Liora fell.
Not for seconds, but for what felt like hours—her body weightless, swallowed by an endless black void. No wind rushed past her ears. No heartbeat echoed in her chest. Only silence.
Then, she was standing.
The abyss was gone, replaced by a vast, barren plain under a blood-red sky. Towers of bone rose in the distance, their shapes twisting in impossible ways. She could feel something watching her, though she saw no eyes.
A voice—soft, intimate, and unmistakably her own—spoke behind her.
> "Why fight for Kaelen? Why risk yourself for a man who chose the Abyss over you?"
She turned and saw herself.
Not a reflection, but another Liora—dressed in flowing black, eyes like shards of obsidian.
The double smiled. "You think this is about saving him. But it's about you. About proving you were enough for him to stay."
Liora's throat tightened. "You're a lie."
The shadow-self tilted her head. "Am I? Or am I the part of you that already knows the truth—that Kaelen doesn't want to be saved?"
The red sky cracked, spilling tendrils of darkness onto the plain. They slithered toward Liora's feet, whispering in voices that sounded like everyone she had ever lost.
She gripped the Severing Blade.
"I don't care what you are. I'm getting him back."
The double laughed, and the sound was like glass shattering. Her shadow-self drew an identical dagger, runes glowing the same eerie light.
> "Then you'll have to kill yourself to do it."
They charged at each other, blades flashing under the dying sky. Every clash sent shockwaves through the plain, tearing it apart. The towers of bone crumbled. The air burned.
And through the chaos, Liora felt the Abyss pressing into her mind, testing—searching for the crack where it could break her.
Somewhere far away, she heard Aric's voice:
> "If you fall here, you'll never wake."
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