The cavern mouth split open to the wet air of the jungle. Dawn light sifted through the canopy in pale threads, but the silence was wrong. No bird call. No insect hum. Only the sound of boots crushing wet leaves.
They stepped out into a ring of bodies. Twenty armored figures, obsidian charms clattering against their chests, blades and spears glinting in the half-light.
Alejandro shifted forward instantly, sword gleaming. His voice was low, iron bound with fury.
"Stay behind me."
But Elena's violet eyes flared, indigo sparks licking the corners of her irises. She lifted one hand.
The skies split open.
Rain slammed down in sudden sheets, drenching the cultists in seconds. They faltered, shields raised against the onslaught. And then Jaime moved, his newly bound aura glowing the same storm-born indigo. He reached into the torrent and the flood obeyed him.
Water surged from the downpour, swelling into a wave that crashed forward with the roar of a beast. Cultists screamed as the flood swallowed them, sweeping bodies into trees, drowning men and women alike in its churn. When the waters fell back to earth, only two figures remained-
Their commander, sputtering, and a child soldier, no older than twelve, trembling with a dagger clutched in pale fingers.
Before Alejandro could raise his sword, Jaime's hand clenched.
The rain obeyed. A noose of water coiled upward, tightening around the cult commander's throat. He thrashed, eyes bulging as he was lifted from the ground, legs kicking uselessly.
"Why?" Jaime's voice was thunder in human form. "Why the Matteos? Why follow us to the ends of the earth? Why Esperanza?"
The cultist's eyes bulged. He spat water, lips twisting into silence. No answer.
The noose constricted. Bone cracked, his final gasp stolen by the flood itself. When Jaime dropped his hand, the body fell like refuse. The noose unraveled into the dirt.
The boy wept. Alejandro lowered his sword, voice gentler now.
"Child… stop. You don't need to- "
But the boy cried out, thrusting his dagger in a wild arc. Alejandro stepped aside, the blade grazing air. Jaime flicked two fingers, and rain shoved the boy back hard against a tree. He sagged, gasping, before Alejandro struck once with the flat of his hand, and the child crumpled unconscious.
Breathing ragged, Alejandro glanced to Elena.
"What do we do with him?"
Her voice was firm, lightning sparking faintly in her hair.
"We take him back. He deserves a chance."
But the decision was stolen from them.
A sharp hiss split the air-
An arrow whistled from the foliage, straight and merciless. It struck the boy's heart before anyone could move. His eyes widened, then dimmed, body falling limp at Alejandro's feet.
They stood there frozen for a moment, no one dared to breathe.
And then Elena's scream tore the sky open.
Lightning poured from her veins, wild and endless. The heavens cracked. Bolts rained in a storm of fury, leveling everything close by. Trees splintered, rocks split, the earth itself scorched under her wrath.
When silence returned, the jungle was ash.
Alejandro stood frozen, sword lowered, his face ashen. Señora Behike's staff trembled in her grip, her mouth unable to form prayer.
Jaime strode to Elena's side, pulling her against him. She clung to him, chest heaving, tears mixing with rain.
They built a pyre beneath the ruined trees, laying the boy's small body to burn. Standing in the mud, Jaime's voice broke as he swore,
"Vengeance. On the Cult. On El León Negro. For every child they steal."
Elena's storm-lit eyes met his. "We swear it together."
The four walked back toward the Sanctuary through smoke and ruin, their bond sealed not just by the Wellspring, but by blood, grief, and a rage the gods themselves could not silence.