Valtharion stood towering over the blood-soaked scene, his form shifting and rippling. His hood hid any expression, but there was no mistaking the amusement in his voice as he looked down at the carnage Kale had wrought.

  “Your performance was… quite amusing,” Valtharion mused, his voice like thick syrup, slow and dangerous. “All this blood, all these corpses… a most entertaining spectacle. In your own way, you have given me a great blood sacrifice, but that was only enough to grant you this audience.”

  Kale stared up at the blood god, his arms still wrapped around Liliana’s lifeless head, tears streaking down his face. His heart felt like it had been torn apart, and every breath was agony. He couldn’t bring her back. Not alone.

  “The cost of a life... is a life,” Valtharion continued, his long fingers curling like talons, dripping with blood.

  Kale’s eyes, still wet with tears, locked onto the blood god, who loomed over him like an ancient monument. Every part of him was shaking, grief and despair coursing through him like a sickness.

  “Haven’t I given you enough lives?” Kale’s voice broke, trembling with desperation. “I’ve given you dozens... maybe more.”

  Valtharion did not move, his massive form still as a statue. The silence stretched on, each second feeling like an eternity. Kale’s heart pounded in his chest, hope draining from him.

  Finally, the blood god spoke. “You know the cost.”

  "Fine," Kale whispered. "Take me, just let her live."

  Valtharion’s head tilted slightly, his hooded form rippling as if contemplating the offer. "Very well."

  Liliana’s head stirred in Kale’s arms, the movement small at first. Slowly, impossibly, her body began to regenerate. Muscle, sinew, and bone wove themselves back together, like threads of life being pulled from the blood that soaked the temple floor. Her neck reformed, followed by her torso, arms, legs—all knitting back into place, death being undone before Kale’s eyes.

  Her form shimmered faintly as the final pieces fell into place, and then her chest rose, her first breath filling the void where silence had reigned.

  But at that exact moment, Kale exhaled his final one.

  Liliana’s eyes fluttered open just in time to see Kale’s chest fall, still and lifeless. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him go limp, his hands slipping from her body, his eyes empty. The warmth, the presence of him, gone in an instant.

  "No… no, no, no..." The word trembled on her lips, too soft to hear. She reached out, grabbing his face, her hands shaking as they touched his skin.

  Valtharion’s voice resonated through the temple. "For so long, you walked alone," he said, his tone like a father watching his child’s path unfold. "But you have grown. You have learned." His long fingers stretched out, dripping with thick, crimson blood as he surveyed the scene. "And you found someone. Someone who gave his life for you so freely, without hesitation. It is good to see how far you’ve come."

  Liliana didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Her heart was breaking, splintering into pieces as she cradled Kale’s body in her arms, pulling him close, her tears falling onto his chest. She buried her face against him, her sobs shaking her whole body. His warmth was fading by the second, but she held on as if she could somehow pull him back, as if her love alone could breathe life back into him.

  How cruel life was. That after so long, after walking this desolate path alone, she had found someone—someone who didn’t just care for her, but would die for her. And now, just as she had come to realize how much she needed him, how much she loved him… he was gone. Taken from her before she could ever tell him.

  No one had ever done something like this for her. No one had ever given her such kindness, such love, more than she could have ever imagined. And now, he was gone.

  Her hands clenched into fists, knuckles white as she pressed her forehead against his chest, her whole body trembling with grief. She had never known anyone like him. Never felt the way she did when he was near. And now that she had, now that she had finally let herself believe in something, fate had torn him away. How could life be so merciless, so cruel?

  "Why would you do that?" she whispered, her voice cracking, barely holding back another sob. "Why do you always have to be like this?"

  Valtharion watched in silence, his presence a dark, looming shadow over the scene, his gaze unreadable beneath the hood.

  When the blood god spoke again, his voice was quieter, more thoughtful, as though speaking to no one in particular. "The young bladeweaver was brave. Foolish, perhaps... but brave." There was a flicker of something rare in his tone, almost admiration. Sacrifice was not uncommon, yet this one seemed to linger, echoing in the god’s endless memory.

  Liliana barely heard him. Grief enveloped her, an all-consuming ache, as she rocked gently, her tears falling onto Kale’s bloodied armor. She held him close, as if afraid that even in death, the world would still find a way to take him from her again.

  Liliana’s sobs echoed through the temple, her body trembling as she clung to Kale’s lifeless form. Her fingers, pale and bloodstained, gently brushed his face. His skin was cold now, the warmth already fading away. She felt so small, so powerless.

  She couldn’t remember a time when she had ever felt so alone. It was as if the universe itself was mocking her, showing her what it meant to feel loved, to feel cared for, only to rip it away in the cruelest way possible. How had she been so blind? How had she not seen it sooner? She had wasted so much time pushing him away, hiding behind sarcasm and coldness, when all along, he had been the one person who truly cared. And now, he was gone.

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  She tightened her grip on him as she whispered into the silence, "I can’t… I can’t do this without you."

  The words felt hollow, slipping into the cold, dead air of the temple. The blood around them had started to cool, the scent of iron in her nostrils, but Liliana barely noticed. Her world had narrowed to this one moment—this one crushing moment of loss.

  "Why did you do it?" she whispered. "Why did you give your life for me?"

  Valtharion, standing as an unmoving figure of blood and shadow, watched them in silence. His massive, dripping fingers twitched slightly, but he remained still, looming like a god watching mortals suffer.

  Liliana closed her eyes, pulling Kale even closer. She could feel the emptiness, the gaping hole inside her where he had been. And now that hole was all she had left.

  "I never got to tell you..." she choked on her words, barely managing to speak. "I never got to tell you that... I—" Her voice broke again, tears flowing harder. "Damn you, Kale. Why did you have to do this? Why do you always have to be so... so noble?"

