Liam gripped Shadowfang so desperately that his knuckles turned white. In his other hand, the shard pulsed like an insistent heartbeat, its violet glow burning into his skin as though it were carving its command there. Every time he closed his eyes, that endless mantra echoed through his mind: **"You cannot resist."** It wasn't just a thought—it felt as if the shard were reaching inside him, a parasitic force testing the very edges of his will.
The pressure in his head was unbearable. His Echo Sync screamed at him—a relentless 92% that wasn't merely a number but an avalanche of static and searing pain. Every nerve cried out, and in those tortured moments, Liam saw a vision: a dark, twisted world where he was already on his knees, broken and surrendered to the shard's all-consuming whisper. For one agonizing heartbeat, surrender seemed inevitable. But he tore that vision away with a desperate shake of his head. He would not give in.
