The world cracked open.
One moment, I was in the trench, Elias's mud-soaked boots sinking into the earth. Next, the ground vanished beneath me. The sky folded in on itself, collapsing into black.
I fell—not with the speed of my rooftop jump, but slowly, endlessly, as if drowning in tar. Elias's body dissolved around me, his voice echoing faintly in the void:
"Peace… please… peace…"
I reached for him, but my hand grasped nothing. His soul slipped away, leaving me alone in the abyss.
And then the darkness swallowed me whole.