The forest had fallen silent.
Eldric and Sarah had retreated deeper into the trees, following Azrion's instructions. Neither of them wanted to leave him behind, but the Ravager had already proven that it could learn from every mistake they made. Staying together would only give it more opportunities to study them.
Azrion remained alone in the clearing.
The Ravager stood several metres away.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then the beast charged.
Azrion barely raised his weapon before the Ravager struck him and sent him across the clearing. He rolled through the dirt, forcing himself back onto his feet before the creature could reach him again. His breathing was becoming heavier, and the Aether circulating through his body was beginning to thin.
He knew he couldn't keep this up.
The Ravager attacked again.
Azrion dodged, countered, and immediately found himself being forced backward. The creature had become noticeably different from the beginning of their battle. Its movements were still primitive compared with those of an intelligent awakened, but it was no longer blindly repeating its attacks. It remembered how Azrion moved. It recognized his preferred distance. It knew when he liked to counter.
Every exchange made the Ravager slightly better.
And every exchange made Azrion slightly worse.
Another attack caught him off guard.
He fell hard and remained on the ground for several seconds.
His vision blurred.
His body refused to respond as quickly as he wanted.
The sensible decision would have been to retreat.
Yet Azrion slowly pushed himself upright.
The Ravager watched him.
Azrion laughed quietly.
"You really don't know when to stop, do you?"
The beast growled.
Azrion wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Neither do I."
The voice appeared again.
You should run.
Azrion froze.
The voice was different this time.
It wasn't mocking him.
It sounded almost concerned.
"You want me to run?"
I want you to survive.
Azrion stared at the Ravager.
"Then help me."
Silence.
He clenched his weapon.
"I've spent my entire life being told what I am."
"A prince."
"An heir."
"A symbol."
"A future king."
His breathing became steadier.
"But none of them ever asked me what I wanted to be."
The Ravager charged.
Azrion moved toward it instead of away.
Their attacks met.
For the first time, Azrion stopped trying to overpower the creature. He watched it. He studied its movements in the same way it had studied his.
It shifted its weight before attacking.
Its left side was slightly slower after changing direction.
It always committed its entire body when attempting to overwhelm him.
Azrion began exploiting those weaknesses.
He wasn't stronger.
He wasn't faster.
But he was adapting.
The battle continued.
Seconds became minutes.
The Ravager became increasingly aggressive.
Azrion's Aether reserves continued dropping.
His arms grew heavier.
His breathing became ragged.
Yet every time the creature knocked him down, he stood again.
The voice remained silent.
Perhaps it was waiting.
Perhaps it was watching.
Perhaps it was him.
Azrion could no longer tell.
The Ravager charged one final time.
Azrion raised his weapon.
The creature struck.
He blocked.
The force drove him backward.
His remaining Aether surged through his body.
Not enough.
He needed more.
He tried to draw upon his Personal Aether again.
Nothing.
His core was nearly empty.
Azrion's eyes widened.
This is it.
The thought appeared naturally.
Then another thought followed.
No.
His heart began beating faster.
Something deep within his Aether core shifted.
Azrion couldn't explain it.
He had never properly understood how Aether truly worked. He knew that Personal Aether was refined energy belonging to the individual, but he had never understood how to manipulate it beyond the techniques he had been taught.
Yet now...
Something was responding to him.
The voice whispered:
"Then stop trying to understand it."
Azrion's eyes widened.
"Feel it."
His Aether core suddenly responded.
Energy erupted through his body.
The Ravager stopped.
Azrion looked at his hands.
A strange pressure surrounded him.
He could feel his Personal Aether differently now.
Not as a resource.
Not as something he simply spent.
It felt like an extension of himself.
His identity.
His will.
His existence.
Azrion whispered, "So this is..."
His eyes widened.
"...my attribute."
The Ravager charged.
Azrion raised his head.
For the first time since the battle began...
The Ravager hesitated.
Azrion moved.
He didn't know exactly what his attribute was doing.
He didn't understand its limits.
He didn't even understand why it had awakened now.
He simply followed instinct.
Almost all of his remaining Aether surged into a single attack.
The surrounding air seemed to distort around him as Azrion released everything he had.
