Chapter 53: Hope

Night had fallen on Vollua, enveloping the city in a veil of deceptive tranquillity. The dome of vegetation cast moving shadows on the ground, like memories of a tormented past still embedded in the walls.

At the foot of the Mother Tree, in a cocoon of braided roots, lay Kassandra.

Or at least, what was left of her.

Foster sat a few steps away, silent, his golden gaze fixed on her.

The light from the luminescent spores cast a pale glow over her body, revealing the horror of what she had become.

On one side, the stigmata of the mark remained.

Her skin was blackened and cracked, with dark veins that still pulsed like a beast ready to awaken.

Her fingernails, once clean and sharp like a warrior's, had lengthened into slightly curved claws.

And on the other...

The influence of the World Tree.