The silence after the trial was not peaceful.
It was heavy.
Like the world had stopped holding its breath.
Sayos sat on a stone, his hands still crackling faintly with electric aftershock. His blonde hair was damp with sweat. Rika leaned against a broken pillar, arms crossed, red crystal pulsing in slow rhythm. Honkai was pacing, eyes darting to the horizon. And Mizu—he stood at the edge of the broken altar, watching the lake return to stillness.
No one spoke for a while.
They had all changed. Not just stronger—but heavier. As if something deep inside had been broken... and reforged.
Then Sayos broke the silence.
"Well… that sucked."
Rika snorted. "You nearly got turned into lightning dust."
Sayos grinned. "True. But I got style points."
Honkai raised an eyebrow. "You screamed halfway through."
"I was emoting!"
Mizu turned, finally smiling. Just a little.
It was the first real smile the group had seen from him since the journey began.
"Hey," Rika said, looking at him sideways. "You okay?"
"I think," Mizu replied, "I understand now. The flame inside me… it's not just power. It's memory. Pain. Purpose."
Sayos grinned. "That's deep, bro. Write a poem."
But before Mizu could answer—
A sound split the air.
Like thunder—but deeper. Older.
The ground beneath them rumbled, cracks spreading across the stone altar. The lake behind them began to churn, slowly at first—then violently.
"Uh…" Honkai muttered. "We didn't break something, did we?"
Then—
It emerged.
From the lake rose a massive shape. Not a beast. Not quite.
It had no face. Only shifting mass—shadows forming claws, wings, mouths. A formless entity, ancient and wrong.
Lucy snarled. Her fur bristled. Rika's crystal flared to life instantly.
"That's not from this world," she whispered.
Sayos backed away slowly. "What the hell is that?"
But Mizu didn't move. His eyes locked onto the thing.
"…It's watching us."
They all turned to him.
"What do you mean?" Rika asked.
"I've seen it before. In dreams. In the fire. It's not alive the way we are. It's… searching. Studying us."
The creature didn't attack. It hovered above the lake, massive and unreal, its form shifting every second.
Then a whisper—not spoken aloud, but inside each of their minds:
"You are not ready."
A blast of dark energy erupted from the lake, knocking the group back. The water surged around them like a wave of living ink. But before it could swallow them—
Light.
A beam of white flame shot from the trees—cutting through the darkness.
The shadow shrieked. Just once.
And vanished.
Gone, like mist in the sun.
Everyone gasped, coughing, trying to recover.
"What was that?" Sayos asked, wiping blood from his lip.
Rika looked toward the trees.
A figure stood there.
Not Mizu.
Not Tensaki.
A young man. Cloaked. Hooded. Watching.
When their eyes met—
He turned.
And vanished.
"Did anyone else—" Honkai began.
"Yeah," Mizu said.
"That guy… helped us?"
"Or he wanted us alive," Rika added. "That's not always the same thing."
They stood in silence again. The lake had returned to stillness. But the memory of what just happened burned deeper than any wound.
"We should move," Honkai said. "That thing might return."
"No," Mizu said. "It won't. Not yet."
Sayos raised a brow. "You sure?"
Mizu nodded. "It said we're not ready. Which means… we will be."
Rika grinned. "Look at you. Talking like a protagonist."
Sayos smirked. "Next thing you know, he'll be giving speeches."
Honkai rolled his eyes. "Let's move, heroes."
The group laughed.
It was short. But real.
They began to walk, deeper into the forest, toward the next step in their journey.
But as they disappeared into the trees—
Someone else watched.
High above, perched on a cliff like a statue, stood a figure cloaked in living shadows. Not the boy from the forest.
Someone far worse.
A voice hissed behind him.
"Shall we strike now?"
"No," the figure said calmly.
His eyes glowed violet.
"Let them believe they have time. Let them think they matter."
He turned, his cloak swirling like smoke.
"The god of elements has awakened."
"But he does not yet know…"
"What he was meant to destroy."
To be continued.