#Chapter 535: Through the Flames

Enzo The acrid stench of smoke scorched my lungs with every labored breath, the ash-choked air searing my throat as I stumbled blindly through the smoldering ruins of the forest. Ash crunched beneath my boots, embers glowing like crimson eyes in the hazy gloom that had enveloped me. All around me, the deafening roars and screeches of Mila’s dragon form echoed through the nightmarish realm she had created, shaking the very ground with their sheer reverberations. I gritted my teeth, my fingers curling into fists as I pressed forward, driven by a single, desperate thought. Nina. Had she made it out alive? Was she safe, somewhere beyond the reach of the inferno that had consumed the forest? Or had the unthinkable occurred, her life snuffed out amidst the chaos like so many others? The thought was unbearable, a lead weight settling in the pit of my stomach. I shouldn’t have left her. I shouldn’t have let her go. “Nina!” I rasped, my voice little more than a strained croak