The battlefield groaned.
The Veil itself seemed to split, the thin barrier between realms buckling under a force too vast to be contained. Shards of shadow like jagged glass hung suspended in the air, each one vibrating with the pulse of a heart that did not belong to this world.
And at the center of it all—
Anna.
Her body convulsed violently, lifted into the air by tendrils of black fire that licked around her limbs like living chains. Her eyes, once soft and human, were eclipsed by pools of endless void. The Entity's presence poured into her vessel, twisting bone and sinew, trying to claim her flesh as its own.
"Elena…" Anna's voice tore from her throat, warped and layered with another tone, deeper, monstrous. "…help… me…"
Elena's knees hit the cracked ground as she clutched her chest. Inside her soul, she was still in Anna's mindscape—wading through broken memories, fractured laughter, and the childlike whispers of a girl who had once only wanted to be seen. But now the nightmare cracked around her, bleeding with the Entity's darkness, and she knew she was running out of time.
"Hold on, Anna!" Elena shouted both in the soulscape and aloud, her voice splitting through the chaos. Her hands trembled, glowing with raw light that flickered, as if the corruption itself was choking her power. "Don't let it take you!"
Kael staggered to his feet a short distance away. His blade was buried in the ground, his chest heaving, shadows leaking from the cracks in his skin like black fire. He had been holding back—but there was no room left for restraint.
The Entity's half-born form loomed across the battlefield. It was a nightmare stitched together from broken silhouettes: a ribcage formed of black spires, a maw with no face, arms longer than towers, fingers sharp as scythes. And yet, despite its massive form, the true horror was the way it leaned closer to Anna, threads of its essence sinking deeper into her body with each passing breath.
"Elena," Kael rasped, voice hoarse, "if it anchors itself in her… she won't survive. None of us will."
Elena didn't answer. She couldn't. Because deep inside Anna's soul, she saw something the others couldn't.
Anna—kneeling, clutching her head, screaming as shadow bled from her mouth and eyes. The Entity loomed behind her here too, not in full form, but as a shadow whispering into her ear, wrapping its hands around her shoulders.
"Why fight?" it hissed. "They never loved you. They never wanted you. Weak, abandoned girl… let me make you whole."
Anna's voice cracked, hoarse and desperate. "I… don't… want you…" But the shadows tightened, and her body convulsed harder in the waking world.
"Elena!" she screamed, eyes wide, blood and tears mixing together.
Elena rushed forward in the soulscape, grabbing Anna by the shoulders. The touch seared, black fire burning her palms, but she refused to let go. "Look at me! You're not alone. You've never been alone since the day we found you. You hear me? I'll burn every shadow in this place before I let it take you!"
Anna blinked—and for the briefest moment, the void in her gaze flickered with the color of her true eyes.
Outside, Kael roared.
The Entity's arm swung down, the force of it splitting the battlefield like an earthquake. Kael threw himself into the strike, shadow exploding from his body in a storm that wrapped around his blade. The ground shattered beneath his feet as he caught the blow. Black ichor splashed across him, sizzling, burning his flesh.
But Kael didn't falter.
Not this time.
"You think you're the only one with darkness?" he snarled, shadows pouring from his veins, coiling up his arm like serpents. His eyes glowed—not just with human fire, but with something older, deeper. "I was born in it."
His blade cleaved upward, slicing through the Entity's hand. The monster bellowed, its voice like a thousand graves breaking open at once, shaking the sky itself.
Elena gasped inside the soulscape as the nightmare quaked. The Entity's grip on Anna trembled for the first time.
But the victory was short-lived.
The Entity hissed, both in the battlefield and in Anna's soul. "If I cannot claim her gently, I will claim her by force."
Anna's body arched backward, her scream piercing through both realms at once. Tendrils of black fire speared from her chest, spreading outward like a spider's web, lashing onto the ground, onto Kael, onto Elena's soul-self inside.
The battlefield erupted into chaos. The sky itself cracked.
Elena's vision blurred as the nightmare tried to crush her. She held Anna tighter, even as the shadows tore at her arms and face. Blood ran hot down her cheek.
"Stay with me, Anna!" Elena cried, choking. "Please—fight for me! For us!"
Anna's lips trembled, her voice breaking into two—hers and the Entity's overlapping.
"I… I don't… know… if I can…"
The Entity's laughter boomed like a storm.
Kael dropped to his knees, shadows gnawing at his bones as he forced himself up again. His sword burned with both shadow and blood, his body breaking apart under the strain.
And at the heart of it—Anna screamed again, her body splitting between vessel and victim.
Anna's soul was beginning to fade.
