The white light consumed everything. Emily’s scream was swallowed by the radiance, her body weightless, her soul stretched thin as though every thread of her being were unraveling.The spear in her hands blazed brighter than ever before, shards vibrating violently, singing with Adrian’s faint pulse. For a heartbeat she thought she had torn through the Maw completely escaped it, shattered it, annihilated the hunger that bound her.But the light did not mean freedom. It meant fracture.The world snapped back with a deafening crack, and Emily found herself kneeling on a surface of black glass, shards of molten shadow jutting upward like jagged teeth.Her golden aura flickered weakly, flames sputtering against the weight pressing down on her shoulders. She wasn’t outside the Maw. She was inside its heart.The space stretched endlessly, a void sculpted into the shape of a colossal arena. Black chains curved in the distance like ribs, enclosing the battlefield. Above, the ceiling churned wi

The black and gold storm raged. Emily felt her body being ripped apart and sewn back together a thousand times as the void collapsed.Light tore through shadow, shadow devoured light, until she no longer knew which belonged to her and which belonged to Adrian.Her fingers clung desperately to his hand. That was the only anchor she had, the only proof that she hadn’t been erased entirely.Adrian’s grip was firm, warm, alive. His golden aura cascaded into her veins, fusing with the last embers of her fire. Their souls twined, binding into something neither wholly human nor wholly divine.Then came the silence. The storm imploded. The world was gone.Emily gasped, chest heaving, and found herself standing on a blank expanse of white. No sky. No ground. Only endless radiance, soft yet suffocating.Adrian stood before her, unshackled, his chains gone. His golden light had dimmed to a gentle glow, his features sharpened yet calm.“…We’re… not inside the Maw anymore,” Emily whispered.Adrian

The ground split open beneath Emily’s feet. She leapt, golden light flaring around her boots, barely catching the edge of a blackened stone bridge before the fissure widened into an endless gulf.Rivers of molten gold cascaded into the void like waterfalls, vanishing into nothing. Above her, the sky groaned. Glass fractures spread like spiderwebs, constellations bleeding from the cracks, whole stars dripping downward like tears.And in the center of it all, Adrian.Suspended, chained by radiant bindings that glowed brighter with every tremor. His unconscious body twisted as if caught between currents of light and shadow, the chains pulling tighter with each shudder of the realm.Emily’s heart hammered. “…Hold on… I’m coming…”The stone bridge ahead crumbled as she sprinted across it. Chunks fell away into the abyss, forcing her to leap from one fragment to another, her spear blazing to stabilize her footing.The shadows from the rivers rose again, fragments of the Maw, half-formed wra

The void trembled. Emily’s golden spear met the guardian’s weapon in a collision that split the air with a thunderclap.Sparks of molten light and shadow burst in every direction, shattering fragments of floating stone, tearing cracks wider through the sky.Her arms shook violently. The guardian’s strength was not flesh and bone, it was concept. The embodiment of inevitability, of trial, of weight meant to crush those who dared step beyond their station.Still, Emily refused to yield. Her eyes blazed, every nerve screaming as the guardian bore down on her.“Not… yet!” she shouted, shoving upward with every ounce of strength, golden light flaring like a sun.Above them, the fractured ceiling of the Maw groaned, lines of radiance tearing apart, each one glowing hotter, brighter.From one widening fissure spilled Adrian’s presence chains glowing, his body suspended, struggling against the radiant prison.She saw him. His voice thundered through the void, raw with agony: “Emily, MOVE!”Sh

The void bled light. Chunks of shattered stone floated weightlessly in the storm, molten rivers of energy threading between them like veins. The guardian’s remnants scattered into ash, swallowed by the Maw’s gaping hunger.But the storm had not ended. It had only begun.Adrian hovered above the ruin, wreathed in black fire laced with crimson sparks. His body trembled as the aura surged uncontrollably, his veins pulsing with power that was no longer his own.His eyes once clear, storm-grey were now a molten red-black, burning like dying stars.“Destroy…” The word rumbled from his throat, layered with voices that were not his. “Destroy everything… consume…”His gaze fell on Emily. Her chest tightened. “Adrian…” Her voice cracked, weak but resolute. He twitched head jerking as though struck yet the fire swelled higher, drowning the flicker of recognition.Her legs buckled as she stumbled forward, spear clutched in one trembling hand. Blood still dripped from her chest wound, each step a