The silence that followed the collapse of the Root was not the peaceful quiet of a morning; it was the heavy, suffocating stillness of a tomb. The red glare had faded, replaced by the soft, indifferent light of a dawn that didn't care about the ghosts we had just laid to rest.
I stood in the center of the square, my feet rooted to the stone, staring at the spot where my father had dissolved into starlight. There were no ashes. No body to bury. Just the lingering scent of ozone and the fading echo of a man who had spent twenty years trying to play God just to hear his daughter's voice one more time.
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## Chapter 33: The Ghost in the Machine
I felt Sarah’s small hand slip into mine. She was trembling, her gaze fixed on the empty air where Aris had been. In this world—this merged Inters
