As Zami adjusted to the overwhelming power of his newly forged katana, a memory surfaced—vivid and sharp. It was of Forsaken Hollow, a place where despair seemed to be the air itself. He had stood there, amidst a relentless tide of agony and armies of wailing souls, their forms twisted and broken.
In that moment of chaos, he had turned to the Bone Monarch shard. It wasn't in his katana then; it had been a raw, untamed piece of power. With a single thought, he had plunged it into the ground.
The memory played vividly in his mind:
The shard glowed faintly in his hand, the aura of its energy cold and unfeeling. As he drove it into the rocky floor, the ground shuddered violently. A ripple of energy coursed outward, spreading like veins in fractured glass. Then, with a deafening crack, bone-like spikes erupted from the ground, impaling dozens of souls in one devastating wave. The cries of the tormented had echoed through the hollow, their anguish silenced in an instant.
Karesh's voice had warned him then, as it did now:
"Those shards are tools, but they are also anchors of immense power. Use them wisely, or they will consume you."
Zami opened his eyes, his silver gaze flickering with newfound determination. The Bone Monarch shard was no longer in his katana; he had carefully removed it to make way for the Eternal Hunger shard. The shard now rested in the pouch at his side, pulsing faintly with its cold, bone-like energy.
He unsheathed his katana, the combined power of the Wailing Dread and Eternal Hunger shards humming with anticipation. Yet, Zami's thoughts lingered on the Bone Monarch shard.
"I can still use it," he murmured to himself. "Not as a part of my blade, but as a force of its own."
Karesh's voice broke through his thoughts.
"You remember, don't you? What you did in Forsaken Hollow. The shards are fragments of their essence—tools to channel their nature. The Bone Monarch's shard still holds the power to reshape the ground beneath you, to bring forth the bones of the forgotten. But the question remains, Zami... will you use it again?"
Zami tightened his grip on his katana, the weight of the decision heavy in his hands. He looked around the fractured expanse of the Shattered Void Dexus, the remnants of his battle against the Eternal Hunger still scattered around him.
"If it comes to it," he said, his voice low but resolute, "I will."
The Bone Monarch shard was a reminder of his resourcefulness, of how even in the face of overwhelming odds, he had found a way to turn the tide. If he could wield its power again, it would be another weapon in his arsenal—a means to survive, to destroy, and to move forward.
As he walked deeper into the void, the shard's faint pulse seemed to echo his own heartbeat. It was as if the shard itself was waiting, watching, and ready to be unleashed once more.