The forest felt different after Beast stepped through the mist.

Not safer.

Not calmer.

Just… aware.

Like the roots themselves were holding their breath.

Elias felt it first — a faint tremor beneath his ribs, a pulse that didn’t belong to him. His breathlight flickered, the fractured glow stuttering like a candle in a draft.

Beast noticed immediately.

He knelt beside Elias, flame dimming to a low ember. “Your chest,” he murmured. “It’s reacting.”

Elias pressed a hand over the glow. “It feels… wrong.”

Luke stepped closer, eyes narrowing. “Not wrong. Warning.”

Lucious tensed. “Of what?”

Luke didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

The ground answered for him.

A low vibration rolled through the soil, subtle at first, then growing — a hum that made the leaves tremble and the mist coil tighter around the trees.

Elira pulled Elias closer. “No. Not again.”

Lirien swore under his breath. “Didn’t we just kill that thing?”

“We didn’t kill it,” Luke said quietly. “We reset it. And now it’s adapting.”

Beast rose slowly, flame sharpening. “It’s coming.”

Elias swallowed hard. “I can feel it.”

The warmth inside him twisted, pulling toward something distant and cold. His breathlight pulsed in uneven bursts, each one sharper than the last.

Beast placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. “Stay with me.”

Elias nodded, but the world tilted. His vision blurred at the edges. The warmth inside him surged too fast, too bright, too hot.

He gasped.

Elira caught him before he fell. “Elias!”

Luke knelt beside them, pressing two fingers to Elias’s wrist. “His breathlight is overloading. The hollow’s mark is reacting to the devourer’s shift.”

Beast’s flame flared. “Shift?”

Luke looked up, expression grim. “It’s evolving.”

The forest answered with a deep, resonant crack — like a tree splitting under impossible weight.

Then another.

Then silence.

A silence so complete it felt like the world had stopped breathing.

Lucious drew his blade. “That’s not good.”

“No,” Beast said. “It isn’t.”

The mist ahead of them thickened, swirling into a vortex of shadow and pale light. The air grew colder, heavy with the scent of rot and something older — something hungry.

Elias’s breath hitched. “It’s close.”

Elira held him tighter. “Don’t look.”

But he couldn’t help it.

The mist parted.

And the devourer stepped through.

It wasn’t the same creature they’d faced before.

This one was leaner, sharper, its form shifting like smoke and bone. Its eyes glowed with stolen breathlight — Elias’s breathlight — flickering in fractured gold and silver.

It didn’t look at Beast.

Or Luke.

Or anyone else.

It looked only at Elias.

Beast moved instantly, stepping between them. “You won’t touch him.”

The devourer tilted its head, studying Beast with a strange, almost curious stillness. Then it opened its jaws, revealing a void that pulsed with the same fractured glow in Elias’s chest.

Luke inhaled sharply. “It’s mimicking him.”

Elias’s heart pounded. “Why?”

“Because,” Luke said, “it wants what it marked.”

The devourer lunged.

Beast met it head‑on, flame erupting in a burst of gold and ember. The impact shook the clearing, sending shockwaves through the mist. The devourer recoiled, its form flickering — but only for a moment.

Then it adapted.

Its void‑flame shifted, twisting into a shape that countered Beast’s fire. It lunged again, faster this time, forcing Beast back step by step.

Lucious and Lirien moved to help, but Luke threw an arm out. “No. You’ll only distract him.”

Elira held Elias close, whispering, “Stay with me. Stay with me.”

Elias tried. He really did. But the warmth inside him surged again, too bright, too wild. His breathlight flared, casting the clearing in a burst of gold‑silver light.

The devourer froze.

Then it turned toward Elias.

Beast roared, flame exploding outward. “NO!”

He slammed into the devourer, driving it back, but the creature twisted, slipping through the flame like smoke. It darted toward Elias, jaws widening—

Elias screamed.

His breathlight burst outward in a shockwave of fractured light.

The devourer staggered.

Beast lunged—

And the ground opened beneath him.

A Spiral rift tore through the soil, golden roots twisting upward like hands. They wrapped around Beast’s legs, pulling him down.

“No!” Elias reached out, breathlight flickering wildly. “Beast!”

Beast’s flame flared, fighting the pull. “Stay back!”

The devourer recovered, turning toward Elias again.

Elira shielded him with her body. “Don’t you dare touch him!”

Luke grabbed Lucious’s arm. “We can’t fight it like this. Elias is too unstable.”

The Spiral roots tightened.

Beast’s eyes locked onto Elias’s.

“Hold on,” he growled. “I’m coming back.”

The Spiral yanked him downward.

Elias screamed his name as Beast vanished into the golden rift, the devourer turning toward him with a hunger that felt ancient and inevitable.

