Crack.
Loken screamed as his bones shattered.
The hand pushed through his chest and closed around his heart. He tried to cast a spell. He tried to defend himself. But in the end, he failed to do anything useful.
The wooden fingers tightened. Then the hand pulled back.
It tore itself out of his body, dragging his still-beating heart with it. Blood sprayed into the air as Loken's body trembled violently.
His eyes widened in disbelief. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
The world around him began to fade as the woodland hand held his heart high, its vines pulsing with life, while Loken's body started to fall forward—empty and broken.
At that moment, the tree not far from the battlefield suddenly shook.
Its trunk twisted as if it had turned soft. The bark rippled, and something moved inside it. In the next moment, a human figure stepped out of the tree.
It was Aksai.
