The farther north they went, the quieter the road became. It should have been comforting, but it wasn't. Hours had passed since the two groups met at the crossroads, and now Emperor Darius and his entourage traveled alongside Scarlet's party, their separate goals rendered irrelevant once the roads joined. George and John stayed close to their father, while David lagged slightly behind with Marcus. Silver, June, and Julie kept nearer to Scarlet, Cornelius, and Talon.
No one had officially agreed on the arrangement—it just happened on its own. The Emperor's soldiers took the outer edges whenever the road narrowed, while Scarlet and Cornelius stayed near the center. Talon wandered wherever he liked, usually a few steps behind, his covered eyes hiding whatever held his focus. The odd group pressed deeper into lands that should have grown more dangerous with every mile. But instead, they found nothing—no Devourers, no corrupted humans, no attacks. Only signs, and those signs grew worse. The first forest they entered still stood, looking healthy from afar. But when Silver touched a tree, the bark split beneath his fingers—not from rot.
Because there was hardly anything left within it.
The faint mana found in every living thing had been drained away. Leaves clung to branches but had lost all color. Grass bent under their boots and never rose again. Even the insects were gone.
It wasn't dead land in the usual sense.
It was land that had been hollowed out.
Pandora stirred inside Silver.
Don't bother wasting your time looking into it.
Silver withdrew his hand.
They drained the forest?
Everything they could reach.
Silver glanced around.
Trees stretched endlessly in every direction, a fact he didn't care to dwell on. They moved forward.
Animals appeared later. A deer stood among the trees, watching. Julie noticed first and stopped. It didn't run. Its ribs jutted under its hide, dark veins spreading beneath the skin, and its eyes held the same lifeless stillness Silver remembered from the wolves outside Vallahia.
Marcus reached for his weapon, but Scarlet lifted a hand—wait. The deer stared, then turned its head north and walked away. No attack, no hostility. It simply joined another shape further off.
More followed—foxes, birds hopping oddly along the ground, a wolf dragging one hind leg. All corrupted. All heading north.
The group watched until the creatures vanished into the trees. No one moved at first. Eventually, Darius gave the order, and they continued, the road leading them toward the next settlements.
Some places were damaged, others untouched—and the untouched ones felt worse. Doors hung open, clothes still swayed outside, wells sat uncovered, and food rotted where it had been left. The streets, though, were empty. Every settlement told the same story: something had come through, taken what it wanted, and moved on north. By late afternoon, even the Emperor's group stopped checking every building—there was rarely anyone left. Silver began focusing less on single clues and more on the bigger picture: animal tracks blending with human ones, human tracks merging into larger trails.
The trails merged with others arriving from the east and west, every path like a vein flowing in the same direction—north. The Devourers hadn't simply fallen back; they were regrouping. Silver sensed that Pandora had come to the same realization.
They're all going to the same place.
Yes.
Why?
A pause.
That's the question that matters.
Silver gazed toward the faint outline of mountains beyond the forest. Somewhere past them lay the elven lands, and somewhere within those lands—Nella. He hadn't spoken her name aloud to anyone. Yet the memory kept pressing on him, harder to push aside each day. The strange elf girl who had appeared in his life without warning. The one who touched his forehead and pulled him into that impossible dream. The one who had awakened Pandora. She had known about the Mana Devourers long before anyone else around him had even heard the name.
Back then, her warning had felt like preparation for some far-off disaster. Now, that disaster was right in front of him. Silver's grip tightened on his staff. Something was off —Pandora had already admitted it. The Devourers had come far too fast, heading straight toward the homeland of the very person who'd warned him they were coming. Coincidence had stopped being a believable excuse days ago. He kept walking. Behind him, Talon's shrouded gaze flicked briefly toward him before facing forward again. Far ahead, the road came to an end—though not in the literal sense.
The old northern route wound through the forest, dipped into a shallow valley, and climbed toward one of the region's oldest elven settlements. But nothing heading north could get that far now. A massive dome blanketed the valley—layer upon layer of shimmering mana arcing over the village, the surrounding woods, and the mountainside beyond. From afar, it looked like a second sky pressed down to earth, though its surface churned with constant impacts. Outside, the valley teemed with shadowy shapes—twisted beasts, humans, and things that were once something else. Among them floated the unstable grey forms of true Mana Devourers, encircling the dome on all sides. None breached it; when a Devourer touched the barrier, light crackled outward in branching veins, and the creature siphoned away some of the mana.
The barrier took its place, an endless cycle of give and take. Something within kept fueling the shield faster than the creatures outside could wear it down—for now.
Perched high above the valley on the crumbling remains of a stone structure tangled in roots, Nero sat at the edge of a broken wall, one leg dangling freely. Below, thousands of Mana Devourers moved through the valley, none sparing a glance upward. A corrupted bird landed a few feet away, its head twisting unnaturally as empty eyes scanned the ruins. It noticed Nero, holding still for several long seconds before turning away and launching itself into the air, gliding down toward the valley. Nero watched it disappear. He had been there for a while, waiting. Kala stood quietly behind him.
She kept her eyes on the distant dome instead of her son. The barrier mattered to her only as long as it stayed intact. Beyond it, the elven village thrived—lights shifting between homes, figures appearing briefly on raised walkways before vanishing again. At the dome's center, clusters of mana glowed bright enough to see from here, one stronger than all the rest. Someone was keeping the barrier alive. Nero leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knee.
