A few hours had passed, and I sat alone in my chamber, running a comb through my damp hair in front of the mirror. The silence buzzed around me, thick with doubt. Was it really true? Was I the only one who could stop Beliale? And if so… how?

Should I unleash that same force I’d used in the auditorium channel it at Aronne and Beliale, focused and undiluted? But the last time I tapped into that power, it had left me hollowed out, wrecked. Even now, I wasn’t fully recovered.

Maybe if I ...