The shards refused to fade.
Even after hours had passed, when the chamber had crumbled into nothing but ash and broken stone, the Aberration fragments still lingered in the air. They pulsed like dying stars that refused to go dark, silver veins glowing faintly against their blackened surface. Every beat echoed in my bones. They wanted us. They wanted someone.
We hadn't touched them.
Lysander and I remained slumped against the far wall, too broken to move, too wary of the promise burning inside those crystals. The bond between us throbbed with every heartbeat, humming in time with the shards' glow. It felt like a second pulse forcing itself against my skull, too close, too insistent.
Sleep came only in jagged scraps, snatched during brief lulls when pain dulled enough to let me slip under. But there was no rest. My dreams were filled with claws and whispers, with the endless maw of the Devourer, with silver eyes that burned holes through the dark.
When I stirred again, the chamber was silent. The air tasted of blood and smoke. Lysander sat cross-legged a few feet away, his blade resting across his knees. His silver eyes tracked the shards without blinking, as if staring them down might hold them back.
"You'll burn holes in them if you keep staring like that," I rasped, my throat raw.
He didn't turn, didn't even blink. "Maybe that's the only way to stop them."
I forced myself upright, every muscle screaming, ribs aching with each breath. My crowbar lay nearby, still sticky with blood. I picked it up out of habit. The weight was grounding, something solid when everything else threatened to unravel.
"They're not going away," I said quietly. "The System wants someone to claim them."
At last, he turned to look at me. His face was pale, lips cracked, streaks of dried blood across his skin. Yet his eyes still burned steady. "And if claiming them means becoming like the thing we killed?"
The bond between us shivered, alive with something darker than fear. Hunger.
I swallowed, dragging my gaze from the shards. "Then we'll starve before we eat poison."
He didn't argue. He didn't need to. The silence said enough. We both knew starvation wasn't an option.
The quiet broke with a voice that wasn't either of ours.
[ Core Shards remain unclaimed. ]
[ Synchronization Link detected. ]
[ Bonded Candidates eligible for Shared Claim. ]
My breath caught. The shards flared brighter, drifting closer like predators catching the scent of blood.
"Shared claim," Lysander muttered, jaw tight. "It wants us to take them together."
The bond pulsed in agreement, heat crawling up my arms where our skin brushed. My chest tightened, torn between dread and temptation. The shards whispered with every glow—strength, survival, power enough to cut through anything that waited beyond this chamber.
I shook my head hard, forcing myself to look away. "Not yet. We don't know what it'll cost."
For the first time since the Devourer's fall, he smiled. It was tired, bitter, but real. "Careful. You're starting to sound like me."
We didn't touch the shards that night.
When morning came—if morning even meant anything in a world swallowed by darkness—we dragged ourselves out of the ruined chamber. Every step was agony. Our wounds burned raw, our strength held together only by stubborn will. Ash drifted like snow through the shattered corridors, clinging to our skin and hair.
The city above was worse.
What little light managed to pierce the clouds fell through a sky blackened like charred paper. Towers leaned against each other like broken ribs, streets cracked and silent, corpses left where the Devourer's spawn had torn through.
Survivors wandered among the ruins, moving like ghosts. Hollow eyes searched for safety that no longer existed. Some recoiled when they saw us, fear flickering across their faces as if we carried the Devourer's shadow with us.
Others stared with something far more dangerous. Hunger.
Whispers followed with every step. They killed it. They hold the shards. They'll decide who lives.
Lysander ignored them. I tried, but the bond made it impossible. Every glance pressed against my skin like claws, every whisper another weight I couldn't shake.
By the time we reached what was left of a cathedral, my body trembled. We collapsed inside, surrounded by scorched pews and the stench of burnt wood.
It didn't take long before others came. Hunters, ragged survivors, people who had endured the night of the Cataclysm by sheer luck or cruelty. They brought questions, demands, fear. Was the Devourer truly gone? What would happen now?
Lysander answered in clipped words, his voice steady, his presence like steel bracing a wall that had already cracked. I stayed quiet, watching their eyes shift between him, me, and the bond that tied us. No one dared ask about the shards outright. Not yet. But the whispers hung in the air like smoke, impossible to ignore.
That night, sleep refused to come.
The bond tugged at me, pulling me from the ruins until I found Lysander at the cathedral's edge. He stood staring at the sky—or what remained of it. Black clouds churned like ink, veined faintly with red light that bled through as if the heavens themselves had been wounded.
"It's changing faster," he murmured without looking at me. "The System wasn't lying. Nine days."
A shiver crawled down my spine. "We're not ready."
"No one is," he said flatly. "That's the point."
The bond stirred again, pulling me toward him. His hand brushed against mine, a fleeting touch that sparked warmth up my arm. For a moment, the exhaustion, the fear, even the shards faded. There was only him.
Then the world shifted.
[ World State Event Detected. ]
[ Rival Claim Initiated. ]
Across the skyline, a flare of light burst like a newborn star. It pulsed once, twice, then stretched into a blazing pillar that tore into the clouds.
[ Core Shard Consumed. ]
[ Candidate: Kade. ]
[ Evolution Path: Aberrant Host Initiated. ]
My stomach dropped.
Lysander's silver eyes narrowed, the bond surging with a fury hot enough to burn. "He touched them."
"No," I whispered, my pulse hammering. "He ate them."
The System's voice returned, cold and merciless.
[ Rival Evolution Commencing. ]
[ Aberration Cycle Stability: Compromised. ]
The red glow in the sky deepened, spreading like veins across the black clouds. Somewhere in the distance, a scream tore through the night. Whether it was pain or triumph, I couldn't tell.
Without thinking, I gripped Lysander's arm, my nails biting into his skin. "What does that mean?"
His jaw tightened, his eyes locked on the burning horizon. "It means we're running out of time. And if we don't claim what's left…"
He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
The shards still waited for us, pulsing in the ruined chamber like a heartbeat we could no longer ignore.
And Kade had already taken the first bite.