The battle was won, but still the air was filled with tension, as if the planet itself held its breath.
Kaito and Nyra were left standing in the ruined wreckage of the battlefield, the heavens above a maelstrom of hazy traces of the Abyss's dark energy.
The creature's body had long since broken down into nothing, but the presence of its power still lingered, suspended in the air like smoke on burnt rock.
Even having overcome the terror, there was no escape from the price. The fatigue penetrated to the bone, flowing into muscle and into marrow. Their breathing was labored, measured, each movement filled with the dulled agony of survival. Yet neither of them could surrender to rest.
They had come too far to retreat now.
