The air still smelled like smoke and blood.
Marcus's body had been dragged away, burned until nothing remained. No one said it out loud, but they all felt it:
They'd barely survived something ancient.
And it wouldn't be the last time.
The fire crackled again as the group gathered around, sitting in a loose circle. Shoto sat near the edge, eyes locked on Braydon.
"You said you'd explain," he said quietly.
Braydon nodded.
Then looked at the rest of them — faces he hadn't seen in what felt like forever.
"After the split…"
He began slowly, voice even, but heavy.
"I wandered for days. The world felt like it was swallowing me whole. Valoria was tearing itself apart, and I couldn't make sense of anything. I kept having flashes — like the ground was shifting around me. I thought I was going crazy."
"Then I met him."
He motioned toward Riven, who stood silently just outside the circle, arms folded.
"At first, I thought he was going to kill me," Braydon said. "He didn't say much — just watched. But then… I cracked a cliff in half."
He gave a faint smile.
"Didn't even mean to. I was furious. Lost. I screamed, and gravity bent."
"He said I was wasting potential. That the world needed more than reaction — it needed control."
"So I stayed. And trained."
Pate leaned forward. "Trained how?"
Braydon's voice dropped.
"Every day. From sunup to blackout. He taught me how to direct the pull. To compress pressure. To use my own weight to rip through space."
"But more than that… he taught me about this world."
"Valoria isn't just broken. It's bleeding — torn between what it was and what it's becoming. There are things here older than time. The Hollowed Ring was one of their seals."
Shoto's eyes narrowed. "So when we activated it—"
Braydon nodded. "We didn't just awaken something. We opened the first lock."
KJ cursed under his breath. "We always gotta open the wrong doors…"
Brandon asked, "And this creature? The one talking to you?"
Braydon looked down.
"It wants in. Into us. Into everything. And now… it's hungry."
Elizabeth's hand found Shoto's.
The fire snapped.
No one said a word.
Until Riven finally spoke.
"There are more seals."
Heads turned.
Braydon looked up, and for the first time, there was something in his voice that hadn't been there before.
Fear.
"There's more coming."