Chapter 169 Ashes And War

• Xavier***
• I rise—slow, trembling—like a man being dragged from a grave. Every muscle screams, raw and unrelenting, as if grief itself has shredded my skin, replacing it with jagged shards of fire. My bones are burning, my heart a hollow echo, a beat I don't deserve. I gasp for air, but each breath feels like swallowing broken glass, tearing me open again. My fingers curl into fists, not from strength, but to stop them from shaking with the violence of loss. Power lingers beneath my skin, volatile and grief-soaked, pulsing with every heartbeat that shouldn't exist without him.
• Around me, the sky groans—a wounded beast mourning its fallen. Silver bleeds into darkness, not like twilight, but like the world itself is weeping, like the last light of love is dying.