The cavern wasn't built to handle this.
The Breathing Place had endured centuries of shifting stone, ancient pulses, and the weight of an Old-Ruin creature slumbering in its center—but it had never once endured Kairen like this.
The moment he said Stay behind me, the chamber answered with a deep rumble, as if the entire place inhaled sharply in fear.
Rowan had no idea what Kairen had become. Only that the shadows bent around him. Only that the cavern seemed caught between fleeing and collapsing. Only that the Rooted One—the ancient, bark-skinned colossus—was taking him seriously.
Daniel pulled Rowan and Eli back behind a jagged slab of stone. "Don't move from here," he whispered quickly. "No matter what you see or hear. No matter what Kairen does. Understand?"
Rowan nodded slowly, though his attention stayed locked on Kairen's back.
Eli didn't respond. He was shaking too hard.
Kairen stood alone in the center of the cavern.
No weapon.
No stance.
No aggression.
Just stillness.
A terrifying, unnatural stillness.
His hair didn't stir, though the wind roaring off the Rooted One's awakening should have tossed it wildly. The faint Ruin-veins beneath his skin pulsed like shifting constellations. His eyes glowed with that soft silver light—cool, steady, yet carrying a depth Rowan couldn't look at for long without feeling something inside him tilt.
A crack like thunder split the cavern walls as the Rooted One unfurled.
Not fully.
Just enough to remind everyone in the room that it was never truly asleep.
Its upper torso tore free from layers of bark-like stone, sending chunks rolling across the cavern floor. Vines thick as pillars uncoiled from its body, dragging along sharp ridges that sparked against the stone.
It didn't roar.
It didn't growl.
It didn't speak.
The creature's presence simply pressed outward like a tide, shaking loose dust from the cavern ceiling.
Daniel clenched his fists. "That's bad. That's really bad."
Rowan grabbed his arm. "What is?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Eli did.
"It's… angry."
His voice cracked.
"Not just awake… angry."
Rowan shivered. If Eli could sense that much from the creature's presence, then whatever awakened inside him linked him more closely to these things than he realized.
Kairen stepped forward.
Barely a movement.
But enough to catch all their attention.
The shadows tightened around him—as if gathering. As if waiting for direction.
Daniel whispered under his breath, "Who are you now, kid…"
The Rooted One shifted its colossal frame, dark vines digging into the stone, hauling its massive body just slightly forward. The chamber dimmed as its amber chest cracks widened. Thick, distorted pulses radiated from its core—something between light and pressure.
Kairen didn't flinch.
He simply lifted one hand.
Rowan swallowed hard. "Kairen… please be careful."
Kairen lowered his hand slightly, almost as if he'd heard the whisper.
Or remembered it.
But what happened next wasn't careful.
Not even close.
The Rooted One struck first.
Its largest vine slammed downward in a whiplike sweep that tore a trench through the cavern floor. The air cracked from the force. Pebbles rained down from the ceiling. Rowan ducked behind the stone slab, heart slamming against his ribs.
When he lifted his head again—
Kairen hadn't moved.
Not a single step.
Not an inch.
But the vine that should've flattened him had stopped—no, frozen—mid-strike.
Hovering a few feet above his head.
Rowan's breath caught. "Daniel… how did he—?"
"He didn't stop it," Daniel whispered, horror and awe mixing in his tone. "The creature stopped itself."
Eli blinked hard. "Why would it do that?"
Because Kairen was dangerous.
Dangerous even to the Rooted One.
As if in response to their thoughts, the vine trembled—not with hesitation, but with a primal recognition.
Something inside the Rooted One recoiled.
Kairen slowly raised his head.
His voice was barely more than a calm murmur.
"…Move."
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing threatening.
Just a simple, soft command.
And the Rooted One obeyed.
The colossal vine jolted back as if yanked by some invisible force, retracting into the creature's main mass. The cavern trembled from the movement.
Daniel exhaled shakily. "What… did he just order it?"
Rowan couldn't speak.
Eli whispered, "That wasn't… human."
No.
It wasn't.
For a moment Kairen didn't feel like a person standing against a monster.
He felt like a rival.
Something parallel in scale.
Something the Rooted One couldn't simply crush.
The ancient creature responded next—violent, sudden, lashing out with multiple roots at once. Not careful. Not precise. Desperation replacing instinct.
Kairen didn't step aside.
He faded aside.
His outline flickered like a grainy image caught between frames, and the next instant he stood several meters closer to the Rooted One, the roots that aimed for him slamming harmlessly into the stone behind.
Rowan gasped. "Wha—how—?!"
"He didn't teleport," Daniel muttered. "But he also didn't walk. The space around him changed shape."
Eli trembled. "That's… that's not Ruin power. I've never felt anything like that."
Kairen lifted his hand again.
This time, something dark pooled around his feet, rising like vapor. Shadows thickened. Light bent. The cavern temperature dropped sharply, frost forming in thin streaks along the nearest stone.
Kairen's voice came quietly.
