The darkness around Kael deepened.
In the distance, he could still see the light of the gem
But now he couldn't move, no matter how hard he tried.
After a moment, he realized he really was dead. No breath filled his lungs. No heart beat in his chest.
Was this the afterlife?
He remembered his death. The pain. But also the relief that it was finally over.
He needed to let go of the past. The life that he'd had so temporarily.
The life he'd tried to make something out of. The people he'd tried to save. The ones he'd lost along the way.
Elysia.
Tuck.
Ryker.
Ronin.
Even the ones whose names he never knew, just faces in the mines, voices in the dark. They meant so much to him.
He had fought so hard to make that life mean something. But here, in this infinite nothingness, it all felt like a fading echo.
Kael closed his eyes. There was no air to breathe, no pulse to steady him, yet he felt the weight of every memory pressing against his hollow chest.
