Chapter 32: Aftermath
Their steps made no echo. The ground was soft—damp, even—yet there had been no rain, no mist.Only the remnants of battle... and a strange sense of forgetting that tried to bury them.
Fade walked ahead. Everyone was behind him, yet none walked beside him.While the others moved slowly, he walked as if pushing against wind—in a world where no wind blew.
Zeyna said nothing. Kaela still glanced at her malfunctioning device. Arven and Darin leaned on each other as they walked.But no one spoke.There were things to say—but it wasn’t the time for them.
Inside Fade, there was no silence.
"This wasn’t just a battle," he thought."This... was the beginning.""And I’m no longer where I started."
The new power still echoed in his legs, unfamiliar. Every step carried him a little farther away from himself.The wind that brushed his shoulders felt different—but maybe it wasn’t the wind that had changed.
In the distance, a structure emerged. Collapsed, charred. It wasn’t clear if it was metal or concrete.Fade stopped.
"Stop," he said quietly—but everyone heard him.It wasn’t a command.It wasn’t judgment.It was necessity.
He turned around.
His gaze passed over each of them.
And just then, with his steps halted... something moved above.