Chapter 15: The Heart of Darkness

The forest no longer whispered. It breathed.

After the battle in the clearing, Noah and Matthew moved like ghosts through the woods silent, bloodstained, exhausted. The altar's magic had sputtered out, its promise of safety nothing more than a cruel mirage. They had barely survived. And now, they were heading deeper, past the borders marked even on Merrick's map toward a place he had called The Hollowing Path.

Merrick's last instructions still echoed in Noah's mind:

"If all else fails, find the Hollowing Path. But beware… once you walk it, you are no longer the same."

Noah limped beside Matthew. His leg was slashed, his side bruised. But what terrified him most wasn't the pain it was the growing silence within. Caleb, always a whisper in his mind, had gone still.

"Is it over?" Matthew murmured beside him, brushing back a branch.

Noah shook his head. "No. He's quiet, but not gone. He's watching."

Matthew didn't reply, but his hand found Noah's. They held onto each other not just for support, but as a reminder that they were still here.

Hours passed. The forest changed.

The trees became pale and smooth, their bark like bone. The leaves above were gone replaced with a canopy of black mist that curled and coiled like smoke. There were no animals. No wind. Just the sound of their boots crunching on strange, soft earth.

Then they saw it.

A gate made of antlers and dead vines. Beyond it, stone pillars twisted like screaming faces. A faint blue fire hovered in the air, and the ground pulsed beneath it like a heartbeat.

The Hollowing Path.

Noah paused, his throat dry. "We shouldn't go in."

Matthew's voice was calm but grim. "We don't have a choice. You're fading. And Merrick said there's someone here another sorcerer. A guardian."

They stepped through.

At once, the world shifted. The colors dulled, and their shadows bent in the wrong directions. The path narrowed into a bridge of bones stretching over a black, endless chasm.

A voice greeted them not spoken, but felt.

"Another vessel walks the bloodline. But you are fractured."

Noah gasped, stumbling. Caleb surged for a moment just enough to stretch Noah's arms without his will, his fingers twitching toward Matthew's throat. But he stopped himself.

Matthew caught him. "Noah! You're shaking."

Noah's lips trembled. "He tried again. He wants you gone. He wants to feed on me live through me."

Before Matthew could answer, a figure appeared on the path ahead. Cloaked in deep green, antlers crowning his hood, he walked barefoot across the bone bridge. His eyes were silver slits, inhuman and cold.

The sorcerer.

"You bring a curse into my sanctuary," he said, voice like gravel and wind. "And you ask me to help?"

Matthew stepped forward. "We have no choice. Caleb is inside him. Bound by soul and blood through reincarnations."

The sorcerer's gaze slid to Noah. "He is not just inside. He is becoming. And if the shift completes…" He raised his hand. "You will be lost."

Noah steadied himself. "What do I have to do?"

The sorcerer turned. "Follow me. But be warned. You will not like what you see."

They followed him through twisted halls of pale stone, past walls etched with names in languages older than gods. At the heart of the sanctuary was a pool black as tar, but glowing faintly with silver light.

"This is the Mirror of Returning," the sorcerer explained. "To sever the bond, you must dive into your oldest self. The first life. The moment you and Caleb were joined."

Matthew stepped in front of Noah. "He's too weak. He could drown in it."

The sorcerer sneered. "He's already drowning."

Noah stepped forward, hands trembling. "If I can see the truth… maybe I can unmake it."

He plunged into the pool.

Darkness. Then stars. Then blood.

He stood on a cliff. The sky was red, the world burning. And there beside him stood Caleb.

But this wasn't the boy who haunted him now. This Caleb was older, regal, cloaked in flame and ash. Noah looked down. His own hands were soaked in blood. Around them lay bodies soldiers, villagers, lovers.

They had been kings once. And they had killed together.

"Do you see now?" Caleb whispered, stepping closer in the vision. "You chose me. Life after life. You bound yourself to me."

Noah fell to his knees. The weight of his past lives crushed him.

"I don't want this," he whispered.

Caleb knelt, brushing his cheek. "But you already did. And the only way out now… is for you to die."

Noah's reflection shimmered in the pool.

But instead of breaking he screamed. A long, primal scream that shattered the vision. The illusion of Caleb's hands burned away. The flames receded.

He rose, soaked and panting, reborn.

He gasped awake on the sanctuary floor. Matthew cradled him, eyes wide with worry.

"I saw it all," Noah whispered. "We were gods once. We ruled through death. Caleb… he never let go."

Matthew held him tighter. "Then we'll find a way. Even gods can be undone."

The sorcerer watched them silently. "The bond has weakened. But the final seal… will cost a life."

Matthew stood. "Whose?"

The sorcerer didn't answer.

But Caleb did. From within Noah's mouth, a second voice chuckled:

"Yours, priest. Yours."