I thought they'd lost me.
I thought crawling deeper would buy me time—give me just enough distance to disappear into the earth.
But I was wrong.
Because these monsters didn't search.
They knew.
And now, they were coming through the floor.
The first tremor shook the walls around me.
Dust fell from above, coating my hair, my face. The sound was deep—a vibrating growl that came from the stone itself, like the world was groaning in protest.
Then came the second.
BOOM.
A fracture shot across the ceiling of the tunnel above me.
I flinched as debris crashed beside my shoulder, nearly pinning me. My vision blurred, my breath catching. The hole I had fallen into—the one that had swallowed me—was becoming a coffin.
And they were digging me out of it.
I tried to stand, but my legs gave out beneath me.
My body was still shattered from the fight above—ribs cracked, shoulder bruised, skin torn open along my arms and hips.
And now the stonefire titans were breaking in with precision.
One after another, the impacts came:
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Each one louder.
Each one closer.
They weren't pounding randomly.
They were tracking me through the vibrations—like they could sense where my pain settled deepest and dig toward it.
The wall beside me splintered.
A molten crack appeared, glowing orange, expanding like a spiderweb.
I backed away, dragging my body with one arm, nails scraping the stone until they tore.
Another blow came.
This one collapsed the ceiling above me.
The rocks fell in a cascade—burning, shattering, filling the tunnel with a roar that drowned my heartbeat.
I screamed.
I didn't care anymore.
I screamed as the light pierced the dark.
And through it…
They stepped in.
Three of them.
Towering.
Breathing fire through cracked ribs that pulsed like pistons.
Their obsidian skin was jagged with glowing seams, and every movement shed sparks.
One dropped to all fours.
The other stood upright, head cocked, watching me.
The third... just walked forward.
Slowly.
Like a god ready to pass judgment.
I tried to crawl again.
It didn't matter.
One reached me in seconds.
It didn't swing with rage.
It didn't roar.
It just raised its foot.
And brought it down on my back.
I felt the world split in two.
Pain rippled through every nerve—hot and sharp. I gasped, my mouth open wide, no sound escaping. My vision turned white at the edges.
Before I could move, the foot came down again.
And again.
CRACK.
CRACK.
My spine screamed.
My mouth filled with blood.
I twisted, trying to roll away.
One caught my leg and dragged me back.
My skin tore open on the stone.
A trail of blood painted behind me as I reached out to stop it—fingers scrabbling for grip.
None came.
Only fire.
Then the punches started.
Fists the size of my chest crashed into my body.
One into my ribs.
A second into my shoulder—dislocating it instantly.
A third straight into my stomach, lifting me off the ground, slamming me into the ceiling of the tunnel.
I hit the floor a second later, limp.
I tried to breathe.
Nothing came.
Just blood bubbling in my throat.
The smallest of the three grabbed my arm and twisted—slow, mechanical.
I screamed.
I felt the bone snap.
The scream turned into a wheeze.
The wheeze into a gurgle.
I spat blood across the rocks and felt my vision tunnel inward.
But they didn't stop.
They never stopped.
Another punch—this time into my jaw.
Something cracked in my head.
I stopped hearing for a moment.
The world went quiet, like I'd been plunged underwater.
They picked me up like a doll.
Held me above the ground.
I dangled.
Arms limp.
Blood dripping from my fingertips in slow, rhythmic drops.
One of them looked me in the eye.
That was the worst part.
Because there was no hate there.
No fury.
Just…
Obligation.
They were sent to erase me.
Nothing more.
The biggest one stepped forward.
Wrapped its hand around my torso.
Tight.
So tight.
My ribs screamed in new languages.
The pressure built.
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't scream.
My body twisted in its grip like a rag soaked in pain.
My eyes rolled back.
My heart thudded once—
Then again—
Then…
Slower.
The world darkened.
Everything became black and red.
Red like fire.
Red like pain.
Red like the inside of my throat as I choked on the last bit of myself.
This is it...
This is where it ends...
The pressure crushed deeper.
I felt something give.
A final rib.
A final thread.
And then—
everything went black.
No more sound.
No more fire.
Just…
the Void.
I didn't fall into it.
I was dragged.
Like someone was waiting.
Like she was waiting.
There was no ground beneath me.
No ceiling above.
No sound.
Only drift.
And silence.
So thick it felt like I was drowning in nothing.
I didn't know if I was dead.
Didn't know if this was what came after.
Or if I was simply stuck—caught in the moment between a final heartbeat and the last breath that never came.
My body floated through the black.
Limbs limp.
Blood still leaking from my nose, my mouth, my cracked skull.
I couldn't move.
Didn't even try.
Because I knew—
I had finally broken.
And then I heard her.
Faint.
Flickering.
A whisper stitched into the dark.
"There you are…"
Her voice was like silk dipped in lightning.
Warm and terrifying.
Familiar and foreign.
Nyxia.
I tried to speak.
But nothing came.
My throat didn't work.
My mouth didn't move.
There was no air in this place.
But I felt her smile.
"Still fighting, even when your bones say stop."
"You don't even realize what you're becoming, do you?"
A flicker of violet light cracked the dark.
Like a pulse.
A vein in the sky.
I tried to reach for it.
My fingers twitched.
Barely.
"You're close now."
"Closer than they think."
"But you keep getting in your own way."
The light flickered again—brighter this time.
I could see shapes now.
Memories maybe.
My own face.
Twisted.
Screaming.
Alive.
Then Violet.
Back turned.
Walking away.
Then Nyxia—
Her eyes closed.
Her arms wrapped around something burning.
Was it me?
Was it what I used to be?
"They took everything from you."
"Even the right to remember."
"But your soul…"
"Your soul remembers everything."
The Void pulsed again—darker this time.
Deeper.
And I fell faster.
Like gravity had remembered me.
I didn't scream.
I didn't flinch.
I let go.
Because for the first time in what felt like lifetimes…
I wasn't alone.
Her voice wrapped around me like armor.
And somewhere—far beyond the black—
I felt her hand.
Not physically.
Not even spiritually.
Just…
there.
"Let me show you what they tried to erase."
"Let me show you… what you really are."
I closed my eyes.
And for the first time since the forest…
I let the darkness take me.