"I’m just going to keep ripping them out until there’s nothing left."
I meant it. But the mountain didn't care about my defiance.
The moment the words left my lips, the cavern’s internal rhythm shattered. The mountain groaned, tectonic plates grinding with a sound like splintering obsidian. Because I was tethered to the bedrock—because I had drawn the royal succession into my own blood—I felt that scream reverberate through my marrow. The mountain was a living entity, and I was pinned to its nervous system.
The void where the heart had been warped, reality curdling into tar-like blackness. The ceiling wept liquid shadow, necrotic bile hitting the floor with an acidic hiss that tasted of ozone. The floor tilted, and I felt a vertigo so intense it made my vision pulse with white light.
"
