Everything went black.
Not quietly.Not softly.Not like sleep.
It was a violent plunge—cold, suffocating, endless.Like falling through water that refused to let him rise again.
Somewhere far away, voices echoed.
Aria's.Kellan's.Jarek's.
But the darkness swallowed them whole.
Something pulled at him from the deep.Something heavy.Old.Unseen.
You are incomplete.
The voice was neither male nor female.It was a thought carved directly into his spine.
Your threshold fractures.Your veins open.But your mind… remains weak.
A flash of white pierced the dark—a sharp pulse of pain—and Elias felt himself sinking deeper.
Outside – Aria's Struggle
Aria knelt over Elias' unconscious body, shaking him.
"Ward. Elias. Wake up—come on—wake up!"
His skin was colder than before.His pulse too slow, too shallow.
Something was wrong.Terribly wrong.
Kellan stood against a broken pillar, breath uneven, eyes still bloodshot from the Beast-Spine state.
"Is he dying?" he asked quietly.
Aria didn't look up."He's fighting something inside his head."
Jarek hugged his knees, trembling.
"I-It's my fault… I panicked… he had to save me again…"
Aria turned sharply.
"Stop. If he didn't want to save you, he wouldn't have."
But Jarek only shook harder.
Kellan walked forward and knelt beside Elias, examining the tension in his jaw, the twitch in his fingers.
"This is pressure. Too much of it. His body's holding back something it can't control."
Aria's head snapped up.
"How do you know?"
"Because I've been there," Kellan said simply."When the beast in my spine woke up the first time, I almost tore my own lungs apart."
Aria stared at Elias.
"He's not like you."
Kellan didn't argue.
"I know."
They both fell silent.
The air thickened.
The fog crept closer.
And Jarek whimpered.
"Something's coming…"
Aria looked around sharply.
"Where?"
He pointed with a shaking hand into the deep mist.
"There."
Two golden lights flickered into existence.
The golden-eyed figure stepped out—quiet, smooth, almost graceful.
Aria tensed instantly.
Kellan grabbed his staff with what little strength remained.
Jarek nearly fainted.
The creature looked down at Elias.
No mockery.No hunger.No hostility.
Just a strange, assessing stillness.
Aria hissed:
"Get away from him."
The creature didn't move.
"He is breaking," it said softly.
Aria rose to her feet, blade trembling in her hands.
"If you touch him—"
"I do not harm what I marked."
Aria blinked once.
That phrasing wasn't soothing.It wasn't comforting.
It was a claim.
The creature continued:
"If he crosses the threshold alone, his mind will not survive."
Kellan cursed under his breath.
"What threshold is he talking about?"
Aria didn't answer.She couldn't.
She was too busy watching the creature kneel beside Elias.
Not touching him.Just observing.
As if listening to something they couldn't hear.
Finally, the creature spoke again.
"You cannot follow him where he is."
Aria's eyes darkened.
"Then bring him back."
For the first time, the golden-eyed figure looked directly into her eyes.
It tilted its head.
"You care."
Aria's jaw tightened.
"I have a team. And he is part of it."
The creature didn't laugh.Didn't smile.
But something cold flickered in its gaze.
"Do not lie to yourself."
Aria lifted her blade.
"This is your last warning."
The creature slowly turned its gaze back to Elias.
"He fights me."
Aria froze.
"…you?"
"Yes."A pause."He resists what calls him."
Kellan whispered:
"He's fighting this thing inside himself, right now…?"
The creature nodded.
"If he continues resisting… he dies."
Aria's grip trembled.
"What do we do?"
The creature blinked slowly.
"You wait."
Aria stared.
"That's it?"
The creature rose.
"He must make the choice.To break.Or to remain."
"And if he breaks?" Aria asked.
Silence.
Golden eyes gleamed faintly.
"Then he will not be the boy you know."
Aria's breath caught.
The creature stepped back into the fog.
"But if he refuses the threshold…"Its voice softened."…his heart will stop."
Then the golden-eyed entity dissolved into mist.
Gone.
Kellan looked at Aria.
"What do we do?"
Aria didn't hesitate.
"We keep him alive until he decides."
Inside Elias' Mind – The Threshold
The darkness cracked.
White light poured through.
Elias gasped—not with breath, but with awareness.
His thoughts sharpened.His heartbeat thundered.His bones felt hot, burning from the inside.
A shape appeared in the white void.Something humanoid… but wrong.
It stepped forward with slow, deliberate steps.
Every movement vibrated through his skull.
Stop resisting.
Elias clenched his teeth.
"I'm not letting anything control me."
The shape leaned closer.
I am not control.I am what you already are.
The void trembled.
Let the threshold open… or your body collapses.
Elias felt his pulse spike.The pressure inside him roared.
His knees buckled.
Choose, Elias.
Break open—or break apart.
Aria's voice echoed faintly through the void.
"Elias… please… don't die…"
His eyes snapped open inside the white space.
He whispered:
"…not yet."
And he stepped forward.
Straight into the threshold.