Kumara stood frozen before the massive stone bound in shimenawa, her breathing ragged. Doubt clutched her heart like icy claws. On one hand, she wanted everything to end peacefully, just as her mother had hoped. But on the other, there was that whisper creeping in—subtle yet intoxicating—promising an end to all her suffering.
Behind her, the thud of blows and the scrape of feet echoed—Freedy and the monk were still locked in fierce combat. Their ragged breaths mingled with the sound of flesh meeting flesh and the ring of energy. Yet Kumara barely heard it. Her eyes were fixed on the faint red light pulsing through the stone's cracks. There was a pull she could not resist, a subtle tug that seemed to invite, to beckon… to hypnotize.
