Then -
It vanished.
All of them did.
Gone in a blink.
The forest grew silent again.
The stone arch still hummed.
Rose dropped to one knee. "They weren't here to fight."
Layla knelt beside her. "They were… testing us."
Jude lowered his axe. "And next time?"
Emma answered. "Next time, they won't ask."
They all stared at the archway.
And something - someone - watched from the other side.
The light within the stone arch pulsed once - soft and slow, like the beat of a hidden heart. The space inside the twisted columns shimmered faintly, though nothing moved within it. Still, they felt it. The presence. Someone - or something - watching from the other side, like a reflection in murky water, just beneath the surface of perception.