Kelly gasped.
The moment she materialized, her knees hit the ground hard. Pain exploded through her skull, sharp and relentless, like something was clawing its way out from the inside.
"Fuck..." she rasped, her voice dry, rough. "Why does my head keep hurting like this...?"
She dragged in a deep breath—then another—but it did nothing to ease the pressure.
And the worst part?
She knew exactly why.
Olia had been a Void Ascendant—a being standing just a step below the very peak of the universe. The things Olia had seen... the things she had felt...
They weren't meant for a mind like Kelly's.
Not meant to be processed.
Not meant to be understood.
The catastrophe brought about by the Fionet Quenti wasn't something you witnessed and walked away from. Not whole.
But Olia had.
Because Olia's mind had been vast enough to hold it all without breaking.
Kelly's wasn't.
Right now, she was barely holding herself together.
