Seris moved first.
Her body dropped low.
Her fingers dug into the earth.
Her serpentine eyes locked onto Traveler.
Then she vanished between the trees.
Traveler turned.
Too late.
Seris emerged from his blind side, claws aimed directly at his chest.
Traveler stepped backward.
The claws passed through empty air.
He caught her wrist.
Seris twisted.
Her body coiled around his arm with unnatural speed.
Her mouth opened.
Venom gathered between her fangs.
Traveler released her immediately.
The venom struck the ground.
The earth hissed.
Seris attacked again.
Traveler blocked.
She struck.
He moved.
She struck again.
He stepped aside.
The fight moved deeper through the ruined forest.
Seris no longer fought like a human.
She moved like a predator.
Every movement was instinct.
Every attack was meant to kill.
Traveler remained controlled, but he could feel the difference between them.
She wasn't thinking.
She was hunting.
Seris suddenly disappeared into the trees.
Traveler stopped.
Silence.
His eyes moved across the forest.
Nothing.
Then—
a branch snapped above him.
He looked up.
Seris dropped from the canopy.
Her mouth opened.
Venom poured toward him.
Traveler twisted aside.
The venom struck his shoulder.
Steam rose from the fabric.
Traveler looked down.
The material was already dissolving.
His expression hardened.
Seris landed behind him.
She turned immediately.
Her tail struck.
Traveler jumped.
The enormous serpent tail smashed into the tree behind him.
The trunk split.
Traveler landed several meters away.
Seris charged.
Then—
something changed.
A faint light appeared beneath Traveler's collarbone.
The Abyssal Mark.
It glowed once.
Only once.
The light was brief.
But the forest reacted.
Every creature hidden within the trees went silent.
Seris stopped.
The Devourer, watching from the darkness, suddenly lifted its head.
It had seen it.
The mark.
Its twelve tentacles slowly withdrew.
The Devourer could have intervened.
It could have killed Seris.
But it didn't.
It remained in the shadows.
Waiting.
Because the mark had spoken.
This was not its battle.
Traveler suddenly grabbed his right arm.
Pain shot through his body.
His expression tightened.
Something was moving beneath his skin.
His right arm darkened.
Not burned.
Not wounded.
Changed.
Blackness spread from his shoulder to his fingertips.
The shape of his arm began to distort.
His bones shifted.
His hand disappeared.
A dark structure pushed outward from his shoulder.
Traveler stepped backward.
The transformation continued.
A massive black wing unfolded from his right side.
It was unlike the wings of any creature in the forest.
Long.
Sharp.
Covered in jagged spikes.
Its surface looked almost like blackened bone, yet something beneath it moved like living darkness.
Traveler stared at it.
He had no idea what it was.
Seris did.
Her instincts screamed.
She backed away.
For the first time since returning—
she hesitated.
Traveler's eyes remained blue.
He had not lost control.
He wasn't Arafial.
He wasn't consciously using Nihilfire.
His body had simply responded.
Seris attacked anyway.
She launched herself forward.
Traveler raised the wing.
SHNK.
The edge passed across her body.
Seris screamed.
Her massive serpent tail separated from her body.
It struck the ground and writhed violently.
Dark blood spread across the soil.
Seris collapsed.
Traveler stood motionless.
The wing remained extended.
The severed tail continued moving.
Seris tried to crawl backward.
Her body trembled.
Traveler slowly approached.
Then the wing changed.
The spikes withdrew.
The black structure folded inward.
The enormous wing compressed.
Bones shifted.
Darkness crawled back toward the shoulder.
The wing disappeared.
Traveler's right arm returned.
Human.
Normal.
As if nothing had happened.
Traveler stared at his hand.
He opened and closed his fingers.
Nothing.
No pain.
No explanation.
He looked toward Seris.
She was still alive.
Her body trembled.
The serpent instincts had not disappeared.
She hissed weakly.
Traveler crouched beside her.
"You attacked me."
Seris raised her head.
Her eyes remained serpentine.
She tried to strike.
Traveler caught her before she could move.
Her strength was fading.
Traveler looked at the place where her tail had been.
The wound was already beginning to change.
Scales were forming.
Something was regenerating.
Traveler stepped back.
Then he noticed the Devourer.
Two enormous eyes stared at him from between the trees.
Traveler froze.
The creature did not attack.
It did not move.
It simply watched.
Traveler's gaze shifted toward the spot beneath his collarbone.
He couldn't see the mark through his clothes.
But he could feel something there.
A faint warmth.
The same sensation that had appeared before the wing emerged.
The Devourer lowered its head.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
Traveler stared into the darkness.
"Who are you?"
The creature remained silent.
Traveler took one step forward.
The Devourer finally spoke.
"Not yet."
Traveler's expression hardened.
"What does that mean?"
The creature didn't answer.
Its twelve tentacles slowly disappeared into the forest.
Traveler watched it leave.
Seris remained behind him.
The forest became silent again.
Traveler looked at his right arm.
There was no mark.
No scar.
Nothing.
But somewhere beneath his skin—
something had awakened.
And deep within the darkness of the forest, the Devourer already knew what it was.
It was not Arafial.
It was not Nihilfire.
It was something that belonged to the vessel.
Something Traveler had never used before.
Something that had been waiting for the Abyssal Mark to awaken.
And the Devourer had seen it once before.
Long ago.
When its Lord still walked among the gods.