The road ended in silence.
Not the quiet of distance or fog—but the kind that followed violence. The air itself felt scorched, heavy with the acrid bite of burned stone and charred earth.
Eva was the first to stop.
“This isn’t old,” she said.
Sei felt it then—the heat still clinging to the ground, the faint distortion in the air like the land itself hadn’t finished remembering what happened here.
Ahead, the earth was blackened in a wide radius. Trees stood half-melted, bark peeled away in curled strips. Stone had cracked and glassed over in places, fused by impossible heat.
At the center of it all lay a shape.
Big.
Too big.
Sei didn’t think. He ran.
“Sei—!” Eva started, then followed immediately, Brannic close behind.
The figure was sprawled on its side, massive frame half-buried in ash. Burned armor clung in warped fragments to scorched flesh. Horns curved back from a broad skull, one chipped, the other blackened. Smoke still curled faintly from deep wounds that should not have allowed breathing.
But the chest moved.
Barely.
“Oh gods…” Brannic breathed.
Sei dropped to his knees, hands already moving. Pulse—there. Weak. Rapid. Breathing shallow, each breath scraping like broken glass.
Rhino Beast-Kin.
A miracle he was alive at all.
As Sei leaned closer, the figure stirred.
One eye cracked open—bloodshot, furious, unfocused.
A voice rumbled out of him, low and rough.
“Got… too cocky…”
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The breath hitched.
“Dragon attacked…” A faint, humorless snort. “Flew off. Might come back.”
Sei’s stomach dropped.
The eye rolled once, unfocused, then shut.
The massive body went limp.
“Sei,” Eva said sharply. “We can’t stay here.”
“I know,” Sei said—but his hands didn’t stop.
The burns were catastrophic. Internal damage severe. Healing magic flickered at the edge of his awareness, unstable, hesitant.
He won’t make it without magic.
That truth settled instantly.
No hesitation. No debate.
Sei placed both hands against the Rhino’s scorched chest.
The warmth answered.
Not violently. Not explosively.
Soft.
Gentle.
Like a pulse finding rhythm.
Light bloomed beneath Sei’s palms—not blinding, not radiant—but steady, threading through torn flesh and shattered organs with deliberate care.
Eva froze.
Brannic stared.
The healing didn’t erase the damage. It worked around it. Stabilizing. Reinforcing. Forcing the body to hold together long enough to live.
Sei gritted his teeth as the cost hit him—pressure behind his eyes, breath shortening, heart pounding out of sync.
“This isn’t enough,” he whispered. “It’s not enough—”
The Rhino’s chest shuddered.
Then rose.
A deeper breath this time.
Then another.
Alive.
Still critical. Still broken.
But alive.
Sei pulled his hands back, swaying. Eva caught him by the shoulder instantly.
“You okay?” she demanded.
He nodded, even as his vision swam. “We have to move. If the dragon comes back—”
Brannic didn’t wait.
“Help me lift him.”
They tried.
Failed.
Eva grunted. “He weighs as much as a damn wagon.”
“Rhino,” Brannic muttered. “Figures.”
It took all three of them—Sei supporting the head and shoulders, Eva bracing the torso, Brannic straining under sheer mass—to haul the unconscious Beast-Kin onto a makeshift litter.
Sei’s arms burned. His head throbbed.
But he didn’t let go.
They moved fast.
No camp. No rest. Just distance.
Behind them, ash still drifted lazily through the air.
As they crossed into safer ground, the Rhino’s massive hand twitched once.
A faint heat pulsed beneath his skin.
Sei felt it.
Something wrong.
Something strong.
He swallowed.
If he survives…This one will change things.
The road stretched on ahead of them—long, uncertain, already altered.
And somewhere far behind, wings beat once through smoke before vanishing into the sky.
The summit felt closer now.
Not because of distance.
But because of consequence.
