The forest was eerily quiet after the attackers vanished, as if the land itself was holding its breath. Lwandle knelt beside Nkosana, inspecting the deep gash on his shoulder. It pulsed faintly with violet light—like the mark had bled into the wound.
"You're burning up," she whispered. "What are you becoming?"
"I wish I knew," he muttered, struggling to stand.
Suddenly, the sky above shimmered, like a curtain rippling in the wind. A crack formed in the air—thin and glowing like a wound in reality. Then it tore wider, revealing a world beyond. Dark skies. Floating stone towers. Inverted mountains. Screaming winds.
Nkosana stumbled backward. "What… is that?"
"The Veil," Lwandle whispered, her voice shaking. "A gateway between our world and the realm of cursed spirits. No one's seen it in centuries."
From within, a figure emerged—floating just above the earth. Clad in armor made of bone and black iron, eyes like twin coals. A hunter.
"You've opened the Veil, child of ruin," the figure said. "Now you must pay the price."
Lwandle raised her staff. "He didn't open anything!"
"But he carries the Demon Seed. The Veil responds to him."
The hunter unsheathed a jagged blade. "I am Enkai, Keeper of Balance. And his soul is a threat." Nkosana's mark flared. His own shadow rose behind him like a beast.
"If you want my soul," he growled, "you'll have to tear it from me."
Their fight hadn't ended. It had just begun.
—