Chapter 76: The Abyss Gazes Back

The world dissolved into screaming static.

Darian didn't just push into the bond—he wrenched it open, tearing through the inversion like a blade through rotten flesh. The corruption in his arm flared, a conduit of searing darkness, and suddenly—

He was elsewhere.

A vast, hollow expanse stretched before him, a landscape of fractured memories and shifting shadows. Above, a storm of emerald and black churned, its thunder the sound of Sumner's ragged breaths. Below, the ground pulsed like living tissue, veins of gold threading through the dark.

This was Sumner's mind. Or what was left of it.

"Sumner!" Darian's voice echoed unnaturally, swallowed and spat back by the abyss.

No answer. Only the distant, mocking laughter of the Devourer, reverberating through the psychic waste.

Then—a flicker. A half-formed shape in the gloom, flickering like a dying candle.

The true Sumner.

Darian ran toward him. The ground moved beneath his feet, tendrils of shadow lashing at his ankles. The corruption in his arm burned, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself forward.

Sumner's form solidified—a spectral echo of the dragon, his scales dull, his wings tattered. His golden eyes were wide, desperate.

"You shouldn't be here," Sumner whispered. "He'll find you. He'll use you—"

A tremor rocked the mental plane. The sky split, and through the rift loomed the Devourer's gaze—a yawning, starless pit.

"FOUND YOU."

The voice was a thousand serpents hissing in unison. The shadows surged, coalescing into a monstrous parody of Sumner, its maw unhinged, its eyes twin voids.

The inverted bond. The Devourer's puppet.

It lunged.

Darian barely dodged, rolling as talons gouged the psychic earth where he'd stood. Sumner's true form lashed out, crashing into the shadow-beast, but it was like striking smoke—the thing reformed instantly, laughing.

"You can't win," it crooned in Sumner's voice. "He's already in you."

Darian looked down. The corruption had spread past his elbow, tendrils creeping toward his shoulder. Outside this place, in the real world, his body was likely convulsing, the Devourer's will seeping into his flesh.

But here—here, he still had a choice.

He met Sumner's gaze. "The bond goes both ways," he said. "If he's using me to control you... then I can use it to pull you back."

Sumner's eyes flickered with terror. "No. You'd have to embrace it. The corruption would—"

"I know."

The shadow-beast lunged again. This time, Darian didn't dodge.

He let it hit him.

Talons impaled his chest—not flesh, but soul. Agony beyond anything physical ripped through him, but he grabbed the beast's wrists, holding it close.

"Darian—!" Sumner roared.

Darian bared his teeth. "Now. Take it back."

And with every ounce of will left in him, he shoved the corruption—not away, but into the bond. Back to where it came from.

Back to Sumner.

The dragon screamed as the darkness flooded into him, the spectral form twisting, scales blackening. The shadow-beast wailed, its form unraveling as the stolen power returned to its host.

The mental plane shook. The Devourer's roar of fury was distant now, muffled—the inverted bond, righting itself.

Darian collapsed to his knees. The corruption in his arm was receding, the shadows slithering back toward Sumner like a tide pulling out.

But Sumner—

The dragon was changing.

His scales darkened to obsidian, his wings stretching wider, his form growing more jagged, more monstrous. But his eyes—

Still gold.

Still his.

"Darian," Sumner gasped, his voice raw. "I can... hold it. But not for long. You have to run."

Outside, in the real world, the First Dragon's enraged bellow shook the cavern. The Devourer had been cheated—and it would not be denied.

Darian's vision blurred as the mental plane crumbled. The last thing he saw was Sumner—no longer a puppet, but something new—standing between him and the abyss.

Then—

Darkness.