Chapter 131. The Shifting Heart

Eryndor’s POV

The devastation wrought by that final assault was beyond anything I had ever witnessed. Fields once lush and rolling now lay twisted and broken, their contours mangled by Zephyr’s earlier magic. But nothing in his repertoire could compare to the cataclysm Auraya had just unleashed. The very earth screamed beneath the force of her Holy Nova, as if the land itself were crying out in agony. Smoke and dust shrouded the horizon, and the acrid scent of scorched stone hung heavy in the air. Where there had once been gentle hills and winding streams, now only jagged scars and smoldering craters remained.

Scattered across the landscape were dozens of smaller pits, the shallow bowls left by Auraya’s lighter spells. Each one glowed faintly at the edges, evidence of the residual light magic still simmering beneath the surface. But the largest—and most terrifying—crater sat at the heart of it all. It yawned wide, black at its core, as if the world had been punctu