Chapter 18: POWER SURGE
They didn’t speak on the return from the mountain.
Reed walked ahead, Hollowblood dripping from his knuckles, boots coated in mud and ash. Shia followed, silent, hooded, the light of the Hero Core Fragment still pulsing from beneath her skin like a buried sun.
The others—a single Spine Unit survivor and a limping scout—kept their eyes low. They had seen gods flicker behind stone and live walls. They had seen men burn from words never spoken.
And they had seen Shia change.
At the edge of Goblin’s Hollow, as the war altar loomed like a broken fang against the blood-red sky, Shia dropped to one knee.
"Stop," she gasped. "It’s... still happening."
Reed knelt beside her.
Beneath her skin, the crystal pulsed harder. It was no longer contained. It had fused with her bones.
[System Alert: Hero Mutation Progressing]
Soul Compatibility: Stable
Side Effects: Unknown