Their path wound through the Blistering Pines, a forest of twisted trees and whispering shadows. The very air shimmered with enchantment, colors shifting subtly as if reality disagreed with itself.
"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Seraphine asked, brushing aside a glowing vine.
"Because the top guild members forgot they had a job," Truth replied. "Or perhaps they preferred Eldoria's wine to Eldoria's duty."
Freedom flicked a coin of flame through the air. "And now we get to show them how it's done. Spotlight's ours."
Justice's smile was wild. "Let's see what tries to kill us. I've been itching for a fight."
Grint huffed. "You'll get us all killed before we even find the beast."
Freedom flashed a grin. "If I do, you're welcome to haunt me. I hear ghosts throw a mean punch."
The group bantered through marshlands, over jagged cliffs, across wind-wracked bridges. The land resisted their passage, and the monsters watching from the shadows grew bolder.
They entered a circular clearing where stone monoliths loomed, etched with pulsing glyphs. A low hum filled the air.
"Something's wrong," Seraphine said. "Illusion magic. Reactive. Defensive."
"I call it 'bad vibes,'" Justice said, drawing both blades. "Perfect hunting ground."
Mirrors of their own forms shimmered into being—mimics cloaked in corrupted energy.
Grint exploded into motion, flames circling his arms. "They're using our magic!"
Freedom clapped his hands, launching a spinning flame kick into a mimic. "Try copying this, knockoff!"
"They're learning," Truth warned, shielding Seraphine. "Don't repeat attacks."
Justice was a blur—leaping, twirling, slashing. Her laughter echoed as she fought like a storm unchained.
"Hey!" Freedom shouted mid-spin. "She's stealing the spotlight! How original."
"She's saving your life," Grint replied flatly, hurling a flame whip. Together, they pressed through wave after wave, the Glade igniting in a storm of magic. When the last mimic fell, the air grew quiet, save for the team's heavy breaths.
Under moonlight, they camped along a high cliff overlooking the misty ridges of Celrest. Fire crackled low. Stars watched in silence.
"I'll ask again," Seraphine said. "Why us?"
Talon stirred the embers with his arrow "Because someone wants to know what you're made of."
Freedom lay sprawled on a rock, hands behind his head. "They'll learn we're made of starfire. Less talk, more firepower."
Grint scoffed. "You're made of ego and cheap pyrotechnics."
Justice, still energized, shadow-boxed nearby. "Whatever we're made of, we fight better than most. That's enough."
Truth studied the flames. "Someone is watching. Guiding. This wasn't random."
They slept in shifts, unease settling deep. While unconventional, this approach was deemed necessary to maintain vigilance and ensure survival.
By dawn, they reached the peak—a burned-out ridge overlooking Celrest Gorge. The wind carried whispers.
And then—her.
A lone figure stood on the far side. Slim. Hooded. Red-glowing eyes beneath a broken mask.
Grint froze. "Tess…"
Talon stepped forward, tense. "Tess of the Red Verge. She betrayed the guild."
She grinned. "Still dramatic, Talon. And I see you brought the children."
Justice stepped up, lightning crackling around her as aura. "You brought Hollowspawn, or are you enough trouble by yourself?"
From behind Tess, beasts emerged—dozens, then more. Slithering, clicking, crawling horrors of twisted magic.Tess bowed slightly. "The Hollow Maw isn't a beast. It's a prophecy. And you? You're already part of it."
Freedom stepped forward, fire roaring to life across his arms.
"I don't care about your prophecy," he said, grinning like a devil. "I came to burn it all down."
Celrest was deathly still. The air hung heavy with moisture, tinged with the copper bite of dried blood. Mist crawled along the jagged cliffs like a living thing, winding around the limbs of the Hollowspawn that crept ever closer. Dozens of them—thin-limbed horrors, all bone and muscle stretched wrong, their hollowed eyes reflecting distorted flickers of magic.
The Pillars stood shoulder-to-shoulder, their backs to the rocky ridge, their power wills equally drawn. Sparks danced along Justice's fingers. Ice shimmered at Truth's feet. Freedom's hands blazed with heat and pride.
