The fog around Lyra had finally cleared, but the signs of destruction were impossible to ignore. The forest that once stretched for miles had been reduced to a barren wasteland. Burnt earth, shattered trunks, and scattered debris covered the ground.
In Lyra's hands, the tiny firefly sprite was still trembling weakly, its faint golden glow flickering like a dying candle.
Lyra slowly lifted her gaze toward the massive dragon standing before her. For a moment she simply looked at the ancient creature, then lowered her head with the dignity of a princess.
"Great Dragon," she said, her voice soft yet firm. "My brother is in terrible danger, and I want to save him. Will you help me?"
There was a plea in her voice—but also determination.
The dragon did not answer immediately. Its ancient eyes stared at Lyra as if they were reading the pages of her soul.
After a moment, a deep and solemn voice echoed through the empty field.
"Where your brother is… is not a place for a child like you. Even if you go there, you will not be able to do anything."
"I know," Lyra replied instantly. "But you are powerful. You can help me."
The dragon's expression did not change.
"You are not yet strong enough to use my power," the dragon said coldly.
Lyra frowned in frustration.
"Then use your power yourself!" she shot back quickly. "Why do you even need me?"
"Because I am now bound to you," the dragon replied calmly.
"My power depends on your capacity. I cannot freely use my full strength on my own."
Lyra's face flushed red with anger.
"Then why did you bind yourself to me in the first place?" she demanded.
"If I'm really that weak, why did you choose me?"
Her voice trembled—part anger, part helplessness.
"If my weakness stops you from fighting…" she continued, clenching her fists, "then let's break this connection right now! That way you'll be free to fight."
The dragon's voice grew deeper.
"A sprite cannot use its full power without a user. And as for choosing you… even if you are weak right now, you will become a great person in the future. I saw that spark within you."
"Great?" Lyra shouted.
"When I can't even save the brother who loves me so much, I have no right to become great! If you won't help me, I'll lose him!"
The dragon listened to her quietly before speaking again.
"Humans believe they can overcome anything with their emotions. How absurd. I do not wish to go there and die with you. Your weakness would only make me weaker as well."
"Then break the bond!" Lyra insisted stubbornly.
"The connection can only be broken after one of us dies."
"Fine!" Lyra snapped.
"Then I don't need anyone's help. I'll save my brother on my own!"
She turned away and began walking forward with the firefly sprite in her hands.
But suddenly, the dragon used its magic to raise an invisible barrier.
Lyra walked straight into it and stopped.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" she shouted.
"You have no right to stop me! I won't run away from my responsibility. I have to save the people I care about. Even if I can't do much… I can still stand by my brother's side!"
Her voice trembled.
"Everyone else has already abandoned him… If I abandon him too, then who does he have left?"
By the time she finished speaking, tears were already streaming down her face.
"You're still a child who doesn't understand how the world works," the dragon said calmly.
"You're about to run toward death, carried away by nothing but your emotions. If you die, I will die as well, because I am bound to you. Other than your brother, nothing else matters to you… does it?"
Lyra suddenly stopped.
"W-wait… would you die too? But you said the connection would break."
"It breaks for humans," the dragon replied quietly. "But when a user dies, the sprite's existence ends as well. That is why I cannot let you go."
The dragon's ancient eyes narrowed slightly.
"Tell me something, child. If your brother wasn't there… would you still walk toward that danger?"
Lyra fell silent.
She thought honestly about it. The only reason she wanted to go there was because of her brother.
The dragon seemed to read her thoughts instantly.
"I knew it," it said.
"Humans are selfish creatures."
Silence spread across the barren field.
Then suddenly—
A massive explosion echoed from the distant forest.
The ground trembled violently beneath them.
Lyra's heart started pounding faster, but she forced herself to calm down. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her head and looked straight into the dragon's eyes.
"Yes," she said firmly.
"I would still go."
"I would fight for everyone who deserves to live… no matter who they are."
The dragon was stunned for a moment.
It looked into Lyra's mind—and found no lies there. Only an unbreakable resolve.
A faint smile appeared on the dragon's face.
"Hm… it seems I did not make a mistake by choosing you."
"What do you mean?" Lyra asked in confusion.
"I will explain that later," the dragon replied calmly. "Right now, we should go and save your brother."
Lyra, who had been serious until now, suddenly lit up with joy. Without wasting a second, she started running forward.
But the dragon stopped her.
"Where do you think you're going, child?"
"To save my brother!"
The dragon tilted its head slightly.
"But do you even know where your brother is?"
Lyra suddenly froze.
In her excitement, she had completely forgotten that she had lost her way. She quickly pointed toward the direction where the explosion had come from.
"There! Maybe my brother is there… Elder and Maisie should also be there. They were looking for him too."
The dragon nodded slowly.
"Hm. You might be right. But a battle is happening there… and the one we are going to face in order to save your brother is very powerful."