But Rowan felt it like a weight on his sternum.
"Stay down."
This time the command wasn't directed at them.
The Rooted One convulsed.
Its vines curled inward. Its torso hunched. The amber cracks along its chest pulsed wildly, flickering like embers in a storm. The creature strained, as if some invisible force was dragging it toward the ground.
Rowan felt the air pressure increase. His ears rang.
The shadows around Kairen writhed.
Daniel exhaled, "He's… binding it."
But the Rooted One wasn't a creature that submitted easily.
With a violent surge, it resisted, ripping its vines free from the invisible weight pressing it downward. The cavern shook. The shadows recoiled. Kairen staggered—only by the slightest step, but it was the first instability Rowan had seen from him.
"Kairen!" Rowan shouted.
For the first time since appearing, Kairen reacted like a person—he looked over his shoulder, worry flashing across his face.
Then, in the same moment, the Rooted One struck.
A thick root, sharper than the others, lashed forward, aiming not at Kairen—
but at Rowan.
Daniel yanked Rowan back hard. "Move!"
Eli scrambled behind them.
The stone slab cracked in half from the impact.
Kairen didn't think.
He didn't blink.
He didn't hesitate.
He vanished from where he stood and reappeared directly between Rowan and the incoming root.
But this time, he didn't freeze the creature.
He raised his arm.
A shield of warped shadow erupted outward, catching the vine head-on.
The collision shook the chamber.
Not violently—quietly.
As if every sound was being pulled inward, swallowed.
Kairen gritted his teeth, bracing his arm against the weight.
This was the first moment Rowan saw real strain in him.
The shadow-shield cracked.
"Kairen!" Rowan shouted. "Don't let it hit you!"
Kairen glanced at him—eyes flickering, human for a heartbeat—and pushed forward with a surge of strength that shattered the vine's momentum.
The vine recoiled with a thunderous ripple. Kairen's shield fractured into floating shards of shadow before dissolving.
For a moment, Rowan saw him sway.
Eli whispered, terrified, "He's… losing stability."
Daniel's jaw tightened. "He's overexerting. Whatever's inside him—it's not stable enough for a fight like this."
The Rooted One twisted its enormous form, adapting. New vines rose from its back, sharper, darker, shaped like jagged spears. Its chest cracks widened further, amber light flooding the cavern with an unsettling glow.
It was no longer reacting with animal instinct.
It was calculating.
Kairen steadied himself.
But Rowan saw it—the slight tremor in his hand. The faint stutter in the Ruin-veins. The flickering silver in his eyes.
Kairen wasn't fully in control.
And the Rooted One knew it.
It lunged, all its vines sweeping forward at once in a single coordinated strike.
Rowan shouted. Daniel pulled him back. Eli covered his ears as the cavern boomed.
Kairen didn't dodge.
He stepped into the attack.
The shadows exploded outward, forming tendrils that grabbed the roots in mid-air, bending them backward. Kairen's silhouette blurred into a streak of dim light as he darted closer to the ancient creature, weaving through the hail of vines with inhuman precision.
Rowan couldn't follow his movements.
Daniel could barely track the flickers of silver.
Only the Rooted One reacted with equal awareness.
Their clash shook the cavern.
Not with sound.
With silence.
Each blow Kairen delivered caused space to distort—brief flashes like ripples in water. Each counterattack from the Rooted One cracked the stone floor without touching it.
Rowan felt his knees weaken.
Eli whispered, "It's speaking…"
"What?" Rowan asked breathlessly.
Eli held his head, eyes screwed shut in pain. "Not in words. But… it's trying to communicate with him."
Daniel stiffened. "The Rooted One doesn't communicate. It consumes."
"No." Eli shook his head desperately. "It's afraid of him. But it also… recognizes him."
"From what?" Rowan demanded.
Eli's voice came weakly.
"From the Gate he came through."
For a split second, Rowan forgot to breathe.
"What Gate? What did he come from?!"
Eli swallowed hard. "Not a normal Ruin Gate. Something older. Something the Ruin system doesn't control."
That meant—
Kairen wasn't just changed.
He was claimed.
The Rooted One roared again—silent but overwhelming. Its vines expanded outward like a blooming flower, circling the chamber, preparing for a full-scale assault.
Daniel grabbed the boys instantly. "Get behind the rear ridge! Move!"
Rowan hesitated, eyes locked on Kairen.
In the flickering amber light—
he saw something he hadn't seen before.
Kairen was breathing hard.
The silver glow in his eyes flickered violently. The Ruin-veins pulsed irregularly. His stance wavered. The shadows that clung to him were thinning, retreating like frightened animals.
He was losing control.
Not just of the fight—
of himself.
"Kairen!" Rowan shouted.
Kairen snapped his gaze to him.
For a moment—pure, unmistakable fear crossed his face.
Not fear of the creature.
Fear for Rowan.
"Run," Kairen whispered.
The Rooted One's chest flared with brilliant amber light and the cavern erupted.