Drennar and Elira exchanged uneasy glances, confused by the sudden stillness in Ardin. Then they followed his gaze.
Syl now stood, unharmed, though her chest still rose and fell with uneven breath. A soft glow pulsed faintly around her like a shield fading away.
And beside her was Kibo.
He was shirtless, his katana slick with blood, but his expression was calm. Not cold, focused.
His eyes on Syl.
His voice was calm, but a thread of danger wove through the stillness. "Sorry, Syl. Hope you weren't hurt."
Syl blinked, stunned. "Uhh… no, I'm not." She hadn't even registered the moment he'd appeared.
Lily let out a choked breath of relief and sprinted to him. Without hesitation, she threw her arms around him. "Welcome back, Kibo!"
A rare smile softened his features. "Thank you, Lily."
Then—
"Where is the Prey… the one you were supposed to bring?" Syl asked, her voice regaining its usual sharpness now that her fear was fading.
Kibo's shoulders tensed. "Ah… I forgot it."
"You reckless brat," Ignis's voice growled in Kibo's mind, every syllable a dagger. "You left the prey? After I told you three times to grab it before those filthy crawling things stole it?"
"You forgot it?!" Lily pulled back from the hug, brow furrowing in surprise.
"What was I supposed to do? You were shouting at me to focus, and hurry and follow those Rabbits…"
"Is that the best excuse you could come up with, when you are supposed to be smart and fast in your thinking? You pathetic speck of a human," Ignis scoffed, a deep, mocking laugh echoing in Kibo's skull.
"Maybe he left it back home?" Lily offered with a tiny laugh, trying to ease the tension.
Kibo's flush deepened. He rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes darting to the ground.
"What the heck is going on here?!" Drennar's booming voice finally tore through their little moment.
Kibo, Syl, and Lily turned in unison.
Kibo met Syl's eyes, sharp and deliberate. "Who are they?"
Syl straightened. Her voice was cold, controlled. "They're from my mother."
"I see..." Kibo's gaze slid toward the strangers. His voice dropped. "Then you shouldn't go with them."
Elira's eyes narrowed, venom in every word. "And just who do you think you are, brat?"
But Kibo didn't look at her.
Ardin hadn't spoken. Not once. He stared at the boy, breath shallow.
"This is something new, that boy... every path... every outcome… no matter what I choose, it ends with him.He doesn't belong in the stream. He doesn't even belong to the branches.
He's not fate. He's the fracture."
"Sorry," Kibo said, his voice still even. "But she's family. And dragging someone off against their will is wrong."
Drennar scoffed, taking a step forward, muscles coiling. "Not our fault the princess ran away!"
"Drennar, wait…" Ardin's voice sliced out like a blade, sudden and sharp with panic.
But it was too late.
Drennar, roaring with fury, slammed Mountain's Wrath weapon into the earth. The impact was thunderous cracks tore through the soil, a shockwave exploding outward as Earthshatter split the forest floor. Roots snapped, trees quivered, and a violent tremor hurled Kibo, Syl, and Lily from their footing.
"Ugh…!" Syl hit the ground hard, but even before she could rise, a dark blur cut through the chaos.
Elira.
A blur of shadow, exploited the chaos, aiming for Syl But Kibo was already moving.
With preternatural speed, he twisted upright and intercepted her charge. His fist connected with her eyebrows, a clean, brutal strike that sent her staggering back, a cry of pain escaping her lips as she clutched her face.
"Hey…" Kibo growled, stepping forward, his body between her and Syl. "What do you think you're doing?"
Ardin's gaze locked on Kibo, Future Sight tearing through infinite strands of possibility. He saw it again: all outcomes bent around this anomaly. This single boy.
"Drennar!" he barked, tension threading his voice. "Forget the girl…him!"
But it was already too late. He had set his blade. And Kibo had already met him halfway.
The forest became a war zone.
Drennar was a juggernaut, each swing of his colossal warhammer capable of felling entire trees. He attacked with the power of a mountain, his strikes leaving craters in the earth. Kibo danced through them with terrifying grace—dodging, weaving, never still. His katana gleamed like liquid light, parrying the hammer's edges, turning near-fatal blows into showers of bark and shattered rock.
Ardin entered the fray in perfect counterpoint—elegant, exact, and unrelenting. Vanguard was an extension of his will, flickering like lightning. Future Sight whispered every moment before it happened; his Mana Reflex executed with impossible sharpness. Every thrust sought weakness—joints, ribs, tendons—any opening that would end this quickly.
But Kibo… Kibo was reading a deeper layer.
His Manatrack Vision unfolded the battlefield in glowing threads. He didn't just see their strikes. He saw the intent behind them. He saw mana pulsing in their muscles, felt the ripple of breath before a movement even began. Where others would be too late, he was already adjusting, already there.
