Chapter 68 - 67 - The Devouring Black
Ashtoria closed her eyes for a brief moment, as if recalling something that wasn’t easy to remember. When she opened them again, the cold starlight of the night sky was reflected in her deep crimson irises. Her voice emerged slowly, clear and edged like a finely honed blade.
"If someone possesses a Fated talent... then after purple... the color turns to black."
Riven turned to her, his chest tightening without knowing exactly why.
"That black... isn’t just darkness. It devours everything. Light. Sound."
Her tone remained flat, emotionless—but that only made it feel more real. No embellishment. No drama. Only recollection.
"Those who witness it... lose their vision for a time. Their lungs fail to breathe. Their bodies tremble as if the blackness itself is a living void, hungry and absolute. And their fear isn’t born from understanding... but from the dreadful certainty that what they’re seeing shouldn’t exist."
She paused. Then calmly continued:
"Only then... does the black settle. Into a quiet, still black."
Riven stared at her.
The way she spoke, so direct and so precise, didn’t sound like something taken from a book or a tale. It was the way someone spoke when they had seen it with their own eyes.
He wanted to ask if she had seen it before, and if so, who had displayed such a talent.
But the words never left his mouth.