The mist closed in.

The forest trembled.

And the devourer stepped forward.

The creature’s steps were soundless, but every movement sent a ripple through the mist, like the air itself was trying to pull away from it. Elias felt each shift like a tug on his ribs, a cold thread winding deeper into the fracture in his chest.

Elira tightened her hold on him. “Don’t look at it,” she whispered, though her own eyes were locked on the devourer’s shifting form.

Elias couldn’t look away. The creature’s outline blurred, its edges dissolving into smoke before reforming into something sharper, more defined. It was learning him. Studying him. Matching the rhythm of his breathlight with every pulse of its stolen glow.

Lucious stepped forward, blade raised. “If it takes one more step, I’m cutting it down.”

Luke grabbed his arm. “You won’t even touch it. It’s not fully here.”

“What do you mean not here?” Lirien hissed.

Luke’s gaze stayed fixed on the devourer. “It’s phasing between forms. It’s using Elias’s breathlight as an anchor. That’s why it’s ignoring the rest of us.”

Elias’s pulse hammered. “It’s… calling me.”

Beast’s voice echoed faintly from the Spiral rift, muffled by the golden roots dragging him deeper. “Elias—stay back!”

But the devourer didn’t give him the chance.

It lunged.

Elira yanked Elias behind her, but the creature’s shadow stretched across the ground like a living snare, reaching for him. The air around Elias tightened, squeezing his lungs. His breathlight flared in panic, sending a burst of heat through his chest.

The devourer shuddered, its form flickering violently as if the light burned it from the inside.

Luke’s eyes widened. “It’s reacting to him. Elias—whatever you’re feeling, it’s feeding on it.”

“I’m not trying to!” Elias gasped, clutching his chest as another pulse tore through him.

The devourer steadied, its shape sharpening again. It lowered itself, almost crawling, its gaze fixed on Elias with a hunger that felt ancient and inevitable.

Lirien stepped between them, spear raised. “You want him? You go through me.”

The devourer didn’t even acknowledge him.

It moved again—faster this time.

Lucious swung his blade, but the creature slipped past the strike like smoke. The air where it passed turned cold enough to frost the grass. Elira shielded Elias with her entire body, but the devourer’s shadow stretched around her, reaching for the fractured glow beneath Elias’s ribs.

Elias felt it touch him.

A cold spark.

A pull.

A whisper that wasn’t a voice but a memory—his memory—echoing back at him in a twisted, hollowed tone.

He gasped, stumbling. “It’s… inside my head.”

Elira grabbed his face, forcing his eyes to hers. “Stay with me. Don’t let it in.”

But the devourer pressed closer, its void‑flame swirling into a shape that mirrored Elias’s breathlight exactly. It was copying him. Learning him. Becoming the thing that could consume him completely.

Luke’s voice broke through the panic. “It’s trying to overwrite him. If it succeeds—”

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

The devourer lunged again.

This time, Lucious and Lirien both struck at once—steel and spear slicing through its form. The creature staggered, its shape distorting, but instead of retreating, it twisted around the blows, absorbing the momentum and redirecting it toward Elias.

The force hit him like a wave.

Elias cried out, collapsing to his knees as his breathlight flared uncontrollably. The glow burst outward in jagged pulses, lighting the clearing in fractured gold and silver.

The devourer froze mid‑step.

Then it screamed.

The sound wasn’t a roar or a cry—it was a tearing, ripping shriek that made the trees bend and the mist recoil. Its form convulsed, flickering violently as Elias’s light burned through it.

But the creature didn’t fall.

It adapted.

Its void‑flame shifted, twisting into a shape that matched the new rhythm of Elias’s breathlight. It steadied, then surged forward with renewed hunger.

Elira pulled Elias back, voice shaking. “It’s learning too fast!”

Luke’s expression hardened. “It won’t stop until it takes him.”

The devourer lunged—

And the Spiral rift exploded with golden light.

Beast’s flame burst upward, tearing through the roots that held him. His roar shook the clearing, a sound of fury and fear and something deeper—something primal.

The devourer recoiled, its form shuddering under the force of Beast’s flame.

Beast reached toward Elias, eyes blazing. “I told you—I’m coming back.”

But the Spiral wasn’t done with him.

Golden roots surged again, wrapping around his arms, his torso, dragging him downward with relentless force. Beast fought, flame erupting in violent bursts, but the Spiral tightened its grip.

“Beast!” Elias reached out, breathlight flaring in panic.

The devourer turned toward the light.

Beast saw it.

His flame surged in a desperate burst. “Run!”

The Spiral yanked him under.

The devourer stepped toward Elias.

And the forest held its breath.