The light in the cavern flickered, dying down to a barely perceptible glow, and an eerie, supernatural chill flooded the entire space, seeming to suck the warmth from the very stones.
Then suddenly, a cocoon of viscous, hungry black flames began to erupt from the ground and swirl around Cedric's corpse, enveloping it completely in an opaque, writhing shroud of shadow and fire.
Everyone watched as the fire burned for a moment before dying out, revealing Cedric's body lying perfectly whole. The severed head was fused back onto the neck, and his skin looked even better than it was before he died.
A few seconds passed in tense silence, and then… his fingers twitched.
***
Cedric's POV
——
For a while, there was only darkness and silence.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, my eyes snapped open, like I'd been jerked awake from a deep sleep.
Upon waking up, the first thing I saw was Aika exhaling a large plume of smoke directly above my head.
