The Breathing Place changed after the Rooted One stirred.
The ancient chamber, once pulsing like a slow heartbeat, went still—so still Rowan felt the silence crawling across his skin. The air thinned. Every stone along the dark walls seemed to sag downward, as if the cavern itself were bowing to something older than the Ruin system.
Eli leaned against Daniel, trembling from the echoes of the creature's voice inside his mind. Daniel held him upright, jaw tight, eyes never leaving the central hollow where the Rooted One's shape writhed—half shadow, half fossilized bark.
"Rowan," Daniel said quietly. "Don't look away. If you do… you might forget where the walls are."
He didn't mean it figuratively.
The Breathing Place had begun to shift.
Subtle at first.
Then violently.
Streaks of pale fungus glimmered to life across the ceiling, scattering sickly green light through the chamber. But the light didn't stay still. It bent, curved, slid across surfaces as though it were alive—and wherever it passed, the stone seemed to melt into new pathways. New doors. New openings.
The cavern was rearranging itself.
"Is this… normal?" Rowan asked, voice thin.
"No." Daniel's grip tightened around Eli. "This only happens when the creature fully awakens."
The Rooted One didn't move like something alive. It didn't breathe or twitch. It simply existed—wrongly. A shape that shouldn't be shape. A presence that filled the chamber even when it didn't move at all.
Rowan took one step backward—and the floor rippled under his boot like water.
He jerked back.
Eli gasped.
Daniel swore under his breath.
"Don't step near the outer ring," Daniel warned. "The creature's influence is rewriting the structure. For now, stay close."
A low groan passed through the cavern.
A sound too deep to be sound—more like a memory of stone being crushed under unimaginable pressure.
Then everything went quiet again.
Eli clutched Daniel's coat. "It's… listening."
Daniel stiffened. Rowan's breath caught.
Listening?
To what?
Rowan didn't dare ask.
Instead, the three of them stood in the suffocating quiet, trying to steady their breathing as the chamber slowly distorted around them. The fungus lights dimmed and brightened like flickering eyelids. Roots protruded from the walls, curling like fingers. The air tasted metallic, as though something old and rusted had been scraped open.
The Rooted One remained nearly motionless—but its presence pressed against Rowan's thoughts.
Mine.
The whisper wasn't in words. Not really.
It was an impression.
A weight.
Rowan stumbled, clutching his head. "Stop—"
Daniel instantly pulled Rowan closer, one arm supporting Eli and one steadying him. A strange expression crossed Daniel's face. Something Rowan hadn't seen on him before.
Fear, yes.
But also recognition.
"It marked you," Daniel whispered.
Rowan's heart hammered. "What does that mean?"
Daniel didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked at the Rooted One—the ancient, bark-like mass with its vaguely humanoid silhouette, its hollow chest glowing with faint amber cracks. His voice dropped to a soft, grim tone Rowan had never heard before.
"When an Old-Ruin entity marks someone… it doesn't forget."
Eli's breathing quickened. "Then—Rowan, it's going to come after you."
The ground beneath them pulsed once.
A slow, dragging heartbeat.
Then again.
Rowan felt suddenly, sharply cold.
The chamber lights dimmed to almost nothing.
Just the Rooted One's faint amber cracks illuminated the space.
The darkness pressed inward.
That's when Rowan felt it—
a second presence.
Not the Rooted One.
Something else.
A soft distortion in the shadows, like a ripple made without movement. The temperature dropped sharply, breath fogging despite no breeze.
Rowan turned toward the far edge of the cavern.
Eli sensed it first. "Daniel… someone's here."
Daniel tensed. "That's impossible. No gates opened. Nothing strong enough to bypass the Rooted One should be—"
He stopped speaking.
Because he'd seen it too.
A shape stood in the far corner where the fungus lights couldn't reach. A silhouette—man-sized, perfectly still—partially hidden by the shifting stone. Not approaching. Not breathing. Just… existing.
The cave warped subtly around the shape, as if refusing to reveal it too quickly.
Rowan's throat tightened.
"Kairen…?" he whispered.
Eli jerked his head up. Daniel froze.
The silhouette remained motionless.
Then the fungus lights twitched—once, twice—and flickered brighter.
The shadows peeled back.
A figure stepped into view.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Not with any force at all.
Just a silent glide forward, wearing no expression, his eyes dimly glowing silver-blue, like moonlight through fog.
"Kairen…" Rowan breathed, afraid to blink.
But something was wrong.
Horribly, unmistakably wrong.
Kairen's posture was too still. Too balanced. As if he were being held upright by invisible strings. His hair, once messy and human, now floated slightly as though underwater. His skin was pale—paler than it should've been—and faint, branching lines of Ruin energy ran beneath the surface like luminescent veins.
His presence didn't feel like a person returning.
It felt like a void opening.
Daniel instinctively moved Eli behind him. His hand reached for a weapon he didn't have.
"Kairen," Daniel called carefully. "If that's really you, say something."
Kairen's eyes shifted toward him.
Slowly.
Too slowly.
Not like a person.
Like something imitating one.
For a long moment, nothing happened.
Then Kairen's head tilted.
Rows of faint symbols—Ruin Script—flashed briefly across his irises.
Daniel sucked in a breath. "No… no, that can't be—"
Eli clutched Daniel's sleeve. "Daniel, what's happening to him?"
