The world did not shatter.
It resisted.
For a single, suspended moment after Cassian's words, everything froze.
The shadows.
The ground.
Even the distant, echoing cries of the trapped souls
All of it held still.
As if the domain itself was deciding whether to survive what was about to happen.
Nyxara stood across from him, her expression no longer conflicted.
No hesitation.
No softness.
Only clarity.
"You shouldn't have said that."
Her voice was calm.
Too calm.
Cassian exhaled slowly, the darkness still coiling around him like something alive, something eager.
"Why?" he asked. "Because it's true?"
Nyxara didn't answer.
She lifted her hand.
And the world obeyed.
The shadows surged upward in an instant, forming massive pillars that erupted from the fractured ground, spiraling toward the shifting ceiling above. The air compressed, thickening until it felt like breathing through stone.
Cassian didn't move.
He watched.
Felt it.
Understood it.
