Kai and Lira sprinted through the forest, branches whipping past, leaves exploding beneath their boots. Behind them, the night shook with the sound of battle—roars, Ether blasts, and the tearing of wood.
The Fangbeast wasn't just fighting.
It was winning.
Kai gasped for breath. "Lira—this way!"
She kept pace despite still clutching her ribs. "Doesn't matter where—we just need distance!"
A thunderous crash boomed behind them. Birds erupted into the sky.
Kai risked a glance back.
The forest glowed from violet Ether blasts colliding with the Fangbeast's golden claws. One hunter was hurled into a tree so hard the trunk split. Another barely dodged a swipe that cleaved the ground open.
Lira hissed, "That beast is acting insane. Fangbeasts don't attack Ether hunters—they avoid them."
Kai swallowed hard. "Then why—"
Thump.
He felt it.Not with his ears.
But with the Mark beneath his skin.
A faint pulse. A pull.Like a magnet drawing iron.
Lira slowed. "Kai? What's wrong?"
Kai touched his chest, breath shaking. "I… I can feel something. From the beast."
Lira's face tightened. "Please don't tell me it's reacting to—"
The Seventh Mark flared under his skin.
Not violently.Not painfully.Just… awake.
Lira's expression dimmed with dread. "…Kai. That thing wasn't fighting the hunters because it's territorial."
Kai's pulse stuttered. "Then what?"
"It was protecting you."
The words hit him harder than the hunters' attacks.
A Fangbeast—one of the forest's strongest predators—risked death to shield him.
Why?
What was the Seventh Path making him into?
Before he could answer, the ground trembled again. Heavy footfalls—too heavy, too close.
The beast wasn't done.
Lira yanked Kai behind a cluster of moss-covered boulders. "Get down."
They crouched low as the trees parted.
The Fangbeast limped into the clearing, fur matted with blood, deep gashes scoring its flank. Ether burns sizzled across its hide, still glowing faintly.
But its eyes—gold, ancient, intelligent—locked onto Kai.
It growled—not at him.
For him.
Lira's hand went to her dagger instinctively. "Kai… don't move."
The beast took a slow step forward.
Its breaths were ragged. Weakening.
It lowered its head slightly, as if bowing.
Kai whispered, voice barely audible. "Why are you…?"
The Seventh Mark pulsed again.
A single spark of white-blue light slid across his skin.
And the Fangbeast responded.
It lifted its massive paw—revealing something clutched beneath its claws.
A fragment.
Dark stone.
Carved with a symbol.
A symbol identical to the one that had cracked the temple floor in the prologue.
Lira gasped. "That's—Kai—that's a Seventh Seal fragment."
The Fangbeast released it onto the ground.
Kai reached toward it—
BANG!
A bolt of violet Ether shot through the trees, grazing the beast's shoulder. The Fangbeast reeled back, roaring in pain.
The scouts had survived.
"Target reacquired!"
"They're moving north!"
"They're injured—press forward!"
Lira cursed. "Kai, grab the fragment—MOVE!"
Kai snatched the stone.
The moment his fingers closed around it—
The Seventh Mark ignited.
A tremor of power surged through him, blinding and hot, ripping a gasp from his throat. Light crackled at his fingertips. The forest blurred—
—then snapped back into focus.
Lira stared at him in horror and awe. "Kai, your eyes—"
He didn't have time to ask.
The scouts emerged again, masks cracked, armor scorched, but still advancing.
The lead hunter pointed at Kai.
"Do not let the Vessel awaken again! Suppress him!"
Lira stepped in front of Kai—and the Fangbeast roared, dragging its broken body between them and the scouts.
"Kai!" Lira shouted. "The beast won't last! You need to run!"
"No," Kai said, voice trembling. "Not without you."
Then he touched the Seventh Seal fragment fully.
Lightning surged.
The trees bent away from him.
Even the hunters staggered back.
The Fangbeast—dying, bleeding, barely standing—looked at him a final time.
And for a fleeting moment…
Its eyes weren't the eyes of a monster.
But the eyes of something ancient.
Something that knew him.
With the last of its strength, the beast lunged at the scouts again—buying Kai and Lira the only thing they needed.
A chance.
Lira grabbed his hand.
"Kai—NOW!"
And together, they disappeared deeper into the forest as the Seventh Path awakened another inch…
…while the Fangbeast made its final stand.