The Ravager attempted to counter.
Azrion pushed forward ...his blade on the floor as he clenched his fist .
"This is..."
His voice trembled from exhaustion.
"...who I am."
For one brief moment, everything became silent as he punched the ravager beast with enough force to blow multiple trees away .
Then—
A tremendous burst of black and red energy erupted across the forest and up in the sky turning it black and red .
The force raced outward through Verdanthos.
Trees bent beneath the pressure.
The ground trembled.
The distant mountains seemed to answer the impact.
Eldric and Sarah stopped in their tracks.
Sarah turned toward the enormous surge of energy.
"Azrion..."
Eldric stared toward the distant clearing.
Neither of them spoke.
They had felt it.
Something had awakened.
Something powerful enough to announce itself across Verdanthos.
Far away...
Arthur suddenly stopped.
He had been travelling with Sunny, Lola, and Vaelis when the sensation reached them.
Arthur's head snapped toward the horizon.
Sunny noticed immediately.
"What happened?"
Arthur remained silent.
He could feel it.
Aether had surged through the entire region.
Not ordinary Aether.
Something different.
Something he had never sensed from Azrion before.
Lola looked at him.
"Arthur?"
He slowly lowered his hand.
"Someone just awakened an attribute."
Vaelis looked toward the distant horizon.
"That wasn't an ordinary awakening."
Arthur's expression became serious.
"No."
He stared into the distance.
"Whoever did that..."
His eyes narrowed.
"...just changed the tournament."
And somewhere in the forest, beneath the fading echoes of the explosion, Azrion lay motionless.
The Ravager was gone.
His weapon rested beside him as he sat down .
His Aether core was almost completely drained.
And for the first time in his life...
Azrion had awakened something that belonged entirely to himself.
But he still didn't know what it was.
Nor did he know what had awakened alongside it.
The forest slowly returned to silence.
Azrion stood for only a few seconds after the battle ended. His weapon slipped from his hand, and his knees finally gave way. He fell unconscious before he could even feel himself hit the ground.
Farther away, Eldric and Sarah heard the fading remnants of the enormous blast.
They immediately turned around.
Neither spoke as they ran back toward the clearing.
When they finally arrived, they found Azrion lying on the ground.
Sarah stopped.
"Azrion..."
Eldric immediately knelt beside him and checked his condition. His expression became increasingly serious as he examined the injuries left by the Ravager. Azrion had pushed himself far beyond what his body should have been able to endure.
Yet there was something strange.
His wounds were slowly beginning to heal.
Not quickly.
Not enough to make them feel safe.
But they were healing.
Eldric placed two fingers against Azrion's neck.
"He's alive."
Sarah let out a shaky breath.
"But will he survive?"
Eldric looked at Azrion.
"I don't know."
That answer frightened her more than anything else.
Eldric carefully lifted Azrion onto his back.
"We keep moving."
Sarah nodded.
She looked down and noticed Azrion's black sword lying nearby.
She picked it up.
It felt heavier than she expected.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
She held it close as they continued through the forest.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
Eventually, they reached the place where Grace had fallen.
Sarah stopped walking.
Her eyes immediately filled with tears.
Grace was still there.
The reality of it hit her all over again.
Sarah slowly approached and knelt beside her.
She placed Azrion's sword carefully on the ground.
Then she sat beside Grace.
"I'm sorry."
Her voice trembled.
"You shouldn't have followed it."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"We told you not to."
She lowered her head.
"You should've listened."
Her hands began shaking.
"Why didn't you?"
Sarah wiped her eyes, but more tears followed.
"Was it because you thought you could handle it?"
She stared at Grace.
"Or..."
Her voice broke.
"...did you just give up?"
Eldric stood several metres away with Azrion unconscious on his back.
He didn't interrupt her.
Sarah's grief had finally found somewhere to go.
"Did you know?"
She whispered.
"Did you know it was a trap?"
Her fingers tightened around the fabric of her clothes.
"Did you realize you weren't coming back?"
She looked down.
"Why would you do that?"
Silence answered her.
Sarah closed her eyes.
"Was there something you were running from?"
Her voice became barely audible.
"Or did you simply decide that dying was easier than fighting?"
