The world did not end with a scream.
It ended with silence.
A silence so complete it swallowed everything that had ever existed—sound, breath, thought, even time itself—until reality felt like it was holding its final breath, waiting for something… anything… to confirm it still existed.
And then—
Aria chose.
The moment her decision took shape, the void inside her shattered outward like a collapsing star.
Light erupted.
Not gentle light.
Not divine light.
But something raw, ancient, and unbearably human—born from will, sacrifice, and love that refused to bend even in the face of oblivion.
Kael’s voice echoed somewhere beyond the collapsing darkness.
“ARIA!”
But she was already gone from him.
Not physically.
Not yet.
But something fundamental had changed.
The bond between the
