The last thing I remember before darkness claims me is Eric’s voice, strained, raw in a way I’ve never heard before.

  "Dammit, Max... you’ve gone too far."

  Then, nothing.

  Just black.

  A void so deep it should be empty. But it isn’t.

  Something stirs, not in the physical sense, but in the marrow of my soul. A pressure. Watching. Waiting. A weightless abyss thick with unseen eyes and ancient patience.

  I reach for my power.

  Nothing answers.

  Panic coils tight and fast.

  Before it swallows me whole, a warmth cuts through, unexpected and firm. A hand, pressing against my skin. A voice follows, deep and commanding. Not just calling me back, but pulling me.

  "Max."

  Not a name. An order. A lifeline.

  And Eric is holding it.

  His grip tightens, urgent, desperate. He’s angry. Afraid. But more than anything... he’s here.

  "Stay with me."

  There’s something in his tone that unravels me more than pain ever could.

  My eyes flicker open. I reach for his cheek, shaky fingers grazing his jaw in thanks.

  Before I can speak, I feel it.

  A tremor.

  Soft at first, like the world holding its breath.

  Then it hits.

  A violent, unseen shudder that rattles the air.

  The atmosphere thickens. Electric. Sharp.

  To my right, the team stirs. Panic flickers in their eyes. Samantha stiffens. Samuel instinctively places himself between us and the clearing’s edge. Alec’s hands twitch at his sides, crackling.

  We can’t see it.

  But we feel it.

  Eric does too.

  His grip on me goes rigid, not with fear, but with readiness.

  "Get to me! Now!" His command cuts like lightning.

  The team moves instantly.

  Samuel hauls a near-limp Samantha toward us. She tries to raise her hand to send healing, but she’s spent.

  I raise mine to stop her.

  Eric catches it first.

  "Don’t let her," he says to Samuel. His voice isn’t harsh, just certain. This isn’t about healing. Not now.

  Then, gold ignites.

  A radiant flare bursts from Eric’s core, rippling outward like a second skin. It expands, folding over us like a divine shield.

  His Absolute Defense.

  A hiss follows, low and venomous.

  Black lightning strikes the golden barrier, lashing like a serpent. The impact is jarring, thunder without sound, but the shield does not break.

  Eric does not flinch.

  The energy rebounds, twice as strong.

  The darkness screams.

  Then it moves.

  The entity steps from the rift.

  The air stills. Not silence, absence, like breath itself was stolen from the world.

  Then we see it.

  A shifting shadow within the lightning, fluid, formless. But then it twists, stretches, begins to take shape.

  A figure.

  Humanoid, barely.

  Too tall. Too thin. Bones in all the wrong places, as if they’d grown under duress. Cloaked in the absence of light, an anti-color that devours the world around it.

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  The air warps. Not heat distortion, reality distortion.

  The ground shakes.

  Eric braces me tighter.

  The creature tilts its head.

  And I see it.

  The face.

  No. The face.

  The one from my childhood nightmares.

  The one that whispered lies into my sleep, told me pain was inevitable, that I was born broken and bound to fail.

  The one that waited, patient, for the moment I would finally fall.

  I beat it once. I chose God.

  But somehow... it’s still here.

  A ringing fills my ears. Eric speaks, but I can’t hear him. The world narrows.

  Its eyes open.

  Twin voids of liquified ruin.

  And then it smiles.

  A grin too wide. Too knowing. Like something that has studied humanity but never belonged to it.

  When it speaks, it vibrates in my bones.

  "Found you."

  Its voice is wrong. Not deep. Not guttural.

  Just wrong.

  Like the sound of rusted steel bending in a scream.

  Or a thousand whispers trying to be one.

  My breath snags.

  Eric’s hand at my back steadies me, but no one says a word. We are not frozen in fear.

  We are paralyzed by recognition.

  We know this thing.

  The weight of something ancient, patient... inevitable.

  Its name coils in my throat like a curse. A name I once feared.

  No more.

  I lift my chin.

  "Anarxis."

  The name drops like a stone into still water.

  Eric and Alec move in, flanking me. Their hands rest firm on my shoulders, not to restrain, but to remind.

  I am not alone.

  Samantha, trembling but upright, lifts her chin beside Samuel.

  We are all here.

  I turn. Jamey lies behind us, still unconscious.

  And rage ignites inside me like holy fire.

  "You thought we’d be your playthings forever."

  Alec’s voice is iron. "You were wrong."

  Samuel follows, voice steady. "We remember you."

  Samantha: "We remember the nightmares."

  Eric’s grip tightens. "And we remember how to end them."

  Anarxis growls, not with rage.

  Fear.

  I step forward, heat roaring under my skin. "We’re done being bullied by a mistake."

  Together, we shout, "We are strong enough to battle you to the end!"

  A tremor ripples through the air. The entity shudders.

  I lean to the others, voice low, serious. "Stay in the shield. Only I can make him retreat."

  Eric and Alec tense.

  "Max, no. You need us."

  "I don’t," I say, my tone steel. "Trust me."

  I step forward alone.

  Power surges beneath my skin, a river awakened. The Living Scripture responds, glowing bright. Ancient text slithers over my body, across my face.

  The mark of Ayt-Oor ignites in my right iris, truth-revealing.

  Veils drop.

  Lies unravel.

  Then Thar’Ziel flares in my left eye, a silver flame of reality itself. It bends, but it does not break.

  The Ra’hven symbol brands my lip.

  And I speak.

  "I bind you to truth."

  Anarxis jerks. His form flickers. His illusion cracks.

  He is exposed.

  He screams, voices shattering in layered agony.

  I speak again.

  "You will not take another step in this world."

  A flicker, fear, real.

  My voice rises.

  "Return to the void that spat you out."

  He recoils, clawed fingers spasming, trying to find footing in a world now rejecting him.

  I breathe deep for the fourth decree.

  And my eyes ignite.

  Symbols blaze. Bones rattle. My skin burns from the inside out.

  Anarxis shrieks.

  He knows what’s coming.

  He dives.

  A crack splits in the veil behind him, thin and trembling. He slips through the sliver just before the words escape my lips.

  Coward.

  The power inside me collapses. It implodes, not darkly, but completely. My knees buckle. My world spins.

  And then, arms. Solid. Unyielding.

  Eric.

  I don’t need to see his face.

  I know I’m safe.

  But then, a voice.

  Soft.

  Familiar.

  "Max?"

  My breath hitches.

  That voice...

  I blink through the haze. My vision wavers, then clears.

  Jamey.

  He’s standing.

  Awake.

  Whole.

  But his eyes, they glow.

  Not with confusion.

  Not with fear.

  With power.

  A kind I’ve never seen before.

  If your spirit stirred, your heart raced, or you felt the unseen battle pulse through your veins — you’re walking closer to the truth Max and her team are fighting for.

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  Until next time... stay strong, stay luminous.