The world was no longer still.
The cracking mirror-sky had barely finished falling before the ocean below began to revolt heaving in grotesque pulses, churning with a hunger that did not belong to nature. The tentacles of water surged upward again, twisting like serpents sculpted from liquid glass, their movements graceful and predatory at the same time.
They struck.
Hard.
And both Kai and the corrupted beast were caught in the same sweeping force, dragged together toward the boiling sea below.
Kai reacted instinctively.
Wind answered him—sharp, slicing currents ripping through the watery limbs dragging him downward. But the problem was obvious. Too obvious.
The water wasn't cutting.
It wasn't breaking.
His wind blades simply passed through, scattering droplets that reformed instantly, relentless as fate.
The pressure around him intensified.
Then—
Rain.
But not from the sky.
It rose.
Droplets lifted upward from the ocean surface, drifting in reverse like time being rewound, like memories clawing their way back to existence. The air thickened, vibrating with a sound that did not belong to wind, water, or flesh.
A sound like weeping that had forgotten how to fall.
And then—
A voice.
Not thunderous.
Not divine in the traditional sense.
Worse.
Far worse.
It was gentle.
A softness stretched thin over a thousand years of sorrow. A voice that could cradle a dying world to sleep.
"Veiled creature… wanderer… child of borrowed fate."
The words trembled through the realm, brushing against Kai's skin like fingertips made of mist. Even the corrupted beast stilled momentarily, its grotesque form hesitating as if remembering something long dead.
The tone deepened, rippling outward like a tide that hid knives beneath the foam.
"You have stepped into my domain seeking truth…
But truth is a tide no mortal can withstand."
The ocean answered her—circling them both, weaving spirals of water and shadow. The realm seemed to breathe, exhale, inhale, tighten. Even the air tasted different, heavier, laced with a sweetness that made Kai's throat ache.
The tentacles did not stop pulling.
"Look around you.
All that you find here is corruption… echoes of what once was pure."
For an instant—brief, trembling—the voice fractured.
A hairline crack in eternity.
Like a heart that had already broken too many times and was remembering how to shatter again.
"Do not be afraid.
Even the polluted sea returns to clarity… once it lets go."
The warmth in her tone grew, slow and suffocating.
A lullaby wrapped in doom.
Comfort that begged to be drowned in.
"Come closer.
Lay down your burdens, your illusions, your wounds.
Enter my embrace… and I will wash everything away."
The ocean obeyed her.
It rose higher, higher curling around Kai and the corrupted beast like a mother pulling her children close. The temperature shifted; the water felt warm, like bathwater drawn for someone too tired to stand.
Kai felt his tight muscles unwind.
His breath falter.
His chest loosen in a way it never had.
"Memories. Pain. Names. Futures.
All will dissolve.
All will be forgiven."
Then a small pause.
Soft.
Barely audible.
Heartbreaking.
"…Even me."
The voice drifted away, fading like a wave retreating from a lonely shore. Kai felt something unclench inside him. The exhaustion he carried years of it, layers stacked on layers slid open like a wound begging for release.
For a moment, the world dimmed around him, dissolving at the edges.
And he wondered…
Why not let go?
Why keep running?
Why keep chasing clues, suspicions, whispers about the Keys of Blasphemy?
Why keep pretending he was strong enough to bear a legacy meant for gods?
He was tired.
Not just physically.
Existentially.
He had not wanted any of this.
Not the trial.
Not the burden.
Not the endless wandering.
He had wanted to stay beside his sister.
To protect Valeria.
To guard their people.
But he had been weak.
Too weak to stop what happened.
Too weak to prevent the disaster that fractured their kingdom.
And now—
after all the travel, all the suspicion, all the fear—
he wanted to rest.
Just rest.
Let the water take him.
What harm was there in peace?
The ocean climbed higher, soft as silk wrapping around him, dragging him downward. The corrupted beast, half-swallowed, thrashed once before letting itself sink too perhaps equally entranced by the voice's promise of release.
Kai's eyes began to dim.
His heartbeat slowed.
His hands loosened.
He was sinking.
Sinking.
Sinking—
Until the chains on his left hand awakened.
They did not rattle.
They surged.
A violent pulse shot through them dark, suffocating, primal. The metal band seared like a scorching brand, and the chains spilled outward, coiling with desperation, as if refusing to allow what came next.
A dark aura poured from the band, enveloping Kai's arm in shadows that swallowed even the water's warmth. The comforting sea turned cold. The mist fractured.
The darkness changed.
Its texture shifted no longer fog-like, but viscous. Heavy.
The consistency of ink mixed with blood.
The chains writhed.
They twisted upward.
Then bit into his skin sinking with a soft, wet sound that defied nature.
Kai didn't scream.
Somehow, he understood.
Or perhaps… remembered.
His eyes snapped open.
The sclera flooded first turning red, vivid as fresh blood spilled on moonstone. His pupils shrank into crimson points that cut through the watery gloom.
Air responded.
It didn't merely move.
It collapsed, compressing around him with a violence that warped the world. The pressure crushed downward, became unbearable, then.
Burst.
A shockwave rippled outward, throwing water aside, tearing through the tentacles, ripping the corrupted beast away, and shattering the illusion of calm the voice had wrapped around him.
Kai inhaled sharply the first real breath in minutes.
The ocean reeled.
The air roared.
And then—
Something went wrong.
Terribly wrong.
The world rippled, distorting like a canvas splashed with oil. The sea's color inverted for a heartbeat blue becoming black, then white, then something else entirely. The sky cracked along invisible seams, bleeding lines of jagged light.
The realm convulsed, reacting to the beast…
And to him.
To whatever had stirred inside him.
To whatever the chains refused to let drown.
The corrupted beast vanished beneath the swirling water, swallowed whole. A distant howl rose from the depths short, choked, abruptly cut off.
Silence followed.
A silence so deep it felt ancient.
A silence that wasn't empty…
but listening.
Something in the world had shifted.
Bent.
Broken.
Kai felt it.
The trial felt it.
Even the lingering echo of the mourning voice felt it.