The forest didn't breathe.
It waited.
The ancestral serpent struck first—its body a mass of braided vines and water, its jaws lit with deep green luminescence. The ground trembled under the force of its lunge, roots twisting aside to grant it passage.
Dare didn't flinch.
His metal cage-hand snapped open like a trap resetting, chains along his wrist tightening with a metallic hiss. Gold-blue light surged through the engravings as if the city's law had poured molten into his veins.
Kael stood between them.
And the world narrowed to him.
His heartbeat.
His regret.
His blade.
Abyssfang vibrated in his grip, laughter turning sharp.
MOVE, BOY. BECOME THE CUT OR BE THE CREVASSE.
Kael moved.
He shoved himself sideways as Dare vaulted toward the serpent, his cage-hand drawing a line of golden force through the air. The serpent twisted, tail whipping toward Dare in a sweeping arc that uprooted shrubs and sent a shockwave through the clearing.
Dare met it head-on.
His metal hand closed around the serpent's tail.
The resulting impact cracked the ground at Kael's feet.
Taye stumbled back into the brush, grabbing a tree trunk for balance.
"That man wrestled a SPIRIT OF A WHOLE JUNGLE," he whispered in disbelief. "I vote—we leave—Kael, can we leave? Kael?"
But Kael was already sprinting forward.
The serpent hissed—not angry, but wounded by Dare's touch. The gold-blue enchantment in his arm disrupted the spirit's flow, dimming its glow.
Dare grinned, teeth bared.
"See, little river? Even your forest bleeds when I ask it politely."
He swung the serpent by its tail like a weapon.
The world blurred.
Trees cracked.
The serpent's body slammed into Kael.
He barely raised Abyssfang in time.
The impact blasted him off his feet—threw him across the clearing and into a low mound of soil. His breath left him in a sharp, stunned exhale. The brand over his heart flashed, heat rippling into his limbs.
Nia's scream cut through the ringing in his ears.
"Kael! Get UP!"
He tried. His arms shook. The serpent's presence pressed against his back—not hostile, but urging him, like a parent pushing a child forward.
"Stand," it whispered inside his bones. "Verdant remembers your shape."
Kael rose.
The serpent surged upright again, vines reforming, water gathering into coherent coils. It circled him protectively, eyes glowing like lanterns submerged in riverwater.
Dare rolled his shoulders, cage-hand ticking open and shut.
"You get a monster," he said. "I get the law."
His eyes narrowed. "Let's see who keeps their promise this time."
Kael stepped between Dare and the serpent.
"No," he said. "This is between us."
Dare's jaw clenched hard enough to show the tendon.
"Then I'll break you FIRST—then the guardian."
He dashed forward, the ground cracking beneath each stride.
Kael met him halfway.
Their limbs collided, fists and blades and chains and breath, each clash heavy enough to rattle the leaves on trees. Dare fought like someone who had trained while bleeding. Kael fought like someone who had survived while mourning.
The metal cage-hand clamped around Abyssfang's blade again—but this time Kael twisted away instead of resisting. Dare's fist grazed his ribs, the blow radiating through him like thunder.
Kael retaliated with a rising slash—
Dare blocked with his forearm—
Kael ducked a hook—
Dare pivoted left with unnatural precision—
Nia watched with her daggers clenched so tightly her knuckles paled.
"This isn't a fight," she whispered. "This is two storms remembering where to land."
Taye swallowed hard. "This is two storms deciding which one gets the sky."
Kael faltered.
Only for a heartbeat.
But Dare saw it.
He grabbed Kael by the shoulder—
Slamming him into a tree trunk.
The bark splintered, showering debris.
Dare pinned him there, metal hand at Kael's throat.
"You were supposed to come back!" Dare shouted, voice shaking with more pain than rage. "We were supposed to climb the Domains together! Verdant was supposed to be OURS!"
Kael struggled against the grip. Air burned in his lungs.
"You think I didn't want that? I left… because I thought it would save you."
"You LEFT," Dare repeated, as if trying to carve the word into stone. "Everything after that—I lived alone with it."
For a moment the cage-hand loosened.
A flicker of the old Dare surfaced—
The friend.
The brother-without-blood.
Kael saw it.
But only for a heartbeat.
The chain mark on Dare's collar glowed.
His eyes hardened.
"The Chancellor wants your chains," Dare whispered. "But I want your truth."
He lifted Kael by the throat.
"WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME TO ROT?"
The serpent roared.
Its coils snapped forward, knocking Dare aside before he could crush Kael's windpipe. Kael fell to his knees, coughing, vision doubled.
Dare spun with feral speed, catching the serpent's strike on the metal cage-hand. He dug his heels into the soil, stopping its advance through sheer force.
"You think a root-spirit can judge me?" Dare snarled. "Verdant failed us BOTH."
The spirit murmured from the kapok's base, voice layered with centuries.
"Child of iron. Child of regret. You speak truth twisted by thirst."
Dare tore the serpent's coil free and swung it aside.
"DO NOT SPEAK AS IF YOU KNOW ME!"
The serpent stabilized itself and circled Kael again.
Nia reached him first, kneeling beside him.
"Kael—breathe. You're hurt."
He shook his head. "Not enough to stop."
Taye exhaled shakily. "He's… stronger than the Harrow."
"He's stronger than he should be," Nia said. "That arm—whatever the Chancellor gave him—it's more than magic. It's a contract."
Kael stood again, leaning slightly.
He wiped blood from his lip, eyes never leaving Dare.
"I didn't abandon you."
His voice trembled but didn't break.
"I left because I knew Verdant couldn't protect us from the wars coming. I thought—if I became stronger—maybe I could shield everyone. You. Auntie. The village."
Dare laughed, hollow and sharp.
"You shielded NO ONE."
Kael flinched.
Dare's voice lowered.
"And now? Now you come back with a chain mark on your chest. A cursed blade. And a spirit wearing your face."
His expression curdled.
"Do you even know what you ARE anymore, Kael?"
Kael gripped Abyssfang.
"I'm what I've always been. Someone who didn't want to lose the people he loved."
Dare's face twisted.
Hurt.
Anger.
Jealousy.
"You lost me anyway."
He lunged.
Kael barely blocked.
The serpent blocked the second strike.
The ground quaked.
The branded pain in Kael's chest spiked like a lightning rod.
He cried out—
The serpent paused—
Dare's eyes widened as the mark glowed—
And the spirit under the kapok whispered,
"Something comes."
Kael froze.
Dare froze.
The serpent recoiled.
Because from deep within the jungle—
Deeper than any spirit Kael knew—
Something enormous shifted.
Branches cracked.
A distant roar echoed like thunder rolling over bones.
Nia grabbed Kael's arm.
Taye paled.
"Uh… Kael?" Taye whispered. "I think the forest just woke up."
Dare stepped back, eyes scanning the canopy.
"That roar… I know that sound."
The spirit's voice dropped to a whisper sharp as a fang:
"THE VERDANT JUDGE APPROACHES."
The trees shook.
The ground trembled.
Every bird went silent at once.
Kael's heart stopped.
Dare's cage-hand flexed.
And through the vines ahead, a shape emerged—
massive, towering, wrapped in roots and old armor—
its head crowned with horns of petrified wood,
its eyes glowing river-green and verdict-bright.
The ancestral guardian
AND
a physical beast of old war.
A creature of punishment.
A creature that knew Kael's lineage.
A creature that knew Dare's crimes.
It stopped before them.
It opened its wooden jaws.
And spoke Kael's name.