Leonia had vanished.
Not all at once.
At first, Elizabeth could still see the crown of golden hair.
That lone streak of light amid an ocean of darkness.
Then it drifted farther back.
Retreating.
After that...
only the glint of a raised sword against the crimson sky.
Then...
nothing.
The knight stood only slightly shorter than Elizabeth herself.
But within that sea of bodies, monsters, and transformed wolves, a woman standing five feet ten disappeared quickly.
Swallowed by the endless tide of enemies that refused to stop coming.
— LEONIA!
Her voice tore across the battlefield like a blade.
Sharp.
Desperate.
Cutting through the roars of beasts and the thunder of clashing steel.
No answer.
Only roars.
Metal.
Screams.
Elizabeth forced her way forward.
Shoving.
Cutting.
Advancing with a fury that bordered on madness.
The gemstones embedded within her armor blazed once more.
Ancient magic stitched torn muscles back together before they could finish ripping apart.
It held collapse at bay.
It forced her heart to keep beating long after it should have stopped.
But it did not erase the pain.
She felt everything.
Every cut.
Every impact.
Every bone that came within a breath of breaking.
Every nerve exposed to the frozen air.
The price was merely postponed.
Never forgiven.
Safira... where are you?
No answer.
The bond remained silent.
Not empty.
Silent.
Like a line of communication severed by some outside force.
Her wolf still refused to emerge.
Elizabeth did not know whether it was exhaustion.
Enemy magic.
Or whether something far greater was preventing Safira from taking control.
Perhaps the forced hibernation poison was spreading faster than she had imagined.
Perhaps Safira was fighting something deep within her own mind.
Perhaps the spell woven into that arrow during the ambush had weakened her.
Perhaps...
Another blade scraped across her breastplate.
A shower of sparks illuminated the night.
Elizabeth answered by driving her sword through the attacker's chest.
The blade entered with a wet sound.
Found his heart.
The wolf collapsed without a single cry.
She never even looked back.
She kept searching.
Silver eyes sweeping frantically across the battlefield.
— LEONIA!
Nothing.
The griffin cried out again.
Farther away this time.
Opening another path.
Calling her forward.
As though it knew exactly where she needed to go.
As though something waited within the darkness.
Something only Elizabeth could face.
She hesitated.
Only for a second.
Perhaps even less.
Just long enough for the frozen air to fill her lungs.
Long enough for doubt to pierce her heart.
Turn back.
Or keep moving.
Search for the knight.
Or stop something even worse waiting ahead.
The choice was impossible.
Its weight heavier than any sword she had ever carried.
It was during that single heartbeat that a rogue lunged at her from behind.
A soldier of Solari.
His eyes burned crimson with rage.
His claws reached for her throat.
The princess's sword pierced his neck before she even turned to look.
An instinctive movement.
Disciplined.
Perfect.
The body struck the ground with a heavy thud.
But her heart...
Her heart was no longer in the battle.
It was searching for a golden-haired knight among hundreds of corpses.
Among piles of severed limbs.
Among pools of freezing blood.
It was calling a name...
one the silence seemed determined to swallow.
And for the first time since she had entered the Forest of the Three Suns...
Elizabeth felt fear.