The day after the whispers, the camp was restless. The jungle seemed to hold its breath, the air too still, the birds too quiet. Ryan felt it pressing on him from every direction — the weight of unseen eyes.
Lyra's decision came swiftly. "We leave at dawn," she told them, her tone brooking no argument. "The Hollow Wilds lie north of the ridge. If the Shade Beasts were scouts, that's where their corruption festers. We'll find its source."
Ryan had never heard of the Hollow Wilds, but the way Theron's jaw tightened told him enough. Kaelin said it aloud.
"The Wilds are cursed. Void resonance pools there, twisting everything it touches. Even beasts that once served the balance now hunt blindly in the dark. Entering is…" She trailed off, her silver eyes flicking to Ryan. "Dangerous."
Ryan's hand brushed the shard at his chest, feeling its pulse, stronger than ever since the Spire. "Then that's where I need to be."
Lyra nodded once. "Good. Pack light. We travel fast."
---
They set out under a shrouded sky. The jungle thickened as they pressed north, the trees taller, their roots knotted like skeletal hands clawing from the earth. Strange fungi glowed faintly in the undergrowth, casting sickly green light.
At first, the path seemed like any other stretch of wilderness. But the deeper they went, the more Ryan felt it — a tug in his chest, pulling toward the shard. His aura prickled constantly, a warning he couldn't ignore.
By midday, the signs became undeniable. Trees blackened at the edges, their bark seared as though burned from within. Pools of stagnant water shimmered with oily light. And scattered bones — too many bones — littered the ground.
"Welcome to the Hollow Wilds," Theron muttered, spitting to the side. "Hell on earth."
Ryan swallowed hard. He'd thought the Shade Beasts were terrifying, but this place felt worse. It wasn't just deadly. It was wrong.
Kaelin crouched to inspect a claw mark carved deep into a stone. "Something big passed this way. Recently."
Ryan leaned closer, his breath catching. The gouges weren't just scratches. They glowed faintly, pulsing with the same void energy he'd seen in the Shade Beasts' eyes.
His shard pulsed harder in answer.
---
The deeper they traveled, the more the jungle fought them. Vines lashed like snakes, thorns seeped black ichor, and even the air seemed heavy, thick with invisible weight.
Once, Ryan stumbled on a patch of ground that looked solid but gave way like water. Kaelin yanked him back just before skeletal hands clawed from the earth, grasping where he'd stood.
"They're echoes," she hissed, loosing an arrow tipped with silver aura into the ground. The hands shrieked before fading to mist. "Resonance twisted into hunger."
Ryan's skin crawled. "The Wilds eat the dead?"
"No," Lyra said grimly. "They remember them."
---
It wasn't long before the first true enemy appeared.
The jungle went silent, the way it had before the Shade Beasts' ambush. Ryan's pulse quickened. He raised his blade, aura flaring faintly.
Then he saw them.
Not wolves this time, but great reptilian beasts, their scales jagged like broken obsidian, their eyes burning with crimson void light. Their bodies flickered unnaturally, phasing between solid and shadow with each step.
"Void Drakes," Theron growled, spinning his war-axe into ready position. "Stay sharp."
Ryan tightened his grip. The shard in his chest pulsed like a drumbeat, his aura surging in answer.
The Drakes struck.
One lunged straight for him, jaws wide, void fire sparking in its throat. Ryan's instincts screamed. He rolled aside, thrusting his blade up. Emberheart aura flared, slashing across its belly. The Drake shrieked, dissolving into smoke before reforming, whole again.
Ryan's heart dropped. "They heal!"
"Not heal," Lyra shouted, her staff flaring with radiant light. "They shift! Strike their cores!"
Ryan narrowed his eyes, focusing. As the Drake lunged again, he caught the faint glimmer of something inside its chest — a pulsing black shard, like the inverse of his own.
This time, when it lunged, he didn't dodge. He stepped forward, aura blazing, and drove his blade into the glow.
The world erupted in fire and shadow. The Drake screamed, its body convulsing, before shattering into a cloud of ash.
Ryan staggered, chest heaving. The shard in his chest pulsed wildly, as though in recognition.
Kaelin's arrow struck another Drake's core, shattering it. Theron split a third clean in two with brute force. Together they fought, the jungle trembling with the clash of aura and void.
At last, the beasts lay scattered as smoke and bone.
Ryan wiped sweat from his brow, staring at the ash drifting in the air. "They had shards. Like mine."
Lyra's face was grim. "Not like yours. Corrupted reflections. But it means the void has a source. A core feeding this land."
Ryan's shard pulsed again, harder. He shivered. Whatever the void was, it knew him.
---
They pressed on, deeper into the Wilds. The trees thinned until they reached a clearing, and in its center stood something that stole Ryan's breath.
A ruin.
Massive stone pillars jutted from the earth, half-swallowed by roots. Black runes pulsed faintly along their surfaces, echoing the rhythm of his shard. The air was thick with resonance, so heavy it was hard to breathe.
Kaelin's face paled. "This isn't natural."
Lyra's voice dropped to a whisper. "An Obelisk."
Ryan blinked. "What's that?"
"A gate," she said. "Left behind from the first war. Between worlds. Between forces that should never have touched."
The shard in Ryan's chest beat faster, harder, pulling him toward it.
He stepped closer despite himself, every nerve screaming in protest. The Obelisk's runes flared brighter at his approach, responding to him.
And then, from its shadow, a figure stepped forward.
It wasn't beast or man, not fully. Its body flickered like smoke, its form tall and jagged, a crown of horns rising from its head. Its voice was the same whisper Ryan had heard nights before.
"Child of twin blood. You carry the shard. Return it… or burn with it."
Ryan froze, blade trembling in his grip.
Lyra thrust her staff forward, aura blazing. "Back!" she shouted. "That's no echo — it's a herald!"
The figure's laughter was like shattering glass. Its eyes locked on Ryan.
"The ash spreads. And you are its spark."
Then the ground erupted. Shadows surged upward, tendrils of void lashing for them. The battle for the Obelisk had begun.