The dragon's voice grew serious.
"So we will move quietly, through the ground and the forest. We must not attract anyone's attention. We will stay away from the fight."
"Understood?"
Lyra looked at the dragon with confusion and curiosity.
"Who are we going to fight? I thought we were just going to save my brother."
The dragon sighed.
"This truly is a child who knows nothing and rushed here driven only by emotion."
The dragon walked closer to her and lowered its body slightly.
"Climb onto my back," it said.
"We will travel through the forest quietly. I know where he is."
Lyra quickly climbed onto the dragon's back.
Without wasting a second, the dragon surged forward at full speed. Together, they rushed toward the direction of the devastating explosion… and toward Lucian.
The tiny firefly sprite was still sitting in Lyra's arms, flickering weakly as it continued to glow.
---
Meanwhile—
Finn was running like a madman through the dark and twisted forest.
The forest was no longer the same as before. The air itself felt poisonous, filled with thick dark energy instead of wind. It felt as if the entire forest was trying to suffocate him.
The dry, blackened branches of the trees lashed at him like whips.
Finn slashed them apart with his lightning blade as he pushed forward.
Sharp thorns and bushes scraped across his face, leaving thin lines of blood across his skin. Drops of blood stained his uniform, but he didn't care.
His mind was focused on only one thing.
The faint signals being sent by the firefly sprite.
Those signals were guiding him through the forest.
"She's still alive…" Finn muttered to himself between heavy breaths.
"If the sprite is still alive and moving, then Lyra must still be safe. I have to reach them."
He clenched his teeth and forced his tired body forward.
"If anything happens to those two siblings… Ravencrest will become our enemy."
Finn kept moving in the direction where he had seen the massive explosion earlier—the same explosion whose shockwave had shaken the windows of the guest house.
But what worried him the most was something else.
At first, the firefly sprite's location had remained still in one place.
But now—
It was moving.
And it was moving very fast.
Thousands of dark thoughts were racing through Finn's mind.
Was someone dragging her away?
Was that explosion a sign that Lyra had already been destroyed?
The more he tried to think logically, the more terrifying possibilities surrounded him.
So far, he hadn't encountered anyone.
Not Elder Vyom.
Not Miss Maisie.
And not even Lucian.
Then finally—
He reached the place from where the firefly sprite's presence was sending the strongest signals.
But the moment he arrived, he felt an energy that made his soul tremble.
It was an ancient and terrifying power.
Finn's steps stopped abruptly.
The sight in front of him almost made the sword slip from his hand.
A huge portion of the forest had completely vanished.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but an empty, barren field—like some monstrous being had swallowed that entire piece of land.
The silence was so deep that Finn could hear his own heartbeat.
His eyes widened, his face frozen between fear and disbelief.
"What… what happened here?" he whispered.
"Is Lyra still alive?"
His voice trembled.
"No… that can't be. She has to be alive!"
Finn stood in the middle of the deserted field, the eerie silence pressing against him.
He picked up his sword and gripped it tightly, scanning the surroundings once again.
But there was nothing.
No trees.
No sounds.
Nothing.
"This doesn't make sense…" he muttered, suddenly realizing something.
"The deeper I move into the forest, the fewer corrupted sprites there are."
He frowned.
"There should be a swarm of them here."
"The guest house, which is far away from the center of this disaster, is being attacked by hundreds of spirits…"
He looked around the empty wasteland again.
"And yet here… where all of this began…"
"There isn't even a single one."
Finn's mind was spinning.
He already had too many questions, and now even more confusion was piling up in his head.
"Did Elder Vyom destroy the source that was controlling all of this?" he muttered.
"Or… was that massive explosion responsible for everything? Did that single blast wipe out thousands of corrupted spirits in an instant?"
Overwhelmed, Finn dropped to his knees and grabbed a handful of ash from the ground, clenching it tightly in his fist.
"Someone explain this to me already!" he shouted in frustration.
But his voice disappeared into the empty wasteland.
What hurt him the most was that no one was contacting him.
Not Elder Vyom.
Not Miss Maisie.
It felt as if he had been deliberately left in the dark.
"Do they think I'm that weak?" Finn said bitterly. "That I can't even help them?"
His voice trembled with both anger and pain.
"I'm risking my life running out here, and I don't even know who my enemy is! Am I just a child to them… someone they left behind to guard the guest house?"
For a moment, he wanted to cry.
But he forced the tears back.
He didn't know whether he should continue following the firefly sprite's signals or turn back.
Then suddenly—
At the far edge of the barren field, he noticed a faint rainbow-colored glow.
It looked exactly like the strange light he had seen during the explosion earlier.
Finn clenched his teeth and slowly stood up.
"Whether I'm weak or not… time will decide that."
"But I'm not leaving here without answers."
He wiped the blood and tears from his face with his sleeve.
