CHAPTER 154 — THE DAY YOU WERE CHOSEN
Zehell's laughter was softer this time.
Not triumphant.
Not mocking.
Just… knowing.
"Do you remember," she asked quietly, "why you were betrayed by the Shadow Realm?"
The words struck harder than any void strike.
Long Hao's breath caught.
The vines around his arms tightened slightly as if reacting to the shift in his pulse.
"Betrayed?" he repeated slowly.
"You think that was coincidence?"
His jaw hardened.
"What did you do?"
Zehell laughed again.
A low, echoing sound that rippled across the pale plane.
"I did nothing."
She tilted her head slightly.
"What did you do?"
The plane shifted.
The pale world trembled.
The vines loosened just enough to allow him to stand upright on his own.
"You don't remember?" she asked softly.
Darkness bled across the horizon.
The pale plane dissolved into smoke.
The air thickened.
And then—
Rain.
Cold.
Rotten.
The scent of mold and garbage hit first.
The pale plane was gone.
