Dust and ash drifted in the stagnant air. It caught in Amanda's throat, choking back the sob that welled up from deep inside.
Behind her, Leo stood in silence. His heartbeat echoed louder than the hushed murmurs of the elves gathering nearby.
Moments ago, his mind had been flooded. A crushing wave of emotion. Each pulse of sorrow, a fresh jolt of agony.
Now, however, sudden clarity washed over him.
An unseen current pulsed through his veins, pushing back the suffocating darkness. His chest felt curiously light. A dull ache remained, but it no longer imprisoned him.
He glanced at Amanda again. She was curled over Seraphina's still figure.
He wished he had the words to console her. Yet, the logic in his mind whispered the truth. She needed this moment. She needed to confront this irreversible reality on her own.
Forcing himself to turn away, Leo surveyed the broader destruction.
Around him, the hushed clamor of elves swelled. Survivors, armor scorched and bodies battered, helped pull the wounded from the debris. Charred scraps of protective gear lay strewn about, mixed with scattered weapons.
Elves huddled in hushed circles. Some sobbing openly. Others staring numbly at the scene.
Then, the sound of elflings.
Those hidden during the battle began to cry. Their voices carried a raw innocence that cut through the lingering silence.
It haunted Leo's heart. But his newly gained composure held.
Step by cautious step, he edged closer to where the behemoth had been imprisoned.
Sharp crystals jutted from the thick branches that held the titan. They reflected the flicker of torchlight in a mocking dance.
The aftermath was grim.
Littered across the scorched ground were the elves who had been confined inside the creature.
Faces frozen in pure terror. As though their last moments had been filled with unimaginable horror.
Just then, a new power rippled through Elderglade.
Rumble!
It erupted from the distant castle. A surge of magic so potent the ground under Leo's feet shuddered.
The very air tensed. A vibrating hum rattled stone and bone alike.
Instinctively, he looked up.
In the distance, towering spires rose above the scorched horizon. The brilliant blaze that had crowned the grim silhouette was now gone. A moment later, a cold, pulsing wave of energy rolled outward from the stone, settling an eerie silence over the ruins.
Lab-dub!
Lab-dub!
Gasps and startled cries swept through the elves. Their grief momentarily eclipsed by fear and awe.
Leo's breath caught.
Something in the castle's light felt wholly different.
It felt sharper. More focused.
Around him, the air suddenly became hard to breathe. Elves stumbled, grabbing at their throats, their quiet talking turning into quick, gasping coughs.
An invisible weight suddenly pressed down on everyone. The most bruised survivors simply dropped to their knees, pushed down by the unbearable power. Not even the distant elflings escaped: they stopped their crying, their small bodies naturally lowering toward the ground.
Shaking.
Heaving.
He flicked a glance back at Amanda.
The radiance bathed her slumped figure. Highlighting every tear. Every trembling breath.
All around them, Elderglade seemed to hold its breath. The hush was broken only by the ragged sobs of elflings and the crackle of dying flames.
Whatever new calamity was brewing within the castle's walls, it had announced itself with unsettling urgency.
Beyond the crumbling arches, tendrils of smoke curled above.
A final testament to the savage awakening.
A deep rumble throbbed through the corridors.
Dust billowed in every hallway, stirred into swirling clouds by the trembling floors. Guards lay scattered at every corner. One guard clawed at the marble floor, his leg crushed beneath a fallen lintel. He gasped for air, fingers leaving desperate trails in the dust as he strained against the immovable weight.
Nearby, another soldier rose.
He gripped the shaft of a broken spear.
He pushed himself up, knees trembling madly against the weight of his armor. But his strength failed.
He collapsed back against the cold stone. A low groan escaped his lips as he clutched a hand to his side, dark fluid seeping between his fingers.
Torch flames flickered wildly. They struggled against drafts that hissed through new cracks in the ancient masonry.
Then the heavy hum that had reverberated through the chambers faded. Leaving a strange emptiness in its wake.
Amid the trembling fortress, one hallway stood in utter disarray.
The massive doors at its end had been wrenched from the walls. Reduced to split timbers. Twisted branches.
Beyond the destroyed entrance, the chamber was a ruin.
Remnants of a podium lay strewn across the marble floor. Fragments of carved wood and stone, telling of something once regal.
It choked the air and wrapped the interior in a translucent veil that made shapes indistinct and colors bleed together.
Yet through that haze, thin beams of light sliced through the gloom. Illuminating the destruction with pale radiance.
In the heart of the chamber, an otherworldly hum persisted.
Soft.
Unrelenting.
Where a grand chair have stood, only jagged shards remained. The sharp edges caught motes of light as they drifted.
Above the rubble, a lone figure hovered.
The silhouette was barely discernible through the haze. But flashes of illumination revealed the figure's unnaturally still posture.
A faint crackle of arcane energy hissed around it. Making the air beneath shimmer like a mirage.
Floating like a ghost in the ruins it created. Robes trailing in the air like restless shadows.
Then, the figure moved.
In one hand, a staff materialized, stretching long and ethereal across its frame.
As its four pairs of symmetrical ears twitched, they began pulling the noise of Elderglade's wrecked city into the chamber.
Something ancient had returned. And now, it was gathering the world to itself.