She pressed her hand against her face.
"I don't want to believe that."
Eldric looked away.
Grace's death had been unnecessary.
She hadn't needed to die.
She hadn't needed to follow the water.
They had warned her.
Yet the Ravager had learned exactly how to exploit her instincts.
And that was what made the loss hurt even more.
Sarah eventually stood.
She picked up Azrion's sword again.
"We're not leaving her here like she meant nothing."
Eldric nodded.
"We'll remember where she fell."
Sarah looked toward the distant horizon.
Her tears continued falling.
"She wanted to survive."
She looked down at the sword in her hands.
"So did Azrion."
Eldric adjusted Azrion's weight on his back.
"Then we make sure he does."
Sarah nodded.
The two of them began walking again.
One carried the unconscious heir.
The other carried his sword.
Behind them remained the place where Grace's journey had ended.
Ahead of them waited the rest of Verdanthos.
And neither of them knew whether Azrion would open his eyes again.
The forest had gone strangely quiet.
Arthur's group had been moving carefully through Verdanthos when Vaelis suddenly stopped.
"Wait."
Sunny turned toward him. "What?"
Vaelis didn't answer.
He was staring at the sky.
Arthur followed his gaze.
The clouds above them had changed.
Black and red energy spread across the sky like enormous waves, staining the atmosphere with unfamiliar light. The colors stretched far beyond the horizon, creating the impression that the entire region had been swallowed by something far greater than an ordinary Aether surge.
Lola stared upward, her expression frozen.
"Is that supposed to happen?"
One of the bots remained silent.
Sunny slowly raised his hand, allowing a small amount of Aether to circulate through his body.
"I can feel it."
Vaelis's expression became serious.
"So can I."
Arthur said nothing.
He was staring directly at the phenomenon.
He could feel the energy.
It wasn't simply powerful.
There was something distinct about it.
An attribute had awakened.
Arthur's eyes narrowed.
"Someone just crossed a threshold."
Sunny looked at him. "You mean they awakened their attribute?"
"Yes."
"How strong?"
Arthur didn't answer immediately.
The black and red light continued spreading across the sky.
Finally, he spoke.
"Strong enough that we felt it from here."
Lola's expression changed.
"From this far away?"
Vaelis looked toward the horizon.
"Verdanthos is enormous. If the energy reached us, whoever caused it isn't an ordinary awakened."
Arthur nodded.
"And that's the problem."
He looked at Sunny, then Lola, then Vaelis.
"We've been thinking about the two thousand people who will survive this stage."
"But we forgot something."
Sunny frowned.
"What?"
Arthur's eyes remained fixed on the sky.
"There are thousands of people here."
"Some of them have probably spent years preparing for this."
"Some may have attributes we've never seen."
"And some..."
He paused.
"...may already be far stronger than anything we've encountered."
Sunny's expression became more serious.
"So you're saying that person could be one of our opponents."
"Eventually."
Arthur lowered his gaze.
"We don't know who they are."
"We don't know where they are."
"And we don't know whether they'll reach the statue before us."
Vaelis folded his arms.
"Then we should assume they will."
Arthur nodded.
"Exactly."
The sky slowly began returning to normal.
The black and red energy faded into the clouds until only ordinary sunlight remained.
But the atmosphere within the group had changed.
They had entered the tournament believing that surviving meant avoiding unnecessary battles.
Now they understood something else.
Survival didn't simply depend on avoiding danger.
Sometimes...
Danger would come looking for them.
Lola quietly looked at Arthur.
"Are you scared?"
Arthur remained silent for a moment.
Then he gave a faint smile.
"No."
He looked toward the northern horizon.
"But I'm taking them seriously."
Sunny nodded.
"Then we should do the same."
Arthur turned away from the fading phenomenon.
"From now on..."
His voice became colder.
"...we assume every awakened we encounter could be stronger than us."
Vaelis smiled faintly.
"Now that's a strategy I can agree with."
The four continued walking.
None of them knew the name of the person responsible.
None of them knew what had awakened within that distant warrior.
And none of them knew that, somewhere across Verdanthos...
Azrion Velcrest was unconscious, his newly awakened attribute still waiting to reveal what it truly was.