2025-08-20 23:38:18
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Chapter 284
Morning came slow and gray. They gathered in the healer's house for breakfast. Simple food—bread, cheese, dried fruit. Nobody talked much. The exhaustion ran too deep for conversation. Garcia was the first to break the silence. "Something's been bothering me," she said. She set down her bread, appetite gone. "The Abyss." Blaze looked up. "What about it?" "We stopped the convergence. Destroyed the keys. Killed the Master." Garcia's eyes found Miko. "But the Abyss itself—what happens to it now? There's no battery to power it. No connection to reality." Miko stopped chewing. He hadn't thought about that. Had been too focused on surviving, on ending the ritual, on watching his father die. "She's right," Liam said slowly. His voice was still weak from the healing, but his mind was sharp as ever. "The Abyss needed the Master to anchor it. Without him, without the ritual, it should be—" "Crumbling," Miko finished. His stomach dropped. "It should be crumbling. Falling apart." "Should
Chapter 283
They sat by the river for a long time. Nobody spoke. There wasn't much to say. The Master's body lay a few feet away, still and cold. The wound in his chest had stopped bleeding. The light from Samson's scars had faded completely. Anna's crying had quieted to occasional hitches in her breath. Liam still had his arm around her. Garcia sat with her back against a tree, eyes closed but not sleeping. Blaze was picking at a thread on his torn shirt. Akiya stared at the water. Miko stood apart from them, looking at the body. His father's face. Peaceful now in a way it never had been in life. Or lives. However that worked. "We should bury him," Garcia said finally. "Why?" Blaze didn't look up from his shirt. "He tried to end the world." "Because leaving him here feels wrong." "A lot of things feel wrong." But Blaze stood anyway. "I'll help dig." They found a spot upriver where the ground was softer. Took turns digging with their hands and Garcia's stone manipulation. Nobody s
Chapter 282
Miko's fists came up.Ash began to swirl around them. Gray and black, spiraling like smoke given form. It wasn't fire. Wasn't wind. Something else entirely—something that had awakened in him through all of this.He drove his fist into his own palm—the same hand that had grabbed the key. The one still burning with the Master's essence. The ash cut deep, drawing blood that mixed with the swirling gray particles."What are you doing?" The Master took a step forward."Something you didn't plan for." Blood welled up, mixing with the ash and energy still coursing through his hand. "You said I have your bloodline. That it's what let me touch the key without dying instantly.""Yes, and—""And blood calls to blood." Miko walked toward the nearest key. Not the one he'd dropped. One of the six still orbiting. "You built this ritual on connections. On anchors. On bonds between things."The Master's eyes widened. "Don't—"Miko pressed his bleeding palm against the key.The reaction was immediate.
Chapter 281
Miko stepped through the entrance and felt the space open up around him—high ceilings that disappeared into darkness, walls that curved impossibly, floor that seemed both solid and transparent at once. Through it, he could see stars. Or what used to be stars. Now they were just points of light being consumed by spreading darkness. The seven keys floated in perfect formation, each one humming with a frequency that made his teeth ache. They were beautiful in a terrible way—crystalline structures that caught light that shouldn't exist and refracted it into colors that hurt to name. And in the center of them all, his father stood with arms raised. The Master didn't move. Didn't attack. Just watched as the five of them spread out, taking positions around the chamber's edge. "You brought friends," he said. His voice was calm. Almost pleasant. "How touching." Miko kept his fists raised but didn't advance. Not yet. Ash swirled faintly around them. "It's over. We're stopping this." "Are
Chapter 280
Energy lanced across the chamber. Miko threw himself sideways. The blast hit where he'd been standing, vaporizing stone. He rolled, came up running, blade ready. The Master didn't follow up. Just stood there, hand still raised, watching them scatter like pieces on a board. "Garcia, now!" Akiya's voice cut through the chaos. The floor erupted. Stone spikes shot up around the Master, creating a cage meant to limit his movement. But he just waved his hand and they crumbled to dust. "Going to take more than that," he said. Blaze and Akiya struck together. Twin streams of fire converged on the Master's position, aimed directly at his chest where Samson's scars burned. The heat was intense enough that Miko felt it from across the chamber. The Master raised a barrier. The flames split around it, scorching the walls behind him but leaving him untouched. "Predictable," he said. "You saw the weakness and went straight for it. No subtlety. No—" Garcia hit him from the side. She'd used
Chapter 279
The chamber was bigger than it looked from outside. Miko stepped through the entrance and felt the space open up around him—high ceilings that disappeared into darkness, walls that curved impossibly, floor that seemed both solid and transparent at once. Through it, he could see stars. Or what used to be stars. Now they were just points of light being consumed by spreading darkness. The seven keys floated in perfect formation, each one humming with a frequency that made his teeth ache. They were beautiful in a terrible way—crystalline structures that caught light that shouldn't exist and refracted it into colors that hurt to name. And in the center of them all, his father stood with arms raised. The Master didn't move. Didn't attack. Just watched as the five of them spread out, taking positions around the chamber's edge. "You brought friends," he said. His voice was calm. Almost pleasant. "How touching." Miko kept his blade ready but didn't advance. Not yet. "It's over. We're sto
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