Daniel swallowed hard. "He's been exposed to something far older than the Ruin system."
Kairen took another quiet step forward.
Not threatening.
But not reassuring.
Rowan's legs trembled. "Kairen… can you hear me?"
For a second—just a fraction—Kairen's face flickered. His expression almost shifted into recognition. Almost human.
Then the Rooted One stirred.
Not a movement—more like a change in pressure.
The cavern shuddered.
Kairen's head snapped toward the ancient creature instantly, like he'd heard a sound no one else could.
The silver gleam in his eyes sharpened.
Cold.
Predatory.
Unnatural.
Daniel swore under his breath. "He's resonating with it…"
Eli's voice cracked. "Is he dangerous?"
Everything in Rowan screamed yes—but he couldn't voice it.
Kairen wasn't attacking.
He wasn't approaching aggressively.
But the entire cavern reacted to him.
The roots withdrew along the walls.
The fungus lights bent away from him.
Even the air seemed to curl back, as if afraid to touch him.
The Rooted One's cracks glowed brighter.
For the first time since awakening, it reacted outwardly.
It recognized him.
Kairen slowly raised one hand—expression blank—palm facing the ancient creature.
A cold wind spiraled upward from the ground, twisting around him.
Light fractured. Shadows lengthened.
Ruin energy bled from the cracks in the cavern walls, drawn to him like metal to a magnet.
Rowan's heart pounded.
"Kairen!" he shouted. "Stop! It's hurting you!"
No response.
The chamber vibrated violently.
Roots bulged from the walls, slamming into the stone.
The Rooted One's amber cracks pulsed faster, as if bracing.
Daniel shouted, "Rowan—don't get closer!"
But Rowan stepped forward anyway.
"Kairen! Please—look at me!"
Kairen froze.
His fingers twitched.
The silver-blue glow in his eyes flickered.
For the first time, something human shone through the surface.
"Ro…wan."
Barely a whisper.
Broken.
Glitched.
Rowan staggered toward him, hope igniting. "You ARE you! You're still in there—"
Kairen's expression twisted faintly in pain—
then the glow surged violently back into place.
He doubled over as if someone had yanked invisible wires attached to his spine. The chamber darkened. The vines shrank deeper into the walls. Daniel pulled Rowan back just before a wave of Ruin pressure blasted across the chamber like a silent explosion.
"Kairen!" Rowan yelled, struggling against Daniel's grip. "Fight it! Whatever's controlling you—fight it!"
Kairen's breathing hitched.
He seemed torn between reaching toward Rowan…
and collapsing under the weight of whatever ancient influence had taken root inside him.
The Rooted One shifted.
Its chest cracks widened slightly, amber light spilling out like smoldering embers. The creature leaned—just barely—toward Kairen.
Daniel recognized the motion first.
"It's trying to claim him."
Eli's knees buckled. "Can it… can that thing take someone over?"
"Yes." Daniel's voice was low, horrified. "Old-Ruin entities don't want corpses. They want vessels."
Kairen straightened abruptly. His eyes focused fully on Rowan again—this time with clear intent.
"Kairen…?" Rowan whispered.
The cavern quieted.
Even the Rooted One paused.
Because Kairen finally spoke clearly.
Two words.
Soft.
But heavy enough to cut through the entire chamber.
"Don't come close."
The last of Rowan's breath vanished.
Kairen's voice—despite everything wrong in him—carried desperation. Fear.
A warning rather than a threat.
Rowan took a step back.
Then everything broke at once.
The Rooted One slammed its massive tendril-like roots into the ground. The chamber erupted with twisting shadows and shrieking pressure. Cracks zigzagged across the floor. Daniel shoved Rowan and Eli behind a slab of stone as a root stabbed downward where they'd just been standing.
Kairen moved too—and not like a person fleeing.
He flickered.
One moment standing before the Rooted One.
The next, directly in front of Rowan.
Daniel reacted first, throwing an arm out to shield the boys—
but Kairen didn't attack.
He didn't even raise his hands.
He just stood there, expression twisted in conflict, the silver light in his eyes pulsing violently like an unstable flame.
Rowan stared at him, heart in his throat.
"Kairen… tell me what happened to you."
Kairen's lips parted.
A breath escaped.
A single syllable formed:
"Gate…"
Then he vanished again—
reappearing at the center of the cavern, facing the Rooted One.
Rowan didn't understand the word.
Not fully.
But Daniel did.
His face went pale.
"Rowan—Eli—get back."
Eli clung to Rowan. "What's happening?!"
Daniel's voice trembled for the first time.
"If Kairen came from the wrong kind of Gate…
then he didn't return alone."
The chamber buckled.
The Rooted One unleashed a roar without sound—a psychic shockwave that cracked the stone overhead.
Kairen responded.
Not with force.
Not with shouting.
With silence.
His aura dropped—
temperature plummeting—
light bending toward him—
and then the impossible happened:
The Rooted One recoiled.
The ancient creature—older than the dungeon itself—
backed away.
Rowan stared, numb. Daniel whispered a prayer. Eli hid his face against Rowan's sleeve.
Kairen finally looked back at them over his shoulder, eyes glowing with that eerie silver light.
And with a voice no longer fully his own, he said:
"Stay behind me."