You will forget. You will wander. You will be nothing.
His knees nearly gave out, but Diva caught him before he fell. "Hold on," she urged, her voice trembling now, not from weakness but from the strain of pulling against a force older than either of them.
Her song shifted again, becoming sharper, the notes like blades slicing at invisible chains. Each word she sang seemed to carry a command, as if ordering the seal itself to break.
A crack appeared. Not in the world around them, but in him.
Light spilled from it—pure, blinding, and alive. The moment it touched him, his heartbeat thundered like war drums.
Igaris' eyes snapped open, and for a heartbeat they were not the same eyes. They were the eyes of a ruler, a conqueror, someone who had once stood above heaven and earth without bowing to either.
"Diva…" he whispered, and there was something in the way he said her name—something ancient.
