"Selena… help me…"
Lorenzo's voice echoed from the sealed gate, twisted with pain and something darker—something not entirely human. The crack on the seal pulsed like a heartbeat, exuding a dark mist that coiled into the air like smoke from a dying fire.
Dante's arm shot out in front of Selena. "Don't answer it."
She blinked, frozen. "Did you hear it too?"
He nodded grimly. "Lorenzo. Or what's left of him."
The seal vibrated again, whispering secrets in languages older than memory. Selena could feel the pull—not just of the voice, but of something beneath it. A soul in torment. A fragment of humanity buried beneath the Core's corruption.
"He's still in there," she whispered.
Dante turned to her, fury and fear in his eyes. "No. That's not your brother anymore. It's the Core mimicking him—luring you in."
But Selena shook her head. "It was him. Just for a second. He sounded like he did before he fell. Before the madness."
"That moment's gone," Dante said. "He made his choice."
