Chapter 2's Ending (Revisited)**
Kael stood over the dead Ringbearer, his breath ragged. The jungle held its breath as he reached for the rusted Ring still clinging to the skeleton's finger—
**The moment his fingertips brushed the metal**, the Ring *screamed*.
A sound like shattering glass. The band fissured, black veins spiderwebbing across its surface before it **disintegrated into dust**. Kael's shadow *convulsed*, recoiling as if burned.
*"Tch. Filthy counterfeit,"* the whisper sneered. *"You deserve a king's ransom, not this scrap."*
Kael stared at the ash on his fingers. **He'd felt it—** a pulse of something *alive* in that Ring, a heartbeat that stuttered and died at his touch.
The jungle exhaled. Around him, the vines **uncoiled like relieved serpents**, moonlight spearing through the canopy as if the forest itself had been waiting to see what he'd do.
He clenched his fist.
---
Chapter 3's Opening
The **stench of melted flesh** woke him.
Kael lurched upright, his throat raw. Dawn painted the jungle in sickly gold, but the clearing around him was a charnel house. The Ringbearer's corpse was **a deflated husk**, his armor pooling in the dirt like wax. The skeleton from yesterday? **Gone**. Only a faint outline in the ash remained.
His shadow stretched long and smug across the massacre.
*"You were hungry,"* it seemed to say.
Kael's stomach turned—not from disgust, but from **a gnawing, hollow ache**. The voice in his blood purred:
*"Better. But not enough."*
A twig snapped.
The Rift Hound emerged from the undergrowth, its violet eyes locked on him. It **smelled the death on him**, the power. It should have run.
It licked its jaws instead.
Kael bared his teeth. **The hunt began again.**