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Chapter 45 Extended: Whispers Beneath the Ferryman's Cloak
Author: PaulyP
last update2025-06-14 21:11:59

The battlefield was still screaming.

Flames lit the horizon like dying stars, and the sky remained cracked with unnatural light—veins of violet and black where the Eater’s emissaries had torn through reality. Smoke coiled upward from shattered towers, and blood soaked the stones of Phoenix Manor.

Ethan stood amidst the wreckage, his blade slick with ichor, his chest heaving. Around him, members of the Supernatural Oversight Council tended to their wounded. The Ferrymen had arrived under the banner of neutrality, only to strike when the barriers between realms were weakest.

A betrayal.

And yet… they had not fought to kill. They had fought to test. To send a message.

He turned to the scorched ground where one Ferryman’s cloak still fluttered, burning like parchment in a slow fire. A single silver coin—marked with the sigil of the river of souls—lay beside it.

A calling card.

“The Ferrymen don’t choose sides,” Aria said beside him, her cheeks streaked with blood and sweat. “Why break tra
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