The world trembled.

  Not from an earthquake.Not from a storm.

  From something deeper.

  Something that was not meant to be seen.

  Darius and Ais were already running.

  The moment the air had shifted—the moment the weight of the rewrite pressed down upon them—they knew.

  This was not the slow erasure of before.

  This was a full recmation.

  The streets of Vaelmoor twisted.

  Buildings that had stood for centuries blurred at the edges.

  The people in the streets did not notice.

  They went about their lives, unaware that the very city they stood in was unraveling beneath their feet.

  Darius pushed forward, Ais close behind.

  "Where are we going?" she hissed.

  Darius didn't answer.

  Because he did not know.

  Where could they go, when the world itself was shifting around them?

  Where could they hide, when they were the ones being rewritten?

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The first scream cut through the air.

  Not one of pain.Not one of fear.

  One of something being pulled apart.

  Darius whirled.

  A man stood in the middle of the street, his body folding inward.

  Not vanishing.

  Not fading.

  Colpsing into nothing.

  His limbs twisted, his face stretched into something impossible, unnatural—

  And then—he was gone.

  Not erased.

  Not forgotten.

  Consumed.

  Ais's breath hitched. "That wasn't an Inquisitor."

  Darius' jaw clenched. "No."

  This was something worse.

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  A new presence stepped into the street.

  Not flickering like an Inquisitor.

  Not shifting like a Watcher.

  This thing was solid.

  It was tall—too tall.

  Its form wrapped in shifting, unduting bckened cloth, as if reality itself was being unwoven around it.

  It had no face.

  No voice.

  But its presence was unbearable.

  The air around it shook.

  As if the world itself was rejecting its existence.

  A whisper slid through the air—not from it, but from the city itself.

  "A Recimer has arrived."

  Darius' pulse pounded.

  Ais took a slow step back. "That's—"

  She didn't finish.

  Because the Recimer moved.

  It did not step.

  It did not shift.

  It was simply closer.

  And the world folded inward around it.

  Darius gritted his teeth, his muscles tensed.

  The Inquisitors erased.

  The Watchers observed.

  But the Recimers...

  They devoured.

  Ais grabbed his arm, whispering, "We need to leave. Now."

  Darius didn't argue.

  Because for the first time—he felt truly hunted.