Kael did not remember falling asleep, but he woke to silence so deep it pressed against his ears. The ribs of the dead colossus arched above him like a cathedral of bone, glowing faintly with dormant runes. Pale light seeped through cracks in the stone, painting everything in ghostly hues. For a long moment, he lay still, listening to his own breathing and the distant hum of unstable energy drifting through the Unbound Zones.
"You're awake," Ryn said quietly.
Kael sat up, muscles aching, and rubbed his eyes as if that might erase the exhaustion clinging to him. "How long was I out?"
"Not long enough for them to forget you," Ryn replied. "Long enough for you to live."
Kael flexed his fingers slowly. Faint blue lines shimmered beneath his skin, then faded again. The Spirit Core felt calmer now, no longer thrashing like a trapped beast. Instead, it pulsed with a steady rhythm, observant and patient, as though it were studying both Kael and the realm around them.
That thought unsettled him more than pain ever could.
He rose to his feet and moved toward the opening between the massive ribs. Beyond them stretched a shattered landscape of drifting stone islands, inverted waterfalls, fractured towers, and distant storms where void and light collided endlessly. Somewhere out there, unseen eyes were searching.
"I can't keep running forever," Kael said under his breath.
Ryn hopped onto his shoulder, tail flickering. "Good. Running teaches fear. Choosing teaches survival."
Kael frowned slightly. "Choosing what, exactly?"
Before Ryn could answer, the air tightened. A cold, deliberate presence brushed against Kael's senses, sharp enough to make his skin prickle. He spun around instantly, flame gathering around his clenched fist.
A man stepped into view from behind a fractured pillar. He was tall and lean, wrapped in layered gray armor etched with unfamiliar sigils. A hood shadowed his face, but amber eyes glowed beneath it with calm intelligence.
"Easy," the stranger said. "If I wanted you dead, you would not have woken up."
Ryn bared his teeth. "That's what most killers say."
The man smiled faintly. "Name's Seris Vale. I walk the Unbound Path."
Kael did not lower his guard. "You followed me."
"I observed you," Seris corrected. "You fought. You fled. You adapted. That matters more than raw strength."
Kael hesitated. "Why tell me this?"
Seris lifted a hand, and suddenly the world shifted. Invisible currents revealed themselves, flowing through the ruins like rivers of pressure. Hazard zones pulsed crimson, while safer paths shimmered faintly blue.
"The Unbound Zones reward awareness," Seris said. "Ignore them, and you die."
A distant roar rolled across the fractured sky, vast and hungry. Kael felt the Spirit Core react sharply.
Seris stepped back. "Your presence is drawing predators. Cultists are the least of your problems now."
He tossed Kael a crystal shard that hummed softly upon contact.
"Channel your Core through this when it surges," Seris said. "It will not save you. It will only keep you alive long enough to learn."
With that, space folded around him, and he vanished.
Ryn exhaled. "You just met a walking warning sign."
Kael closed his fingers around the shard, feeling its resonance steady his breathing. Somewhere beyond the horizon, something ancient stirred. And for the first time since arriving here, Kael felt less like prey and more like a threat slowly taking shape.
He stayed there longer, memorizing the rhythm of the realm and the faint tremor inside his chest. Fear still existed, sharp and undeniable, but it no longer ruled him completely. Each breath aligned him further with the Unbound Path, and each heartbeat whispered that survival was only the beginning. Ahead waited battles, betrayals, alliances, and losses he could not yet imagine. Kael straightened his spine, set his jaw, and stepped forward into the broken light, knowing that the Spirit Realm would not forgive weakness, but it might respect defiance. The Unbound Zones answered his resolve with distant thunder, as if acknowledging his choice, and somewhere unseen, forces both benevolent and cruel marked his name, preparing paths that would soon collide with his own fate in ways that would test his will beyond imagination and redefine survival itself forever.