A faint red glow pulsed beneath the plates like molten veins. Her hood was down. Her hair, once immaculate, clung damply to her cheek. A scar traced beneath one eye like a signature.
Talon stared at her, unmoving. His voice, when it came, was barely above the wind. "You look like hell, Tess."
Her smile was tight. "I've been there. I thought I might send you a postcard."
He took a step forward, arrows still sheathed. "Do you even recognize yourself anymore? Or is the Tess I knew gone completely?"
"I remember her," Tess said, the words coiling with venom and grief. "She believed in Eldoria. In guild loyalty. In missions that mattered. She thought she had allies. She thought you'd come."
"We did come," Talon said sharply. "We searched for weeks. You were presumed—"
"Presumed," Tess spat, her tone growing icy. "Presumed dead, declared lost, archived. I was there, Talon. Buried under rubble. Bleeding. Alone. And no one came."
His jaw clenched, but he said nothing.
She let the silence linger. "But the Hollow Maw found me. They showed me the truth. They gave me clarity. They didn't need me to be perfect—they needed me to see."
Freedom stepped forward, scoffing loudly. "Oh spare me. You joined a cult of skinless monsters because your friends couldn't find you fast enough?"
Tess glanced down at him, eyes narrowing. "The new Pillars. Fire. Ice. Electricity. Cute."
"Flattered," Freedom replied, lips curling into a cocky grin. "But we're not here for your approval."
"You're children," Tess said. "Freshly chosen. Still drunk off your titles. Still thinking your destiny is a crown, not a noose."
Freedom's jaw clenched. His flames flared hotter. "We're not like you."
She laughed bitterly. "You are like me. You just don't know it yet. Wait until your first command you can't stomach. Your first teammate left behind. Your first order to kill someone innocent for the 'greater good.' The same cracks will form. And the same rot will set in."
Justice slid her blades free with a metallic rasp. "Rot's a choice," she said. "You picked it. Don't pretend it was inevitable."
Tess ignored her, gaze fixated on Talon. "You trained them well," she said, voice quieter now. "But you haven't warned them. Have you? About the pressure. The failure. About what Eldoria does to its stars when they fall."
Talon didn't flinch. "We don't fall."
Tess looked at him sadly. "No. But you drop people. You did it to me."
"And you made your choice," Talon said. "We both live with that."
Her gaze drifted back to the younger trio. "Let's see how bright you burn." Then she raised her hand.
The Hollowspawn let out a unified screech—jagged, shrieking, unnatural—and lunged.
Freedom reacted first, fire bursting from his hands to form a searing dome of heat. Justice laughed as she vaulted forward, meeting the charge head-on, blades flashing silver arcs through blackened limbs. Truth extended a hand, freezing a dozen creatures mid-air and shattering them with an echoing snap.
"Stay close!" Talon barked, drawing both blades with practiced ease.
"I told you we'd be tested," Truth shouted.
"Tested? This is a warm-up!" Justice yelled back, eyes wild with exhilaration.
Freedom ducked beneath a swipe of claws, rolling forward and blasting a Hollowspawn in the face with a flare-hot uppercut. The creature erupted into ash.
"This is who we are!" he roared. "We don't fold!"
From her ledge, Tess watched silently. Her expression is unreadable. The Pillars were holding their ground. Fighting back. Together. And in that flicker of unity, something shifted in her eyes.
She whispered, not to them, but to herself. "Then survive... and prove me wrong."
And just like that, she vanished in a swirl of red mist—leaving only the monsters behind, and her echo in the wind.
The moment Tess vanished into smoke, the Hollowspawn surged.
They came in waves now—more numerous, more feral. Each creature jerked forward like a puppet pulled by hatred, their clawed limbs scraping across the stone as they swarmed the ledge.
Talon didn't hesitate.
"TESS!" he roared, voice cutting like a blade through the chaos. With practiced precision, he loosed an arrow from his back mid-sprint, the projectile humming with enchantment. It struck a Hollowspawn lunging for Seraphine's blind side, sending the creature spiraling backward in a burst of light.
