It takes shape

The air had grown heavier the closer they moved toward the strange, swirling signal in the mist-filled sky. The thick fog seemed alive now — rippling, curling around their caravan of beasts, Wargon carts, and cautious travelers. It was no longer just mist, it was something… watching. Colors shimmered above them like spilled oil across a still pond — hues twisting and layering impossibly: shimmering violets, burning greens, sickly yellows, and deep, suffocating blues.

Luke sat tall atop his beast, his gloved hand tight around the reins, his jaw stiff. His face pale despite the way he tried to steady himself. The pocket watch lay silent again in his pocket, but the weight of it felt unbearable. He cleared his throat and spoke, his voice lower than before, like speaking any louder would make the air itself turn against them.

"Bless yourselves… for whatever's about to happen next."

His words weren't a suggestion.It was a warning.A plea.A command all in one.

The others responded quietly, uneasily.

"Right." Vivy said, not lifting her eyes from her book, the pages fluttering in a nervous rhythm under her fingers. The dull glimmer of green and gold ink seemed to pulse now, making her blink hard. Her fingers twitched, but she refused to stop.

Liora cracked her neck to one side, then the other, flexing her fingers with sharp purpose. The energy around her had shifted — something wild, unyielding. She flashed a crooked grin despite herself.

"Can't wait." she muttered.

Kairo, though…His body was trembling — not visibly, but to him, it felt as though his bones had become brittle glass rattling in his skin. His throat was tight. He gripped his dagger as if it might shatter too if he let go.

"I… I shouldn't be this scared. Not after everything."The thought crawled through his head, sticky and mocking.

He swallowed dryly and forced his voice to steady.

"Hey… Flower," he murmured under his breath, keeping his face blank while his insides twisted."Will you… cooperate with me this time? Like — actually let me use your power? No twisted side effects, no clever little games, no tricks, just raw power. Deal?"

There was no reply.The flower's voice — usually smug, sharp, feminine — was silent. A tense, prickling void in his head.

"C'mon… damn it. Don't go quiet on me now."

A long, heavy moment dragged on.The Wargon's hooves clopped dully against damp earth, steam rising from its nostrils.Branches above them twisted unnaturally, leaves shimmering like they were made of thin, multicolored glass.

Vivy kept flipping pages.One showed a tangled map of a place she didn't recognize — labeled in a language she could barely look at without her eyes itching, but she gritted through it.

Liora's eyes were alight. Her grin had settled into a cold, razor-thin line, and she adjusted the strap of her spear across her back.

Then —

"...Fine."The flower's voice, sharp and begrudging, finally pushed into Kairo's mind."I'll cooperate — for now. But don't test me, boy. I'm choosing to humor you."

Kairo nearly laughed in bitter relief, wiping sweat from his brow.

"Deal." he whispered back."Just… let's survive this first."

Suddenly —Luke's beast reared back, its hooves striking the mist-choked air.

Luke's face changed immediately — his eyes wide with horror, mouth opening to shout—

But too late.

The mist ahead tore apart like a curtain, and from it burst a tide of creatures.No — things.

Their shapes made no sense.Some looked like wolves made of smoke and bone, their faces stretched with too many eyes and gaping, weeping maws. Others slithered, flesh blooming open like flowers, exposing things no human should witness. Their limbs bent backward, their bodies bulging and splitting at impossible seams.

"Monsters!" Luke barked.

Vivy snapped the book shut, drawing a glinting dagger from her boot. Her pale face was tight, a flicker of fear in her eyes before she drowned it in focus.

"There's too many!" she gasped.

"Hold your ground!" Liora shouted, planting her feet into the earth as she pulled her spear free.

Kairo's pulse pounded in his ears.

"This is it. No running now."

The beasts lunged.A skeletal creature with flesh petals bloomed toward him, shrieking.Kairo gritted his teeth and thrust his dagger out — the blade igniting, glowing green and gold, the flower's presence rushing into his limbs like wildfire.

"now!" he roared, his voice deeper, carrying something inhuman behind it.

