The afternoon sun blazed overhead, but the halls of Zane's mansion were cold, frozen with grief.
Ethan's death still clung to the air like a shadow, too sudden to be accepted, too real to be denied.
Freya couldn't bear the weight of it. She had stepped outside, unable to remain in the same room as her son's lifeless body. Her legs trembled as she sank onto a bench beneath the veranda. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. If she stayed any longer... she knew she would collapse.
Inside, silence reigned.
Ander stood stiffly, one hand gripping Sera's shoulder as she wept quietly. Lisa knelt beside Ethan's body, tears trailing silently down her cheeks. Her fingers hovered just inches above his hand, but she couldn't bring herself to touch him.
He looked peaceful, too peaceful like he could wake up at any moment, but he wouldn't.
A healer approached slowly, his voice low, regretful. "I'm sorry… we've tried everything. But… there's nothing more we can do."
He bowed his head, not daring to meet Zane's eyes.
Zane didn't respond. He said nothing.
He simply leaned back against the wall, arms crossed with his eyes closed.
He had already buried his words with his son.
Zane had always been proud to have a son. A boy to carry his legacy. Someone to sharpen, to train, to one day surpass him. Someone who would make him proud.
But now… all that remained was silence, and pain.
Grief carved deep lines into his face as he stared at the boy he once held in his arms, the boy who now lay still and cold before him.
The room was heavy with sorrow. Freya's cries echoed faintly from outside. Lisa clutched Ethan's hand like letting go would shatter her.
But, Doctor Reinhard had remained quiet the entire time, a stone among mourners. He stood at the edge of the room, eyes focused not on emotion… but on something else.
He stepped closer to Ethan's body, eyes narrowing with curiosity rather than grief.
Everyone noticed his slow movements.
"Mr. Zane," Reinhard said suddenly, his voice low but sharp, "you mentioned once… you had your son wear a mana-suppressing bracelet. The Binding Relic, correct?"
Zane looked up slowly. "Yes. I did. Though it's been years since I heard that name…"
Reinhard straightened, his voice gaining urgency. "Do you know where it is now?"
Zane blinked, confused. "No. But it should still be in the forest… where the farmers found him. Why? What does it matter now?"
Reinhard turned fully toward him, his expression hard. "Because if that relic was broken, or worse.… it might not have just suppressed his mana. It might have sealed something inside him."
Zane's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"
Reinhard looked down at Ethan's corpse, then back up.
"I'm saying… he may not be entirely dead."
Zane's brows furrowed deeply, his arms still folded tightly as he leaned against the wall. "he may... Not be entirely dead? What are you implying, Doctor?"
Reinhard sighed and stepped closer to Ethan's body, his voice quiet but clear. "The Binding Relic is not just a mana suppressor. It was forged in the ancient wars… used to compress overwhelming mana and contain volatile spiritual states, particularly when a soul is at risk of being overtaken."
He glanced at Zane.
"If your son was pushed too far, driven by anger, pain, grief, or fear, it's possible his soul didn't pass on. Instead… it was sealed within the relic the moment it left his body."
Zane's eyes narrowed. "Sealed? You're saying… Ethan's soul is trapped?"
"Yes," Reinhard confirmed. "If the relic rejected his state, his rage, his mana overflow, it might have acted on its original function. It didn't suppress, it contained it."
Ander's voice broke through the tension. "Then there's still a chance?"
Reinhard looked down at Ethan, his face grim. "There's a very small window. But yes… if we find that relic, and if the soul wasn't corrupted beyond recognition… we may still be able to bring him back."
Silence gripped the room.
Zane stood slowly from the wall, his fists clenched.
"Then we're going back into that forest."
Lisa looked up with sudden hope while her mother, Sera covered her mouth in shock.
Ander placed a hand on Zane's shoulder. "I'll go with you."
Zane's eyes locked on Ethan one last time, his heart was filled with determination.
"I'm not burying my son until I know
he's gone."
Zane gripped the reins tightly, his cloak whipping in the wind as the horse galloped with fury through the village streets. Ander rode close behind, his sword strapped across his back, his face locked with resolve.
Freya stood at the gate, her heart pounding, torn between hope and fear.
"Save him…" she whispered, watching their figures vanish into the trees. "Please…"
As the forest loomed ahead, dark and dense, Zane's mind raced.
They had to find that relic, no matter what it took, his son's soul depended on it.
The forest loomed dark and heavy, branches clawing at the sky like skeletal fingers. The air reeked of blood and rot, and the silence, it wasn't natural. It was the kind of silence that warned of something broken.
Zane and Ander galloped in, hooves pounding against the dirt trail, urgency laced in every breath. They dismounted at the forest's edge, not wasting a second. Zane's sharp eyes scanned the ground until he spotted it, a dark trail, faint, almost dried blood.
"This way," he said, his voice low and grim.
They followed the trail deeper into the woods. The trees closed in around them, casting long shadows across the path. It wasn't long before the air grew colder, and heavier. The blood trail thickened, smeared across roots and rocks, as if something or someone had been dragged.
Then they saw it....
The entrance to the demon goblin chamber, barely concealed beneath tangled roots and stone. And what lay inside… was carnage.
