The scream came again, sharper, ragged with desperation. Without waiting for consensus, Lior surged forward, his boots crunching over charred leaves. The ash creatures shifted instantly, gliding after him—not in attack, but in eerie, synchronized movements.
"Lior!" Kaelen's voice was a harsh whisper as the rest of the group followed. "You're running into a trap."
"Then I'll break it!" Lior shot back, leaping over a fallen trunk. His arm blazed with runic light, the Celestial Code pulsing so violently it felt like a second heartbeat.
Through the haze, a collapsed shrine emerged—its stone face cracked, half-swallowed by twisted roots. And there, pinned beneath a mass of blackened vines, a girl struggled to breathe. Her eyes were wide, her lips blue.
Mira was the first to aim. "Clear me a shot."
But as Kaelen moved to slice through the vines, one of the ash creatures stepped between him and the girl. It didn't raise a weapon. Instead, its body shivered, and from its shifting surface came a voice—low and distorted, yet unmistakably human.
"Do not… touch her…"
The group froze.
"What?" Sylvi whispered.
The creature's ash-skin rippled, forming fleeting impressions of a face—then another, then another, like memories bleeding through fog.
Elyra narrowed her gaze. "They're not just monsters. They're—"
"Souls," Lior finished, the realization hitting like ice water. "Trapped… bound to the corruption."
The girl on the ground coughed weakly, drawing them back to the moment.
"Whether they're souls or not," Kaelen growled, "she'll die if we don't act."
At that, the ash creature's form shuddered again. This time the voice was clearer—still wrong, but with a plea behind it.
"If you free her… you free us…"
For a heartbeat, no one moved. Then Lior stepped forward, light surging from his arm as the Code began weaving itself into a shape he'd never seen before.