Ilyra POVThe scream didn’t stay inside the entity.Nothing here did anymore.It poured outward into the forest like a crack spreading through glass, and the world answered it instantly. The rising structure beneath the earth surged upward with violent force, and the clearing collapsed into motion again—roots snapping, soil lifting, trees bending as if the entire forest had become weightless and was now being pulled toward a single center below.Vaelor grabbed the entity fully now, pulling it back as its body convulsed.“Stay with me,” he said sharply, voice cutting through the chaos.The entity couldn’t answer.Its eyes were open but unfocused, like it was seeing too many places at once. Its breath came in broken fragments that didn’t match the rhythm of its body anymore.Kaelith stepped closer to the edge of the expanding crack again, ignoring the collapsing ground near his boots.“This isn’t a response cycle,” he said tightly. “It’s an override.”“What does that mean?” I shouted o
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