  She thought about his kindness, his bravery, his infuriating need to protect everyone but himself. She had always been alone, always kept people at a distance, and yet Kale had broken through that without even trying. She had never known anyone like him. And now that she finally had, he had been taken from her. How cruel, how utterly cruel the world was.

  Valtharion shifted. "Mortal lives are fleeting. They burn bright, then vanish, leaving little behind." He paused, his hooded form turning toward Kale’s lifeless body. "Yet this one... he has left something. Not just in you, but in the world itself."

  His tone grew quieter, almost introspective. "Few have dared to stand before gods and reshape the course of fate with nothing but their will. Fewer still have done so for reasons so selfless. He was... remarkable, in the way that mortals rarely are."

  "Do not squander what he gave you, Liliana. His choice was final. Now you must choose what to do with the life he saved."

  Liliana barely acknowledged his words, her grief consuming her too deeply. She rocked back and forth, holding Kale’s body tighter, as if the act could somehow bring him back. But it couldn’t. Nothing could. She was alone again, after all this time, just as she always had been.

  Fate had played its cruelest trick, showing her what she had missed for so long, only to snatch it away. Her body trembled, her tears falling silently now, as she whispered into the stillness. "I never got to tell you how much you meant to me."

  The sobs finally subsided, leaving her in the heavy silence of the blood-soaked temple. She could feel the cold creeping into her bones, the emptiness gnawing at her insides. Kale’s body was still, so heartbreakingly still. She wiped her tears with shaking hands, but they kept coming, the loss too fresh, too raw to be contained. It wasn’t fair. It couldn’t end like this.

  She turned her tear-streaked face toward the blood god, her voice shaky and hoarse. “You have to bring him back. You can’t just leave him like this.”

  Valtharion’s hooded head tilted slightly. “Once a life is given... it cannot be taken back,” he said, his words final.

  Liliana’s heart clenched. “No. No, you have to bring him back.” She struggled to find her voice, her words tumbling out between sobs. “Xeroth—Xeroth will destroy everything if you don’t. We... we can’t stop him without Kale. I can’t do this without him.”

  Valtharion remained still, his silence heavy, as though pondering her words.

  “How could this young bladeweaver stop Xeroth?” he asked, his voice carrying a hint of ancient indifference. “He is untested, fragile, barely a spark in the face of the storm that is to come. His life, insignificant. Xeroth’s power grows, and this boy would not stand in his way.”

  Liliana’s breath hitched. She clenched her fists, pressing them against Kale’s chest, as if willing him to wake up, to return to her. “He’ll get stronger,” she insisted, her voice rising. “Our fates are tied together—without him, Xeroth can’t be stopped. You need him to stop Xeroth.”

  Valtharion was silent for a long moment, his form rippling ever so slightly in the flickering light of the temple. Liliana could feel her heart pounding in her chest, each second stretching painfully as she waited, praying that the blood god would listen to her.

  Finally, his voice came again, slow and measured. “Once a life is given, it cannot be returned. It is the law of blood. The sacrifice has been made. It is final.”

  Liliana’s mind raced. There had to be a way to convince Valtharion. Think, Liliana, think!

  Her eyes darted to the pool of blood beneath them, the bodies strewn across the temple floor. The blood... Valtharion fed on blood. He thrived on it. And if Xeroth destroyed everything, there would be no more blood. No more sacrifices. No more power for the blood god.

  “Look at the blood,” she said, her voice trembling but resolute. “Look at what happens if Kale isn’t revived. Xeroth will destroy everything. What will become of you when there’s no more blood to feed on? When everything is dead and rotten, and there’s nothing left?”

  Valtharion didn’t move, but Liliana could feel his attention shift, his unseen gaze fixed on her. She swallowed hard, pushing through the fear and grief that threatened to overwhelm her.

  “You will become powerless,” she whispered. “No blood. No life. Nothing.”

  She hesitated, then forced herself to meet the emptiness where she felt Valtharion’s gaze.

  "Read his blood. See for yourself. See what he is meant to become."

  The blood god extended one grotesque hand. Slowly, he reached toward Kale’s lifeless body.

  Liliana held her breath, her arms wrapped tightly around Kale, refusing to let go.

  A single claw descended, sinking into Kale’s chest.

  The world seemed to shudder. Valtharion’s hooded head bowed slightly, as if peering deeper, as if drinking in the future through the blood itself.

  A long, terrible silence stretched between them.

  Liliana could feel his attention sharpening, could almost hear the calculations grinding behind the unseen eyes in that hooded void. He saw what she could not. He understood what she would never be allowed to know.

  And still, he hesitated.

  When Valtharion finally drew back his hand, the blood clung to his claw. “Very well,” he said. “I shall grant you this wish... but only once.”

  The ground beneath them began to ripple once more, the blood pooling and swirling around Kale’s body. Liliana watched the crimson liquid rise, enveloping him. Her heart pounded in her chest, fear and hope clashing violently inside her.

  The blood pulsed with life, moving like a living thing as it seeped into Kale’s still form. Slowly, his chest began to rise and fall, the shallow breath of life returning to him. Liliana’s eyes widened as she watched, tears streaming down her face once more—this time, tears of joy.

  Kale stirred, his fingers twitching weakly. His eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first, clouded with the lingering chill of death.

  Then they found her. Liliana, cradling him in her arms, her tear-streaked face inches from his, her white hair spilling down around them.

  He blinked, confused, struggling to make sense of her.

  Liliana let out a sob.

  His gaze drifted lower, his expression dazed. “Why are you naked?” he croaked.

  Liliana choked out a laugh, tears falling as she buried her face in his chest. “You idiot,” she whispered. “You absolute idiot.”

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