Zane froze at the threshold.
Ander stumbled a step back. "Gods…"
The chamber was a massacre.
Goblin corpses littered the floor, limbs severed, heads crushed, torsos split open like broken fruit. The stone walls dripped with blood. Intestines coiled like ropes between cracked bones. It didn't look like a battle. It looked like a slaughter.
"Your… Your son did this?" Ander asked, voice shaking. His eyes were wide, disbelief plastered on his face.
Zane couldn't answer....
Ethan had done this.
Ethan, his twelve-year-old son. A boy who hadn't even completed formal combat training. A boy… who shouldn't have survived one Hellfang fox, let alone this army of monsters.
Still mute with shock, Zane stepped forward, his boots squelching through the blood-soaked stone. They had come for one thing, the Binding Relic. And no matter what this place had become… they had to find it.
He and Ander scoured the chamber, digging through piles of ash, blood, and broken armor. Time crawled. Minutes stretched. The relic was nowhere in sight.
Zane's heart began to sink. What if it was destroyed? What if the soul it held… was lost?
Something immediately caught his eye.
One corpse, unlike the others. Larger. Armored. Severed at the wrists. Its skin was a sickly shade of grey-green, and black ichor oozed from its mouth.
"The Goblin Leader…" he whispered.
He crouched beside the mangled creature, examining its shattered limbs. No hands. Nothing on its wrists. But Zane's gut twisted with a realization; it hadn't just been killed. Something had ripped its arms off. Deliberately.
He narrowed his eyes, scanning the nearby gore for anything that glinted, anything that pulsed with mana.
Ander voice quickly cut through the silent search....
"Found something!" Ander called out from across the chamber.
Zane turned immediately at Ander's direction.
Ander stood, drenched in blood, holding up a jagged, broken object between two fingers. It shimmered faintly under the torchlight, dark metal cracked down the middle, but etched with glowing runes that still pulsed with life.
Zane rushed over to Ander's location.
The Binding Relic.
It was damaged… but intact. The ancient runes along its edges flickered with a dying light, like the last heartbeat of a soul trapped within.
Zane took it into his hands, cradling it like glass. His chest tightened. "He's still in there…"
Ander's gaze swept over the carnage once more, his eyes lingering on the mutilated bodies, then shifting to the faintly glowing relic in Zane's hand.
"If your son really did all this… at that age," Ander said quietly, "I can't even imagine how powerful he'll become when he's grown."
Zane didn't respond right away. His jaw tightened as he stared at the relic, still humming weakly in his palm.
"This is why the relic matters," he finally said. "We have to find a way to suppress his mana, at least until he's old enough to control it himself. That kind of power… if left unchecked…"
He trailed off.
Ander nodded, though concern still clouded his face. "You think he really did all this on his own?"
"I don't know," Zane admitted. "Maybe someone intervened. A guardian… or something darker. Either way, whatever happened here, it might have changed him."
They turned back, stepping carefully over the thick, congealed blood. Every footfall echoed through the now silent chamber. Once outside, they mounted their horses, the bloodstained relic clutched tightly in Zane's hand.
The sun was already setting by the time they broke through the treeline. The golden light dipped low over the hills, casting long shadows across the fields. As they neared the mansion, they were met with a sight neither expected.
The gates were surrounded.
Villagers from Almsworth; dozens of them, had gathered. Word had already spread. Whispers of Ethan's death had moved faster than fire in dry grass.
Many held flowers. Others wept quietly. Some offered prayers under their breath.
Zane and Ander rode slowly through the crowd. Heads bowed as they passed.
Zane and Ander dismounted, the weight of the relic heavy in Zane's hand as they approached Doctor Reinhard and the others gathered near Ethan's lifeless body.
Without a word, Zane handed over the bracelet. Reinhard took it gently, his eyes narrowing with focus as he examined the dried blood around the rune-carved metal and the dull crystal at its center.
He turned away and knelt beside his satchel, retrieving a small box filled with relic-repairing tools, enchanted clamps, and mana conductors. With the silence of a man used to working between life and death, he carefully detached the cracked crystal from the old binding relic.
Then, Reinhard lifted a new, pristine bracelet from the box, sleek, engraved with fresh glyphs of balance and containment.
Everyone watched, breath held, as he inserted the old crystal into the new frame. For a brief moment, the gem flickered… then began to glow faintly.
He walked slowly to Ethan's still body, eyes serious, and gently laid the bracelet on the boy's chest.
At first, nothing.
Then... crack!
A sudden burst of blue lightning arced from the crystal, striking straight into Ethan's heart. His fingers twitched. His arm jerked slightly.
Gasps echoed through the room.
"His hand... it just moved!" Lisa cried out, her voice trembling with hope and disbelief.
Reinhard didn't react. He simply turned to Zane. "Get the villagers out of the courtyard. Shut the entrance. No one else sees what happens next."
Zane gave a sharp nod, ordering his maids to clear the grounds.
Freya stepped forward, her voice tight with desperation. "Doctor… is it working? Will he come back to us?"
Reinhard glanced at the flickering bracelet, then at Ethan.
"There's only one way to find out," he said, his voice quiet but firm. "We try… and we wait."