Chapter 1466: Story 1466: The Splintered Light

The chamber burned with silence after the shatter. No roar, no marrow scream—only the echo of ringing shards as pieces of the crown scattered across the broken stone floor. Each shard pulsed faintly, fragments of an unholy coronation undone.

Elena lay collapsed against Mira, arms blistered and torn, but she did not release her hold. Her breath came ragged, her cheek pressed to skin that still glowed faintly like molten glass.

“Mira…?” Her voice cracked with exhaustion and dread.

For a moment, there was no answer. Mira’s body was weightless in her arms, light leaking from the cracks in her translucent chest. Her face was pale, nearly gone—but then her lips moved, and the faintest whisper escaped.

“Elena… you… held on.”

Elena’s throat closed. Relief and grief crashed together, overwhelming her. “Always,” she rasped. “I promised.”

But their reprieve was not complete.

From the collapsing gate, the skeletal giants screamed as their massive forms dissolved into torrents of marrow dust. The Monarch’s three skulls writhed in the air, their forms losing cohesion, ichor dripping like melting wax. Yet their voices, though cracked, still coiled like venom.

“Vessel broken… crown splintered… but the marrow cannot die. The marrow remains.”

The shards scattered across the ground began to vibrate, pulling toward one another, eager to knit themselves whole again. The Monarch’s fractured essence sought a new vessel—any vessel.

Elena staggered to her knees, dragging Mira close, shielding her body with her own. “Not again,” she hissed. “You’re not taking her again.”

Mira stirred weakly, her crystalline eyes dimming but still lit by a stubborn spark. She lifted one trembling hand and touched Elena’s cheek. The gesture was faint, almost lost in the trembling of her body.

“Elena… it’s not just breaking the crown. We have to choose… where the marrow goes. If it finds another vessel—it starts again.”

Elena looked around. The shards twitched, eager, humming with that terrible hunger. “Then where?” Her voice cracked. “Where can it go that it doesn’t destroy everything?”

Mira’s lips curved faintly, a ghost of her old smile even through agony. “Somewhere… it can’t feed. Somewhere it can’t sing.”

The realization stabbed through Elena. A prison. A sacrifice. Someone had to take it, and carry it where it could never grow.

The Monarch’s skulls shrieked, sensing their desperation. “Foolish mortals. One must bear us, always. If not her… then you.”

Elena’s fingers clenched around Mira’s hand. Her blistered skin bled anew, smearing into the cracks that still glowed faintly across Mira’s chest. She understood. It didn’t have to be Mira.

It could be her.

“No,” Mira whispered fiercely, reading the resolve in Elena’s eyes. “Don’t. Not you.”

The shards shook harder, some lifting into the air, beginning to spin. The choice pressed in, merciless and immediate.

Elena bent her forehead to Mira’s, closing her eyes, her voice breaking as she spoke. “I won’t let it take you. Not ever again.”

The Monarch’s laughter rattled the ruins as the shards swirled faster, searching for their vessel.

And Elena made her choice.