The Nihilfire Blade vanished.
Arafial raised his arm.
Blackness began flowing from his hand.
Not smoke.
Not flame.
Pure Nihilfire.
It spiraled around his arm, gathering tighter and tighter until it formed a dense, black sphere above his palm.
The forest darkened around it.
The Devourer stopped.
All twelve tentacles froze in midair.
Its enormous mouth slowly closed.
The sphere of Nihilfire reflected nothing.
The creature stared at it.
Something ancient stirred within its vast body.
Then—
its twelve tentacles lowered.
The creature trembled.
A voice emerged from its depths.
Broken.
Almost disbelieving.
"Lord..."
Arafial's purple eyes narrowed.
The creature's enormous body lowered toward the ground.
"Lord Arafial."
Silence.
The Devourer remained completely still.
The being that had devoured gods—
the creature that had survived ages beyond counting—
was frozen.
Not because Arafial had attacked.
Because it had recognized him.
Its Lord was alive.
Arafial looked down at the Nihilfire gathering above his palm.
Then back at the creature.
"You know me."
The Devourer's twelve tentacles slowly curled against the ground.
"I have searched."
Its voice shook the trees.
"Across worlds."
Arafial said nothing.
"I searched through dead realms."
A pause.
"Through the places where gods fell."
The creature lowered itself further.
"I believed you were gone."
Arafial's expression remained cold.
"Why did you search?"
The Devourer lifted its enormous headless body slightly.
"Because I was your shadow."
The words echoed through the forest.
"Your first shadow."
Arafial's eyes remained fixed on it.
The creature continued.
"I followed you before this world had a name."
The Nihilfire sphere continued to rotate above Arafial's palm.
He did not throw it.
Instead, his voice became quieter.
"Then answer me."
The Devourer waited.
"How do I leave this world?"
The creature became still again.
It understood.
Its Lord had returned—
but something was missing.
Memory.
Knowledge.
Perhaps more.
The Devourer's voice lowered.
"Lord Arafial..."
Its twelve tentacles slowly spread across the ruined forest.
"This world is not a world you can simply leave."
Arafial's purple eyes sharpened.
"Explain."
The Devourer looked toward the distant mountains.
"There is something holding this realm shut."
A pause.
"Something that even I could not destroy."
Arafial lowered his arm slightly.
The Nihilfire sphere remained suspended above his palm.
"Take me to it."
The Devourer did not move.
Then its massive body slowly turned toward the mountains.
"Yes, Lord."
Behind them, beneath the shattered trees—
Seris remained motionless.
But the Devourer had not forgotten her.
Its gaze briefly passed over her body.
Then returned to Arafial.
For the first time since waking in this world, Arafial had found something that belonged to his forgotten past.
And it knew a way forward.
But it also knew what was waiting beyond the mountains.