He was already moving again—rolling, ducking, firing, each motion as fluid as wind over steel. The silver filigree on his bow gleamed as he threaded through enemies with silent rage.
"You don't get to vanish again," he growled under his breath, losing another shot that tore through two monsters with one piercing whistle. "Not this time."
Freedom tried to follow, blasting away a mass of advancing spawn with a spiral burst of flame. "Hey! Talon, wait up! We've got this together, remember that!"
But Talon was gone, slipping through gaps in the fight like a shadow wearing armor. Freedom growled and pressed forward—too hotheaded to stay behind, too proud to fall back. He ducked beneath a swinging claw and leapt up the incline, flame spiraling around his legs like a rocket—
Then the ground cracked beneath him. Three Hollowspawn erupted from the ridge above—snarling, teeth bared, claws raised high.
Freedom's smirk faltered. Before he could raise his hands, a sudden spear of frost whipped past him and impaled the center monster mid-leap. Ice burst outward in a jagged explosion, freezing its comrades mid-air.
Truth slid into view from behind a fallen boulder, one hand outstretched, the other gripping his spellbound tome.
"You're welcome," he said dryly. "Try not to leap into open jaws next time."
Freedom clapped a hand to his chest, panting. "I was warming them up for you."
"You were about to be an appetizer."
They turned back to back just in time for another wave to fall upon them, spells and strikes flying in perfect sync.
To the east of the battlefield, Grint and Justice stood side by side, surrounded but entirely undeterred.
"Think you can keep up, Grint?" Justice asked, spinning her twin blades with a wild glint in her eye. His red hair was damp with sweat, but his grin was sharp. "Please. I was fighting while you were still naming your sword moves."
"You assume I name them," she said, diving low beneath a Hollowspawn's talons. "That's cute."
She slashed outward with a dancer's precision, disarming a creature and leaving it open for Grint to hurl a fire spear straight into its throat. It dissolved in ash, howling.
Grint launched off a stone with a flame-enhanced kick, knocking a Hollowspawn toward Justice, who caught it mid-air with a rotating backslash that cleaved it clean in two.
"That one was 'Spinning Karma,'" she quipped.
"I knew it!"
They stood back to back now, more enemies circling. Lightning arced from Justice's fists into Grint's sword. The flames on his blade flared blue with electric overcharge.
He whistled low. "Now that is spicy."
"Don't burn the show before it starts,"
Justice warned with a grin. Together, they charged into the fray.
At the edge of the gorge, Talon finally reached the spot where Tess had stood. All that remained was a shimmer of red mist and claw marks etched into the stone from where Hollowspawn had poured forth. He breathed hard, the edge of his bow lowered for once.
"Tess!" he called into the night, voice cracking with something close to grief. "You think running makes you right? That disappearing makes your pain bigger than anyone else's?"
The wind didn't answer—but far off, on a crag overlooking the chaos, a glint of red shimmered in the shadows. Watching. Listening.
Then it was gone.
Talon turned back to the fight below, eyes shadowed. He knocked another arrow and raised his bow. Back down in the gorge, the rest of the guild members were holding formation now.
Seraphine raised her staff, golden light surging upward to shield the rear lines. "Ten seconds to restoration pulse! Hold steady!"
Freedom glanced at Justice and Grint, then at Truth. He nodded. "Let's end this strong."
"Agreed," Truth replied. "One push. Together."
Freedom's flames erupted, lighting the gorge in brilliant orange. Truth's frost crackled like glass against thunder. Justice's lightning surged wild, fierce and untamed.
And Grint, smiling just a little, let his magma synchronize with the rest—controlled chaos made lethal. The Hollowspawn wailed as the combined elemental burst swallowed the ridge.
When the dust settled, the Pillars stood triumphant. But Talon, standing high above, didn't celebrate. He only stared at the last wisp of red smoke vanishing into the mountains, his thoughts far away—and his heart heavier than the bowstring still trembling in his grip.