The canyon narrowed, walls rising on both sides like jagged stone ribs. Wind funneled through the gap, cold and relentless. The children ran, Selene pushing herself forward despite the fatigue and the blood drying on her lips.
Rafe glanced behind him.
The shrieking had stopped.
That was worse.
Silence meant the Hunters were adjusting… calculating… closing.
Selene gasped, "Don't look back, Rafe!"
"I'm not afraid," he lied.
Mara snorted breathlessly. "He's terrified."
"Shut up!" Rafe hissed.
Lyn clung to his sleeve, trying to keep her breathing steady. "I-I'm not afraid either…"
"Yes, you are," Mara muttered, "but good job."
They kept running until the canyon suddenly widened into a circular basin.
And there it was:
The entrance to the ruins.
Massive stone doors, half-buried in the canyon wall, covered in centuries of dust. Carvings—faded but unmistakably ancient—covered the surface. Strange symbols spiraled inward like a vortex frozen in stone.
Rafe stopped dead in his tracks.
"…It's alive."
The stone wasn't still.It pulsed.
Faintly.Slowly.Like a sleeping heart.
Mara took a step back.
"No. Nope. I'm not going into a breathing rock."
Lyn hid behind Rafe.
Selene stepped forward, planting her cracked staff into the ground.
"This ruin predates the kingdom. It predates the Fate Hunters. It predates the war of tribes. This place was here when the Primordials walked openly."
Rafe's breath caught.
"Then… is it connected to—"
"No," Selene said sharply. "Not to your Primordial."
But she didn't sound fully certain.
The wind changed.
A gust swept through the canyon — carrying dust, broken leaves, and something else:
A low, metallic hum.
Selene's face twisted.
"They're close."
Rafe felt something pull at his spine.
No… not pull.
Warn.
The Primordial's mark pulsed faintly beneath his skin.
Mara looked around the canyon. "There's no other way out."
Selene nodded.
"There isn't. So we enter."
Lyn's fingers tightened around Rafe's sleeve.
"Will… will the Hunters follow us?"
Selene hesitated.
"Yes and no," she said. "They cannot step inside willingly. But if the ruin opens for us, the disturbance might let them force their way in."
Rafe stepped toward the massive stone door.
"What do I do?"
Selene placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You don't open it."
"Then who—?"
Selene raised her staff.
"I do. Stay back."
She closed her eyes.
Mana poured from her body — too fast, too violently. The staff's runes flared, flickered, and then finally stabilized.
She whispered something in an old tongue.
The ruin responded.
The spiraling carvings glowed faintly, then brightened, tracing lines of ancient script across the stone like veins filling with light.
The ground vibrated.
Rafe took a step forward, mesmerized.
Lyn tugged his sleeve.
"R-Rafe… something's coming…"
He turned.
The canyon behind them darkened.
Shapes moved through the shadows.Tall.Skeletal.Wrong.
Fate Hunters.
More than before.
Dozens.
Their joints cracked like bones grinding metal.Their glow intensified when they saw him.
And then—
They shrieked.
Mara stepped in front of Rafe.
"Stay behind me!"
Rafe pulled her back instantly.
"No — behind me."
Selene's voice snapped like a whip.
"NO ONE BEHIND ANYONE! STAY CLOSE!"
The Hunters charged.
Selene slammed her staff into the ground.
The ruin exploded with light.
The doors began to open—
Slowly.
Painfully slow.
Stone grinding stone, ancient hinges screaming.
Selene grunted in pain.
"Rafe! Take the girls inside the moment the gap is wide enough!"
"What about you?!"
"I'm right behind you—just GO!"
The Hunters moved faster.
Too fast.
They sprinted down the canyon walls, claws digging into stone like insects. Their mechanical shrieks bounced off the rock.
Lyn screamed.
Mara grabbed Rafe's arm.
"MOVE!"
Rafe shoved both girls toward the widening gap.
The door opened just enough.
"GO!"
Mara slid inside first.Lyn stumbled after her.
Rafe turned back for Selene.
She pushed him with a burst of raw mana.
"INSIDE!"
"I'm not leaving you—!"
"GO!"
A Hunter leaped at him.
Rafe dove through the gap, rolled on the stone floor, and landed inside the ruin.
Selene followed—
—barely—
—and the doors slammed shut behind them.
Darkness swallowed the world.
Complete.
Silent.
Breathing.
Rafe gasped, "Selene—are you—"
But the sound that answered wasn't Selene.
It wasn't Mara.It wasn't Lyn.
It was…
A voice inside the ruin.
Old.Deep.Resonant.
"A marked soul enters."
Rafe's heart stopped.
The walls lit one by one with pulses of dim blue light, revealing corridors stretching infinitely in every direction.
The ruin itself had awakened.
Lyn whispered, trembling:
"R-Rafe… something's watching us."
Mara grabbed his wrist.
"This place is alive."
Selene lifted her cracked staff and forced a steady breath.
"Welcome to the Ruins of Arath'Sei."
She met Rafe's eyes.
"This is where your Ritual begins."