Night fell over the forest like a blade.
There was no moon.No wind.No owl calls, no insects, no rustling leaves.
Nothing.
It was as if the world itself were waiting—as if every living thing knew something was coming.
Ren stood at the center of the clearing, staff firm in his hand.Lyra stood to his right, two arrows already between her fingers.Draven trembled slightly, but the flames in his hands were steadier than ever.Borin gripped his axe with both hands, feet rooted into the soil, expression carved in stone.
The White Spirit Flower flickered weakly, its light fading with every heartbeat.
The box containing the fragment trembled like it held a terrified heartbeat inside it.
Ren closed his eyes for a moment.Inhaled.Felt.
The ground was breathing.
One…two…three breaths…
Then it held still.
As though preparing to roar.
Suddenly, Lyra lifted her bow."Did you feel that?"
Borin nodded."The earth pulled."
Draven instinctively stepped closer to Ren."It's like something down there just… inhaled."
Ren opened his eyes.
"It wasn't air."
The ground vibrated.
Not softly this time.A deep, subterranean growl, like giant claws scraped stone far beneath the surface.
Draven staggered backward."No, no, nope—""STAND FIRM!" Borin roared, gripping the axe so hard it looked ready to snap.
Lyra stepped forward, positioning herself between Ren and the rising tremor."Ren, where is it coming from?"
He pointed slowly to the earth a few meters in front of the flower.
"There."
It wasn't a guess.
It was certainty.
The vibration intensified.The soil shifted as if something below were pushing upward.Pebbles jumped.Leaves rose off the ground.
Draven swallowed."It's… it's gonna come out right there."
Ren didn't reply.
Because he knew.
The surface of the ground lifted—
A massive bulge swelling from the inside out.
Borin raised his axe.Lyra drew her bowstring to the limit.Draven aimed his flames, hands shaking.
The bulge grew.
The soil cracked.
And the sound that erupted from the fissure didn't belong to any living creature.
It was too deep to be a voice.Too loud to be wind.Too heavy to be rock.
It was the roar of something that should never have awakened.
The shockwave was so intense Draven fell backward; Lyra staggered;Borin slammed his axe into the ground to anchor himself.
Ren didn't fall.
He was thrown back.
The staff erupted in a burst of silver light, and the air around him exploded with raw force.
Lyra rushed to him."REN!""I'm fine…" he said, though the breath caught in his throat.
The ground kept splitting.The fissure widened.The entire forest trembled as if it wanted to run.
And then something emerged.
A root.
But not like the black roots of the fragment.
This one was colossal—thick as a tree trunk, twisted, covered in ancient moss and dirt.Yet its surface pulsed—alive in a way no root should ever be.
The root emerged halfway—then recoiled violently, as if burned by the flower's weak light.
Lyra narrowed her eyes."It's… avoiding the flower?"
Ren saw it.And understood instantly.
"The flower hurts it.""Then keep the thing alive!" Draven shouted, flames flaring brighter.
Borin slammed his foot into the soil."If it comes closer, I cut it."
The fissure vibrated.Another roar came—longer, deeper, closer.
Ren felt it in his bones.In his teeth.In his heart.
It wasn't just sound.
It was hunger.It was searching.
It was seeking.
Ren set the staff against the ground, and the vibration traveled outward like touching a living membrane.
The fragment inside the box reacted—curling in on itself, trembling violently.
Lyra's voice trembled."Ren… I think… it's calling the creature."
Ren felt it.He knew she was right.
The creature—the thing that moved—was looking for the fragment.
And it was close enough to sense it.
"Fall back," Ren said softly."We force it to come to us."
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Draven yelled."Maybe," Ren said. "But it's coming either way."
The earth shuddered harder.
Then…
something rose.
Not all of it.Just a glimmer.A piece.A glimpse of what was buried beneath.
An eye.
Huge.Wrapped in ancient roots.Half-open, as though still waking.Round.Depthless.Lifeless.
Lyra froze.
Draven forgot to breathe.
Borin stepped back—for the first time since meeting Ren.
Ren's legs trembled.
The eye fixed on them.
Then fixed on the box.
And the earth collapsed downward—as if the creature dragged everything back into the depths.
The tremor stopped.
The sound ceased.
The fissure slowly closed.
And the forest fell silent again—but now it was a heavy, strangled silence.
Draven collapsed to his knees."W-what… what WAS that?!"
Lyra swallowed hard."That wasn't a beast.""No," Borin said softly. "It was a colossus."
Ren steadied his breathing.But the sensation of that lifeless eye lingering on him wouldn't leave.
Then he noticed something else.
The fragment in the box…had stopped moving.
Completely.
Not out of fear.
Out of exhaustion.
Ren approached.The main root had faded in color—as if something had drained its strength.
Lyra placed a gentle hand on Ren's arm.
"Ren… this isn't over."
He nodded.
"He saw."Ren looked at the ground."He found the trail."
Draven stared, horrified."You mean—?"
"Yes," Ren whispered."He's coming back."