His courage was fading, but his fear was pushing him forward.
Taking a deep breath, Finn started running at full speed toward the direction of the faint rainbow light and the signals coming from the firefly sprite.
They weren't far now.
---
Lyra clung tightly to the dragon's rough back with her small fingers. The air was filled with the sharp scent of ozone mixed with the stench of burnt ash. The dragon was flying at full speed, staying close to the ground, when suddenly it concealed all of its energy.
As they moved lower, the pressure of the dark energy began to feel like a heavy stone pressing against Lyra's chest. The air entering her lungs felt thick and suffocating—more like black smoke than oxygen.
If it hadn't been for the rainbow-colored protective aura surrounding the dragon's body, she would have already fainted.
Suddenly, the dragon slowed down.
With great precision, it flapped its massive wings and landed on the ground. The gust from its wings sent clouds of ash swirling into the air around them.
The sight here was terrifying.
The surrounding trees and plants were no longer alive. They had turned into black skeletal remains, standing like twisted shadows that seemed to swallow the light itself.
The dragon's enormous glowing eyes shifted toward a deep pit nearby.
Beside it stood the ancient tree, its roots now draining life energy from the ground itself.
The dragon folded its wings and stood on the rocky ground near the edge of the pit.
It studied the ground carefully.
There must be another way in, it thought.
The dragon remembered that the entrance to the underground chamber used to lie beneath the ancient tree.
But approaching from the front now would immediately draw the attention of the evil spirit.
Then suddenly—
A bolt of lightning tore across the black sky.
CRACK—!
The flash was so bright that for a single moment the entire sky was filled with blinding light.
In that brief flash, Lyra's eyes widened in shock.
She saw a figure falling rapidly from the sky.
It was Elder Vyom.
The divine energy surrounding his body flickered weakly, like the last flame of a dying candle.
"…Look! That's Elder Vyom!" Lyra's voice echoed through the silent forest.
"We have to help him! He's falling… He must be fighting that monster who caused all this destruction! My brother must be there too. Come on, hurry!"
"No, child."
The dragon's voice dropped heavily into her mind like a stone.
"The one Elder is fighting is only a shadow… an empty puppet."
"If we go there now, we will only get in Elder's way and waste precious time."
Lyra's face turned pale.
A terrifying thought struck her.
The power that was pushing a wizard like Elder Vyom to the brink… was only a shadow?
Then how terrifying must the real enemy be?
A wave of fear rose inside her chest, but she clenched her trembling lips and forced herself to stay calm. She did not let that fear show on her face.
"So… what should we do now?" she asked quietly.
---
The air across the battlefield had grown so heavy that ordinary spells were suffocating before they could even take form.
Elder Vyom staggered as he forced himself back onto his feet. The usual blue magical energy flowing from his body began to fade and darken, swallowed by the overwhelming dark aura surrounding the area.
He had already realized something.
His traditional magic would not work here.
Then suddenly—
The black shadow floating above shifted its shape.
Dozens of sharp Dark Energy Spikes erupted from its body, launching toward Elder Vyom like a pack of starving predators.
Vyom shouted and raised both hands into the air.
A dome of golden-white light appeared around him.
In the next instant—
The dark spikes crashed into the barrier.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The impact sounded like iron rain falling from the sky.
The barrier held, but every collision forced a painful groan from Elder Vyom.
Finally—
A massive explosion shook the entire ground.
The area was swallowed by thick black smoke and debris. Nothing could be seen anymore.
Only two sounds echoed through the darkness—
Elder Vyom's heavy breathing…
…and the low, demonic laughter of the shadow.
---
The dragon sensed the fear and determination inside Lyra.
When it spoke again, its voice was softer—but far more serious.
"Child, from the place where you stand… returning alive is almost impossible."
"Unless we defeat it."
A pause followed.
"You must awaken the powers within you—powers you do not yet understand."
"Otherwise…"
The dragon's voice grew colder.
"Today, all of us will die here."
A strange light appeared in Lyra's eyes—an incomplete but unshakable determination.
"I understand now," she said firmly. "I'll give it everything I have. Tell me… what do we need to do?"
The dragon quickly explained the situation.
"The real Evil Spirit is still sealed below," it said. "It has been imprisoned inside an ancient seal for thousands of years. A Ravencrest ancestor buried it here long ago."
The dragon's voice grew colder.
"It seems the spirit is using your brother's energy to break free. By channeling the power of hell, it is controlling that dark shadow above us."
It continued,
"We must separate Lucian from it. Only then will that shadow disappear… and Elder will finally be able to help us."
The dragon paused briefly before speaking again.
"I can sense an enormous amount of dark energy coming from the other side of that pit. We will enter from there and try to rescue your brother."
Lyra froze.
"But… my brother doesn't have any energy!" she said in confusion before panic filled her voice.
"Then what is it taking from him? What… what if my brother dies?"