Chapter 55. Ashes and Ruin

The mountain pass was a desolate monument to a finished war. Neriah pushed herself off the cold stone, leaving the bodies of Kalen and the long-dead Corrupted Soul behind her. The physical world was utterly silent, but her mind was a tempest of sound—the frantic, dying howl of Caius’s psychic grief.

No! The Flame is gone! You lied! You are gone! The thought ripped through the fractured Final Bond, a wave of paralyzing, consuming despair.

“Caius, stop!” Neriah projected, her mind weak and strained. She had no Flame, no power, but the stubborn connection of the bond remained. I am alive! The purification failed, but I chose life!

Silence, ghost! Caius’s mind screamed back, his essence collapsing into itself. I hear only the void where your light was! You died to save the world, and you left me alone! The Shield failed!

Neriah realized the terror was self-reinforcing. Caius was collapsing not from the wound, but from the spiritual voi