The silence after the battle was suffocating. The last echoes of the wraiths' haunting shrieks faded into the oppressive stillness of the Abyssal Spire. Caelum stood motionless, his breath coming in shallow gasps, his hand still gripping the Shadowforge Blade as if it were the only thing anchoring him to reality. The air felt thick—stifling, like he was suffocating under the weight of an unseen burden.
Lyra stood a few paces behind him, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and disbelief. Her weapon was still drawn, her stance defensive, but the fight had long since left her. She couldn't tear her gaze away from him, not knowing whether the person standing before her was still the man she had trusted, the man she had followed.
"Caelum…" Her voice trembled as she took a tentative step forward, the uncertainty in her tone unmistakable. "What have you done?"
His grip on the Shadowforge Blade tightened, his knuckles turning white, but he didn't respond. The blade hummed with an eerie satisfaction, as though it were feeding off his silence. His heart, however, felt hollow, like an empty cavern echoing with the weight of his choices.
He had used the blade's full power, unleashing a wave of dark energy that had obliterated the wraiths, but in doing so, he had crossed a line. The blade's hunger had been temporarily sated, but his soul… His soul was slipping further away with every passing moment. He could feel it, the creeping coldness in the pit of his chest, a growing emptiness that seemed to consume him from the inside out.
"I did what needed to be done," Caelum finally replied, his voice hollow and distant, lacking the warmth it once held. He didn't turn to face Lyra, unable to meet her gaze. The weight of her stare was too much, too heavy, like a judgment he wasn't ready to face.
But Lyra wasn't ready to let him go—at least, not without trying to bring him back. She stepped closer, her voice soft but firm. "Caelum, you can't keep doing this. The blade is controlling you, not the other way around. It's changing you, and it's taking everything from you, piece by piece."
"I'm doing this for the kingdom," he said, his words coming out with a strange mixture of conviction and weariness. "For everyone who's counting on us. The cult, the Shadow King—if we don't stop them now, they'll destroy everything."
"You don't even recognize what you're becoming, do you?" Lyra's voice cracked as she finally stepped into his line of sight, forcing him to meet her eyes. "This isn't you, Caelum. You've already lost so much—don't let this blade take the last of you."
His heart twisted at her words, but it wasn't enough to shake the cold, gnawing certainty that had taken root in his mind. He had to finish what he started. The blade had become his only tool, his only way to achieve the impossible, and he couldn't afford to lose it. He couldn't afford to lose himself.
"I'm not the same person I was when we first started this journey," he said, his voice barely a whisper. "But that doesn't matter. I've made my choice."
Lyra's eyes shimmered with unshed tears, her lips trembling as she fought to keep her composure. "No, Caelum. You've made the wrong choice. And you're not the only one who's suffering because of it. I can't… I can't watch you lose yourself."
For a moment, there was silence between them, an unspoken understanding passing in the air. Lyra was hurting just as much as he was, but her pain was rooted in something different. She wanted to save him, to pull him back from the brink, but Caelum had already slipped too far into the abyss.
The ground beneath them rumbled once more, a deep, resonating tremor that sent shivers through their bones. Caelum turned his gaze toward the source of the disturbance, his instincts kicking in. Something was coming. But as he looked at Lyra, her eyes filled with sorrow and fear, he knew the battle he was about to face was far more than just external.
"You're right," he said, finally meeting her gaze with a mix of resignation and determination. "I've already lost a part of myself. But I can't stop now. I won't let this blade be the end of us."
With a final, lingering look at Lyra, Caelum turned and began to move forward, the Shadowforge Blade glowing faintly with dark energy as it pulsed with his every step. The path ahead was uncertain, the dangers growing with each passing moment, but there was no turning back. He had crossed a threshold, and there was no way to undo what had been done.
Lyra watched him go, her heart breaking with each step he took. She knew she couldn't force him to change, but she couldn't help but feel the weight of what he was sacrificing. As much as she wanted to save him, she knew that Caelum had to save himself—and whether or not he could was a question that would haunt her for the rest of their journey.