The flame generated powerful waves of hot wind, forcing the group to stand up once more. The air burned on contact, as if thousands of invisible embers brushed against their skin, drying their sweat in seconds and leaving a rough sensation in their throats.
That mysterious wind shifted direction the next moment, drawing the ash toward the flame. The dust, which had once floated aimlessly, began to spin in increasingly defined spirals, forming a dense vortex that crackled softly as it compressed. The sound was low, but constant, as if something were being crushed at its center.
The dust gathered in the middle, reforming the spectral figure of the princess.
