Ryan stood in the center of the square, but he no longer looked the same.
His body had changed. It was as if the energy inside him was no longer satisfied with simply transforming him — it wanted to exist through him. The aura around him was unstable, shadows mixing with violet energy in uneven waves. It didn't explode outward, but the pressure it created was heavy enough to make the air feel harder to breathe.
Sera didn't move. Her eyes stayed fixed on him, watching carefully. Whatever was happening now was beyond any transformation she had seen before.
Eileen inhaled slowly, a strange weight tightening in her chest.
"Every time," she said quietly, "he turns out stronger than I expect."
The staff in Ryan's hand no longer felt like a tool. Its pulse matched his heartbeat, steady and alive. Then the voice returned inside his mind.
— This is your third transformation.
— Not a copy. Not a reflection.
— This is the Transformation of Ambition.
Ryan tightened his grip.
So this is what you were holding back…
— I am your arcane reservoir.
— Every power your body could not contain,
— every ambition without release… I preserved it.
— If you wish to see its limits, invoke it.
The air shifted immediately.
Siron felt it first. His expression changed as he instinctively pulled his energy inward and stepped back.
"…This isn't replication magic."
He stared directly at Ryan.
"What are you trying to do?"
Ryan slowly raised the staff. His voice was calm, controlled, moving with the rhythm of an incantation.
"By what was stored within me yet never spoken,
by what aspired and did not break,
I open the unseen vessel.
O shadows of the world,
you who exist without a master,
answer not a command…
but the call of essence.
Ambition—
Summoning the Spirit of Shadows."
The moment the name was spoken, a powerful force spread outward.
It wasn't an explosion. It was pressure.
The ground trembled. The air pushed forward like an invisible wave.
Siron was forced back a full step, digging his foot into the ground to resist.
Sera raised her arm to shield herself.
Eileen staggered as the energy passed through her, blue light spilling from her hand and leg into the earth without her understanding why.
The impact traveled far beyond the battlefield.
At the gates of the Enchanted Forest, Queen Mary stood with Dorgal, Lunaire, and Krev's team. Suddenly, the air surged violently, as if the forest itself had released a breath.
Soldiers were pushed backward. Krev struggled to hold his ground. Lunaire spread his wings instinctively to stabilize himself.
One of the dwarves dropped to a knee, placing his hand against the ground.
"My Queen… this is summoning energy."
He hesitated before continuing.
"But it's not a single force. Violet energy and shadow energy… they're merged together."
Queen Mary tightened her cloak, feeling the pressure reach deeper than the body.
"Then whatever is happening inside the forest," she said calmly, "is greater than we expected."
Dorgal stepped forward, looking toward the different gates surrounding the forest.
"The Enchanted Forest has multiple entrances. Entering without preparation would be dangerous."
He paused.
"But with power like this… we may have no choice."
Back in the square, the energy gathered again.
The shadows around the forest began to distort. They didn't move willingly — they were being pulled. The Shadow that had been watching felt its own form dragged inward, collapsing as it struggled to resist.
"What is this call…?" it whispered. "This isn't normal summoning."
The ground disappeared beneath it, and darkness swallowed it whole.
Far away, the mysterious sorcerer reached out through the connection he always used to observe through the Shadow — and found nothing.
He froze.
"The Shadow…?"
His voice sharpened.
"How was the connection severed?"
In the square, the energy suddenly became still.
The gathered shadows compressed into the staff, forced into a space that seemed endless and empty. The Shadow itself felt pressure closing in from every direction.
"Where am I…?"
It was no longer in the forest.
It was inside the call.