The night's fragile calm shattered before dawn. A deep tremor rolled through the Veilways, rattling their camp and sending loose stones tumbling. Lucas's eyes flew open, hand instantly on his weapon.
"Martha! Seris! Up!" he barked, scanning the shifting mist.
A shriek tore through the fog — high, piercing, almost human — and then the ground beneath Martha erupted. A clawed, skeletal arm of black crystal shot upward, wrapping around her waist before Lucas could move.
"Martha!"
She screamed as the claw yanked her into the air. Seris hurled a throwing knife, but it bounced off the crystal with a sharp clang.
Out of the mist emerged a towering figure: a crystalline wraith draped in tattered robes of shadow, its chest pulsating with a deep violet light. The voice that came from it was layered, like multiple beings speaking in unison.
"The healer is the heart. Break the heart, and the Orb's bearer will break with it."
Rage surged through Lucas. He blasted a wave of searing flame at the wraith, but the mist swirled to absorb it, hissing as the attack vanished. Seris darted in low, blades flashing, but the creature's other arm smashed her aside like a rag doll, sending her crashing into a boulder.
"Martha, hold on!" Lucas shouted, sprinting forward.
The wraith raised Martha higher, its claw tightening until she gasped for breath. Her healing light flickered around her like a dying candle. "Lucas… don't… hold back!" she choked.
Fine. No more restraint.
Lucas's Ruin affinity roared to life, black and crimson arcs of energy spiraling around his arm. The Orb at his hip pulsed violently, as if warning him, but he didn't care. He leapt, slamming his blade into the wraith's crystalline chest.
The explosion of force sent fractures spiderwebbing through the monster's body. It shrieked, dropping Martha — but before she hit the ground, the wraith swept her up again in a tendril of shadow.
Lucas's teeth clenched. The thing was playing with him.
Seris staggered back into the fight, blood trickling down her temple. "Lucas! We can't just hit it head-on — it's channeling through the crystal core!"
"Then we break the core," Lucas growled.
---
They moved as one. Lucas drew the wraith's attention with a blinding flash of elemental chaos, while Seris used the cover to vault onto its back. She drove both blades deep into the base of its neck, forcing the wraith to roar in pain. The grip on Martha loosened just enough for Lucas to dash in, catching her in his arms.
She coughed weakly, but her hand still glowed faintly as she healed a gash on his cheek. "Don't stop," she whispered.
Lucas set her down gently, then turned back to the wraith — his fury now ice-cold and focused. The fractures in its chest pulsed, unstable. This was his moment.
Drawing on every affinity the Orb could feed him, he formed a swirling spear of fire, lightning, and shadow. "This ends now!"
He hurled it with all his strength.
The spear pierced the wraith's core. For a heartbeat, everything went silent. Then the creature exploded into a storm of violet shards, the shockwave knocking them all flat. The mist burned away for several paces in every direction.
---
Lucas knelt beside Martha, brushing her hair from her face. "You okay?"
She managed a faint smile. "I've had better mornings."
Seris limped over, planting her blades into the dirt. "That wasn't just an attack. That was a message."
Lucas nodded grimly. "They know exactly where to hurt me. And they're not going to stop until they break us."
In the distance, far beyond the cleared mist, the shadows gathered again — countless eyes blinking open in the dark.
The next strike was already coming.