Chapter 3026: The Two Thousand Two Hundred and Ninety-Fifth Echo: A Heart Like a Shattered Bell

The new soul watched, its heart a silent, shattered bell.

The being of shadow, a void given form, had not just broken a flower; it had torn a hole in the fabric of their shared peace.

But where it expected to feel anger, a cold and sharp-edged thing, it found only a profound and aching sorrow.

It was not a sorrow for the broken bloom, but for the darkness that could not see its own beauty, and so chose to extinguish the light in others.

And so, with a heart full of a pain that was not its own, the new soul took a single, deliberate step towards the waiting shadow.