Jared felt an irresistible force seize his awareness, tearing at it, trying to rip his soul out of his body.

It was like an invisible hand had closed around his throat.

He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t fight back.

All he could do was watch as he was dragged, inch by inch, into the abyss.

“Give it up, child,” the phantom said, a trace of pity in his voice. “Your body is mine.”

Then the Aureate Codex erupted.

Not the gentle glow from before—this was blinding, searing golden radiance, fierce as the sun.