Steel flashed. Blood shimmered. A graze here, a nick there, but never a clean hit. His katana flowed through the chaos, answering precision with instinct, calculation with intuition.
"Oh, brat…" Ignis's voice slithered through his mind like smoke, dripping disdain. "He's faster than you thought, isn't he? You really thought dancing around would be enough? Fool. Use your eyes…properly. Not just to dodge!"
Kibo grimaced, parrying another blow from Ardin. "I'm trying…"
"Trying? Pathetic. Predict the weak future! Strike the threads! Forget the flesh—tear the mana! You want to survive? Then stop pretending you're clever, and start fighting like it!"
Meanwhile, Elira—bruised, furious, had turned her sights back to the girls.
Syl and Lily stood their ground.
Lily moved first, a blur of nimble strikes, her fists darting out with speed and surprising force. She was no match for Elira in raw power, but her timing, her positioning, kept the older woman at bay. Syl followed, rooted in fierce protectiveness. With every motion, she pulled thorns from the earth, vines lashing like whips, walls of roots springing between them and danger.
Elira snarled, blade flickering, shadow leaking from her skin. She dove into Shadow Veil, trying to blink behind them, only for Syl's roots to explode from the ground, forcing her out of her teleport mid-cast. Then Lily shifted, cutting off her angle. They were reading her.
"What are you two?!" Elira snapped, drawing breath. "Little monsters?!"
With a grunt of effort, she conjured her Phantom Blades—a fan of spectral daggers shimmered into life around her. She launched them.
Syl gasped. Lily shoved her aside just as they leapt, the girls dodging and rolling as the glowing daggers tore through branches and kicked up earth where they'd just stood.
Then came a sound.
"Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!"
Ben burst from the underbrush, barking madly. But not at the girls.
At Elira.
A moment later, a swarm of glowing red eyes burst from the forest floor. Rats. Hundreds of them. They poured from burrows and shadows, chittering with eerie coordination, not attacking the girls, but her.
Elira shrieked. "Rats! No no no no…!"
She staggered back, flailing, trying to leap away. But they were everywhere, crawling over her boots, skittering up her legs.
With a desperate scream, she summoned a surge of mana and vanished into a thick curtain of shadow, escaping into the void.
Silence.
Lily blinked. "...Wait. Did the rats just… save us?"
Syl stared, still stunned. Part of her wanted to scream too—she still felt irritated by the rats, but somehow, these hadn't touched her. She watched them scurry back into the forest, silently dispersing into the brush like spirits.
"Thank you," she thought, still breathless.
Lily knelt and gently patted the last of the retreating creatures. "Wow, Syl. You made all these rats come to help. That's amazing."
"I-I didn't call them," Syl whispered, trembling slightly.
Ben padded up to her and nudged her gently. With a tiny, relieved sound, Syl dropped to her knees and hugged him tight, burying her face in his steel fur. He licked her cheek, purring low. She laughed soft, shaking sound, as the tension left her body.
The rats disappeared into the forest, their job done.
Meanwhile, Ardin and Drennar were still locked in fierce combat with Kibo, but things weren't going as expected.
Drennar, panting, his warhammer dented at the edge, let out a hoarse, almost admiring laugh. "This boy... he's a really good fighter."
"Focus," Ardin snapped, his breath sharp as he twisted away from Kibo's blade, a silver flash that would've split Drennar's skull had it landed. The Katana missed, but not by much. Kibo didn't pause. He ducked under Drennar's counterstrike, movements fluid, precisely like a dancer in the middle of a storm.
But then… everything shifted.
A chill crept into the forest, not the breeze of nightfall, but something deeper. Wrong. The temperature plummeted in an instant, white mist spiraling along the forest floor. Leaves shimmered as a thin frost crept across their edges, mana in the air turning brittle.
Ardin froze. His eyes, usually calm, flickered. His Future Sight pulled back, not forward. Not into fate. But into now. Into the overwhelming presence that had just stepped into reality.
"No…" he breathed. "Not here."
He turned sharply. "Drennar, we need to go. Now."
Drennar glanced at him, confused but still swinging. "Huh? We're winning…"
"We're not," Ardin snapped. "She's here."
Drennar hesitated, eyes narrowing. "Her?"
Backing slightly away from the brawl, Kibo felt it too. The shift. The drop in air. The unmistakable pressure that curled beneath the skin like frostbite.
"Why must your sadistic aunt pick the worst moments to show up? "Ignis's voice slithered into his thoughts, disdain curling in every syllable.
Kibo's lips pulled into a grin, though his muscles stayed tight. "That's Aunt Sora for you," he replied inwardly, a glint of anticipation surfacing behind his eyes.
Ardin was already moving. He pulled a small black orb from his belt and dropped it to the ground.
A flash erupted—white, blinding, swallowing sound and sight. For an instant, the entire section of the forest was nothing but light.
