The voice that emerged from the darkness was like sweet poison. Clear, musical, yet every word carried a chill that ran through their bodies.
"So at last," the voice repeated. "Tideborne... we finally meet."
The black-robed figure stepped out of the darkness and into the light. The sickly yellow glow of Grak's lantern fell upon it, and for a moment, everyone's breath caught in their throats.
It wasn't a man.
It was a woman.
She was tall and slender, the fabric of her robe so black it seemed to swallow the light. She pushed back her hood. Her face... her face was as beautiful as an angel's, but like that of a fallen angel. Her skin was as pale as the moon, her lips as red as blood, and her hair was as black as night, flowing over her shoulders.
But her eyes... her eyes were the most terrifying thing. They were a deep violet, and they held no emotion—not anger, not hatred. Just a cold, calculating observation. Like a scientist peering at an insect under a microscope.
"You..." was all Mara could manage to say.
"Me?" the woman asked with a faint smile, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "Some call me the Master. Some, the 'Shadow of the Isles.' But you... you may call me Elara."
Kael didn't respond. He did what a warrior does. He moved forward like a shadow, his sword aimed directly at Elara's heart.
"Kael, no!" Liora tried to scream in a weak voice.
But it was too late. Kael's speed was like lightning. His sword was just an inch from Elara's chest...
...and then it stopped.
The sword froze in mid-air, as if it had hit an invisible wall. Kael tried to push forward with all his might, his muscles trembling with strain, but the sword didn't move a single millimeter.
"Brave," Elara said calmly, as if she wasn't even looking at the point of his sword. "But futile. Your metal is nothing before my will."
She raised her hand. From the ground around Kael, black, smoke-like tentacles erupted and ensnared him. They lifted him into the air, his swords falling from his grasp and clattering to the ground.
"Kael!" Mara screamed.
"RAAAAAH!" Grak roared and charged towards Elara, raising his hammer.
Elara didn't even glance at him. She simply lifted a single finger. Grak, the man as massive as a mountain, suddenly hit an invisible force and was thrown backward as if he were a paper doll. He crashed to the ground, a pained groan escaping his lips.
Two strikes. Two seconds. And their two most powerful warriors were defeated.
Elara now fixed her full attention on Aarav.
"So this is you," she said, her steps slowly closing the distance between them. "The one all this noise is about. You do look special. Just as Rohan described. 'A beautiful face, but hollow inside'."
Aarav's entire body tensed. "You... you knew Rohan."
"I know everything, Aarav Mehra," Elara said, coming extremely close to him. Her voice was now a whisper. "I know you used to stand alone during your school assemblies. I know you used to look out your window at night, wondering if there was a place in this world where people would see you for you, not for your face. I know your every fear. Your every doubt."
Aarav's mind went numb. How was this possible? How did this woman know about his past?
"It's... it's the Shadow Aether," Liora said in a weak voice, sitting near Grak. "It... it can read memories... feel fear."
"Very clever," Elara said without looking at Liora. "Aether is life. It connects everything. And Shadow Aether is the dark reflection of that life. It also connects everything, but not with love, with fear. When I found Rohan in this world, his fear showed me the way to you. He hated you so much that his hatred shone like a beacon."
She stopped in front of Aarav. "You must be thinking I want to kill you. No. I want to understand you. There is something special about you. The Tide chose you. But the Tide is a blind, meaningless force. It just flows. I... I give that flow direction. I am its master."
"You're not a master," Aarav said suddenly, his voice no longer holding fear, but anger. "You're just a thief. You control things because you can't create them."
For a moment, something in Elara's eyes shifted. A flicker of... surprise? "Your tongue is sharper than your looks."
"You said you know my fears," Aarav continued, his courage growing. "Then you must also know that I'm tired of that fear. You can't scare me, Elara. You're just showing me the same things I've already seen."
He bent down and picked up Kael's sword. The sword Kael had given him. A warrior's honor.
"Rohan made the same mistake," Aarav said, gripping the sword with both hands. "He thought he could break me. But he only made me stronger. And you are doing the same."
As he gripped the sword, the Blade Sigil on his palm flashed once more. This time, it didn't disappear. A faint, silver light began to emanate from the sword-shaped symbol.
Elara's smile faded slightly. "Oh? So this toy has some life in it."
Around her, the shadows in the darkness began to deepen. The air grew heavy, as if all the oxygen in the room had been sucked out. It was a pressure that weighed not on the body, but on the soul.
Grak and Mara started to have trouble breathing. Liora groaned in pain. Kael, still bound by the tentacles, began to struggle.
But Aarav... the pressure was having less of an effect on Aarav. The faint light from the Blade Sigil was cutting through the darkness of the Shadow Aether, like a diamond cutting glass.
"How...?" Elara breathed. There was genuine surprise on her face now. "Your power should come from the Tide. This... this is different. This is your own."
Aarav didn't understand it himself. But he knew one thing. As long as this sword was in his hand, as long as his friends were with him, he would not bow.
"Let them go," Aarav said, a new confidence in his voice.
"Giving me orders?" The music in Elara's voice was now replaced by thorns. "You haven't even seen my true power yet, boy."
She held out her hand. In front of her palms, the darkness began to gather, forming a black, swirling sphere. It felt as if a thousand screams were trapped inside it.
"This is the heart of the Shadow Aether," she said. "Behold, and despair."
The sphere began to move towards Aarav.
But just then, that same scraping sound was heard. Scrape... Scrape...
First one, then two, then dozens.
Elara paused. A look of annoyance crossed her face. "No. Not now."
From both ends of the tunnel, from the darkness, a horde of Tunnel Crawlers began to emerge. They had probably sensed the sphere of power or the fight that was taking place.
"Looks like you have more guests," Mara said, panting.
The Crawlers looked at Elara. They looked at Aarav and his friends. To them, everyone was prey.
One Crawler leaped at Elara.
Elara shot it an angry look. A blast of black smoke from her hand turned the Crawler to ash in mid-air. But from the other side, three more Crawlers lunged at the tentacles holding Kael. The tentacles snapped, and Kael fell to the ground.
Suddenly, the whole scene devolved into a battlefield. Crawlers were attacking from all sides. Elara was destroying them in a rage, but there were so many that her attention was divided.
"NOW!" Kael yelled as he got to his feet. "RUN!"
This was their chance.
Grak threw Liora over his shoulder. Mara helped him. Kael picked up his other sword.
"Aarav! Let's go!"
Elara saw them fleeing. She raised her hand to stop them, but just then, five Crawlers attacked her at once.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE, TIDEBORNE!" her voice echoed through the tunnel.
But Aarav wasn't listening to her. He was running with his friends into the darkness, as fast as he could.
They were running for their lives.
They turned into another tunnel, then another. They didn't know where they were going. They were just running away from that death.
After running for a long time, when they felt like their lungs would burst, they stopped in one place.
There was no sound of Crawlers or Elara here. Just their own panting breaths.
"Did we... did we make it?" Liora asked, getting down from Grak's shoulder.
No one could answer. They were all too exhausted.
Aarav leaned against the wall. He still held Kael's sword in his hand. He looked at the sword. Then he looked at the Blade Sigil on his palm, which had now gone dormant.
He had stood before Elara. He hadn't lost.
But he hadn't won either. He hadn't been allowed to win.
"She... she let us go," Aarav said softly.
Everyone looked at him.
"What do you mean?" Mara asked.
"She could have killed us all in a second," Aarav explained. "But she didn't. The Crawlers were just a diversion. She let us run. Because... because for her, this is a game."
That realization was more terrifying than any victory. They weren't the hunters. They were the prey.
And the hunter was just playing with them.