The Healer’s Ascension

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Ashes of Silence

Smoke.

It hung heavy in the crater, a suffocating veil that smothered sound, sight, and hope. Each particle glowed faintly violet, as though fire itself had been ground into dust and scattered across the ruins.

Jason knelt at the epicenter, his chest heaving, fingers clawing at broken stone. Flames still writhed around him, but they no longer obeyed. They sputtered, spasmed, lashed out unpredictably, like a beast both wounded and rabid.

His eyes were wide, burning yet hollow. He stared at the scorched patch of earth where Elias had lain moments before. The blackened stone held no body. No trace. Only absence.

“No…” His voice was cracked glass, sharp and fragile all at once. “No, no, no.”

The shard inside him purred. Yes. Yes, feel it. This is what it means to be unbound.

Jason pressed his palms to his temples, fire licking at his skin but leaving no marks. His scream broke free again, raw and human, echoing into the smoke. He did not feel powerful. He did not feel free. He felt hollow