"..."
My breath came in short, ragged gasps as I stood frozen on the shoreline, staring wordlessly at the severed head of Lakalros gently drifting in with the tide. Blood mingled with seawater, dyeing the waves a sickly crimson, and yet all I could do was stand there—stunned.
I had done it.
Somehow, by some miracle—or maybe a curse—I'd won the gamble.
But the cost…
I lowered my gaze to my trembling hand, slick with drying blood. It wasn't Lakalros' blood I was concerned about. No, it was what was inside me now—what I'd tried to keep sealed until now.
Sloth.
The sin I had always kept locked away, chained in the deepest parts of my soul because I knew—the moment I used it, it would become part of me. Assimilation wasn't a possibility; it was a guarantee.
And now… I could already feel it happening.
