The world did not end with a scream.
It ended with paperwork.
Orders were signed in rooms that smelled of ink and cold stone. Restrictions were logged. Escorts were assigned. Incident reports were buried under layers of careful language.
Containment maintained.
That was the phrase Seln used.
It was written three times on Kael's imprisonment order.
By the time the guards came for him, Blackhollow had already decided what he was.
A problem.
I — The Cage
They did not throw Kael into a dungeon.
That would have made him a criminal.
They placed him in a vault.
Deep beneath Blackhollow Keep, where stone was older than memory and the air smelled faintly of salt and iron, Kael sat in a circular chamber carved with ancient sigils that hummed softly whenever his Mark stirred.
A seal.
Not a prison.
A leash.
He stood in the center of the room, bow taken, weapons removed, as Maelor and Seln watched from behind a warded barrier.
Maelor's fists were clenched. "This is wrong."
Seln didn't look at her. "This is necessary."
"He just saved the Keep," Maelor snapped.
Seln's gaze flicked briefly to Kael. "And proved my fear."
Kael didn't shout.
Didn't beg.
He simply said, "You're locking the door on the only thing that can hold it."
Seln's eyes hardened. "We are preventing you from opening more."
Kael felt the Mark pulse angrily.
"You don't understand it," he said.
Seln's voice was cold. "We understand it well enough to fear it."
Maelor looked at Kael, pain clear in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
Kael met her gaze. "Don't be."
The wards activated.
The world dimmed slightly.
And Kael was alone.
II — The Grey Hunt Without Its Heart
Nyx hated Blackhollow now.
Every corridor felt narrower without Kael's presence. Every silence felt louder.
Borin lay in the infirmary, ribs still healing, his laughter quieter than it used to be. Elyra moved like a ghost, shadows under her eyes deepening as memory after memory slipped through her fingers.
They were still hunters.
They were still dangerous.
But something essential was missing.
Nyx slammed her fist against a training post hard enough to make it crack.
"He should be here."
Elyra stood nearby, staff resting against her shoulder. "They're afraid of him."
"They should be afraid of Renn," Nyx spat.
Borin shifted painfully on a bench. "Seln doesn't see Renn."
"Then she's blind," Nyx snapped. "We're bleeding time."
Elyra closed her eyes. "And the world is paying for it."
III — The Butcher King
Renn Varn walked through a slaughterhouse.
Not one of animals.
One of beasts.
The air was thick with blood and smoke, the stench almost sweet. Massive carcasses lay strewn across the floor—scaled things, horned nightmares, creatures that once roamed the Beast Continent as apex predators.
Now they lay open.
Cut.
Harvested.
Dark sigils burned across the stone as Renn stood at the center of the carnage, his sword planted into the ground like a ritual stake.
Cressa watched from the edge of the chamber, pale and shaking.
Halvek stood beside her, fists clenched.
Joryn was gone.
They didn't ask where.
They didn't want to know.
Renn lifted a crystal vial filled with glowing black essence drawn from a mid-rank beast's heart.
"Do you feel it?" he whispered. "That pressure? That resistance?"
Cressa swallowed. "You're killing them to drain it."
Renn smiled. "No. I'm refining them."
He raised the vial and drank.
The air shuddered.
Renn's veins darkened briefly beneath his skin, shadow flickering through them like lightning through stormclouds.
Then it faded.
Renn exhaled slowly, eyes blazing.
"I can hear them now," he said. "The mid-ranks. They're not just beasts. They're keys."
Halvek's voice was hoarse. "This is wrong."
Renn glanced at him. "Everything important is."
Cressa's hands trembled. "You said this would give us leverage."
Renn's smile was feral. "It gives me control."
He raised his sword.
From the far end of the chamber, a massive beast stirred—a lion-like creature with wings of bone and eyes like molten glass.
It roared.
Renn raised his hand.
The beast stopped.
Not frozen.
Listening.
"Sit," Renn said.
It did.
Cressa gasped.
Halvek took a step back.
Renn laughed softly. "See? I told you."
He turned to them, eyes burning with triumph.
"I don't need doors anymore."
IV — The Breaking of the Beast Continent
It began at sea.
A trade vessel bound for southern ports was the first to send word.
They saw something in the water.
Something vast.
Something that should not have crossed.
Then the ship vanished.
Then another.
Then a coastline burned.
The Beast Continent's storms, which had once ringed it like a wall, began to collapse.
And things walked out.
Mid-rank beasts.
High-rank horrors.
Creatures that had been sealed away for centuries surged into a world that had forgotten how to fight them.
Cities fell in hours.
Armies broke in minutes.
The lie of containment shattered.
Panic spread faster than fire.
And the Registry had no more ink left to hide behind.
V — Blackhollow Under Siege
The first breach hit Blackhollow at dawn.
Not beneath the Keep.
Through the sky.
A winged beast tore through the clouds and slammed into the outer wall, scattering stone like rain.
Alarms screamed.
Hunters poured from barracks.
Nyx was on the wall in seconds, blades flashing as she cut into scaled flesh. Borin fought through pain to reach the front lines. Elyra chanted until blood ran from her nose.
But there were too many.
And then the second wave came.
The Beast Continent had broken.
Nyx screamed, "Where is Kael?!"
Maelor stood bloodied beside her. "Seln won't release him!"
Nyx turned, fury blazing. "Then she's killing us."
VI — The Decision
Deep in the vault, Kael felt it.
Not a flare.
A scream.
The Mark burned so violently he dropped to one knee, breath tearing from his lungs as images flooded him—coasts burning, cities collapsing, beasts roaring across open plains.
The world was breaking.
He slammed his fist against the ward.
"Let me out."
Nothing.
Again.
"Let me out!"
Seln stood on the other side moments later, eyes pale with fear.
"It's happening," Kael said hoarsely.
Seln nodded once. "Yes."
Kael met her gaze. "You can't stop it without me."
Silence.
Then Seln did something she had not done in years.
She hesitated.
Outside, Blackhollow shook.
Hunters screamed.
Walls fell.
Maelor burst into the chamber, bloodied. "We're losing the outer districts!"
Seln looked at Kael.
He didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
She exhaled, defeated.
"Release him."
The wards fell.
The door opened.
Kael stepped out.
The Mark blazed like a second sun.
And somewhere, far across the world, Renn Varn felt it and smiled.
The hunt was no longer hidden.
It was global.