Darkness.
Complete and absolute darkness surrounded him, the kind that made distance meaningless, that made up and down irrelevant.
Damian's consciousness floated in that void, aware but disconnected, present but not anchored to anything physical.
'W-where... am I?'
The thought emerged slowly, confused, his mind struggling to grasp context through fog that seemed to resist understanding.
He tried to remember what had happened before this darkness.
Images flashed through his fragmenting awareness – creatures with white eyes, students screaming, Lysa's broken body held in a massive claw, his own desperate charge...
'I was... fighting in the portal...'
The memory solidified slightly, becoming clearer despite the void around him.
The small child-like controller, the desperate final battle, using the Devourer Art until his mind degraded to almost nothing.
Then... Lysa.
About to be eaten alive.
