"We need to move," Professor Nyala whispered, her silver sigils beginning to fade as exhaustion took its toll. "The containment won't hold much longer, and those approaching entities will reach us within the hour."
Saguna looked across the ruins at his trapped companions. Radji and Osa remained surrounded by lesser shadows, their combined defenses holding but clearly weakening. The Kala Drah continued its vigil beside his family home, those multiple faces occasionally turning toward them with malevolent patience.
"How do we reach them?" Saguna asked, gesturing toward his friends.
"Carefully," Professor Nyala replied, already weaving new sigils. "And together. The fire circle has served its purpose, it's time to become mobile anchors."
She began to alter the flames in the circle, drawing them inward and concentrating their power. "Step back slowly, Mr. Taksa. Let the fire follow you, but don't break the connection."
Saguna rose cautiously from his kneeling position, feeling the flames respond to his movement. Instead of remaining fixed in the stone circle, the fire flowed with him, forming a protective barrier that moved as he moved.
"Incredible," he breathed, watching the flames dance around him like a living shield.
"A walking anchor," Professor Nyala explained, sweat beading on her forehead from the effort of the modification. "It won't last long, but it should give us enough time to reach your friends and escape."
They began moving toward where Radji and Osa were trapped, Professor Nyala's silver sigils creating a path through the lesser shadows. The dark entities recoiled from their combined light, hissing and writhing but not daring to attack directly.
As they drew closer, Saguna could see the strain on his companions' faces. Radji's earth barriers had cracked in several places, and Osa's water shields flickered with each shadow strike.
"Hold on!" Saguna called out. "We're coming!"
But their movement hadn't gone unnoticed. The Kala Drah's multiple heads turned toward them, and when it spoke, its voice carried a note of amusement.
"The fire-child... learns to walk... How... delightful... But walking... makes you... vulnerable..."
It raised two of its arms, and suddenly the lesser shadows surrounding Radji and Osa began to change. Instead of the amorphous masses they'd been fighting, the entities started taking more defined shapes—twisted amalgamations of the village's drained inhabitants.
"By the elements," Professor Nyala gasped. "It's using their essence to strengthen its minions."
The shadow-things now had recognisable features; Mrs. Sari's kind eyes in a distorted face, Tommy's young voice calling for help. But their bodies were wrong, stretched and darkened, with claws where hands should be.
"Don't listen to them," Saguna shouted to his friends, recognizing the psychological warfare. "They're not real!"
But even as he said it, doubt crept into his mind. What if some part of the villagers remained trapped within these creatures? What if attacking them meant destroying the very people they hoped to save?
One of the shadow entities lunged at Radji, its claws raking across his earth shield. The barrier held, but barely. Radji stumbled backward, his concentration wavering.
"I can't — they look so real —" he gasped.
"They're shadows wearing stolen faces!" Osa called back, his water forming spears that struck the nearest entity. Where the water touched, the creature's borrowed features melted away, revealing the darkness beneath. "Fight the shadows, not the memories!"
With Professor Nyala's help, they broke through the ring of shadow-entities. Saguna rushed toward the nearest creature, one wearing Tommy's young face but with claws where hands should be. His fire blazed hot, but the thing was fast, dodging aside with unnatural speed.
It lunged at him, only to stumble as the ground shifted beneath its feet. Radji's work, though his friend was twenty feet away dealing with his own attacker. In that moment of imbalance, Osa's water struck the creature like a spear, and Saguna's heat turned it instantly to scalding steam. The borrowed face melted away, revealing only writhing darkness beneath.
"They're just shadows wearing masks," Osa called out, his water finding every gap in the creatures' defenses while Radji's earth walls kept them from overwhelming any single point.
The possessed shadows tried to surround them, but somehow it never worked. When one creature attempted to flank Saguna, Radji's stone spear — glowing red-hot from residual fire — caught it in the chest. When another dove at Osa from above, Saguna's flames were already there to meet it, as if he'd sensed the attack without looking.
They moved like they'd been fighting together for years, not days. Each covered the others' openings without conscious thought, their elements finding natural harmony in the chaos of battle.
Within minutes, the lesser shadows were either destroyed or fleeing back toward the spire. The three friends stood together, breathing hard but victorious.
"That was..." Radji began, staring at his hands which still hummed with power.
"Like we could read each other's minds," Osa finished, wiping sweat from his brow. "I knew exactly when you were going to shift the ground, when Saguna would need an opening."
Saguna nodded, equally amazed. For the first time since the marks had appeared, fighting felt natural, not like three separate people trying to coordinate, but like extensions of the same will.
But their celebration was short-lived. The Kala Drah had risen from its feeding position, its multiple faces turned toward them with newfound interest.
"Impressive... little flames... You burn... brighter together... It will make... the feeding... more... satisfying..."
It began moving toward them with that horrible flowing gait, its root-like appendages leaving trails of death in the grass.
"Time to go," Professor Nyala said urgently. "The partial manifestation is becoming more stable. Soon it won't need the breach to sustain itself."
"Which way?" Saguna asked, even as they began backing away from the approaching creature.
"The old smuggler's path," Professor Nyala replied, pointing toward a barely visible trail that led into the dense jungle. "It follows the coastline away from the village. If we can reach it before—"
She was cut off as four new shadow-entities burst from the jungle ahead of them — larger than the others, and moving with purpose rather than the aimless hunger of lesser shadows.
"Sentries," Radji observed grimly. "It's trying to cut off our escape routes."
The Kala Drah's laughter echoed across the ruins. "Did you think... we would let you... simply walk away? You have seen... too much... learned... too much... The triangle... cannot be allowed... to grow stronger..."
Saguna looked at his companions, seeing his own determination reflected in their faces. They'd come so far, learned so much about fighting as one. They weren't the frightened students who'd fled the Academy anymore.
"Then I guess we'll have to make our own way out," he said, calling his fire to full brightness.
They moved without needing to discuss tactics, each knowing instinctively where the others would be, what they would do. The real fight was about to begin.