The battlefield blurred into chaos.
Evan and Gravemind's host tore through the ruins, clashing in bursts of raw power that bent the very laws of reality. Shockwaves flattened the remnants of structures around them, sending debris spiraling into the blackened sky.
Evan moved with lethal precision.
Every strike, every blast of telekinetic force, was designed to dismantle — not just defeat — but erase what Gravemind had become.
And still, the host endured.
Laughing.
Mocking.
---
> "You fight like a frightened child," Gravemind sneered. "Like a ghost clawing at a past that no longer belongs to you."
Evan gritted his teeth, driving forward.
> "Maybe," he said, slamming the host through a broken pillar. "But at least I'm not a puppet."
The ground split open under the impact.
Aidan and Sera fought on the outskirts, holding back the twisted remnants of Gravemind's spawn. Aidan crushed one abomination with a single blow, his eyes flashing with fury and fear.
He had never seen Evan unleashed like this.
None of them had.
---
Inside the whirlwind of battle, Evan could feel Gravemind's true nature — not just a parasite, but a reflection. A twisted mirror of all the anger, the betrayal, the hunger that had once consumed him as the Psychic Reaper.
Gravemind was what the Academy tried to force him to be.
A perfect weapon.
A perfect monster.
And now, Gravemind wanted Evan to choose it again.
---
The host shifted, its form becoming unstable — mouths splitting across its arms, golden eyes multiplying across its skin.
> "You can't kill me," Gravemind whispered. "Because to destroy me, you must destroy yourself."
Evan staggered — not from a blow, but from the truth buried in those words.
If Gravemind was a part of him... what would be left if he tore it out?
Was he anything more than the violence they had made?
---
No.
He refused that answer.
He chose who he was.
Not the Academy.
Not Gravemind.
Not fate.
---
With a roar, Evan unleashed the full depth of his power — not wild, not chaotic — but sharp and deliberate.
A blade.
A scalpel.
He didn't try to crush Gravemind.
He cut.
Thread by thread, he severed the psychic chains that bound them.
The battlefield lit up with brilliant white fractures, as if the very world was breaking apart — and maybe it was.
Because Evan wasn't just fighting Gravemind.
He was unmaking everything that had been forced into him.
---
The host shrieked, its form unraveling in ribbons of shadow and gold.
Gravemind's voice broke into a thousand howling echoes:
> "YOU CAN'T EXIST WITHOUT ME—!"
> "Watch me," Evan growled.
And with a final, decisive surge of will, he ripped Gravemind out.
Not destroyed.
Isolated.
Sealed.
Contained inside the prison of Evan's mind — but this time, on his terms.
---
The battlefield fell silent.
The twisted creatures writhed once — and collapsed into dust.
The sky cleared, revealing stars for the first time in days.
---
Evan stood there, breathing heavily, as the dust settled.
Sera approached first, lowering her weapon.
Aidan moved to Evan's side, studying him with worry — but also awe.
> "You okay?" Aidan asked, his voice low.
Evan gave a tight, exhausted smile.
> "Better than I should be," he said. "Worse than I hoped."
It wasn't victory.
Not really.
Gravemind was still inside him, lurking, whispering.
But it was caged.
And Evan had chosen not to become the weapon again.
---
> "What now?" Sera asked, looking at the ruin around them.
Evan looked toward the horizon, where other fires still burned.
The world was changing.
And he was part of it, whether he wanted to be or not.
---
> "Now?" Evan said, voice steady.
"Now we find out if there's anything left worth saving."
---
End of Chapter 14