving deep scars into the walls without physically touching them. Entire pillars split apart as darkness lashed through the air like living blades.
The cloaked figure stood motionless nearby.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then finally—
"The seal is failing."
Kael's breathing shook.
His vision blurred as he looked upward through trembling eyes.
"What…" he rasped.
"What am I?"
The answer came instantly.
"A mistake fate could not erase."
The chamber suddenly went black.
Completely.
No light.
No sound.
Even the feeling of the ground vanished.
Only Kael's breathing remained.
Slow.
Uneven.
Then—
Another voice emerged from the darkness.
Not the cloaked figure.
Not Lira.
Something older.
Something endless.
You are hungry.
Kael froze.
The voice echoed through him instead of around him.
Not for power.
Not for revenge.
For existence itself.
A massive silver eye opened within the darkness.
Endless.
Ancient.
Watching him.
Kael's shadow slowly rose behind him, stretching upward like enormous wings formed from liquid night.
Lira stepped backward instinctively.
Her pulse tightened.
Because for one terrifying second—
Kael didn't feel human anymore.