The battle exploded.Luke's beast crashed forward, biting and stomping.Vivy ducked and spun, cutting down one beast, her dagger singing.Liora's spear split another apart, her face a mask of cold fury.

And in the middle of it —Kairo fought, fire and light crackling along his veins. The flower's voice purred in his head.

"Good… now show me you're worth my time, little Kairo…"

As monsters fell and mist turned thick with blood, the colored light above them swirled, and something darker, something colossal, began to shift in its depths.

"This isn't the end of it…"Kairo thought grimly.

But right now —Survival was all that mattered.

The mist still hung heavy around them, thick and suffocating, colored light shifting overhead like a restless, living thing. The earth was slick with blood and something darker, and the scent of rot clung to every breath they took.

The fight raged on — or at least, it had.

Luke leapt from his beast, boots striking the earth with a heavy thud. His curved blade — forged of some dark, alien metal that shimmered black-violet in the mist — cut through the oncoming swarm with brutal precision. Each swing cleaved through creatures like they were made of paper, though some, disturbingly, bled like men.

Then he noticed it.Some of them… weren't flesh at all.

Their bodies dissipated into smoke after a few slashes, vanishing into the mist like they'd never been there.

His brow furrowed, heart pounding.

"Deal with those wolves first!" he shouted, pointing toward the shifting, snarling shapes darting at the edges.

But Vivy's voice rang out sharp, slicing through the noise.

"No! Focus on the ones coming from the swamps and fogs — the real ones!"

Luke hesitated, mid-swing, confusion flashing across his face."What the hell's she on about—"But then — something in Vivy's tone… the certainty, the unshakable command — made him swallow his pride and follow through.

"You better be right about whatever you have in mind!" he shouted back, carving down another swamp-thing.

Kairo and Liora exchanged glances — torn between instinct and trust.Liora gritted her teeth, then nodded."Fine. We're with you."

Kairo blew out a tense breath, falling into place beside her."We better not regret this…" he muttered.

Vivy, after clearing the beasts near the Wargon, scrambled back up onto it. Her book was already open beside her crossbow, the pages humming with a dull, unnatural glow. Green and black vines snaked around her arm as she raised a hand — dark energy twisting in the air like oily threads.

Corpses twitched.Broken bodies jerked.Mold rose and shadows thickened, taking crude, almost human forms. She sent them into the fray without hesitation, her expression cold, sharp, unblinking.

"Buy us time…" she whispered.

At the frontlines, Kairo fought with a new kind of fluidity.Unlike before — where every move had been some maddening dance of odd contortions to appease the 'Dancing Vines' path — this time, his strikes were clean, decisive. Blades found throats, hearts, vital points, without waste.

The flower in his mind stirred.A voice that almost sounded… impressed.

"Hmph… so you can learn."

Kairo didn't answer, too focused on survival.

Beside him, Liora was a storm. Her spear moved like an extension of her arm, clean arcs of motion cleaving through flesh and mist alike. There was a fire in her eyes — fierce, unrelenting.

And then…At last — only the wolves of smoke remained.

They circled at a distance, silent, half-formed things that no longer attacked. Their ghostly shapes shimmered in and out of view, eyes like cold stars.

Tense. Waiting.

And then — one approached.

It padded forward, mist curling off its form, until it was only a few feet away. Its head lowered, ears flattening. Then, with a delicate, careful motion, it dragged a shape into the dirt — marking an arrow.

Pointing.

Toward the deeper fog.

The group froze.

Luke's face flickered with disbelief, his mask cracking for the briefest second. He blinked, eyes narrowing.

"What…?"

Then, voice lower, half-wary, half-mocking, he addressed the creature.

"Hey… can we… talk first? You know — before you drag us off to whatever the fuck that is?"

The wolf nodded — twice.Then, calmly, it sat. Like a hound awaiting its master.

They stared.

Vivy hopped down from the Wargon, dusting off her bloodied hands.She took a steadying breath, her expression more serious than any of them had seen before.

"I have something to tell you guys."

Silence fell.Even the mist seemed to pause.

They gathered, hearts pounding, near the Wargon.