❄️ Chapter Twenty-Five: The Crimson Thaw
The moment I crossed the outer perimeter of the camp, the atmosphere didn't just change; it fractured. The tether connecting me to Elias the cold, silver wire that had been my constant companion for months didn't snap, but it stretched with an agonizing, high-pitched psychic frequency. It felt as though my very soul was being pulled through a needle's eye. Behind me, the encampment vanished into the swirling white mists of the Northern valley, leaving me alone in the vast, unforgiving wilderness. The truce wasn't just broken; it was annihilated. I could feel Vorlag's consciousness, hundreds of miles away, flare with a sudden, predatory brilliance. He knew. He had been waiting for this exact displacement.
