The silence was deafening, pressing down like a suffocating shroud. Alyssia's breath came in short gasps as she knelt in the pitch darkness, her hands fumbling for Kaelen's still body. Her fingers brushed his armor—cold, unyielding.
"Kaelen?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
No response.
The ground beneath her was rough and uneven, the air thick with a suffocating tension. It felt as though the world had been plunged into a void, where time and space no longer held meaning.
A faint rumble broke the silence, low and menacing, like the growl of a slumbering beast. Alyssia's heart pounded. Her instincts screamed at her to run, but where could she go when there was only darkness?
