Chapter 69: Between Fire and Shadow
As if the storm had passed, the world around Marissa lay in ruin—scorched earth, splintered trees, and blood smeared across the rocks like forgotten warnings.
Smoke curled from the shattered remains of what once was. Yet, none of it came close to the devastation within her. The silence outside only mirrored the hollowness inside.
She stood trembling, barely able to breathe. Her body still radiated power, yet her soul felt fractured. Magnus once had warned her that this identity- this rebirth- was temporary. A mask to serve a greater purpose. And yet...
Why did it feel so real?
Why did it hurt so much?
Her vision blurred as blood pooled at the corners of her eyes, leaking like crimson tears. She whispered with a voice barely above the wind, "Darn it..."
And with that, she turned her back on the battlefield.
Her steps were slow, hesitant, but she followed the towering figure of Magnus without looking back. Together, their silhouettes faded into the rising mist of Runewood’s edge, vanishing into the fog and into their next deeper objective for the quest of the Dark Fate.
Far downstream, a river carried another broken soul. His sword barely hanging on his hand, just like his sanity.
Robert’s body floated with the current, his blood blending into the water, dyeing it a faint red trail behind him.
Whether it was luck or divine providence, he had landed in the river instead of the jagged cliffs. But as he drifted, he couldn’t tell if survival was a gift or a punishment.
His body screamed with pain-ribs cracked, gashes lining his arms and legs—but none of it compared to the agony in his chest.