Anna's smile was wrong.
It was too sharp, too calm. The curve of her lips reminded Elena of a blade held against her throat—familiar but foreign, beloved but deadly. Shadows curled behind Anna like wings, black fire licking at the broken ground.
"Elena…" Anna's voice trembled like a lullaby stretched too thin. "You shouldn't have come. You'll only suffer here."
Elena's throat tightened. Every instinct screamed that this wasn't Anna, not really. But her heart… her heart recognized her best friend in those syllables, however twisted.
"I came for you," Elena whispered, her voice shaking but resolute. "No matter what this place does to you, no matter what it puts in your mouth—I know you. You're not my enemy."
Anna tilted her head, her eyes glowing with void. "Not your enemy? But look at me." She raised her hands. The shadows obeyed instantly, surging like a storm behind her. "Everything I am now… everything I've become… is shadow."
Kael stepped between them, shadows forming into dual blades in his hands. His eyes burned, not with hostility toward Anna, but with grim acceptance. "Elena. Listen to me. She's gone. The moment the Entity marks someone, their soul starts unraveling. The Anna you knew is a memory."
"Shut up!" Elena snapped, grabbing his arm to stop him from lunging forward. Her own magic flared from the contact, golden light sparking around them both. "Don't you dare say that. Don't you dare write her off like she's nothing! She's not just a memory—she's my family!"
Kael's jaw clenched. He didn't argue, but the tightness in his grip told her he hadn't changed his mind.
Anna's gaze flicked between them. For the briefest moment, her expression faltered, a shadow of confusion crossing her features. "Family…?"
Elena seized it instantly, stepping forward with her heart in her throat. "Yes! Remember? When everyone else called me cursed, you stood by me. When I had nothing, you gave me bread, you gave me laughter, you gave me hope. Anna—you told me I wasn't alone!"
The shadows around Anna wavered. But then her lips twisted, and that other voice—the Entity's voice—slid beneath hers, dark and cold.
"She was alone. And you abandoned her."
The words hit Elena like knives. Her chest tightened, memories she tried to bury clawing to the surface. The night her mother died. The years she spent surviving in silence. The helplessness of not being able to protect the only friend who ever believed in her.
Elena shook her head violently. "No! That's not true! I never abandoned you, Anna—I'm here now! I'm right here!"
The ground trembled. Dozens of shadow-creatures erupted from the Veil around them, jaws snapping, claws raking the air. Anna raised her hand, and the army bowed before her like puppets.
"Then prove it," she said, her voice layered with both hers and the Entity's. "Prove your love to me… or die by it."
The horde surged.
Kael met them head-on, blades slicing through shadow, each strike efficient and brutal. His movements were poetry and violence woven together, centuries of survival etched into every motion.
"Elena—focus!" he shouted as three creatures lunged at her.
She raised her hands instinctively, and light burst forth, searing them into smoke. The Veil shrieked in response, reality itself twisting from the impact of her magic.
Anna watched with a strange calm, her eyes never leaving Elena.
"You've grown strong," she murmured, her tone almost proud—before her smile widened into something cruel. "Strong enough to kill me."
"Never!" Elena's voice broke. Tears blurred her vision, but her magic flared hotter, golden fire spilling from her palms. "I'm not here to fight you—I'm here to bring you back!"
Anna's expression hardened. "Then you're a fool."
She lifted both hands. The shadows obeyed.
The battlefield warped.
One moment, Elena stood on broken glass ground. The next, she was in the village square. Children laughed in the distance. The sun shone. Anna stood before her—whole, smiling, alive.
"Elena," this Anna said softly. "Do you remember the promise we made? That we'd grow old together? That we'd never leave each other?"
Elena's heart ached. She remembered. Every word. Every childish vow whispered beneath starlight.
But her gut screamed this wasn't real.
Her fists trembled. "Yes. I remember. But this isn't you. This is the Veil twisting what I want most."
The false Anna tilted her head. "If you know it's what you want most… why not accept it?"
The image flickered. Darkness bled into the sky, laughter turning to screams. The false Anna's smile split unnaturally wide, shadows pouring from her eyes.
"Stay here," the voice of the Entity hissed. "Stay with what you want, instead of losing what you love."
Elena's magic flared, golden light shattering the illusion like glass. She staggered back into the battlefield, chest heaving, eyes wild.
Kael was fighting desperately, shadows tearing his arms, but still holding the line. Anna floated above them, her expression unreadable.
Elena screamed at her, voice raw: "I don't care what this place shows me—I don't care what it whispers! I know who you are, Anna! And I will not leave you to this darkness!"
For the first time, Anna faltered.
Her glowing eyes flickered, just for a moment, and in them Elena saw the real Anna—the girl who once clutched her hand on cold nights, who believed in her when no one else did.
"Elena…" she whispered, weak and small.
Elena surged forward, light blazing around her like wings. "Yes! It's me! Hold on to me, Anna—I'll pull you out, I swear it!"
But the Entity roared, its voice ripping through the Veil itself.
"She is MINE!"
The ground split. Darkness poured upward, shaping into something vast, monstrous, and endless. Eyes like suns of void opened in the sky. The horde bowed in reverence, and even Kael staggered back, his face pale.
"Elena," he rasped, his blades dripping shadow. "The Entity itself… it's manifesting."
Anna's body convulsed, caught between herself and the corruption consuming her. Her scream echoed like shattered glass, tearing through Elena's heart.
And Elena, tears streaming, whispered the only truth she had left:
"Then I'll fight the Entity itself… if that's what it takes to save you."
The Veil roared. The battle for Anna—and perhaps for the world itself—had begun.