The air didn’t shake.
It fractured.
The roots split like ribs beneath the pressure. The trees bent, not from wind — but in fear.
Rell stood alone, barefoot on soil still wet with his people’s blood. The boss loomed. Nerro smiled like a man holding the key to the last door.
Selena’s hand reached — but stopped.
?
[THOUGHTS]
Zariin. Ishro. Grinsh bleeding. Myla crying.
All this… for nothing?
No.
?
The spirit floated beside him now, more visible than ever — a being of flickering light and scorched shadow.
“If you don’t unleash the power… everyone will die.”
?
The scream didn’t come from his throat.
It came from his memory.
From Rita yelling at him to stop giving up.
From Nia crying on the other end of the line he never answered.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
From every step in this cursed world.
?
Then — the release.
The sky didn’t just brighten. It turned to glass, as if light itself shattered under the weight of what Rell unleashed. Clouds recoiled. The jungle stilled — frozen in a second that stretched like eternity.
A ring of raw force peeled outward from his chest, not just of magic, but memory. White, then blue, then black — a ripple forged from loss and defiance.
The ground split like old scars reopening. Roots twisted into the air before disintegrating. Stones cracked, then vaporized. Entire trees folded backward from the blast, their leaves catching fire while frost kissed their trunks.
There was no sound, just a pressure — a sudden snap, like the world’s spine cracking. Then came silence, so deep it felt like drowning. And after, the soft wail of wind, as if the jungle mourned.
Rell’s skin split at the seams — light bleeding through veins that pulsed with more than power. His breath burned in his throat like glass dust. His fingers trembled, not from fear, but from the sheer violence of release.
The taste in the air was metallic. Blood and ash. The smell — seared bark, ruptured roots, and something ancient, like lightning trapped in soil too long.
The Trial Boss didn’t die — it came apart.
Vines crystalized mid-scream, then shattered into glittering fragments.
Nerro ran.
Too late.
Rell’s hand rose slowly. A spear of fire — shaped like memory and sharpened by pain — tore through his spine before he could vanish.
And then…
Darkness.
He dropped.
Cold. Unconscious. But breathing.
?
The rift opened — a jagged tear in the cursed dimension.
Selena. Myla. Grinsh. Pulled toward it.
Selena turned. Her eyes shook.
“We can’t leave him—”
Myla: “If we bring him with us, they’ll think he’s one of us. A criminal.”
Grinsh: “He just saved everything.”
?
When Rell awoke, the trees above him were different.
The air smelled clean. The sky didn’t flicker like a curse.
He wasn’t in the jungle anymore.
He lay on cool grass. Burned. Still. Breathing.
Alone.
Until they arrived.
?
The first to appear was silent — a massive shape moving between the trees. Too large for a lion, too quiet for a predator.
Its mane shimmered with hints of silver. It did not growl.
It watched.
Then came the laughter — not human. A monkey, wiry and long-limbed, humming to itself in some forgotten tongue. It danced on vines, circled Rell’s body once, then perched like a sentinel.
A wolf emerged next. Lean. Scarred.
Eyes like cracked moonlight. It sniffed the air, then stepped past the others and nudged Rell’s side gently with its snout.
A flicker of breath left his lips.
Still alive.
Still here.
?
They didn’t speak.
They didn’t need to.
Together, they lifted him — beast, paw, and tail — and began to carry him deeper into the unknown wild.
Not the cursed jungle.
Something older.
Wiser.
?
Above them, stars blinked.
Below, the grass folded in reverence.
The forest didn’t remember him.
It claimed him.
?
And far beneath it all, past the broken roots and bleeding stone…
a single red eye opened in the deep.
Nerro.
Still alive.
?
?? Volume 3 Ends