Ren and Kael ran until their lungs burned.The sound of the battle was left behind, swallowed by the wind and the distance.
They didn’t know who had won.They only knew they no longer had the strength to go back.
Fear had won.
The sky over Halverin rose gray and heavy.
Neither of them spoke on the way back to the abandoned field.The wind blew as if trying to push them away… but they kept walking.
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The smell came first.
Iron. Dust. Dried blood.
Eron’s body lay near the ruins.
His sword was still driven into the ground, as if he had tried to stay standing until the very end.
Ren stopped.
The world seemed to spin.
Kael fell to his knees, struggling to breathe.
“He… he died because of us…”
Ren approached slowly.
Eron’s face was calm.As if he had accepted the end.
No rift.No monster.
Only silence.
Ren closed his eyes.
In that moment, he understood:
Weakness also kills.
And if he continued like this… others would fall.
Ren opened his eyes, with something different burning inside his chest.
It wasn’t fear.
It was resolve.