When it faded, Kibo stood blinking through the afterimage. Lily was beside him, shielding Syl, and Ben was crouched low in the brush.
But Ardin and Drennar were gone.
The clearing had fallen quietly so.
And from the deeper shadows of the trees, she stepped forward.
Sora.
The frost ebbed slowly, the icy mist rolling back like a tide. Her presence alone warmed the air, but it was the kind of warmth that reminded you fire could burn.
She looked over the empty space where her opponents had just vanished and let out a quiet, unimpressed sigh. "What a waste of time."
Then her gaze shifted. Slowly. Deliberately.
First to Syl. Then to Lily. And finally… to Kibo.
Something passed through her expression—faint, unreadable. But in her eyes, just for a flicker of a moment, was something that almost looked like approval.
"Hmm. You all did well," she said softly, as if surprised. "Now that those people aren't going to be disturbing or spying anymore."
Syl's voice trembled with disbelief. "Wait… Aunt Sora, you knew who they were?"
Sora met her niece's eyes with a cool, steady look. "Yes. I did."
Kibo chuckled under his breath, the sound low and knowing.
"Hmph, "Ignis muttered in his head. "Not bad, this woman. At least someone around here's useful."
"But… but why didn't you help Syl?" Lily asked, her soft voice breaking through the tension. Her pout was real, but so was the confusion. "Or tell us what was going to happen?"
Sora's tone was dry as old stone. "Why would I? That shouldn't bother you. You handled yourselves, didn't you?"
Syl frowned, her brows knitting. She looked between Sora and Kibo, trying to stitch together the threads of everything that had just happened. "I don't know what's going on anymore… but if you're saying that, does that mean we don't have to…"
"You will still be training," Sora said sharply, cutting her off without so much as turning around. She began walking away, her voice trailing over her shoulder. "Now. Let's go home."
She paused just once, glancing over at Kibo with a faint scowl.
"I don't see any meat you were meant to bring."
"Oh…Aunt Sora," Kibo called after her quickly, rubbing the back of his neck, "It's… I just left it behind a tree. I'll go get it and meet you at home!"
"Okay," she said, without looking back.
As her figure disappeared into the trees, Kibo let out a long breath and rubbed his forehead, the grin slowly spreading on his face.
"You don't remember where you kept it, do you?" Syl asked, her voice quieter now, but tinged with amusement.
"Yes," Kibo admitted with a sheepish shrug.
The smirk she gave him said otherwise.
Meanwhile, far from the hidden house, closer to the outer reaches of Balmount Kingdom, Elira stumbled out from the shadows veil, shivering.
She frantically brushed at her arms and legs, eyes wild. "Ugh… ugh… I can still feel them," she muttered, voice breaking. "Those rats... crawling all over me…gods."
Ardin and Drennar emerged behind her, their forms knitting together from the fading glow of the escape orb. The forest around them was quiet, but not peaceful. There was something jagged in the air, residue from what they'd just escaped.
Elira turned to them, voice still fragile. "What took you so long?" Her eyes searched theirs like she needed answers just to stay steady.
Ardin didn't answer at first.
His gaze was hollow, distant. Still seeing it...or still hearing it...
"…Nothing," he finally murmured. But the word felt like a lie even to himself.
Elira blinked. "What?"
Ardin's voice hardened. "Let's just leave this kingdom now. We're heading to the Imperial Kingdom."
Drennar made a face, shifting his bulk as he leaned against a tree, almost childlike in his disappointment. "Aw, come on. Balmount Kingdom has been good for us… Let's stay a little longer."
"No," Ardin snapped sharper this time, and real. His eyes flicked up, suddenly lucid. "We can't. The Prince isn't here. Neither are Angelo and Sara. There's nothing left to gain. We move now."
There was something in his voice that silenced further protest.
Drennar raised both hands. "Alright, alright. Just asking…"
But a mischievous spark still lingered in his eyes. "Still," he said slowly, cocking his head, "Why did you get that… weird look when you saw that kid earlier?"
Ardin froze.
He didn't answer. Just turned away, as if walking could erase the weight that had slammed into him in the clearing.
Elira tilted her head, watching him with cautious curiosity. Her voice was lighter now, teasing, but only slightly. "Did you see a future where you were dying or something?"
There was a faint smile at the edge of her lips, though the memory of the rats still lingered in her posture.
Drennar let out a booming laugh. "Wait, really? You saw yourself die?"
Ardin didn't respond.
He kept walking.
But inside, the memory played again—vivid, undeniable. It wasn't a future.
It was something else. Something worse.
The boy who died… and in dying, broke the world.
That death hadn't played like a strand in the weave of time. No.
It was the crack.
The anomaly. The error. A fracture not just in possibility, but in the fabric of reality itself.
He had never seen it before because it wasn't part of any possible future.
It was before the futures. The beginning of a road not written.
The genesis of this very reality.
And now that he'd seen it—he couldn't unsee it.