The shardbeast’s roar shook the canyon walls, a low, grinding bellow that reverberated through stone and bone alike. Dust tumbled from narrow ledges as the ground split wider beneath it. It dragged itself free from the cracked earth, rising like a mountain pulled from the depths of the abyss. Its eyes—six of them, burning like coals in a shattered furnace—fixed on the two intruders in its domain.

  Flames rippled beneath its jagged, obsidian-like skin, casting wild light across the canyon. Every movement radiated heat, warping the air with shimmering waves. Smoke hissed from its joints with every lumbering step.

  Rivian’s heart thudded in his chest. He felt it in his teeth.

  Leonora stepped in front of him, her stance unshakable. Her axe was already in hand, its wide, curved blade glowing red-hot from the enchantments laced into its steel. Heat shimmered off its edge like a mirage in the desert.

  “Get to the summoner,” she said without looking back. “I’ll keep this thing busy.”

  Rivian hesitated. “You sure?”

  She smirked. There was fire in her eyes—not just from the magic. “I big targets.”

  Then the shardbeast lunged.

  Leonora moved faster.

  She met it mid-charge with a battle cry, swinging her axe in a searing arc. Flame burst from the blade on impact, a shockwave of heat and force slamming into the creature’s arm. The beast reeled, fire crawling up its jagged skin—but it didn’t slow.

  It roared and brought both claws down in a hammering strike.

  Leonora dove and rolled, just as the ground exploded where she’d stood. Dust and stone burst upward. She came up fast, a fireball already forming in her palm. With a grunt, she hurled it into the beast’s chest. It detonated with a thunderous , sending the shardbeast skidding back.

  It paused for only a breath, then lunged again, howling.

  Rivian turned and ran.

  Every step toward the summoner felt heavier, like the air itself resisted him. The figure still stood motionless at the canyon’s far edge—robes fluttering in the heat-warped air, the cracked bone mask glowing from within. Behind that mask pulsed a hollow red light, like a dying sun trapped inside a skull.

  As Rivian approached, the whispers returned. They pressed at the edges of his thoughts, slippery and insistent—telling him to , to , to . His grip tightened on Luxvain, its silvery blade humming faintly with his pulse.

  The summoner spoke, its voice layered and hollow. “You carry the wrong light. It should not be here.”

  “I didn’t come here for ,” Rivian said through gritted teeth. “I came to end this.”

  He raised Luxvain.

  The summoner blurred. One moment it stood still. The next, it was , in front of him—too close. A blade of shadow extended from its hand, jagged and humming with void. It slashed downward in a blur.

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  Rivian barely blocked. Light met shadow in a flash of heat and force, the impact cracking like thunder across the canyon.

  Behind him, Leonora fought like a force of nature.

  Her axe whirled through the air, cleaving trails of fire as she ducked and wove beneath the beast’s massive swings. She slammed her weapon into its leg with a scream of effort. Fire erupted, and the shardbeast bellowed as molten cracks spread up its limb.

  It retaliated blindly. A massive claw caught her across the side.

  She flew.

  She hit the ground and tumbled across it, coming to rest against a jagged rock outcropping. Blood stained her side. She coughed, spat red, and forced herself to stand, legs shaking.

  “You’re ugly,” she hissed. “Let’s fix that.”

  Her axe flared with flame as she raised it overhead and slammed it into the ground. A searing geyser of fire burst forward in a straight line, racing across the canyon floor and detonating beneath the shardbeast’s feet. The shockwave rocked the canyon.

  The creature stumbled, one leg buckling.

  Rivian kept his focus on the summoner. Their blades clashed again and again—each impact a collision of light and dark. The air warped and twisted around them. Sparks flew. The canyon floor cracked and buckled under their feet.

  He could feel his mana burning low.

  Each spell he cast, each swing of Luxvain, pulled more from him than he could give. Pain flickered behind his eyes. His limbs were growing heavy.

  He ducked a wide slash, rolled behind the summoner, and raised his blade.

  “Lux—Nox!” he cried.

  The forbidden spell surged through him.

  Light and shadow twisted and fused around Luxvain. The blade pulsed—first golden, then black, then both at once. Rivian felt it humming with wild, terrible power. His arms trembled. Not from fear—but from the sheer force of what he was about to unleash.

  He drove the blade forward, straight into the summoner’s chest.

  For a moment, all sound vanished.

  Time seemed to stop.

  The red light behind the mask flared… then flickered. The mask cracked with a sound like splintering ice and fell away. Where a face should have been, there was only a roiling shadow.

  Then the figure screamed—not in pain, but in .

  The body collapsed inward, unraveling in a storm of ash and bone. The whispers died with it, pulled back into the void.

  Across the canyon, the shardbeast let out one final roar. Leonora, flames spiraling from her shoulders, leapt and drove her axe down with both hands. It hit the beast’s chest and detonated.

  A column of fire roared skyward as the creature screamed, its chest splitting open. Black glass and molten shards exploded outward as it fell, crumbling into smoke and obsidian dust.

  The silence that followed was deep. Unnatural.

  Rivian stood breathing hard, the glow fading from Luxvain. His hands shook. Not from fear—but from the knowledge of what he had just done.

  Behind him, Leonora limped over, her axe dragging behind her. She was bruised, bleeding, but upright. Her armor was scorched and cracked. One eye was swollen. But she was .

  “Is it over?” she asked, voice hoarse.

  “I think so,” Rivian said, wiping ash from his blade. He turned to look at her—at the scars, the blood, the fire in her eyes. “You’re alive.”

  “Mostly,” she groaned and sat on a rock. “My ribs hate me. And I think that thing dislocated my shoulder.” She flexed it with a wince. “Yup. Definitely.”

  “You did it,” Rivian said. “You brought it down.”

  Leonora exhaled slowly. “And you a summoner with a forbidden spell that was supposed to eat you from the inside.” She arched an eyebrow. “Remind me to punch Gaija when we get back from our journey.”

  Rivian chuckled softly, though exhaustion tugged at him. He looked out across the canyon.

  The Black Hollow no longer pulsed. The storm had stopped whispering. The unnatural red glow in the sky had faded.

  But something deeper had shifted inside him.

  He no longer felt like the apprentice who had come here just to stop a ritual. He had crossed a line—stepped into power both dangerous and necessary.

  He sheathed Luxvain.

  “Let’s get going.” he said.

  Leonora nodded, wiping blood from her cheek. “Yeah. Let’s.”

  They walked together toward the mouth of the canyon, their shadows long behind them, the ruins of fire and fracture left behind.

  But neither of them looked back.