Chapter 7 Something that shouldn't exist

The walls ruptured.

They didn't break. They didn't explode. They peeled away, as if something had decided that the restaurant—the street—the very air—should not exist anymore.

The Golden Ember was unraveling, its foundations splitting apart, revealing a void beneath the world. And from that void, something crawled out.

The Calamity.

It didn't belong here. It didn't belong anywhere.

It was shifting, writhing, its form unstable, unfinished, imperfect. Limbs extended and retracted in an endless, nightmarish cycle—spines cracked and twisted through its skin, vanishing just as fast.

It had no face.

But somehow, Elias knew—it was looking at him.

And then it screamed. Not a sound. Not a voice.

A piercing, shattering, mind-breaking shriek that split through the air like tearing flesh.

Elias collapsed to his knees, his skull splitting open with pain.

Lyra and Callum dropped instantly, hands clutching their ears, their mouths open in silent agony. Blood trickled from their noses. From their eyes. From their ears.

Elias could feel his bones vibrating, his skin tightening over his body, like something inside him was about to burst.

The sound wasn't just heard.

It was felt.

Deep, inside his brain. Inside his very soul.

And then—it spoke.

A voice that shouldn't exist. A voice made of shattered glass and rotting breath.

"R-Ru… r-r-ruin… b-b-bou—und…"

The name came out in broken pieces, as if it was choking on it.

It lifted one trembling, jagged limb—

And pointed. Directly at Elias.

Elias' entire body screamed to move.

But his muscles locked. His chest tightened.

The Calamity was not chasing them.

It was simply removing the world around it. Everything it touched was erased.

No destruction. No fire.

Just… gone.

The ground beneath it vanished. The restaurant, the furniture, the very walls peeled away like skin stripped from bone.

Callum was gasping, shaking violently.

Lyra was staring at it in horror, blade clutched in a death grip.

"We have to GO!" Elias grabbed them, yanking them up.

Lyra resisted, but Elias didn't stop.

Then—Callum fell behind.

Elias turned.

Callum had tripped. His hands scraped against the broken floor as he tried to push himself up—

But then his fingers stopped existing. Not severed. Not burned.

Just… gone.

Callum looked at his hands. His eyes widened. His breath hitched. His mouth opened to scream—

But before he could—his arms unraveled.

His shoulders followed.

He reached for Elias—or tried to. But there was nothing left of his arms to reach with.

His torso dissolved next, breaking into empty space.

Then his chest.

Elias locked eyes with him—and for a moment, Callum was just a face.

A face of unimaginable agony.

Then—

Nothing.

Callum Veils ceased to be.

"NO—NO! NO! NO!"

Lyra's screams tore through the dead air.

She wrenched away from Elias, charging straight at the Calamity.

She swung. Her dagger passed through empty space.

The Calamity ignored her. It simply kept moving forward.

Kept moving toward Elias.

Lyra's face twisted into something unrecognizable. Her breathing turned ragged, her body shaking violently. She stabbed again. And again. And again.

Each time—nothing.

She could do nothing.

She could only watch as it stepped past her. As if she wasn't worth noticing. And something in her broke.

Elias ran.

His feet pounded against the pavement, his heart slamming against his ribs.

But the Calamity wasn't running.

It didn't need to.

Because the world was breaking around it.

Elias' chest burned, his breath short and ragged. He pushed forward—but his foot caught on debris.

He tripped. And in that instant—he knew.

He would not escape.

The Calamity loomed over him.

It tilted its head, its form glitching between impossible shapes.

Then—it spoke again.

This time—in Elias' own voice.

"Y-you… You're n-not s-s-supposed… t-t-to be h-here…"

Then—

Agony.

A pain beyond comprehension.

Beyond anything he had ever felt.

Beyond what a human body was meant to endure.

He felt himself peeling away—vein by vein, nerve by nerve, cell by cell.

His legs vanished first.

Then his arms.

He felt everything.

The slow, torturous unmaking of his flesh.

His bones snapping into nothingness.

His ribs cracking open, exposing the one thing that refused to disappear.

His heart.

It kept beating.

Even as the rest of him was gone.

Even as he no longer had lungs to breathe. Even as he no longer had a body.

And he was still alive. Still conscious. Still feeling everything.

His eyes—the only thing left of his face—remained locked on the world.

And he watched—

As Lyra was erased.

She did not scream.

She simply vanished.Just like Callum. Just like everything else.

Then—

Light.

A pure, blinding burst of light erupted from the ruins.

The Calamity lurched back, shrieking, its form burning away in the golden blaze.

Something had killed it.

Something had struck it down.

And as Elias' vision darkened, as his consciousness drifted into the void of death once more—

A shadow stepped forward.

A figure, cloaked in black, standing amidst the ruin.

He crouched slightly, looking down at Elias—what little was left of him.

And then, in a voice laced with mocking amusement, he said:

"So, you died this time."

The words were calm. Careless.

"Too bad."

Elias tried to respond.

But the pain was too much.

The last thing he felt was his heart finally stop beating.

And then—

Elias gasped.

The pain flooded back.

His body knitted itself together in real-time, nerve by nerve, muscle by muscle.

And then—his eyes opened.

He was alive. Once again.