The last note hung suspended between them—not a weapon now, but a plea. Ru's voice, which had moments before shattered the heavens, broke into a whisper as he cradled Claude's disintegrating form.
"Claude... why?"
The garden ceased to breathe. Even the memory-flames paused in their dance.
Claude's lips moved soundlessly, forming words. Ru watched through tear-blurred eyes, reading the shape of every syllable. "They can't... punish you with... my hands... anymore."
Ru's entire body convulsed with a grief too vast to endure as Claude's form began dissolving at the edges, his divine essence unwriting itself from existence. Ru didn't scream—he shattered. Every breath, every bone, every memory inside him cracked under the weight of what he was losing.