With bloodshot eyes, Neem stared at Gina in a way that could chill the blood—or perhaps, it was her blood that had already run cold. Tears of blood streamed down his cheeks, mingling with the mucus from his nose that froze the instant it touched the air.
"You knew, didn't you?" Neem whispered, his voice cracking. "You knew this, and you said nothing. You didn't prepare me. You led me into this… Or was it Lady Flora?"
"Neem, I didn't know," Gina pleaded. "I was only told to bring you here. You saw how shocked I was when I saw my mother following you…"
But it was clear he wasn't listening.
Neem placed a hand on the ground, then slowly rose to his feet, taking a battle stance. A short sword of ice materialized in his hand.
"Ahh—!" Gina screamed in horror. She hadn't known he'd reached this stage—so close to becoming Bound. But what terrified her even more… was the sword. No one—not a soul—before completing the Binding should be able to form such a weapon or channel elemental magic like that.
Neem charged at Gina, his blade sweeping in a diagonal arc. She leapt aside, reinforcing her body with what little essence of the world she possessed, scrambling toward the corpse of the colossal beast.
His sword slashed through the air, producing a razor-sharp hiss. Neem recovered swiftly, giving chase. Gina clambered up the beast's ribbed side, reaching the midsection of its massive belly, her face twisted in terror.
"Neem, you idiot! We're friends—why are you doing this?! You're losing it—control yourself! You'll bring trouble for both of us!" Gina cried, desperation sharpening every word. But her pleas fell on deaf ears.
Neem leapt after her, his body charged with his limited essence. He plunged his icy blade downward, aiming to pierce her—but she had shifted just enough that the strike missed, burying itself in the monster's decayed gut instead.
The flesh split, half-rotten and foul, revealing reeking innards—and something else: a crystal. It shimmered between white and blue, radiant and mesmerizing, its beauty stealing breath and thought alike.
Neem froze. The fury in his eyes vanished, replaced by awe. His grip slackened as he knelt and gently took the crystal in his trembling hands.
"A core…" he whispered. "My father's core…"
A storm of emotions surged within him—recognition, longing, sorrow… his father's fears: fear of leaving his child, of dying, of their city's fall.
It seemed that when his father died, the core had left his body—as all Bound do—to rejoin the world. But the monster had stolen it, seeking to devour it and evolve.
From behind him, Gina's voice rang out again. "You fool! Put it down! You don't understand what that thing holds—it was inside a monster, a cursed one, a creature of ruin!"
But Neem couldn't hear her anymore. The core was calling to him, whispering, begging to be one with him. There was nothing stopping it. He and his father… their element had always been ice.
Dangerous? Perhaps. But if it meant his father could stay with him—to the end—then it was worth it.
With that, he pressed the crystal against his navel. It melted into him, merging with his own icy-white core, wrapping it in a second layer, reinforcing it.
Neem gasped. The fusion was seamless. His father's will, strong within the core, poured into him—not wasteful, not forceful, but giving all it could. Every last drop.
At that moment, a dark figure emerged from the shadows behind him. A knight, forged from gloom itself, wielding a club. He raised it and brought it down—not to kill, but to knock Neem unconscious.
The club struck his head. Neem collapsed, landing amid the beast's fetid entrails. The knight stared at his weapon—darkness hardened into matter—now rimmed with frost.
"This lunatic… he's gifted," the shadow-knight thought. That was his first, undeniable impression.