Chapter 137: The Healing Attempt
Lily POV
The moment I touched the corrupted Void Walker’s skin, pain shot through my entire body like I’d grabbed a live wire. Every nerve screamed as darkness flooded into me, trying to drag me down into an endless pit of misery.
"Fight it, Lily!" Caleb’s voice sounded like it was coming from miles away, even though he was right beside me.
I gritted my teeth and pushed deeper into the creature’s mind. This had been a person once - I could feel the tiny spark of humanity hidden under layers of twisted magic. But reaching it was like swimming through acid.
The Void Walker thrashed beneath my hands, its form changing between solid flesh and writhing shadow. Viktor’s laughter rang out somewhere behind me, but I couldn’t focus on anything except the fight happening inside my head.
"You cannot save what is already lost," the thing spoke, but its voice was wrong - too many voices layered together, like a horrible choir.
"You’re not lost," I whispered, even though speaking felt like eating broken glass. "I can see you in there. Sarah Morrison, age sixteen. You loved to paint sunsets."
The beating stopped. For just a second, the creature’s face became human - a young girl with scared eyes.
"How do you know that?" Sarah’s real voice broke through the darkness.
"Because I’m like you," I said, feeling tears run down my face. "I’m between places too. Part person, part something else. And I know what it’s like to feel lost."
The healing magic Elder Iris had taught me wasn’t working the way it should. Instead of running gently like a warm river, it was more like trying to hold back a tsunami with my bare hands. The rot in Sarah was fighting me, trying to spread into my own body.