Blood trickled from Jade's mouth. She squinted through the agony as the crystal before her blurred. A sensation like a ribbon being cut surged through her, and the room spun.
Through the chaos, a figure stepped from the shadows. It wore a long dark robe and carried a scythe. For a fleeting moment, Jade's heart leaped; the figure bore a resemblance to Ty.
But this semblance shattered as its eyes burst into white flames, reaching for her with intentions unknown.
Every instinct screamed in defiance, and with a force she hardly understood as her own, she jerked her wrist away, evading the creature's grasp.
Jade recoiled and drifted backward into an abyss where her body felt weightless, almost made of nothing. Confusion carried through the creature's voice as it echoed in the void, "You... are dead... are you not?"
Her response was a defiant scream. Her form broke apart into nothingness even as a golden aura wrapped around her, casting a pale glow.
