Hyoga collapsed into the depths of darkness with a final scream tearing through his throat, his lungs burning with searing pain. As death's icy breath wrapped around his soul, a sudden heat erupted directly over his chest—so intense it felt as though it would stop his heart. Something was burning, crackling, shattering with all its might.
CRACK.
The deafening sound split the forest's silence like a blade.
Hyoga jolted awake as if he had fallen from a great height into freezing water. He was gasping for air, his body drenched in cold sweat, his hands trembling uncontrollably. His first instinct was to check his throat and stomach with shaking fingers. No wound. No blood. The phantom pain left behind by the axe still screamed along his nerves, but his body was whole.
"Hyoga? Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?"
Naomi's sleepy voice shattered the deathly silence in his mind. When Hyoga turned his head, he saw his friend breathing safely beside him.
Alive.
Naomi was still alive.
"I… I just…" The words knotted in his throat. His hand moved instinctively to the necklace around his neck. Expecting the familiar smooth surface, his fingers instead met something rough—and froze.
A deep, ominous crack ran straight through the center of the necklace.
As Hyoga struggled to steady the frantic pounding of his heart, he understood this was no nightmare. The crack was physical proof that he had returned from the edge of death—a silent warning. In the blood-soaked vision he had seen, he still could not identify whose hands had held the axe. That meant the most rational move was not to wait in this tent like a lamb for slaughter, but to seek safety among others.
"Naomi, we need to get up," he whispered. His voice trembled, but his resolve did not.
Seeing the indescribable terror in Hyoga's eyes, Naomi rose without asking a single question.
They slipped silently out of the tent and headed toward where Shizuka and Sophia were staying. Beneath his clothes, Hyoga gripped the hilt of the dagger Emily had given him as if it were his only anchor in the world.
Shizuka and Sophia rubbed their eyes in confusion when they saw the two children standing before them in the dead of night.
Hyoga spoke without trying to hide the tremor in his voice.
"We were scared… the sounds outside, the darkness… Please, can we sleep here tonight?"
The childlike vulnerability of the request softened their hearts. Shizuka smiled warmly and pulled back her blanket.
"Of course you can, little one. You're safe here. There's nothing to fear."
Reassured, Naomi quickly drifted into sleep. But rest was impossible for Hyoga. His ears strained at every faint rustle outside, his mind consumed by a single question:
Who was the figure holding that bloodied axe?
If the killer was among the group, they would not dare strike in full view of everyone. If it was an external threat, staying beside experienced adventurers like Shizuka and Sophia was the strongest shield he could hope for.
Touching the cracked necklace at his throat, Hyoga continued to watch the darkness. He had tricked fate once—but the night was far from over.
And death might return at any moment to finish what it had started.
Hyoga's body trembled with the aftershocks of the brutal massacre replaying in his mind, as if every bone were trying to tear itself free. Lying beside him, Sophia noticed the silent, scream-like shivering immediately. This was not the fear of a child startled by the dark—it was something far older, far deeper.
Sophia opened her sleepy eyes and turned toward him. Without hesitation, she gently wrapped her arms around Hyoga and pulled him against her chest.
"Shh… it's over, little one," she whispered, her voice cloaking the night in warmth. "We're here. You're not alone."
As Sophia looked at the fragile child in her arms, she did not see Hyoga—but the ghost of her own past. Years ago, she too had been torn from her family, left utterly alone in a merciless world. She had never forgotten that freezing loneliness, the sharp taste of helplessness.
As she stroked Hyoga's hair, she made a silent, unbreakable vow.
"Look at me, Hyoga," she whispered, locking eyes with his trembling gaze. "I don't fully understand what you went through, or why you're so afraid… but there's something you must know. I've walked those dark roads too. I know what it means to be without a family, to have nowhere to lean."
This time, her voice carried not the softness of a drowsy sister—but the steel resolve of a seasoned warrior.
"I swear to you and Naomi," she said, each word hanging in the air like a seal. "No matter what comes, no matter who stands before us—so long as I breathe, I will protect you both. I will not allow anyone to harm you or steal your joy. This is my oath of honor."
Cradled in Sophia's arms, Hyoga realized he could not remain silent any longer. If he did, the cold edge of that axe would not stay confined to his mind.
With a trembling voice, he told her everything—Naomi's final breath, the marks on her throat, the dark figure wielding the axe. He showed her the cracked necklace, explaining plainly that this had been no dream—that the necklace had shattered to warn him.
Sophia froze at his words. The absolute terror in Hyoga's eyes was not something a child could fake.
"If that's true," she whispered, "then that demon will come here tonight."
They wasted no time.
Sophia quietly woke Shizuka and explained everything. In Hyoga and Naomi's tent, they placed piles of pillows beneath the blankets, forming false targets. Using the moisture in the air, Sophia prepared an invisible, thin layer of ice around the camp—an unseen trap meant to restrict anyone who entered.
At midnight, the forest sank into a lethal silence. As the last embers of the campfire faded, heavy, familiar footsteps emerged from the underbrush.
Hyoga hid behind Sophia, holding his breath.
The tent flap slowly parted.
A massive, hooded shadow slipped inside, a gleaming axe in its hand. The figure approached the "sleeping children" and raised the weapon high.
Just as the blow was about to fall—
"Now!" Sophia shouted.
A surge of icy blue energy burst from her hands, freezing the air inside the tent instantly. Hidden ice runes flared to life, encasing the intruder from the feet upward in a solid mass of crystal ice. The axe-wielding figure froze mid-strike, locked in place like a statue.
Hyoga felt his heartbeat pounding in his ears.
Sophia stepped forward, reached out, and pulled down the dark hood of the frozen figure.