After the owners got emergency therapy (from a doctor who apparently has a part-time degree in trauma counseling), things finally calmed down.
Well, "calmed down" meaning nothing was on fire, no one was screaming, and the mini jaguar wasn't eating anyone's shoes.
A rare peaceful morning.
Belos ate an omelet at the table—an omelet so professionally made, so aromatic, so chef-level, that even Ember paused and said:
"Who the hell cooked that?"
And Belos, without looking up, said:
"Nyxar and Vespera."
Everyone froze.
Sylas blinked.
The driver stared.
Sebastian lowered his coffee like it offended him.
Because yes—those two look like twins, act like war crimes, and apparently cook like Michelin chefs. Nobody knows how those facts coexist.
Belos, however, just shrugged:
"They said they're going to test their new abilities."
air quotes so dramatic they could cut glass
Every single person except Ember went:
"Yeah that makes sense."
"They have new abilities now?"
"Eh, probably fine."
And they all sat down to eat.
Except Ember.
Because Ember has HISTORY.
Ember has PTSD.
Ember has watched these two "test" things before, and she knows:
When a Nyxar test happens, someone dies. When a Vespera test happens, someone PRAYS they die.
So she sighed, got up, left her breakfast behind, and tracked them down like the disappointed older sister she absolutely is.
And oh boy.
Oh boy.
She arrived at the old battlefield—the same one where those two tried to murder each other—and what she saw made her soul leave her body:
Shadow Jaguars.
Not one.
Not two.
Not THREE.
FOUR.
Shadow jaguars sprinting around like glitching demons in a horror game doing a high-speed game of tag.
Shadow Bell Beast Bella
…except she was now shaped like a horrifying shadow centipede—long, segmented, flexing across the landscape like a Lovecraftian train.
Three Shadow Mantises
Teleporting, dueling, stabbing the air, stabbing the trees, stabbing each other, stabbing concepts.
Ember's eyebrows lifted so high they met the afterlife.
Because in the middle of this warzone?
Nyxar was standing at the forest edge—
His whites blackened out, eyes glowing crimson, dark smoke pouring off him, casually swinging a sword that fired shadow slashes bigger than Ember's monthly stress.
He wasn't even focused—he kept glancing at his grimoire like:
"Am I doing this right?"
Then Ember looked deeper into the forest.
And there was Vespera—
Eyes glowing full blood-red, four spider legs flying out of her back, swinging between trees with crimson silk like some eldritch Spider-Man from a cursed universe.
Every time Nyxar's shadow slash nearly decapitated her?
She dodged with pure spider-parkour.
Every time she messed up a swing?
The spider legs caught her like:
"Nope, not today, queen."
Ember stared.
Ember fully understood.
Ember turned around.
And Ember gave up any and all hope of stopping them.
"Nope. Nope nope nope. I'm eating breakfast."
She marched straight back to the inn, sat down, picked up her fork, and muttered:
"Not my circus, not my demon-children."
THE RETURN OF THE WAR CRIMINAL DUO
Ten minutes later, Nyxar and Vespera walked back into the inn—
Clothes torn.
Blood everywhere.
Smiling like toddlers who broke a priceless vase and considered it a learning experience.
Sylas stared at them.
"WHAT—what absolute nonsense did you two do now?!"
Ember didn't even look up.
"Probably tried to kill each other again."
Nyxar, deadpan as always:
"No. We were experimenting."
Ember smiled. A terrifying smile.
"Oh? And how did that 'experiment' go?"
Nyxar casually wiped a blood smear off his face:
"Very well. We figured out our abilities and how to activate them."
Sylas regretted asking but did it anyway:
"...Abilities…?"
Vespera perked up like an honor student:
"YES. So, when I lose enough blood, my eyes go completely red, I get four spider legs out of my back, my silk becomes blood-red, and I get super strength, speed, and endurance. And the more blood I lose, the stronger I get."
Sebastian blinked slowly.
"That's nice. …I think?"
Nyxar raised his hand to go next:
"Mine activates when one of my organs gets damaged."
Everyone stopped eating.
"My eyes go fully crimson, my whites turn black, I emit dark smoke, coat weapons in shadow, and can launch shadow attacks based on weapon shape.
Also, I can coat my summons in shadow.
Which gives them:
Size control
Self-modification
Up to three clones
And shadow teleportation.
I'm calling it Shadow Step."
The table went dead silent.
Completely dead.
Even the omelet paused in the pan.
Ember slowly put both hands on the table:
"Okay… let me get this straight."
She pointed at Vespera:
"You have a berserker mode based on blood loss plus a half-spider transformation."
Vespera: proud nod
She pointed at Nyxar:
"And you have a death-triggered shadow demon form that upgrades all your summons AND gives you range attacks."
Nyxar: proud nod
Ember inhaled.
Exhaled.
Stood up.
"THAT. IS. IT."
She pointed at the door:
"WE ARE LEAVING THIS VILLAGE. RIGHT. NOW."
And thus Ember ragequit the entire town.
Narrator's Closing Words
These children need:
therapy
leashes
a restraining order from themselves
and possibly divine intervention
But instead, they are going on a road trip.
The universe trembles.