The sky split with fire.
The instructor no longer fought to suppress the evolving beasts.
He fought to survive them.
Flame exploded across the storm in violent spirals as he twisted through converging wind attacks, each movement sharper and heavier than before. The storm wolves had changed.
Especially the larger one.
The moment Eryndor entered the ancient tree—
it felt it.
And everything escalated.
The larger wolf threw back its head and released a howl that distorted the surrounding currents so violently that the clouds themselves warped outward in rings.
Then it pushed its evolution further.
The storm reacted instantly.
Wind currents from across the surrounding region began converging unnaturally toward the evolving beast. Elemental essence flooded through the sky in visible streams, spiraling into its semi-stabilized body.
Its form became denser.
Sharper.
More real.
The instructor's expression darkened.
"It's forcing absorption…"
That was normal for evolving feral beasts.
When deprived of a proper elemental treasure, they compensated by violently absorbing ambient essence from the environment itself.
But this—
this scale was madness.
Below, the students felt it immediately.
The surrounding essence thinned.
Water failed to gather properly around the water user's hands.
The wind students struggled to maintain stable current control.
Even the fire student's flames flickered inconsistently as surrounding elemental density dropped.
The evolving wolf was devouring everything.
"HOLD YOUR FORMATION!" the lightning student shouted as another feral beast broke through their defensive line.
But the pressure was becoming unbearable.
Movements slowed.
Breathing sharpened.
Core strain intensified.
A winged beast crashed through a wind barrier and slammed into the ground beside the injured student, forcing the fire user to intercept with a violent ignition burst that sent heat spiraling across the battlefield.
Even then—
the beast barely slowed.
Above them, the instructor was being driven backward.
The stabilizing wolf moved with terrifying precision now, controlling storm currents while the evolving beast focused entirely on absorption. Wind blades formed in overlapping layers, forcing the instructor into constant defense.
Flame collided against compressed air again and again.
Explosions shattered cloud layers.
Pressure waves rolled across the Expanse.
The instructor fired another flaming arrow from his elemental bow.
The projectile screamed through the storm and exploded against the evolving wolf's shoulder, tearing away a portion of its unstable essence channels.
The beast staggered.
Then regenerated.
Faster than before.
Its absorption rate had increased.
The instructor clicked his tongue.
This could not continue.
With one hand maintaining his flaming bow, he reached into his robes and removed a small crimson emblem marked with the academy crest.
A reinforcement signal.
He stared at it for half a second.
Still dull.
No response.
No nearby reinforcements.
Too far.
His jaw tightened.
Below, another student screamed as a feral beast tore through their defensive formation.
The instructor closed his eyes briefly.
Then made his decision.
Flame deepened around him.
Not larger.
Denser.
The air itself began trembling from the pressure.
When he opened his eyes again, heat distortion rippled across the sky in expanding waves.
"Partial Domain…"
The words escaped through clenched teeth.
Flame exploded outward.
The storm ignited.
Not fully.
Not completely.
But enough.
The sky around him transformed into a burning atmospheric field where heat spread unnaturally through the surrounding air. Oxygen ignited in scattered flashes as fire began drawing itself from the environment itself.
The pressure shifted instantly.
The students below stared upward in shock.
Even the feral beasts hesitated briefly.
The instructor's face twisted in strain.
Veins bulged faintly along his neck.
Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
His core was not ready.
He had not fully reached the stage necessary to maintain a stable Partial Domain.
And forcing it open was tearing his channels apart.
But the effect was immediate.
The stabilizing wolf recoiled as flames began igniting across the storm currents surrounding it. Heat spread unnaturally through the air, forcing wind layers to destabilize.
The instructor moved.
Within his Partial Domain, his flames reacted faster than before.
He drew his bow.
Three flaming arrows formed simultaneously.
Release.
The projectiles curved through the storm like hunting comets before detonating around the stabilizing wolf in a tri-layered explosion that shattered half the surrounding storm mass.
The beast roared.
The instructor descended through the opening with blazing momentum and drove a burning strike directly into its chest.
The sky detonated.
For several breaths, neither side advanced.
The battle became a stalemate.
Fire against storm.
Flame against essence.
Will against instinct.
Then—
the evolving wolf howled.
The sound rolled across the Expanse like a living pressure wave.
The second wolf reacted instantly.
Its wings spread wide as the storm currents shifted direction entirely.
Toward the ancient tree.
Toward Eryndor.
The instructor's eyes widened.
"No—!"
But the storm had already begun moving.
The second wolve abandoned the aerial clash completely and surged across the sky like a living catastrophe, dragging the storm with them.
And below—
the horde followed.
While at the ancient tree, darkness swallowed Eryndor whole.
For several seconds he felt nothing except the sensation of falling through hollow space while wind and pressure faded above him.
Then—
impact.
Pain exploded through his body as he crashed against soft earth and rolled violently across uneven ground.
Silence followed.
Not true silence.
Breathing silence.
Living silence.
Eryndor groaned and slowly forced his eyes open.
And froze.
A world existed inside the tree.
Not a hollow chamber.
Not a tunnel.
A hidden garden.
The interior stretched far beyond what should have been possible, as though the inside of the ancient tree contained an entirely separate space untouched by the outside world.
Massive roots arched overhead like the pillars of an ancient cathedral, their surfaces glowing with flowing lines of pale elemental essence. Countless luminous flowers bloomed across the ground in drifting shades of silver, blue, and soft green, releasing glowing particles into the air like floating stars.
Streams of transparent water wound quietly through the garden, carrying shimmering essence through crystal-clear channels.
Ancient moss glowed faintly across stone pathways partially reclaimed by roots older than memory itself.
Above, no sky existed.
Only a vast canopy of intertwining roots and branches radiating soft light like a second heavens.
The essence here felt different.
Purer.
Denser.
Alive.
The moment he breathed it in, his exhausted core trembled instinctively.
Eryndor stared in awe.
Then instinct screamed.
He turned—
Too late.
Three feral beasts lunged from behind the glowing roots.
Smaller than the storm wolves outside, but still true feral beasts.
Physical.
Violent.
The first slammed into him before he could react.
Pain exploded through his skull as he was hurled sideways into a massive root formation. Blood streamed down the side of his face instantly.
The second beast followed with crushing speed, claws raking across his shoulder before the third drove him across the glowing grass.
His vision blurred.
His body screamed.
Exhaustion dragged at every limb.
The beasts circled.
Waiting.
Eryndor forced himself upward slowly, blood dripping from his brow onto the glowing roots beneath him.
His legs trembled.
His breathing broke unevenly.
Fear clawed at his chest.
But beneath that fear—
resolve remained.
He did not want to die here.
Not like this.
The beasts lunged again.
And for the first time—
Eryndor stopped reaching only for his core.
Instead—
he reached for the essence surrounding him.