The forest had grown denser, as if the trees leaned in to whisper forbidden secrets. The branches—black and twisted—interwove above their heads like skeletal fingers. No creature sang. No wind blew.
Too much silence.
Kaelith noticed it first.
—"This… isn't natural."
Serenya unsheathed her sword. This time, without flame.
—"We're being hunted."
Lyssara closed her eyes. Darkness embraced her instantly. She felt the echoes of something ancient. Something hungry. Something… that had been sleeping. Until now.
—"It's not a living creature," she murmured. "It's worse."
A piercing shriek tore through the air.
From the underbrush emerged formless shadows. Floating bodies, faceless, wrapped in torn bandages that moved as if breathing. Empty eyes glowed between the gaps in the cloth.There were three, then five… then dozens.
—"Abyssal Wraiths," Serenya whispered, her face hardened. "No one survives a swarm."
—"We will," Lyssara replied.
The first one lunged. Kaelith spun her dagger, but it was Lyssara who moved. Her shadow rose like a wave and wrapped around the wraith, dragging it to the ground where black roots devoured it.
Another shrieked, launching a sonic wave that made Kaelith's ears bleed. Serenya reacted instantly, her sword igniting with a pale flame.
—"Behind you!"
Lyssara turned just in time to block an attack with her claws cloaked in darkness. But there were too many. They moved as one, with ancient, irrational hatred.
—"Fall back!" Serenya shouted. "Fuse your shadows with my fire! Now!"
Lyssara hesitated. Combine magic? It could destroy them all… or consume them too.
But there was no choice.
—"Do it!"
Both channeled their energies. Shadow and flame—golden light and pure darkness—collided in a spinning sphere between them. The air cracked. The earth split.
And then… it exploded.
A blast of searing darkness swept through the forest, reducing the wraiths to drifting ash. Kaelith was thrown to the ground by the shockwave. Serenya was on her knees, gasping. Lyssara staggered, blood pounding in her temples.
When the dust settled, all three were alive.
Barely.
—"Don't ever do that again without warning," Serenya said, her voice shaky.
—"I will… when you trust me," Lyssara replied—exhausted but steady.
Kaelith laughed weakly.
—"That… was beautiful and horrible at the same time."
Serenya helped her to her feet. Then, without looking at Lyssara, she extended a hand.
—"If you want to survive… cooperate."
Lyssara looked at it for a moment. Then she accepted.
—"For now."
It wasn't friendship.
It wasn't a full truce.
But something changed that night.They had seen what they could do together.
And also… what they could destroy.