CHAPTER 14

The sky above the mountain ridge was smeared with dull ash, and the wind carried the faint stench of rot. Zenith tightened the straps on the scroll bag slung across his back, the two crystals hovering near his shoulders, pulsing softly. They had followed that pulse for three days now, guided by the energy that seemed to throb louder the closer they drew to the ancient mountain pass.

Ires walked beside him, her eyes sharp, scanning every tree, every shadow. Her blade rested across her back, her instincts on edge. She could feel it too—the silence that was too silent. Like the world had paused to hold its breath.

Kira trailed slightly behind them, her sword hilt bouncing against her side. Unlike Ires, she didn't hide her unease.

"We shouldn't be here," she muttered for the fourth time that morning.

Zenith stopped and looked back. "You said the third crystal is near."

"I said the energy trail leads here," Kira corrected, her tone sharper than she intended. "I didn't say it was safe."

Zenith turned forward again. "It never is."

They walked until the trees thinned and the first jagged stones of the mountain began to show. That was when the signs started.

Claw marks, deep and jagged, carved into the trunks of thick-barked trees. Footprints larger than any beast should leave. The ground itself looked wounded—scorched, cracked, clawed.

Zenith knelt by a black smear of blood near a collapsed boulder. He pressed two fingers into it.

"Still warm," he said quietly.

"Which means they're close," Ires murmured, drawing her blade.

"No," Kira whispered. "It means something else is."

They crested a hill, and what lay beyond it stopped them cold.

A battlefield.

No, a massacre.

World Eaters—at least ten of them—lay in broken heaps. Some had been torn open. Others cleaved through with precision. A few had no heads at all. But what was worse… was the smell. That copper-burnt stench of fresh death.

Zenith walked among the corpses slowly, his hand twitching toward the handle of his blade.

"These things don't die easy," Ires said, crouching beside one of them. "Whoever did this... wasn't ordinary."

"Or they're already using the third crystal," Kira muttered darkly. "And if that's true, we're walking into something we're not ready for."

Zenith's eyes narrowed. The crystals around him buzzed louder, the pulse more insistent. He looked ahead—into the dark path winding deeper into the mountain—and clenched his fists.

"Then we keep moving."

He stepped forward, but Ires held out a hand.

"Wait."

They all turned.

The air shifted.

There—barely visible between two trees—stood a figure cloaked in fur, unmoving. Watching them. The glint of a blade at his side. The faint outline of a scroll bag across his shoulders.

Then, just as suddenly, he vanished into the trees.

Zenith didn't hesitate.

"Follow him."

Zenith didn't hesitate. Shadows swirled at his feet, and in a blink he vanished between the trees, trailing the fleeting silhouette ahead. His boots landed soundlessly on roots and rocks, dark mist hissing behind him. He wasn't chasing recklessly — he was answering the call of something older, something familiar.

Behind him, Ires and Kira followed as best they could, their movements crashing through the undergrowth. But Zenith moved like smoke, teleporting between slivers of shade, driven by instinct and the steady pulse of the two crystals that hovered near him like guardians.

He saw the cloaked figure again — and this time, he stopped.

Standing between the trunks of two ancient pines was a tall man, his back straight despite exhaustion in his limbs. His robe was torn and scorched, and a massive scroll bag was strapped across his shoulders. The faint throb of a third crystal hummed from within it.

Zenith stepped out of the shadows slowly and lowered his head respectfully.

"I'm sorry to follow you," he said, voice steady but respectful. "But I believe you're carrying something that belongs with us."

The man studied him for a long moment. His eyes were sharp, weathered by years of burden — older than Zenith by at least a decade, maybe more.

"You speak as if you know what it is," he replied.

Zenith nodded. "Not everything. But enough to recognize its weight."

By now, Ires and Kira had joined him. Ires glanced at the stranger cautiously. Kira's hand remained near her sword.

The man's gaze lingered on the two crystals hovering near Zenith, then on the scroll bag he carried.

"I am Riven Solari," he said at last. "Son of the High Keeper of the Wyrn Temple. For generations, we've guarded the third shard. Until six days ago."

His voice darkened. "That's when they came. The beasts. They bled through the trees and stone. We thought the mountain was sacred — unreachable. We were wrong."

Zenith bowed slightly, lowering his eyes out of respect. "I'm sorry for your loss. Your people gave their lives protecting something no one else dared to."

Riven gave a faint nod. "Then you know why I didn't run far. I knew the crystal would call. I waited. For you."

Kira furrowed her brow. "Waited? Why?"

"I had a vision. A dream," Riven said, his voice quieter now. "A boy. Surrounded by darkness. Crystals floating like moons around him. And a voice, ancient and broken, whispering through the air. When I saw you just now, I knew it was you."

Zenith stepped forward carefully. "The crystal belongs with the others. If you'll allow it… I'll carry it with them. Safely."

Riven studied him, then looked at the shadowy crystals beside Zenith's shoulders, pulsing gently.

"You're young," Riven said. "And dangerous. That much I see. But you're not lost."

He slid the scroll bag forward.

"Take it. But understand… the moment you do, more will come. These shards don't just draw beasts — they tear open the world."

Zenith bowed his head again and reached for the scroll bag—

CRACK.

The trees behind them snapped.

A hiss. Then a roar.

Red eyes bloomed in the shadows — dozens.

Kira's blade was drawn in a flash. "Too late."

Riven stepped forward, unsheathing his curved blade and taking the front.

Ires tightened her grip. "We're surrounded."

The third crystal pulsed inside the bag as if it, too, sensed the coming storm.

Zenith exhaled slowly. "Then we fight."

And in a rush of wind, the World Eaters came crashing down upon them.