The world broke apart.

  Aeris lunged forward.

  The Hollow King’s blade of black void sliced toward her. It carried no weight, no real form—yet she felt its sheer force twisting the very air around it.

  She dodged—barely.

  The blade screamed past her, cleaving a deep scar into the stone beneath her feet. She didn’t stop moving. She couldn’t.

  The Hollow King was relentless.

  Each swing of his weapon tore apart the battlefield. Cracked stone split into massive rifts, walls bent and reformed around him like living things, reshaping to trap her inside.

  The City of Ash itself was still fighting for him.

  Aeris grit her teeth. No.

  She refused to let the ruins dictate the battle.

  She had to force him onto her ground.

  The Exiled One reappeared at her side, his twin blades flashing as he deflected a wave of shadowy spears aimed at them both. He landed hard, breathing heavily.

  “This is getting worse,” he snarled.

  Aeris didn’t argue.

  They were being pushed back. Hard.

  They had no space to breathe, no time to react. Every second, the Hollow King’s grip over the city tightened.

  Aeris’ mind raced.

  How do I break this?

  Then—

  She saw it.

  A flicker. A split-second crack in the Hollow King’s form.

  Right after he struck.

  A delay. A hesitation.

  Not from weakness.

  But from conflict.

  Sorin was still inside.

  Fighting.

  That was their way in.

  But the Hollow King wasn’t going to give them another opening.

  They had to force one.

  Aeris exhaled sharply, gripping her sword tighter.

  “Exiled One,” she said. “We’re not winning like this.”

  He scoffed, barely deflecting another strike. “No kidding.”

  She turned to him.

  “We need to separate him from the city.”

  The Exiled One’s eyes narrowed. “That’s suicide.”

  Aeris shook her head. “Not if we force him to chase us.”

  The Exiled One exhaled. Then—he grinned.

  “That’s the dumbest idea you’ve had yet.”

  Aeris smirked.

  “Then let’s do it.”

  She turned back to the Hollow King.

  And then—she ran.

  Aeris sprinted through the ruins, her boots hammering against cracked stone.

  Behind her, the Hollow King moved like an unstoppable force.

  The ground trembled with each of his steps, the air distorting around him. Reality itself twisted at his command, reshaping the battlefield to his will.

  Walls rose up to cut off her escape.

  Bridges collapsed before she could reach them.

  The ruins were trying to trap her inside.

  But that meant one thing:

  He was following.

  The Exiled One moved beside her, his twin blades gleaming under the eerie, golden light of the Hollow King’s aura. “If we die doing this, I’m blaming you.”

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  Aeris smirked. “If we die, I won’t be around to care.”

  A spear of void shattered the air between them.

  Both of them veered aside, barely avoiding the blast as it gouged a hole into the ruins.

  Too close.

  Aeris clenched her jaw.

  They needed to reach the eastern edge of the city—where the Hollow King’s influence weakened.

  That was the only place they had a real chance.

  She jumped.

  Her boots landed against a fallen pillar, and she kicked off, leaping onto a crumbling rooftop. The height gave her a view of the battlefield.

  The Hollow King stood at the center of the destruction.

  Even at a distance, his form seemed too large, too overwhelming. His armor of shifting black void pulsed with energy, fractures of golden light streaking across it.

  Sorin was still in there.

  And he was breaking.

  Aeris’ chest tightened.

  Hold on, Sorin. Just a little longer.

  She turned—and ran faster.

  The city bent to stop her.

  But she was faster than fate.

  Aeris vaulted over a broken ledge, her heart hammering in her chest. The eastern edge of the city was within reach, but the Hollow King wasn’t letting them go easily.

  Shadows warped, walls bent, and the city screamed.

  Massive spires of stone rose up from the earth, jagged and spiraling, trying to crush them between them. The ruins were no longer just shifting—they were attacking.

  Aeris threw herself forward, rolling under a collapsing archway just as it slammed shut behind her. She felt the weight of it shake the ground, but she didn’t stop moving.

  She couldn’t.

  The Exiled One kept pace beside her, his twin blades flashing as he deflected shards of black energy streaking toward them. His breath was ragged, but his movements were still sharp.

  “This plan of yours better work,” he growled.

  Aeris glanced back—and her stomach dropped.

  The Hollow King was right there.

  Not running. Not charging.

  Just moving.

  And still, he was too fast.

  The void around him pulsed as he raised his blade.

  Aeris’ instincts screamed.

  “DOWN!”

  She tackled the Exiled One just as the air split apart.

  A shockwave of pure darkness exploded past them, tearing through the ruins ahead. The street they had been running on collapsed into nothingness, leaving only jagged remnants of stone.

  Aeris coughed, pushing herself up.

  The Hollow King was closing in.

  They were out of time.

