Pain.
Unrelenting, soul-searing pain.
Asher could feel himself breaking apart—skin splitting, muscles unraveling, his very bones cracking under the unbearable pressure.
Something inside him was collapsing, his body betraying him, his mana reserves emptier than ever—not even embers left to cling to.
His breath was ragged, choked, as he managed to rasp out through gritted teeth, "Wha…What are you doing to me…"
The dark green veins carved across his body pulsated, the foreign energy still spreading through him like a parasite feasting on his existence.
Skully's skeletal figure loomed closer.
Cold. Unfeeling. Merciless.
"You rely too much on what you already have," his hollow voice echoed through the vast ruins, as if speaking from the depths of the abyss itself.
"Let's see what happens when you have nothing."
Before Asher could process his words—
His body imploded.
Not with an explosion—
But a collapse.
