The sunlight that bathed the horizon felt foreign, almost too warm, too clean for the world we'd just clawed our way out of. The entity was gone its oppressive presence obliterated, its power snuffed out. Yet the scars it had left behind were everywhere. The land bore the weight of its corruption in twisted, blackened earth and the ashen remains of what once were flourishing forests. Villages, if they still existed, were little more than hollow shells, their people displaced or worse.
I stood amidst the wreckage of this new dawn, the crystal resting cool and inert against my chest. For the first time in what felt like years, it was silent, its incessant whispers and unrelenting pressure gone. The quiet was almost unsettling.
Leif broke the silence first, his voice hoarse from exhaustion. "We did it." He leaned heavily on his sword, using it like a cane. "It's really over."
