The abyss would not stop shaking.
Cracks spread endlessly across the crimson sky above Aliena, tearing through the darkness like reality itself had begun splitting apart.
Every fracture revealed brief glimpses of the living realm.
Sebastian's chambers.
The shattered walls.
The black energy flooding through the palace like a storm unleashed from Hell itself.
And somewhere beyond the chaos—
voices.
Shouting.
Panicked.
Desperate.
"Hold him down!"
"The seals are destabilizing!"
"If he wakes up like this, the entire palace—!"
The vision distorted violently before the sentence finished.
Aliena's chest tightened painfully.
Because she could feel it now.
Sebastian was waking up.
Not slowly.
Not peacefully.
Violently.
The chains restraining him rattled harder around his body as dark energy spiraled outward in catastrophic waves.
The abyss trembled beneath the pressure.
Even the gigantic throne behind the silhouette pulsed uneasily now.
And Sebastian—
