The sky cracked.
Not with thunder, nor storm, but something older—more primal. A soundless shriek that rippled through existence itself, pulling the air taut and wrong. Hira staggered to her knees, clutching her head as pressure mounted behind her eyes, as if something inside her skull was trying to crawl out. Around her, the temple had vanished. There were no walls, no floor—only a liminal space between substance and void, stitched together by flickering remnants of reality.
She was not alone.
The others stood suspended in this fractured realm. Paige, frozen mid-scream. Cecilion, cradling something in his arms that flickered between Paige's corpse and Zixuan's broken body. Harith knelt, blood dripping from his nose, eyes wide with recognition, or madness. And then—there was Casper.
