I gasped, ripping the VR-like headset of memory from my mind.
The transition was violent. I fell to my knees on the floor of the Akashic Records, dry heaving. My brain was vibrating, overloaded by the sheer density of the life I had just witnessed.
I hadn't just watched a movie. I had lived it. I had felt the crushing gravity of the Abyss, the heat of Tiamat's fire, and the terrifying, bottomless hunger of the entity known as Tenebria.
"She..." I wheezed, wiping sweat from my forehead. "She is... complete."
"Yes," Akasha whispered.
I looked up.
The Library was in ruins. The black ink—Tenebria's corruption—had advanced significantly while I was in the simulation. The shelves were dissolving into static. The ceiling was gone, replaced by a void that looked suspiciously like Tenebria's eyes.
Akasha sat on the steps of the central dais. She was translucent now. Her golden light was flickering, struggling to maintain the resolution of her own existence.
