The spire hadn't moved in hours.
But the sky above the Hollowed Ring churned like a living thing — storm clouds spun in slow spirals, streaked with violet and black, like ink bleeding through fabric. Lightning danced silently across the sky, crackling through the clouds without thunder.
Shoto stood at the edge of the ring, jaw tight, the stone key still pulsing in his pack behind him.
Elizabeth knelt near the pedestal, flipping through the journal they had found days earlier. Her eyes scanned the pages until she stopped cold.
"Shoto," she said softly, "the pages are changing again."
He turned toward her.
Ink was bleeding across a blank sheet in real time — not dripping, not smudged, but forming new words. In her handwriting.
But she hadn't touched the pen.
"He's not the only one chosen."
"The others will come for you."
"You must choose a side."
Elizabeth's hands trembled slightly. "This isn't mine. I didn't write this."
Before Shoto could respond, something crashed through the trees.
They spun around, ready for a fight — but the figure that stumbled into the clearing wasn't a monster.
It was a Veiled agent — cloaked, burned, and barely alive.
Shoto stepped forward cautiously, elemental power flickering at his fingertips. But the man wasn't attacking. He collapsed at Shoto's feet, gasping, blood pouring from his mouth.
The Veiled grabbed Shoto's shirt with a shaky hand. "You… woke it…"
"What did we wake?" Shoto asked, crouching beside him.
The agent coughed hard. "The seal… the gate… we weren't meant to stop you."
Elizabeth knelt too, light gathering in her palms as she tried to ease the man's pain.
The Veiled's voice cracked with fear. "We were meant to… contain it."
Shoto's eyes narrowed. "Contain what?"
The Veiled stared straight ahead, like looking past this world.
"It's not locked anymore…"
And then he died.
⸻
The air changed.
The wind that had howled for hours around the Hollowed Ring… stopped.
Completely.
Then the ground trembled.
Not a natural quake.
It came in a single, slow, deep pulse — like the earth itself was holding something in.
A second pulse followed. Harder. Stronger.
The spire at the center of the ring glowed red.
Shoto backed up instinctively. "Elizabeth—"
The clouds overhead split with a flash — and something passed overhead.
Huge. Silent.
A shadow in the sky.
Not flying. Not gliding.
Falling.
And then—
BOOM.
The sound hit like a god slamming a fist into the world.
Something had landed.