Darkness held Hajin without direction, distance, air, or any surface that could carry his weight.
He drifted through the emptiness while the body belonging around him felt like a room whose door had closed.
Pain found him from far away, beginning deep inside his chest before restoring every detail of the guardian's attack.
Stone jaws crushed his breastplate while ribs broke inward, filling one lung with heat before the ruined street vanished beneath white light.
Darkness folded around Hajin while the memory of stone teeth faded.
'So this is how I die, under a dead village after losing an argument with a stone dog.'
He tried moving one finger, but no signal crossed the black distance toward his abandoned body.
Somewhere outside, his open eyes stared across the ruins without seeing Juna, Loccy, or Vella kneeling over him.
The realization arrived without panic, perhaps since his mind had already retreated beyond the place where fear could reach.
