The world did not return—it snapped back into place.
Reality slammed into them with violent force, the Deep Border reasserting itself in a surge that felt less like recovery and more like collision. The fractured battlefield vanished in an instant, ripped away as if it had never existed, leaving behind the unstable terrain of the Borderlands. But the shift was too abrupt, too harsh. The air trembled, the ground fractured, and something unseen rippled through the space around them, like the world itself had been disturbed too deeply to settle properly.
Liora staggered.
Her vision blurred, not from the transition, but from what lingered. The image refused to fade—the calm expression, the steady voice, the certainty in those eyes that had looked exactly like hers.
You choose power.
Her breath came unevenly as the words echoed, louder now than when they were spoken.
"…No…"
The denial slipped out instinctively, but it didn't carry conviction. Not anymore.
