Adrian’s body was half-submerged in the shadow’s molten chest, golden veins blazing like cracks in fragile glass. The spear floated beside him, vibrating violently as though torn between two masters. Emily fought against Grayson’s grip, her voice raw. “Let me go! He needs me!”Grayson’s eyes burned with desperation. “If you touch that thing, it’ll drag you under too! Do you want to die?”Tears blurred her vision, but she shook her head furiously. “I’d rather die with him than watch him be taken!”The shadow’s laughter reverberated across the cavern, mocking and thunderous.“…Foolish hearts. This vessel was always mine. The weapon… the heir… the seal. It all belongs to the abyss.”Inside the shadow, Adrian’s mind was a storm. Darkness pressed in on every side, whispering in endless voices, taunting him, pulling at his memories.He saw his relatives sneering, his ex humiliating him, his boss tossing coins at his feet. Then the visions shifted. Emily crying, Grayson bleeding, the consort

The world was noise and ruin. The molten wave of darkness crashed through the cavern like a living storm, tearing down stalactites and ripping stone apart as if it were clay.Emily clung desperately to the spear, its flickering gold light the only thing keeping the suffocating void at bay. Each pulse burned her palms raw, but she refused to let go. “Grayson!” she shouted over the roar.“I’ve got you!” he barked back, seizing her by the arm. He hauled her up just as the ledge beneath them collapsed into the writhing sea of shadow.They stumbled together across the crumbling cavern, dodging as jagged pillars fell around them. The Abyss’s voice thundered everywhere at once, seeping into their minds. “You cannot run. His soul is already mine. You carry nothing but ashes.”Emily’s throat tore as she screamed into the dark. “You’re lying! Adrian is alive, I can feel him!”Grayson dragged her toward a narrow passage as the cavern shook apart. Walls split open, revealing tunnels bleeding molt

The world was breaking. Stone thundered down from the collapsing cavern ceiling. Rivers of molten shadow burst from cracks in the earth, flooding every direction.Above it all, the Abyss loomed, its body expanding to fill the chamber, eyes glowing red like scattered suns.Emily knelt in the center, the ruined spear splintered in her hands. Golden light seeped between her fingers, each flicker accompanied by Adrian’s voice echoing faintly inside her head.“…Choose…”Her arms trembled. Tears streaked her face, mixing with soot and blood. “I can’t. Adrian, don’t make me do this please!”Grayson stood at her back, sword raised, blood running freely down his arm. His voice was hard, but underneath it trembled with unspoken fear. “Emily! Decide now. If you hesitate, it’ll consume us all!”The Abyss laughed, a sound like worlds collapsing. “Yes… choose. Save the vessel, and I devour your world. Kill him, and perhaps your kind delays the inevitable. Either way you lose.”Emily pressed the cra

Emily fell through the void, the world collapsing around her. The broken spear flared faintly in her hands, golden cracks glowing weakly as if it were guiding her through the storm.She screamed, wind tearing at her body, shadows clawing at her every limb. The Abyss had swallowed her whole, yet she felt Adrian’s faint pulse within the weapon, a heartbeat fighting against the darkness.“Adrian… I’m coming,” she whispered through gritted teeth. “Hold on. I’ll find you.”The void around her twisted and writhed, tendrils of shadow reaching out like serpents, slamming into her, tearing at her skin and her mind.Each strike was agony, but she refused to let go of the spear. Its faint glow pulsed in rhythm with Adrian’s essence inside.The Abyss was no longer a singular entity, it was a labyrinth of molten black corridors, twisting impossibly. Emily stumbled through, following the faint pulsing of the spear.Shadows shifted into forms she knew faces of people she loved, people she had lost,

Emily plummeted into darkness. The vortex of the Abyss swallowed everything stone, shadow, even the faint glow of the broken spear. Her body spun in the void, pulled along by forces she could barely comprehend.Grayson was beside her, clutching the fragments of the spear. His face was streaked with blood and sweat, eyes wide with determination. “Emily! Hold onto me!”She screamed, gripping him tightly as the world twisted and tore around them. The faint pulse of Adrian’s essence throbbed within the shards, faint but insistent.“…Emily…” his voice echoed in her mind. “…I’m still here… fight…”The shadows of the Abyss surged around them like a living storm. Tendrils lashed outward, striking with crushing force. Each strike sent waves of pain through Emily’s body, but she forced herself forward, toward the golden pulse that was Adrian.The vortex spat them into a labyrinth of pure darkness. Jagged paths of blackened stone floated in the void, each one twisting in impossible directions.S