Cliff didn't hesitate. White flames burst from his palms, devouring the last pillar. The stone disintegrated in a crackle of corrupted matter. The energy filament, as thick as a steel cable, snapped with a sharp crack.
The entire cavern seemed to breathe — a sigh of pain.
The Bound One — now severed from its network — faltered. Its central eye flickered, revealing abysses of nothingness behind the indigo iris. Alpha lunged, her black blade cutting a violet arc through the air. This time, the blade struck true.
The creature screamed. Not with a voice, but with their voices. Fragments of Ren, of Dax, of a hundred other victims blended in a heart-wrenching chorus. Cliff felt his blood freeze.
"Close your eyes!" Alpha shouted.
Too late.
The Bound One's eye exploded into a rain of crystalline shards. Each fragment reflected a stolen memory: Ren's final embrace with his dying sister, Dax's muffled laughter around a campfire, wrenching recollections that weren't even Cliff's.
