The battlefield blurred.
White fire licked the edges of Wong's vision, its heat biting at his skin even through layers of magic.
The skeletal horde moved like a black tide, but the voice — that voice — cut through the chaos like a thread of ice.
"Wong…"
Soft. Familiar.
And impossibly close.
---
He spun, scanning through the storm of bone and flame.
There — in the heart of the vortex — stood a silhouette.
Small, thin, hair whipping wildly in the wind.
For a heartbeat, he thought he saw her face.
The same face from faded family photos.
The same eyes.
His chest tightened. "Sera?"
---
Malrik's laugh was quiet, almost pitying.
"Ah… so that's your chain."
Wong's grip on his staff tightened. "If you've touched her—"
"I haven't," Malrik interrupted. "That's the cruel thing about the White Fire Vortex, necromancer. It doesn't have to touch someone to burn them. It shows you what you most fear… or most desire. Then it devours you while you're reaching for it."
---
The figure turned toward him, lips parting as if to speak —
—but the next instant, her skin cracked, light spilling out from the fractures.
Her voice became a raw, echoing scream.
The sound slammed into Wong like a physical force, rattling his teeth and sending several skeletons collapsing into ash.
The Blood Hound staggered, its form flickering.
---
It's not real.
He told himself that again and again, but the ache in his chest didn't listen.
Malrik's glaive carved through the undead with mechanical precision.
"You're hesitating, necromancer. Prophecy or not, hesitation is how you die."
The white flames surged higher, folding inward like the petals of some monstrous flower.
And in the center, the figure of Sera reached out a hand toward him.
---
Wong felt something snap inside him.
The Soul Link flared, flooding the Blood Hound with a surge of his own life force.
It howled — a deep, bone-shaking sound — and leapt straight into the vortex.
Wong followed, the skeletal tide parting before him.
If it was a trap, he would break it.
If it was real…
He would not lose her again.
---