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Chapter 8: The Heart Below
Beyond the Gate of Blood and Memory, the world had no sky.
Elian stepped into a realm suspended in shadow—an endless cavern pulsing with a red glow that seemed to breathe. The air was thick with grief, as if the very walls of this place remembered every tear ever shed.
Beneath his feet, the ground was not stone but something more ancient—flesh-like, veined, warm.
At the center of the cavern, a colossal heart hung in chains, beating slowly, heavily. Its surface was cracked, and through the cracks leaked a light that pulsed in sync with Elian's own chest. He staggered forward, drawn by a pain that was no longer just his own.
This was the Source—the origin of the Heart's Thorn, the curse that bound his soul. It was not a punishment. It was a memory that never healed, shared by every soul who had lost something they could never reclaim.
Suddenly, the ground shifted.
From the shadows rose a twisted figure—tall, thin, faceless, wrapped in blackened roots and blood-soaked robes. It spoke in a voice that echoed inside Elian's mind:
"So you have come to sever what cannot be undone."
Elian raised his voice, steady and calm. "I came to understand it. To carry it without letting it destroy me."
The creature snarled, and the chains on the heart rattled violently. "Then face what you buried. Face the night you broke."
The cavern shattered around him—becoming the burning village, the screams, the collapsing roof, the moment he failed. He relived it all—not as a memory, but as reality.
But this time, Elian did not run.
He walked through the fire. He heard her scream his name. He reached out, not to change the past, but to embrace it.
And as he did, the vision shattered.
The heart in the cavern broke its final chain.
Light poured out, searing and pure, not burning but healing. The creature dissolved into ash.
And Elian…
...fell to his knees.
The pain in his heart still pulsed—but it no longer controlled him.
He had faced the truth.؟