Inside the sealed basin of Karokai, the temperature dropped to an unnatural, bone-chilling freeze. Sagiri sat motionless upon the flat bedrock slab, his entire mortal body encased in glossy black obsidian stone.
The dark mineral crust had spread across his chest, leaving only a tiny speck of pale skin directly above his heart. His physical pulse had slowed to a single, agonizing beat per minute, teetering on the absolute edge of clinical death.
Frost coated his eyelashes and frozen hair, while faint violet sparks sputtered along his stiff collar. His mortal body had become a statue of black glass, waiting for the final spark of life to extinguish forever.
Outside the black barrier, the storm began to subside, but the tension around the glowing formation grew suffocatingly tight. Lira knelt in the frost, her trembling fingers pressed hard against the carved wooden shyflower pendant.
