The earth did not tremble all at once.
It breathed.
At first, Ren thought it was only his imagination—just the lingering tightness on his skin since dawn. But when he set his right foot more firmly on the ground, he felt the soil give way… not downward, but sideways, as if it were contracting.
Like a lung.Like something alive.
Borin sensed it immediately."Everyone up."
Draven jumped to his feet, startled, flames lighting on his hands without him meaning to."Ren… the ground… the ground's moving!"
Lyra stepped back, bow in hand, but she didn't aim at the forest.She aimed at the ground—as if expecting something to burst through the soil.
The White Spirit Flower flickered weakly, on the verge of going out.Ren understood everything in a single heartbeat:
The fragment was reacting.The flower was reacting.The forest was reacting.
The earth was trying to warn them.
Ren touched the staff to the ground—and the world held its breath.
The vibration spread in waves.At first gentle.Then stronger.Then uneven, like something huge was scraping the subsoil.
This was no natural tremor.It was a message.
The pulse travelled from the earth into his leg, up his spine, into his head.For a moment, it felt like he was hearing not with his ears,but with his bones.
The earth was calling.The earth was crying out.
Draven stumbled backward, clutching his head."Ah—! It hurts! It's like it's inside my skull!"
Lyra grabbed his arm, but her eyes stayed locked on Ren."Ren… are you hearing something?"
He closed his eyes.
Yes.
The earth was speaking.Not in words.In visions.In an ancient language—older than anything that moved beneath Tianyu.
Ren saw black roots running like rivers under the soil, stretching from one end of the forest to the other.He saw twisted trunks splitting open like silent mouths.He saw shadows crawling between rocks—shadows so massive they didn't have a clear shape.
And then he saw something else.
A hole.Huge.Deep in the center of the forest—not as if something had gone in,but as if something had come out.
Ren's eyes snapped open.He gasped for air.
Lyra grabbed his shoulders."Ren!"
He tightened his grip on the staff until his knuckles ached.
"The earth is showing us…"His voice trembled."Showing what?!" Draven demanded, pale."Where the fragment came from," Ren whispered."And what is coming after it."
The vibration intensified.This time so strong that exposed roots shifted visibly.Dry leaves jumped.Pebbles rattled across the ground.
Borin stared at the soil as if expecting a giant monster to burst out at any second."This is bad.""It is," Ren answered, voice low.
The fragment inside the box began shaking violently.The box slammed against the floor.Once.Twice.A third time.
Draven yelped."The thing's gonna break out!"
"It won't," Ren said, approaching.
But the moment he reached the box, he understood:
The fragment wasn't trying to escape.It was trying to shrink.Trying to hide.Trying… to survive.
Lyra touched Ren's arm gently."Ren… it's scared."
He nodded.
Then the earth pulled again—not in waves this time.A single, sharp tug.
Like some enormous root had been dragged beneath the forest, so close it nearly scratched the surface.
Borin froze."That passed… right under us."
Draven's voice cracked."So—so the thing is coming NOW?!"
Ren closed his eyes and tried to read the vibration as he had before.
But this time, he didn't need to.
The earth… spoke.
Not in human language.Not in thoughts.But in sound.
A single sound.Deep.Short.Grave.
A muffled roar from beneath the ground—so powerful Ren's heart skipped a beat.
Draven fell to the floor, hands over his ears."What was THAT?!"
Lyra went pale."That was… a creature."
Borin lifted his axe with both hands."A creature that moves under the earth."
Ren inhaled slowly.His body trembled.Not from fear—from understanding.
"It's not just any creature," he said quietly.
"So what is it?" Lyra asked.
Ren looked at the forest…the soil…the memory of the black root piercing the deer.
"It's something that was chained beneath the earth."He lifted the staff."And someone… set it free."
The earth shook again—this time so violently that small cracks opened near the White Spirit Flower.
The flower reacted, releasing a sudden burst of light bright enough to illuminate the entire clearing.
The fragment inside the box stopped trembling and curled in on itself like a wounded animal.
Ren clenched the staff.
"The earth says it can't hold it back much longer."His heartbeat quickened."Whatever it is… it will reach us."
"When?!" Draven cried.
Ren swallowed.
"Tonight."
The forest, the flower, the fragment, the air—everything froze.
Then Ren finished:
"And we're going to have to face it."