When fire meets fate and silence breaks,
The ancient soul within awakes.
But light alone cannot defend-
The darkest path now must begin...
On a normal day, it would've been a difficult thing to choose between living the house and family behind to venture into the outside world but today isn't a normal day, today was just the beginning of the great end that's to come sooner than later. Jake didn't look back as they stepped out into the storm-drenched world beyond the estate gates. The cold wind bit at his skin, but it was the heat from the pendant that grounded him-anchored him.
Elira led the way with swift, confident strides, her cloak flapping behind her like a banner. "We don't have much time," she said without turning. "Kael's shades will regroup, and once they do, they won't be so easily burned."
Jake glanced back once, just once, at the towering mansion where he'd spent all seventeen years of his life. The lights still flickered inside like dying stars.
"Will I ever come back?" he asked.
Elira slowed, then spoke with quiet certainty. "If we fail... there will be no world left to come back to."
As they vanished into the fog-covered hills, thunder cracked across the sky, not from the weather-but from something waking beneath it.
The hunt had begun.
So he ran and ran and ran as never before, he began even sweating in the cold weather, he looked ahead and noticed that Elira was holding up pretty good, she didn't even break a sweat and yet he knew he couldn't continue at this pace for long, His breath came in sharp gasps, each one colder than the last. Jake's legs burned, his lungs screamed, but Elira didn't slow. Her figure was a shadow gliding through the mist ahead-steady, relentless.
"Elira-wait!" he called out, nearly stumbling on a root hidden in the underbrush.
She stopped finally, turning around with a calm expression that contrasted Jake's exhausted state.
"You're not used to channeling the pendant's energy yet," she said. "It's draining your body. You're fighting it, not flowing with it."
Jake leaned on a tree, wiping the sweat from his brow. "So... what am I supposed to do? Just let it take over?"
Elira approached him and gently placed a hand over the pendant. "No," she said. "You don't let it take over. You listen to it. Let it show you what it needs."
The moment her hand made contact, the pendant pulsed again-slower this time, softer. Jake's breath began to ease. The pain in his legs dulled, and a warmth spread through his limbs.
He blinked. "Whoa... I feel..."
"Balanced," Elira finished. "Now, come on. We're close."
"Close to what?"
"To the first seal," she said, eyes narrowing toward the dark forest ahead. "And your first real test."
Did she say "first real test"? He kept pondering on those words while he ran, although the pendant's energy was helping this time around but he can still feel a little bit of fatigue building up around him. At last, under the moonlight he could finally see something that looks like a building, and Elira was finally slowing down intentionally waiting for him to catch up with her
Jake staggered up beside her, panting, eyes fixed on the eerie silhouette before them.
The building stood half-swallowed by vines and time-stone arches weathered by centuries, its roof cracked and leaning as if under the weight of ancient secrets. Moonlight glinted off faded carvings above the arched doorway, symbols he didn't recognize but somehow felt... familiar.
Elira's gaze didn't leave the structure. "This is the Sanctum of Whispers. It was once a place of communion for guardians. Before the Fall."
Jake caught his breath, heart still thudding. "And this 'first test'... it's inside?"
She nodded slowly. "Not just inside. Beneath."
The wind shifted, and the pendant around Jake's neck grew heavier, almost like it sensed the pressure of what waited ahead. He swallowed hard.
"So... what exactly is the test?"
Elira finally looked at him, and this time, there was no calm in her eyes-only the truth.
"You'll face your own fear, Jake. The one you've hidden from yourself."
Jake stiffened, the air around them suddenly colder.
Before he could speak again, the stone doors of the Sanctum creaked open on their own with a groaning sigh-inviting, or perhaps daring, them to enter.
Jake stepped forward.