The road leading out of Mistden felt heavier than the fog itself.
No one spoke.
Not Eryndor.
Not Elara.
Not Krog.
Not even Xaren—who always had a sarcastic comment ready for any silence.
The cart creaked softly as Gronk pulled it forward. His steps were slower, quieter.
Behind them, the hound tribe prisoners exchanged glances.
Raxor, finally whispered to another,
"What in the abyss happened in that village? They look like ghosts."
Thren shook his head nervously.
"If they, the strong ones, look like this… maybe we don't want to know."
The fog thinned as they moved farther away, but the memory didn't.
Eryndor exhaled slowly, trying—futilely—to clear the image of the dying child from his mind.
He couldn't change the past.
Not what Tornak had done.
Not what he had been forced to walk away from.
All he could do now… was keep moving.
He gave Gronk a small tap on the back.
"Let's go. The next village won't wait for us."
According to Kern's map, their next destination—Ashpeak Haven—was hidden near the base of a massive volcano, concealed within its fiery terrain. A dangerous place to live, yet somehow a strategic refuge for the cat tribe.
As they traveled, the air gradually grew hotter.
Dry.
Thick.
A faint sulfur smell scratched at their throats.
Elara coughed softly. "The air… it's getting poisonous."
Xaren raised his hand, muttering an incantation. A pale wind spiraled outward, wrapping the cart in a shimmering bubble.
"There," he said. "Purified air."
The hound prisoners wheezed.
Krog squinted toward the distant volcano.
"Why would anyone live here…?"
"Because no enemy would dare to," Eryndor replied. "Heat, poison, unstable ground—perfect natural defenses."
They continued for hours, passing jagged black rocks and streams of faintly glowing magma veining through the earth like molten blood.
Ashpeak Haven should have been close now.
Gronk trudged forward—
—until the ground suddenly shivered.
Eryndor's head snapped up.
The earth vibrated beneath them, at first like a murmur, then a violent jolt that rocked the entire cart.
Krog shouted, "EARTHQUAKE!"
But before anyone could brace—
BOOOOOOM
A massive shockwave erupted from the direction of the volcano, ripping through the poisonous air. The ground cracked. Rocks shattered. A deafening roar thundered across the wasteland.
Then came the gas.
A tidal wave of black, toxic smoke blasted toward them at terrifying speed, a living wall of poison and dust racing to engulf everything.
Eryndor's instincts screamed.
He grabbed a shield token from his belt and hurled it forward. The token flashed midair—
FWOOOM
A dome of blue magic burst outward, locking over the entire cart just as the poisonous storm slammed into them.
The impact was brutal.
The shield trembled violently, glowing under pressure as thick dust and venomous gases battered it from all sides.
The hound prisoners screamed.
Krog clung to the cart railing.
Elara covered her ears as the thunderous storm raged.
But the barrier held.
Barely.
When the assault finally quieted, the shield flickered once… then faded.
Slowly, the suffocating gas outside began to dissipate.
The world grew visible again.
Barely.
Eryndor felt dread crawl up his spine.
Something had happened—
Something catastrophic.
"Gronk," he ordered, voice low and urgent. "Move. Fast."
The alligator let out a sharp grunt and charged uphill, cart bouncing violently behind him.
They crossed the last ridge.
Then froze.
There was no village.
No walls.
No homes.
No voices.
Only a massive crater—deep, blackened, and wide enough to swallow an entire settlement. A deathly mist seeped from it, curling into the air like ghostly tendrils.
Krog muttered
"Kern said the village was… right here..."
"It was," Eryndor said grimly.
Raxor and the hound prisoners stumbled backward, eyes bulging in terror.
Thren whispered hoarsely, voice cracking,
"N–No… not again… It's the same. Just like… our village…"
Morga dropped to her knees.
"This is… this is that weapon… that cursed weapon…"
The crater was covered with black mist.
Ash drifted like snow.
Nothing lived.
Nothing survived.
Eryndor felt his heart sink.
He had arrived to save them—
—but he was too late.
Whatever had done this…
Whatever weapon had erased the hound tribe's village…
It had struck again.