"They've held out longer than expected."
Kala stayed silent, her focus drifting far away—past the village, over the mountains, and beyond even the edge of the world. Nero knew exactly what had captured her gaze.
Or rather—what she had been waiting for.
The Door had opened, and the Crack in the Sky was proof enough.
That was what mattered.
Everything else was just consequence: Mana Devourers flooding into mortal lands, corrupted beasts roaming free, abandoned settlements, Vallahia's northern defenses crumbling, and the migration now pressing in around the elven village.
It all came down to one act. Something long sealed had been ripped open—the passage to the Angel Realm. Nero had witnessed the instant it happened. There was nothing elegant about it, no ancient lock turning for its chosen key, no radiant gates swinging wide under divine command. Kala had smashed through the boundary, leaving a wound instead of a doorway. And what lay beyond looked nothing like the tales mortals told of angels. Nero's usual hint of amusement faded from his face.
The Angel Realm was meant to be isolated—protected, untouched by the lower realms. But instead, the Door opened to corruption. The Mana Devourers were already there—not just one, not even hundreds, but so many that counting no longer mattered. They flooded through the breach the moment the boundary fell. Some swept into elven lands, others drifted south. Now, inexplicably, much of that tide had returned. Nero glanced at his mother. "Still confident?" Kala kept her gaze ahead. He didn't press. He didn't have to. This had always been her plan.
It wasn't the destruction of Vallahia.
It wasn't the fall of the elves.
It wasn't even the release of the Devourers.
Kala had accepted all of those the moment she decided the Door had to be opened.
What she sought was beyond it—
One person.
One presence. One being.
Nero gazed toward the far-off rupture, still hidden from view on this side of the mountains. The Door had stood open long enough. The Devourers had crossed. Others had crossed. But the one Kala sought was still missing.
"You're assuming he survived."
Kala finally met his eyes. Her silence spoke for her. Nero offered a faint smile. His mother had always had a knack for turning her certainty into something that felt like fact. She was usually right. Usually.
He looked back toward the valley and caught sight of movement along the distant southern road—small at first. A few figures emerged from beneath the forest canopy. Then more followed.
Nero's gaze sharpened as glints of imperial armor flashed through gaps in the trees. At the center of the formation strode a man whose commanding presence was unmistakable even from afar—Emperor Darius. His sons walked alongside him, and Nero easily picked out David and Marcus. Interesting. Shifting his attention to the other half of the group, he spotted Scarlet, Cornelius, and Talon, flanked by two familiar foxes. And between them, Nero froze completely. Silver hair.
A staff.
Older now—much older than the child Nero remembered from the academy examination.
But unmistakable.
The corner of Nero's mouth curved.
"Silver."
Kala followed his gaze, her expression barely shifting.
Nero studied the approaching group with care.
Memories resurfaced vividly: the Secular Oak Forest, June and Julie, and the strange silver-haired boy who seemed utterly ordinary—until you looked too long.
He could sense something dormant behind the young man's mana, even from here—something ancient. Nero's smile curved just a bit more. "So he made it." Kala kept her eyes on the approaching group. Nero glanced at her, finding the whole convergence oddly amusing. The Emperor was coming. Silver was coming. Scarlet and Talon too. The elves were trapped within their barrier, while the Devourers waited outside. Somewhere beyond the mountains lay the Door Kala had torn open. After years apart, the scattered pieces were finally sliding toward the same square. Nero rose. Below, a true Mana Devourer drifted past the ruins' base, dozens of eyes sliding over its formless body. A few turned upward toward him, lingered, then looked away. He paid it no mind, keeping his focus on Silver. "Think this will actually work?" Kala turned to him as he gestured vaguely at the scene before them.
The dome.
The Devourers.
The approaching Emperor.
The open Door beyond the mountains.
All of it.
"You broke open a realm that was sealed for a reason. Half of what was trapped inside came flooding through, and the one thing you actually wanted still hasn't shown up."
His tone carried no accusation—just observation.
That made the question hit harder.
Kala's eyes drifted past the elven village.
"He will."
Two words. Unshakable certainty.
Nero studied his mother.
"And if he doesn't?"
Kala's gaze hardened.
He already knew the answer—
they'd go through the Door themselves.
He exhaled quietly, eyes shifting back to Darius.
That made things more complicated.
The Emperor's arrival was no accident.
Kala had always expected him to head north,
just not so soon.
Nero suspected she was pleased,
though he wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
The elven barrier suddenly flared, a section of the dome dimming as hundreds of Devourers swarmed toward it. Light pulsed from within, restoring the weakened spot. Nero watched closely—someone inside was tiring. The barrier was strong, but its defender wasn't limitless. Eventually, something would break, and Silver's group was heading straight for it. Stepping down from the ruined wall, Nero found himself, for the first time since the Door opened, intrigued by waiting. His eyes drifted to his mother. Kala stood unmoving, her gaze locked beyond the mountains—not on the elves, the Devourers, or even Darius, but on the Door. Nero followed her stare. Nothing came through. Not yet. Thoughtfulness settled over his expression.
They had shattered the boundary between realms.
Unleashed things that should never have entered this world.
Thrown the empire into chaos.
Pulled an Emperor to the north.
And now Silver Crow himself was closing in on the heart of it all.
Yet Kala waited.
Because none of that was why she had opened the Door.
Somewhere within the twisted Angel Realm was the being she sought.
And Kala was utterly certain—
eventually , he would come out.