The wind howled through the black forest. Each step Ryo took echoed like an intruder's cry in a place where silence seemed to hunt down all life.
Then… a growl. Deep. Guttural.
He lifted his gaze. In the underbrush, six pairs of crimson eyes flared open.
The Sentinel Wolves.
Mythical beasts, guardians of forgotten domains. Their massive silhouettes emerged from the shadows—fangs gleaming, muscles coiled like steel springs.
Ryo's heart thundered in his chest. His legs trembled.
"…Impossible… why would monsters like these… be here…" he whispered, barely audible.
The first one leapt. A titan of muscle and fury, its claws aimed straight at his throat.
Ryo stumbled back, breath caught in his lungs.
His body screamed with fear. His arms rose instinctively, only to shield himself…
And then the voice came. Cold and gentle all at once, so close it felt born from his very breath.
Gabriel (whisper):
"You deny me… yet your breath gives me form. And within your silence… I become eternal."
Ryo barely had time to widen his eyes.
And suddenly… the wave erupted.
Dark and radiant at once, a shadowed blast burst from his palm.
It swallowed the wolf mid-air, hurling it against a colossal tree that shattered like a twig.
A frozen silence followed.
The monster's body collapsed, lifeless.
Ryo stood still, his trembling hands before his eyes.
He was gasping, unable to comprehend.
"I… I didn't do anything… I only… wanted to protect myself…" he thought, breath ragged.
But the remaining Sentinel Wolves advanced, their growls deeper, fueled by rage.
They had tasted his fear… and the power he rejected.
The wind grew heavier, thick with foreboding.
And deep inside, Ryo knew this was only a fragment.
A spark of a force infinitely greater.
A force that, sooner or later, would demand of him a choice: to accept it… or be consumed by it.