If Elena lost her now, Anna wouldn't just die. She would become the Entity.
The air itself screamed.
Every crack in the battlefield, every shattered stone and broken piece of sky bled with shadows pouring from Anna's chest. The Entity's essence wove through her body like a thousand black veins, trying to hollow her out.
Elena's knees buckled as she clung to Anna within the soulscape, her light searing against the darkness trying to devour them both. "You're stronger than this!" she shouted, voice raw, her blood dripping onto the shadows beneath them. "I don't care what it tells you—you are not its vessel!"
Anna's lips parted, and for a moment her voice was her own. "Elena… I don't… want to hurt you…" Her eyes flickered between the Entity's abyss and the soft brown they had once been.
"You won't," Elena whispered fiercely, holding her tighter. "Because I'm not letting go. Not now, not ever."
The Entity's voice tore through both realms, shaking the foundations of the soulscape and battlefield alike.
"Foolish child. She is mine. She was always mine."
Its shadow reached through Anna, trying to rip Elena away.
Outside, Kael roared as the Entity's half-formed body lurched toward him. The monster's colossal torso bent low, its ribcage splitting wide, tendrils lunging to swallow him whole. Kael's sword flared, but his strength was fading. Shadows bled from the cracks in his flesh, crawling over his veins like burning chains.
"Elena!" Kael's voice cut through the chaos, hoarse and desperate. "If you fail—I'll kill her before I let that thing have her!"
"No!" Elena screamed, both at him and at the nightmare. Her hands blazed with light so bright it fractured the shadow pressing down on her. "I will save her!"
The Entity laughed, a thunderous sound that shook the world apart. "Then burn with her."
The soulscape collapsed.
Walls of broken memory shattered around Elena and Anna, fragments of laughter, childhood, and loss spinning into a storm. Elena staggered but refused to let go. The Entity surged, its hand of shadow plunging into Anna's chest, dragging her soul out like a puppet on strings.
Anna's scream was a sound that would haunt forever.
Elena's light dimmed, nearly snuffed out—until something shifted.
Not within Anna.
Within Kael.
On the battlefield, Kael dropped his sword to his side, shadows exploding around him in violent torrents. His curse—his secret—ripped free. Wings of shadow burst from his back, jagged and torn, his face marked with glowing lines like cracks of obsidian. For a moment he looked more monster than man, a mirror of the Entity itself.
The shadow legion recoiled. Even the Entity hesitated.
Kael lifted his sword, shadows wrapping it in a spiral of pure night. His voice came low, guttural, inhuman. "You want a vessel? Try me."
The Entity's roar shook the battlefield. Its colossal hand came crashing down, but Kael's blade met it with an eruption of shadow so violent the ground split open, a canyon tearing through the Veil itself.
Inside the soulscape, Elena gasped as a shockwave ripped through. For the first time, the Entity's grip faltered.
Elena seized the chance.
Her body glowed with light—not soft, not fragile, but blazing. Fire-white and unyielding. She pressed both hands to Anna's chest, tears streaking her face.
"Anna! You are mine to save!"
The light surged into Anna's body, clashing with the shadows inside. The Entity shrieked, a sound that fractured the soulscape into shards.
Anna's eyes widened, her true gaze breaking through the void. Her lips trembled. "Elena…?"
"Yes!" Elena sobbed, pressing her forehead against hers. "Come back to me!"
The shadows writhed, screaming, tearing at both of them. Blood streamed from Elena's mouth. Her light was burning her alive—but she didn't stop.
Outside, Kael roared again, his cursed form cleaving through the Entity's ribcage, splitting it open in a fountain of black ichor. The monster staggered, shrieking, its tether to Anna weakening.
And then—
Anna screamed, but this time not in pain.
In defiance.
Light erupted from her chest, flooding the battlefield and soulscape alike. Shadows shredded like ash in the wind. The Entity howled as it was torn back, ripped from Anna's body in writhing coils of darkness.
For one breathless instant—the battlefield fell silent.
Anna collapsed into Elena's arms, her body trembling, her chest still glowing faintly with light. She was alive. Herself.
But the Entity was not gone.
The torn rift in the Veil widened. A massive, clawed hand gripped the edge of reality, dragging something far larger through. Its voice thundered, deeper than before.
"This world will not deny me. If not the girl… then I will take everything."
Elena staggered to her feet, holding Anna tight. Kael stood nearby, his cursed form still bleeding shadows, his body on the verge of collapse.
The war wasn't over.
It had only just begun.
And yet, as Elena looked at Anna's trembling form in her arms, and at Kael's shadow-torn figure standing unbroken against the Entity's wrath, a single truth filled her chest.
They had won her bacon for now.