The forest swallowed them whole.
Lira dragged Kai through a curtain of hanging roots and damp leaves until the sounds of fighting finally dimmed behind them. Only then did she stop, bracing herself against a tree, breathing hard.
Kai leaned forward, palms on his knees, heart thundering.
The image of the Fangbeast's final lunge burned in his mind.
"…It died because of me," he whispered.
Lira didn't answer at first. Her chest rose and fell, each breath sharp, but she kept her eyes fixed on the forest behind them, listening for pursuit.
When she finally turned to Kai, her expression hardened.
"It didn't die because of you," she said. "It died for you. There's a difference."
Kai frowned. "That doesn't make it better."
"No," she agreed softly. "It doesn't."
A moment of silence passed—quiet, but heavy.
Then Kai felt it again.
A hum beneath his ribs. Faint. Unsteady.
Alive.
Lira noticed instantly. "The Mark's waking again?"
Kai hesitated. "It's been… reacting since I touched that fragment."
He opened his hand.
The dark stone fragment lay across his palm, carved with the same sigil that once sealed a godlike force. Cold. Heavy. Wrong.
Lira shivered just looking at it.
"That thing was buried for a reason."
Kai nodded. "But the Fangbeast was protecting it—and me."
"That's what scares me," she muttered.
Before Kai could respond, a whisper
threaded through his mind.
Not a sound.Not a voice.
A presence.
Like a fingertip trailing across the inside of his skull.
Vessel…
Kai flinched, nearly dropping the fragment.
Lira grabbed his wrist. "Kai? What happened?"
He forced out, "I… heard something."
"Footsteps?"
"No. Inside my head."
Lira's face changed. Alarm. Fear. Then resolve.
"Tell me exactly what you heard."
Kai swallowed. "It said… Vessel."
The forest seemed to grow colder.
Lira took a slow breath.
"Kai… that's not a hallucination. Seventh Path users are said to hear echoes.
Murmurs. Like the Path itself is watching."
"Is that supposed to help?"
Kai snapped, though fear, not anger, cracked his voice.
She squeezed his arm.
"I'm telling you because you need to understand something—"
The whisper returned.
Clearer.Closer.
Do not… run.
Kai's knees buckled.
Lira caught him before he hit the ground. "Kai!"
Every nerve vibrated like strings pulled too tight. His vision blurred, colors bleeding together.
The forest darkened—not literally, but as if something unseen pressed against the world.
Kai gasped for air. "It's—inside—my head—"
Lira's grip tightened. "Fight it!"
"I'm trying—!"
The world tilted sideways.
For a heartbeat, he wasn't in the forest.
He was somewhere else.
Stone floors cracked with symbols.
A sealed chamber of light and shadow.
A shape bound in the center—human yet twisted, wrapped in chains of light.
The same silhouette that had stepped out of the dying vortex in the prologue.
Its head lifted.
Its eyes—blazing white—locked onto his.
You… are the one chosen.
Kai stumbled back—even in the vision.
"Chosen for what?"
To become what I was meant to be.
"No," Kai whispered. "I'm not—"
Do not resist.
Lira's voice pierced the fog.
"KAI! Look at me—not it!"
Her hand slapped his cheek, not hard, but sharp enough to anchor him.
He blinked.
The chamber dissolved.The forest returned.Air flooded his lungs.
Kai collapsed to his knees, trembling.
Lira steadied him.
"Kai… I need you to tell me something. When you heard that voice—
did it feel like it was trying to control you?"
Kai shook his head slowly. "Not control… more like… it expected me to obey."
"That's worse," Lira muttered.
Kai managed a weak smile. "Thanks."
She rolled her eyes. "Not what I meant."
He laughed once—short, strained—and silence settled between them again.
Finally Lira spoke, voice low.
"The Seventh Path didn't die willingly, Kai. Whatever it was… it wanted a vessel. Maybe it needs one."
Kai nodded, throat tight. "…And it picked me."
"We don't know that," Lira began.
Kai looked at her.
She stopped. She did know.
Lira sighed. "Yeah. It picked you."
A long moment passed.
The whisper did not return.
But the feeling of being watched lingered.
Kai looked down at the fragment in his hand. "I need answers."
"We'll find them," Lira promised. "But first—we need to get far away from the hunters."
Kai straightened. "And then?"
"Then we go to the one person who might know what's happening to you."
Kai blinked. "Who?"
Lira hesitated.
"The Seer of the Northern Ridge."
Kai frowned.
"The one who's supposedly insane?"
"No," Lira said.
"The one who went insane after witnessing the Seventh Path."
A chill crawled down Kai's spine.
He tightened his grip on the fragment.
The Seventh Path had chosen him.The Fangbeast had died for him.And now… an ancient seer might hold the truth.
Lira stepped forward, expression hardening into determination.
"Let's move before the scouts regroup. Tonight, we run. Tomorrow… we begin searching for answers."
Kai nodded.
And as they slipped deeper into the forest, the whisper returned one last time—
soft, almost amused.
You are awakening, Vessel.
Kai refused to react.
But his hand trembled against the fragment.
The Seventh Path was no longer sleeping.
It was watching.
And waiting.