The night sky above the Loom's fractured heart churned with unnatural clouds. Jagged arcs of crimson lightning rippled across the heavens, each strike sending tremors through the ground.
Kiel stood at the cliff's edge, wind whipping his cloak, eyes locked on the horizon. His hybrid core pulsed wildly, every Qi channel burning with energy that wasn't entirely his own.
"They're coming," Nyra said, stepping beside him, her voice tight. "The Forgotten don't just send one emissary. Lysara was a vanguard."
Kiel didn't answer right away. His wolf instincts had already picked up the scent of something—something vast, ancient, and hungry. The air smelled of dust and ozone, as though the world itself was bracing for a predator's strike.
---
The ground shuddered.
A fissure ripped open in the valley below, vomiting plumes of molten thread and corrupted Qi. From it rose a creature unlike anything Kiel had faced—a fusion of a centipede and a wyrm, its segmented body woven from burning strands of the Loom. Its many eyes glowed with the same unholy light as Lysara's.
Seris swore under his breath. "That's a Threadbeast. They're supposed to be myth."
"Not anymore," Kiel said grimly.
The beast roared, and the sound was so deep it vibrated in Kiel's bones. Then it lunged.
---
Kiel reacted instantly, hybrid system flaring to maximum. His Wolf-Shadow Reflex kicked in, letting him sidestep faster than the eye could follow. Dragonfire licked his claws as he slashed across the beast's armor-like hide. Sparks and molten thread burst from the wound.
The Threadbeast retaliated with a tidal wave of burning silk. Kiel's shadows formed a cocoon around him, but the heat still seared his skin. Nyra countered with a sigil that unraveled part of the silk mid-air, creating a narrow gap.
"Go!" she shouted.
---
Kiel didn't need telling twice. He charged, shifting mid-run into a semi-draconic form—scaled arms, elongated fangs, a tail whipping behind him for balance. His Qi poured into his Eclipse Fang Strike, the impact reverberating like a thunderclap as he smashed into the beast's jaw.
The blow staggered it, but the Threadbeast's massive tail whipped around and caught Kiel square in the chest, hurling him across the valley. He hit the ground hard, coughing blood.
Before he could rise, the beast lunged again.
---
A blur of silver and gold intercepted it—Lady Aeloria, threads of pure light spinning into a spear. She drove it into the creature's head, pinning it long enough for Kiel to gather himself.
His vision swam, but he focused, drawing every scrap of Qi, shadow, and draconic fire into one point. The hybrid system responded in kind, a strange new resonance humming through him.
This wasn't just power—it was something alive, something evolving alongside him.
---
He leapt, the world slowing to a heartbeat.
The attack came to him naturally—an instinct born of all three of his powers fused into one seamless flow.
Abyssflame Rend.
The strike tore through the Threadbeast in a spiraling arc of black fire, shadow fangs, and raw Qi. The creature's body convulsed, splitting apart in a burst of molten thread and screeches that shook the valley.
When the light faded, only ash and drifting strands remained.
---
The silence was short-lived.
A cold wind swept in from the east, carrying faint whispers in a language none of them recognized. The horizon shimmered—and for just a moment, Kiel saw dozens of other Threadbeasts in the distance, crawling toward them.
Nyra's eyes widened. "We're out of time."
Kiel's grip tightened on his blade. "Then we meet them head-on."
The storm on the horizon was no longer coming.
It was already here.