The black feather was cold, but not like ice — more like a hole where heat had never existed.
Lucas felt it pulse in his palm, faint at first, then in rhythm with his heartbeat. By the third pulse, the Orb was practically screaming in his mind:
Drop it.
He didn't. Some part of him — the part still thrumming with the aftermath of all affinities — felt drawn to it.
Seris grabbed his arm. "Lucas, don't—"
Too late. The feather dissolved into shadowy strands and crawled up his wrist like living smoke. His veins turned black under the skin, each tendril threading toward his chest.
He gasped. The world tilted, the Veilways' colors warping into strange hues. He could hear the titan's voice again — only quieter, like a whisper from deep water.
"I am not gone. You carry me now."
The ground trembled. From the abyss below, more fragments of shattered land began to rise, floating into a spiraling formation around them. They weren't just rocks — each one held pieces of the titan's armor, still glowing faintly with ruin energy.
"Seris," Lucas said, his voice lower, almost distorted, "we've got incoming."
The shards converged, slamming together midair until they formed a new body — smaller than before, but faster, sharper, and infused with the same black energy now creeping through Lucas's veins.
It moved.
In a blink, the creature was in front of them. Seris barely blocked with her spear before being hurled across the battlefield. Lucas stepped forward, the Orb glowing furiously in his hand.
Don't use all affinities again, the Orb warned. You're already cracking.
Lucas ignored it.
He lashed out with chaos first, spirals of lightning and flame twining together, forcing the creature back. Water blades formed midair, slicing through its legs, while a burst of light scorched its chest. But every time he tore it apart, the shards pulled themselves back together, magnetized by the black feather's energy inside him.
Seris rejoined, slamming her spear through its torso. "It's using you as a core! The feather's binding it to your life!"
Lucas froze. "Meaning…?"
"Meaning if we kill it, we might kill you!"
The creature struck again, and Lucas countered instinctively — but this time, his magic wasn't entirely his own. Black tendrils wrapped around his fire, turning it into a devouring flame that burned without light. Water around him froze into jagged, unnatural shapes. Even the earth cracked where he stepped.
Seris backed away. "Lucas… that's not you anymore."
Her words pierced the haze for just a second, enough for him to realize the truth — the titan wasn't trying to kill him. It was merging with him.
The Orb flared in his grip, blinding him with rainbow light. Lucas! If you let this go on, you'll become the next Ruin bearer — not human, not free.
The black veins were already at his neck. His thoughts felt… stretched, voices whispering in a hundred tongues.
Then the creature lunged for Seris, and something inside him snapped.
He unleashed every affinity again — but this time, they weren't pure. They were corrupted, twisted with shadow, their colors darkened to near black. The blast didn't just hit the creature — it erased it, reducing every shard to dust.
When the dust cleared, Lucas stood alone, breathing heavily, the Orb dim in his hand. The black veins didn't fade.
Seris looked at him like she wasn't sure if she should hug him or kill him.
"Lucas," she said slowly, "what did you just become?"
Lucas didn't answer. The whisper in his mind had changed.
"We are one now."