Chapter 40: A Nightmare [Edited]

"Why? I… I trusted you… I gave you everything! Why? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THIS?!" cried a young man, his voice trembling with anguish. His teeth clenched in pain as his body quivered, barely holding itself together.

The world around him was on the brink of destruction—a desolate wasteland where crimson skies bled across a fractured land. The earth cracked and crumbled, drained of its very essence, dying as its core was sapped dry. Amid this apocalyptic backdrop lay a battlefield, soaked in blood. Corpses littered the ground, save for two figures who still drew breath.

One stood, sword in hand, its blade plunged deep into the abdomen of a kneeling woman. The man's white hair was streaked with dirt and blood, his piercing blue eyes clouded with indescribable sorrow. His face twisted with a pain beyond words—a pain born of betrayal.

It stung.

It stung more than any wound he had ever endured.