Vael stood at the edge of the ruins.Black Hollow burned behind him, wood crackling, smoke all around. But he didn't feel the fire. Not on his skin. Not in his chest. Nothing.
The crown sat heavy on his head. Not just its weight.
But its presence.
It was always there now. Like a second mind. Like something watching him from inside.
He looked toward Reya.
She hadn't moved.
Her body still lay at the edge of the rubble, just beyond where the flames reached. Her hand was outstretched, like she was still reaching for him.
A small part of him tried to break. But the rest of him… didn't.
The pain came like a wave, sharp, deep, real.Then the crown swallowed it.And the whispers returned.
"You are stronger now."
The voice wasn't loud. It didn't scream or laugh. It just spoke, calm and cold. Like it understood him. Like it knew he had no one left to hear him cry.
He took a step forward.
Then another.
His feet moved without thinking, pulling him away from her. Away from the past. Away from who he once was.
The crown guided him, dragging him deeper into the ruins.
And then came the movement.
Figures in the smoke.
Soldiers. A few metres away.
Their armor was burned, dirty, dented. But their eyes—those were clear. Filled with fear. And something else.
Greed.
They had seen what happened. They knew what he had done.And now they wanted the power for themselves.
Vael didn't run.
He didn't speak.
He just raised his hand.
The shadows answered.
They curled around his arm like smoke with claws, slow and hungry. He didn't command them. He didn't need to. They moved because he wanted them to.
The soldiers hesitated. Just for a second.
Then one shouted.
They rushed forward.
Too slow.
A single whip of shadow lashed out, slicing through the first man's chest like paper.
He hit the ground before his scream finished.
Another charged.
Vael didn't blink.
The darkness caught him mid-step, wrapped around his throat, and crushed. His body dropped limp beside the ruins.
They kept coming. Some too scared to stop. Others too angry.
It didn't matter.
The shadows tore through them—silent, fast, final.
When it was over, Vael stood alone again.
Surrounded by the dead.
His breathing was steady.His eyes were dry.
There was no pride. No anger. No joy.
Just silence.
And the crown.
Always the crown.
"You are becoming something more."
The voice was closer now. Not just in his head. In his bones. His blood. Like it was growing inside him.
He looked around one last time.
At the ruins.At the bodies.At Reya.
None of it mattered anymore.
He wasn't the boy who had stumbled through the alleyways.Not the one who tried to rob a stranger to feed his sister.That boy was dead.
Now he was something else.
The shadows moved with him as he turned, wrapping around his shoulders like a cloak. He didn't look back.
There was nothing to go back to.
The world had changed. And so had he.
And the darkness, now a part of him, wasn't going to let go.
Not ever.