  She turned to the Exiled One, her pulse pounding. “We need to break his focus. Now.”

  He wiped blood from his mouth. “You got a way to do that?”

  Aeris looked at the Hollow King.

  At the cracks in his armor.

  At the golden light flickering beneath the surface.

  And she made a choice.

  “I’m going to reach him.”

  The Exiled One stiffened. “You mean—”

  “I mean I’m going in.”

  He swore. “That’s insane.”

  Aeris turned to him. “It’s the only way.”

  The Hollow King raised his blade again.

  Aeris ran straight toward him.

  Aeris charged forward.

  The Hollow King’s sword descended.

  She threw herself sideways at the last possible second. The void blade tore through the ground where she had stood, splitting the earth apart. Stone crumbled, the ruins shuddered. But Aeris didn’t stop.

  She kept running.

  Straight at him.

  The Hollow King lifted his weapon again, the unnatural shadows coiling around him like living things. But this time, Aeris wasn’t trying to dodge.

  She was trying to break through.

  The Exiled One yelled something behind her, but she barely heard it.

  All she could see was Sorin’s face.

  Flashes of memories—his smirk, his stubbornness, the fire in his eyes.

  None of that was here.

  Only the Hollow King remained.

  No.

  Not just the Hollow King.

  Sorin was inside.

  Buried beneath the crushing weight of a thousand lost souls.

  Aeris grit her teeth.

  Then I’ll tear them away.

  She jumped.

  The Hollow King swung his blade—

  And Aeris met him head-on.

  Light clashed against darkness.

  A shockwave of raw energy exploded from the impact, shaking the ruins.

  Aeris felt the force rip through her body, but she held on. She grabbed the Hollow King’s armored wrist, forcing herself closer, close enough that she could see the faintest flicker of gold in his hollow gaze.

  And she spoke his name.

  “Sorin.”

  The Hollow King froze.

  For a moment—just a moment—his grip faltered.

  Aeris pushed harder.

  “You are not this,” she said. “You are not him.”

  The golden cracks in his armor flared.

  A ripple passed through the ruins.

  The Hollow King shuddered.

  His blade wavered.

  And then—the city screamed.

  The ruins rebelled against her words.

  The Hollow King’s power surged violently as the souls inside him fought back, a thousand voices crying out in rage.

  The ground beneath them fractured.

  The sky twisted.

  Aeris had one second to react.

  She grabbed onto the Hollow King and didn’t let go.

  And then—

  The world collapsed.

  The world shattered.

  Aeris felt herself plunging into nothingness.

  The ruins collapsed beneath her, the once-solid stone turning into shifting fragments of black and gold. The Hollow King’s body convulsed, his form flickering between solid and void, between ruler and prisoner.

  And she was still holding on.

  Darkness wrapped around her, pulling at her, trying to rip her away.

  She gritted her teeth and held tighter.

  “Sorin!” she yelled again. “You are not them!”

  The Hollow King lurched, his body twisting. The thousands of lost voices inside him screamed in defiance.

  He doesn’t belong to you.

  Aeris’ own voice ripped through the void.

  The golden cracks across the Hollow King’s body widened.

  He let out a sound—not a roar of fury, but a sound of struggle.

  A sound that was almost human.

  Aeris pushed forward.

  She reached past the armor, past the shadows, past the weight of all the lost souls buried within him—

  And she found him.

  A faint, flickering ember.

  Weak. Small. But there.

  Sorin.

  Her chest clenched.

  He’s still fighting.

  She reached out, her fingers brushing against that ember, her voice dropping to something almost soft.

  “Sorin,” she whispered. “Come back.”

  And the ember flared.

  The Hollow King arched backward, screaming.

  The golden cracks erupted.

  Light poured out.

  The voices inside him shrieked, resisting, tearing at the air—

  And then—

  Everything exploded.

  A blinding wave of force tore through the ruins. The city rippled and then broke apart, entire structures collapsing into the abyss below.

  Aeris felt herself flying backward.

  Her vision blurred—stone, sky, light, dark—everything spiraled out of control.

  And then—

  Silence.

  Nothing but silence.

  Aeris gasped awake.

  Her body ached. Everything around her was dust and ruin. The Hollow King’s influence had shattered.

  The city was dying.

  She coughed, pushing herself up, her head spinning. She turned—searching.

  And then she saw him.

  Sorin.

  He lay in the rubble, his armor gone, his body motionless.

  But he was breathing.

  Aeris felt something in her chest unclench.

  She stumbled forward, kneeling beside him, reaching out—hesitating.

  Then, slowly, his eyes cracked open.

  For the first time in what felt like forever—they were his.

  “Sorin,” she whispered.

  His gaze met hers.

  And in a voice hoarse but undeniably his, he exhaled—

  “…Took you long enough.”