Chapter 24: The Collapse Begins

The air shifted. A storm brewed in the sky above them, dark clouds swirling violently as the crack in the heavens widened. The very atmosphere seemed to warp and twist, the ground beneath them trembling violently. The skeletal soldiers remained motionless, their black, empty eyes fixed on Adrian as the world around them continued to unravel.

Kael grabbed Adrian's arm, shaking him. "Adrian, we need to leave! Whatever's happening here, it's not going to end well for us."

But Adrian didn't respond. His gaze was fixed on the sky, on the fracture spreading across the heavens. It was as if the world was collapsing, falling apart at the seams. The crack in the sky grew wider, lightning arcing through the void, and Adrian knew—this was the end.

"Kael... I can't," Adrian whispered, his voice filled with a mix of awe and resignation. "This is where it all ends."

The whispers around them intensified, their voices a cacophony of regret and sorrow. They surrounded him, pressing in from all sides. The soldiers—his soldiers—watched silently as the world began to fall apart. The battlefield was no longer a place of conflict. It had become a graveyard of lost time, a tomb for the mistakes of the past.

Adrian felt something shift within him, a sense of finality settling into his bones. This was it.

But Kael's grip tightened on his arm, pulling him away from the battlefield. "We have to go, Adrian. We're running out of time!"

But Adrian didn't move. He couldn't. This was his reckoning.

The ground split open beneath them, and the battlefield began to collapse. The skeletons, the echoes of his past, faded into dust, their hollow eyes staring at him one last time before they disappeared into nothingness.

Adrian closed his eyes, accepting the consequences of his actions. The world was breaking. And he could do nothing but let it happen.