Frank’s chest heaved, limbs trembling from the collision. The air hung heavy, thick with energy that seemed to pulse in time with his own heartbeat. The hybrid hovered, wings folding and unfolding like dark, molten glass. Its golden veins flickered, alive and unpredictable.“Do you feel it?” Frank asked, voice hoarse. “The part of her that’s still there?”“I…” the being faltered, the layered echoes wavering. “I feel it faintly. Too faint.”“Then we’ll make it stronger,” Frank growled, stepping closer, fists glowing. “I’ll pull her out, no matter what it takes!”The hybrid’s form rippled, shadow and light intertwining in furious arcs. “Do you even understand what you’re doing?” it hissed. “If you break through, it won’t just be her, it will be everything. This world, you… me.”“I don’t care!” Frank shouted. “I’ll risk it all. Even you. Even myself. I’ll bring her back!”A pulse of energy shot from his fists. The hybrid lunged, and they collided midair, wings and arms colliding in

The pulse of energy rocked the fractured courtyard. Frank’s feet dug into cracked stone; every nerve in his body screamed. The hybrid hovered above, wings of shadow and gold flaring, light slicing through the darkness like molten steel. “Are you ready?” Elara’s voice echoed in his mind, steady despite the chaos. “Always,” he whispered, fists igniting, energy coiling like a living flame. The hybrid’s layered voice cut through the roar of the wind: “You think combining forces will save her? You can’t control this!”“We don’t need to control it!” Frank shouted, energy surging. “We just need to be together!”The being descended in a storm of shadows, striking fast. Frank dodged, energy sparking against the edge of its wings. Elara’s presence flowed through him, a pulse, a heartbeat, tethering him to the part of her trapped inside. “Hold on!” she called. He lunged, striking with a surge of pure energy. The hybrid met him midair, golden veins flashing against black, a violent clash

Frank fell through darkness so thick it felt like drowning in wet ash. The world spun,up, down, sideways,no direction made sense. His lungs seized. His fingers cramped around the hand he’d grabbed. A voice echoed through the void, shaking with terror. “Why did you take my hand?”Not Elara. Not even close. His heart dropped.“Damn it,” Frank hissed, trying to pull away. But the grip tightened, nails digging into his skin with desperate, panicked force. “Don’t let go!”The hybrid’s voice,raw, cracking, not layered anymore. A single voice. Singular. Terrified. Frank snarled through clenched teeth.“You need to let me go.”“I can’t! If you let go, I disappear,I,I don’t know what I’ll become,”The darkness rippled violently around them, reacting to the being’s panic. Waves of shadow slammed against Frank, disorienting him further. “Calm down!” he shouted. “You’re making this worse!”“I don’t know how!” the hybrid screamed.The darkness convulsed. A shockwave of raw fear tore through the vo

There was no falling. No sensation of movement. No sound. Just obliteration,a ripping, burning distortion that seized Frank’s body and hurled him through a seam between two realities that should never have touched. Elara’s hand slipped from his at the very last fraction of a second. The light snapped shut behind him like a trap. He was alone. Thrown back into the one place he swore he would never return to.The dark swallowed him immediately.Not silence, pressure. Like the weight of an ocean crushing his ribs inward. Like thousands of whispers crawling beneath his skin. Like memory dissolving. Frank forced himself upright, gasping as the void’s air scraped down his throat like smoke. “Hybrid,!” he shouted. His voice didn’t echo. It stopped. As if the darkness devoured every word the instant it left his mouth. Frank’s pulse spiked. This wasn’t the same void he’d been in before. It wasn’t inert. It wasn’t waiting. It was aware. And it knew he was back. Footsteps scraped in the b

The void had receded, leaving the world fractured, fragile, and trembling.Frank and Elara stepped forward cautiously, their feet sinking slightly into the new terrain,a patchwork of white light and scorched black remnants. Shadows clung to the edges of every fractured surface, curling like smoke, hesitant to disappear entirely. The hybrid’s essence had faded, leaving only the echo of courage inside Frank.He exhaled slowly, eyes scanning the horizon. The city wasn’t gone, but it was unrecognizable. Buildings leaned at impossible angles, streets had cracked into jagged rivers, and the air was thick with a faint shimmer of residual energy from the void’s collapse. Elara walked beside him, hands brushing lightly over his arm. “It’s… worse than I imagined,” she whispered.Frank nodded. “It’s never going to be the same. But we survived. That’s the first step.”They moved cautiously through the ruins. Every shadow that flickered at the corner of their vision made Frank’s senses tighten