The corrupted clearing felt wrong in every way that mattered.
Dead trees surrounded us like nature had given up halfway through existing, bark cracked and blackened, ground grey and lifeless, and in the center of it all—driven into the earth like someone had thrown it from orbit—was a spear.
Ancient metal, tarnished dark, and embedded right where blade met haft I could feel the fragment.
Purple-black crystal pulsing with concentrated entity energy that made every other fragment we'd encountered feel like practice rounds.
This one was different.
Stronger.
My chest tightened looking at it, because if this fragment felt this powerful from here, what would Void be like when it absorbed it?
Void tensed on my shoulder, and I felt hunger ripple through it.
Not the scary kind of hunger.
The recognition kind, the "that's mine and I want it back" kind.
I walked forward, wrongness pressing against my skin like static electricity trying to push me away, and grabbed the spear's haft.
