The world was on fire.
Aren ran. His breath came in shallow gasps as smoke filled the air, thick and metallic. The night screamed with sirens and static as Vanguard soldiers flooded the streets of Sector Eleven, scanning every home.
Behind him, his father's voice still echoed—broken, fading.
He didn't remember how he escaped. Only the light. The unbearable light that erupted from their home before he stumbled into the ruins of the old perimeter.
Now, only silence followed him.
The rain returned, heavy and endless, washing ash into the cracked concrete. Aren collapsed near the broken fence—the same one that separated the Ruinfold from the Verdant Abyss.
He pressed his forehead against the cold metal. "Why…" His voice broke. "Why does everything I touch burn?"
The answer came not in words, but in sound.
Thud.
The ground shook.
Thud… thud…
Something was moving in the mist beyond the fence. Each step was slow, deliberate, like the heartbeat of a beast that had never learned to fear.
Aren lifted his head. The fog glowed faintly green. Then the fence began to bend, metal shrieking as vines thick as cables coiled around it.
The steel tore apart with a deafening crack.
From the gap emerged a creature the size of a transport carrier—its body woven from bark, moss, and bone. Its chest pulsed with veins of luminous sap, and where a face should have been, there were only two burning amber eyes, ancient and full of sorrow.
The Verdant Howl.
A guardian of the forest. A predator of the impure.
It stared at him for a moment—then the air shifted. Behind Aren, Vanguard drones descended, their rotors whining, plasma barrels glowing.
"Target located!" one shouted through the static. "Subject emitting high Astralis concentration!"
Aren froze. The Howl turned its gaze toward the soldiers. The vines on its arms tensed.
Then the forest roared.
Vines lashed out, tearing through steel. Drones exploded midair, showers of flame lighting the mist. The Howl's movements were both monstrous and graceful, primal and divine.
Aren could only watch as nature and machine tore into each other.
And then—its gaze returned to him.
The creature stepped closer, each footstep cracking the ground. It lowered its massive head until its burning eyes met Aren's glowing amethyst ones.
Something ancient passed between them—a recognition.
Then, faintly, a voice resonated in his mind.
> "Child of flame… prove your right to exist."
The Howl reared back and roared, a sound that shattered the air like thunder.
And somewhere deep inside Aren, the same roar answered.
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