CHAPTER 131 :The storm didn’t calm when Billy steadied.If anything, it felt like the sky held its breath—waiting.Billy sat slumped against a slanted boulder, soaked and shivering despite the unnatural heat radiating off his skin. Tyla kept a firm grip on his forearm, partly to reassure him… partly to reassure herself he wasn’t about to vanish again.“Talk to me,” she said, voice low but steady. “What’s happening in your head?”He swallowed hard, jaw flexing like he was wrestling thoughts he didn’t want to voice.“The relic… it’s changing,” Billy said finally. “It’s not just noise anymore. It’s… forming.”His hands trembled as he pressed his palms to his temples.“It’s speaking.”Tyla’s throat tightened. “Speaking how?”“I don’t know!” Billy snapped, then instantly winced like the frustration hurt him more than her. “It’s images, sounds—like memories but not mine. Or maybe they are mine. I can’t tell anymore.”Tyla leaned closer, ignoring the way the rain plastered her hair to her f

CHAPTER 132 :Billy didn’t wake gently.He jerked awake like someone yanked him out of a nightmare mid-scream. His whole body tightened, then loosened all at once, as rain hit his skin and cold air slapped him back into reality.He was shaking, breath staggered, the storm’s roar muffling everything except the ringing in his skull.Tyla knelt beside him, soaked to the bone, strands of wet hair plastered to her cheek. Her hand hovered near his shoulder, not touching until she was certain he was actually conscious. She didn’t push. She didn’t coax. She just stayed — steady and stubborn in that way she always was when he tried to break apart.“Billy,” she said softly. “You’re here. You’re back.”He swallowed air like he’d been drowning.“I saw him,” he whispered, voice raw. “Tyla… I saw him.”She didn’t respond right away. She knew he needed to say it before she said anything.Billy pushed himself upright, shaky but determined, his eyes haunted by something deeper than fear. Something he’

CHAPTER 134 :The storm was relentless, whipping the arid mountainside into a frenzy of jagged ice and swirling dust. Billy’s boots barely touched the ground as he stumbled forward, his senses splitting between the world around him and the chaos unfurling in his mind. The relic, perched on his chest like a living thing, pulsed erratically, thrumming with a raw, invasive energy that seemed to reach deep into his memory, his very essence. The air around him felt heavier, each breath a labor, as if the storm itself sought to choke the life out of him.His vision blurred, and suddenly the landscape melted away entirely. Billy wasn’t walking anymore. He was falling—through space, time, and consciousness, tumbling into a realm where light fractured into shards of memory. The relic had taken him. It dragged him somewhere between reality and something else entirely, somewhere dark and infinite. He saw the volcano in the distance, its crater glowing like molten amber, but it felt farther than

CHAPTER 136 :The jagged cliffs rose like teeth against the stormy sky, the wind whipping Billy’s coat against his chest with relentless force. Rain stung his face, cold and sharp, but the heat of the looming volcano ahead burned in his chest hotter than any weather. Every step was a battle, every misstep a potential fall into the chasm-lined ravine below.Owen led the way, boots crunching over wet stone, flashlight beam slicing through the darkness. His usual calm demeanor was tempered with urgency. “We can’t let the Curator reach the star-point first. Every second counts.”Billy’s legs ached, every muscle trembling from exhaustion and the lingering effects of the relic-bond. It pulsed now, subtly syncing with the environment—almost as if the volcano itself were alive and reacting to him. He clenched his fists, trying to ground himself, but every pulse sent a jolt through his body that threatened to throw off his balance.Behind him, Tyla’s breaths came fast and ragged. Her hair plas

CHAPTER 138 :The wind tore at Tyla’s jacket, snapping it against her shoulders, mixing ash and rain into a gritty paste across her face. Lightning split the sky above the volcano, illuminating jagged ridges and rivers of molten rock with stark, brief clarity. She could hear Billy’s ragged breaths, each one a struggle, each one a battle against the relic that threatened to consume him.He was on his knees, fingers clawing at the scorched earth, the relic embedded in his chest pulsing violently. Each pulse seemed to drag him further from the world, a siren call of energy and darkness that threatened to override his body and mind. Tyla’s first instinct was to scream, to shake him, to force him back into reality—but she knew better. That approach would only provoke the bond further.Instead, she knelt beside him, letting her fingers hover above the faint glow of the relic’s surface. “Billy,” she whispered, voice steady despite the storm, “you can hear me, right? Focus on me. I need you