The scream ripped from Clara’s throat, but it was not only hers. It was two voices , one high and broken, the other low, resonant, ancient.Gibson held her tighter, refusing to let go even as the crimson light seared his arms, branding him with its heat. “Fight it, Clara! Stay with me! Don’t let it take you!”His voice cracked against the thunder of collapsing stone, but whether she heard him or not, he didn’t know. Her small body arched, back bowing unnaturally, light crawling under her skin like a living fire.Then, suddenly, her head snapped back, her eyes flaring brighter, and the world dissolved. Darkness. Then crimson.It stretched endlessly, a sky without stars, a storm without end. She floated in the void, her small hands reaching but finding nothing. Her chest heaved with panic. Where am I?The storm answered. It didn’t speak in words but in pressure, in whispers carried like knives across her mind. You are ours.“No!” Clara shook her head violently, tears streaking her c

The world had narrowed to blackness. Dust choked the air. Steel pinned his spine. Stone pressed against his ribs until every breath came jagged and shallow.The heat from the fire above bled through the rubble, turning the coffin of debris into a furnace. But Gibson didn’t feel the weight of stone. Didn’t feel the bleeding, the bones grinding in his body.He felt only the girl in his arms. Clara’s chest rose and fell against him, too fast, too shallow. Her skin burned, veins glowing faint crimson with each pulse.Her head lolled back against his arm, hair matted with soot, her small lips trembling. And then she opened her eyes. Not brown. Crimson fire. And when she spoke, it wasn’t Clara. “Gibson.”The voice filled the cramped darkness, echoing though there was no space for echoes. It wasn’t a child’s voice. It was deep, resonant, older than stone. “At last.”Gibson’s blood turned cold. But his arms did not loosen. He held her tighter, even as his skin blistered from the heat pouring

The ruins were still falling. Stone, steel, and fire rained down in a furious storm, the shattered ribs of the fortress groaning as though the building itself was alive and screaming.Gibson felt every crash like a drumbeat inside his skull, every fragment of rubble hammering closer, but none of it mattered. Because in his arms, his daughter burned.Clara’s body convulsed violently, her small frame writhing as arcs of light burst from her skin. One eye glowed molten crimson, swirling with storms of fire, while the other shimmered the soft brown that had always been his anchor.The sight ripped Gibson’s chest open, a war in her gaze, a fracture of worlds playing out inside her tiny face. “Clara!” he rasped, pulling her closer as dust choked the air. “Stay with me, baby! Stay, ”Her mouth opened. But it wasn’t just her voice that came out. “…Daddy…” soft, trembling, a child’s plea.“…Mine…” deep, resonant, ancient as thunder. The storm had found its tongue, and it was using her.The ru

The body was not her own. Clara realized it the moment her eyes opened and the world burned red. She could feel her limbs move, her lips curl into a smile, her fingers twitch with fire.But she wasn’t the one doing it. She was inside, trapped behind glass. And the storm was laughing. The crimson void stretched around her like an endless cathedral of fire. She pressed her palms against invisible walls, screaming, but her voice barely echoed beyond the flames. Through the glass, she saw flashes of the outside world, her father’s broken body pinned in rubble, his eyes wide with horror.Her own mouth moved, but the words weren’t hers. “At last, we are one.” The storm’s voice reverberated in her skull. She slapped her fists against the wall of fire, tears streaming down her cheeks.“No! That’s not me! Give me back my body!”The obsidian-eyed figure appeared beside her, cloaked in fire, towering and calm. “Why fight, little flame? You begged for strength. You cried to be more than weak.

The ground vanished beneath him. Gibson fell. Stone, fire, and twisted steel collapsed into a screaming chasm, dragging him down with a force that tore the breath from his lungs. His arms locked around Clara’s body, her small frame convulsing in his grip. He didn’t dare let go, not even for a heartbeat.Above, the ruins of the Nexus were swallowed whole. Below, there was nothing but a burning void, endless and alive, like the throat of some ancient beast. “Clara, !” His voice ripped raw against the roar of collapsing earth. Her eyes snapped open. Not her eyes. Not anymore.They glowed with crimson fire, blazing so brightly they cut through the darkness. And when her mouth opened, the voice that answered was not his daughter’s. “You cannot keep her from me.”The words shook the abyss, vibrating through his bones. Clara’s small hands clawed at his chest, burning with fire that licked at his flesh.Gibson gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to cry out as his skin blistered under her t