The smell of old blood still hung in the air long after the dead deer had crumbled into dry dust. The silence in the clearing was so deep that even the wind seemed hesitant to enter.
Ren approached the thing the creature had dropped onto the ground.
It pulsed slowly, like a tired heart.It wasn't large—small enough to fit in a palm—yet its presence made the air feel heavy, thick, suffocating.
Lyra stepped beside Ren, bow lowered but ready, watching the object as if it might leap at any moment.
"Don't touch it," she murmured.
Ren didn't respond.He didn't want to touch it either.But his staff was vibrating again, each pulse pushing him a little closer, as if the object were calling him—not kindly, but inevitably.
Draven took a few uneasy steps back, flames flickering in his fingers."That thing… looks like a heart."
"It's not," Borin said. "But it wants to be."
Ren knelt beside the object.The black roots wrapped around it twitched irregularly, like small fingers trying to grasp something that wasn't there anymore.
A faint pain pressed behind Ren's eyes.A low hum vibrated in his skull.
Not the Cycle.This energy was different.Weaker.Dirtier.Wrong.
Lyra leaned a little closer."Ren… are you hearing something?"
He took a moment before answering."A hum. Like a muffled echo."
"I hear it too," Draven muttered. "It's giving me a headache."
Borin slammed the butt of his axe against the ground."Throw it in the fire."
Ren's head shot up."No."
The old warrior narrowed his eyes."No?"
Ren shook his head."If it came all the way here… if it crossed the forest just to find us… destroying it without understanding would be stupid.""Stupid is staring at that thing!" Draven snapped. "Look at how it moves!"
Lyra remained quiet.She watched the object with tension but also a strange focus—like she was searching for something hidden in its movements.
The largest root jerked outward.Just a little.Just far enough to be noticed.
Ren extended his staff and tapped the ground next to the mass gently.
The object reacted at once.
The black roots recoiled violently, curling in like a startled spider.The central mass contracted, then expanded, as if taking a shuddering breath.
Lyra's breath caught."It's… afraid."
Ren closed his eyes.
Yes.That was it.The thing was afraid.
But afraid of what…
The staff vibrated sharply, and an image slammed into Ren's mind—so quick he couldn't fully grasp it,but heavy enough to leave a mark:
A massive web of black roots buried deep under the earth…reaching… searching…hunting for something.
And one single root, severed from the network—lost, weakened, broken.
The vision vanished as fast as it came.
Ren inhaled shakily.Borin noticed the change in his face."Boy. What did you see?"
Ren stood slowly.His silver eyes looked darker than usual.
"This isn't a weapon."He pointed at the pulsing mass."It's a fragment. A piece torn off something bigger."
"How big?" Draven asked.
Ren hesitated.
"Big enough that the forest itself is afraid."
A cold wave passed through all three.
Lyra lowered her bow slowly."So this thing… came for help?"
Ren thought about that.More than he wanted to.
The truth that formed in his mind brought no comfort.
"It didn't come for help."He stared at the object."It came to warn us."
"Warn us about what?" Borin asked.
Ren turned toward the tree line.The shadows seemed thicker.Or maybe the wind just made them look alive.
"That something else is coming after the rest of it."
Silence thickened around them.
Draven stepped closer to Ren."There are more of these things out there?"
Ren didn't look away from the forest.
"There's something bigger."
"Bigger like… what?"
"I don't know."
The roots on the mass trembled faintly, as if trying to curl inward.
Lyra touched Ren's arm."What do we do with it?"
He met her gaze.He saw the same question that lived inside him.
What do you do when something finds you before you're ready to be found?
Ren drew a slow breath.
"We keep it."
"Keep it?!" Draven yelped."Seriously?"
"Yes."Ren lifted the staff."If it's part of something moving across the continent… we need to know what it is. What it wants."
"And if keeping it brings the big thing here?!" Draven shouted.
Ren opened his mouth to answer—
—but the White Spirit Flower suddenly flared with bright, blinding light.
The roots on the fragment recoiled instantly, curling tight in fear.
Lyra went pale."Ren…"
"I know," he whispered.
The flower reacted to every movement the mass made.Protecting.Repelling.Recognizing.
Which meant only one thing:
The Forest of Tianyu knew what this darkness was.
And it was afraid.
Ren looked at his companions.Their eyes were determined.Still young—too young for this—
—but ready to stand with him.
"We figure out what it is," he said, voice steady, carrying weight he didn't yet understand."And we survive whatever's coming for it."
The mass pulsed one last time, weakly, like a fading heart.
And Ren finally understood:
The Guild wasn't just training in some forgotten corner of the world.
They had stepped onto a much larger board.
And the pieces were moving.