The ballroom didn't shake.
It choked.
Dolomir's presence crushed the air until breathing felt optional. Chandeliers rattled overhead, crystals clinking together like nervous teeth. Shadows slid off the walls, stretching, crawling, piling over one another like starving animals.
Dolomir stood at the center, his form slipping in and out of itself. Too many joints. Too many teeth. His grin peeled wider as he watched us struggle just to stand.
"You feel that?" he murmured.
His voice wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. It slid under the skin.
"That thing in your chest. You call it strength." His head tilted. "It's just hope. And hope snaps."
The shadows thickened.
Then they changed.
Faces pushed out of the dark like bodies surfacing from water.
Amanda froze. Her fire sputtered and died.
"No," she whispered. "No— don't—"
Sammy stumbled back, boots slipping on blood. His breath hitched. "Rohan?" His voice cracked. "I— I killed you. I watched you die."
Talia's knees gave out. Water spilled uselessly from her hands. "Mira…" Her lips trembled. "She was begging me. She was screaming my name."
The figures stepped closer.
They screamed.
Not one voice — dozens, layered and wrong.
You left us.You chose yourself.You didn't have to kill us.
Dolomir chuckled softly, like he was savoring a meal.
"Listen to them," he whispered. "They remember everything. Every second you pretended it was mercy."
Amanda snapped, flames flaring wildly. "They weren't human anymore! We didn't have a choice!"
Her words shook.
So did mine.
Their eyes weren't demonic. They were human. Hurt. Betrayed.
Dolomir drifted closer until his shadow swallowed me.
"You hesitate, Rudra," he breathed. "That's not fear. That's despair digging in."
Something inside me broke.
I roared and swung.
Steel ripped through shadow. The figures burst into smoke — but their screams stayed, clawing at the inside of my skull.
"Don't listen!" Sammy shouted. "He's lying!"
Dolomir moved.
Pain exploded through my body.
His claws punched into my abdomen and kept going. Flesh tore. Ribs cracked. I looked down and saw white — bone shining through red, blood spilling like I'd been opened with an axe.
My scream tore out of me, raw and ugly.
"Rudra!" Amanda screamed.
Fire slammed into Dolomir — and vanished into him. His body swelled, shadows thickening, grin stretching wider.
"Yes," he hissed. "That's it. Hurt for me."
Talia rushed him, water snapping like whips. He caught them easily and twisted.
Steam burst outward.
She screamed as it scorched her face, collapsing hard onto the floor.
"Stay down!" Sammy yelled, panic breaking through. Ice formed shakily around his hands. "I've got him— I—"
He threw the spears.
Dolomir shattered them midair.
The fragments tore into me.
I choked on blood, dropping to one knee, vision swimming.
"I won't," I rasped. "I won't fall."
Dolomir loomed over me.
"You already are," he said softly. "You bleed. You shake. And I grow."
His claws ripped across my chest.
Deeper.
Skin peeled. Bone gleamed wet and red.
The scream clawed at my throat — I swallowed it, teeth grinding, staring up at him through blood and tears.
His grin twitched.
Just for a second.
Amanda saw it. "That's it!" she shouted. "Don't break! Don't give him anything!"
Sammy dragged himself upright, coughing blood. "He's weaker when we don't fall apart! Just— just keep moving!"
Talia forced herself up, blistered and shaking. "I'm not losing you. Not today."
Fire roared again — steadier.
Ice followed.
Water surged.
My blade tore into Dolomir's side. Black ichor sprayed across the marble. His shadow flickered, peeling away from him.
"You resist?" he snarled. "You think that changes anything?"
I could barely stand. Blood soaked the floor beneath me.
Still, I raised my blade.
"We'll fight," I gasped, "until there's nothing left."
Amanda laughed — broken, furious. "Starve, choke, burn. Pick one."
Dolomir's grin cracked.
"You," he spat, voice sharp with fury. "You think this ends me?"
The ballroom was ruin now — shattered chandeliers, smoke curling, marble split and slick with blood. Dolomir flickered between shadow and flesh, wounds leaking black filth.
"You can't kill despair," he growled.
Amanda wiped blood from her eyes. "Maybe not."
Sammy coughed, slumped against a pillar. "But you bleed."
Talia whispered, "And we're still here."
Dolomir lunged.
Amanda's fire wrapped around my blade.
Sammy's ice locked onto its edge.
Talia's water surged through it, pulsing like a heartbeat.
I screamed — not in fear, not in pain.
Rage.
"Then I'll kill you instead!"
The blade punched into his chest.
Fire burned.
Ice froze.
Water drowned.
Steel tore through his heart.
Dolomir shrieked as his body came apart, shadows ripping free. His grin shattered, terror naked on his face.
"No— I am—"
He dissolved.
Ash fell.
Silence crushed the room.
I collapsed.
My body was ruined — bone exposed, blood everywhere, breath barely coming. Amanda lay beside me, flames gone. Sammy slid down the wall, coughing weakly. Talia lay still, blistered and broken.
"We're…" Amanda whispered. "Alive?"
Sammy laughed once, wet and painful. "Barely."
Talia closed her eyes. "But together."
I stared at the shattered ceiling, my sword still locked in my ruined hand.
"Together," I breathed.
Then the dark took me.