Dawn came wrong.
The forest didn't wake.
No birds, no wind., no insects.
Even the light felt thin.
Ren stood near the edge of the plateau. Fang's molten eyes scanned the tree line. Vale drifted overhead like a pale shadow.
"Something's off," Ren murmured.
Tarin didn't answer immediately. He was watching the ground.
Mira's fingers tightened slightly. "You feel it now."
A faint tremor rolled beneath Ren's feet.
Like something turning over in its sleep.
Three shapes slipped from between the trees.
They looked like wolves at first glance.
Until their bodies flickered at the edges.
Smoke and bone.
Half here.
Half elsewhere.
Ren stiffened. "I didn't call them."
"We know," Tarin said.
The first creature lunged.
"Fang!"
Flame erupted forward.
This time Ren didn't let it explode wildly. He shaped the surge tighter, letting Vale sweep wind along its edge. Fire curved instead of scattering.
The beast shrieked as flame tore through its unstable body.
A second one came from the side.
Ren felt it before he saw it — a tug in the air behind him.
He spun.
Vale dropped hard, slicing air across the creature's chest. It staggered long enough for Mira's water to lash across it like a blade.
Ash scattered.
The third one hesitated.
Watching.
Ren felt something strange.
It wasn't attacking blindly.
It was reacting to him.
Then the tremor came again.
Stronger.
The third creature didn't retreat.
It froze.
Its head turned—not toward Ren.
Behind him.
The air split.
Not wide.
Not dramatic.
Just a thin jagged line glowing faint violet.
Ren's breath caught.
A claw pressed through.
Massive.
Dark.
Ancient.
Not like the echo-beasts.
This thing had weight.
Fang stepped back.
For the first time since Ren met him.
"That… does not belong here," Fang said in his mind.
The claw gripped the edge of the tear.
Pulled.
The gap widened.
Something massive shifted behind it.
A shape.
Far larger than Fang.
And looking directly at Ren.
The tear widened another inch.
Then—
It snapped shut.
Silence crashed down.
Ren staggered backward.
The forest exhaled.
Nothing remained.
No beast.
No crack.
No sign.
But the ground beneath Ren's feet was scorched in a circle.
And his chest still burned where the pull had reached through him.
Mira whispered, "That wasn't an echo."
Ren didn't answer.
Because deep inside—
Something had answered back.