The roots trembled.
Dust and glowing spores rained from the cavern ceiling as the ancient tree groaned, alive in a way no tree should be.
Elira stumbled back from the glyph-marked roots.
"What is that?" she whispered.
Caelum didn't answer.
His eyes were locked on the hollow trunk, where darkness began to spill like ink—slow and deliberate.
The voice returned, louder now, rich with age and contempt.
"You touch the bindings... You whisper names… and wonder why we wake."
A form emerged—shifting, faceless at first.
Like mist clothed in old bark.
Its body dragged fragments of wood, bones, and memories with it.
As it moved, the roots recoiled and hissed, as if afraid of their own prisoner.
Elira gritted her teeth.
"You're the one Selene bound here."
The creature turned toward her.
Its face took shape—barely.
No eyes, only hollows.
No mouth, but still it spoke.
"Selene gave herself to me. A trade. Her essence for silence.
Her soul for roots. And now… you've come to undo it."
Caelum stepped between them, his claws drawn, fur bristling.
"You will not touch her."
The entity tilted its head.
"Still loyal, even in ruin. You wore light once, knight.
Now you wear fur. Chains upon chains."
Elira gripped the journal.
The glyph of binding burned against her palm.
"If we reseal it—"
"You can't," Caelum said, cutting her off.
"Not without cost. The seal needs a soul."
A chill slid down Elira's spine.
"That's why Selene stayed."
"Yes." Caelum turned to her, eyes pained.
"She offered herself to save the forest.
To seal this thing."
The creature began to move again, circling the dead tree.
"But the seal weakens, dreamer. Memory fades. And you brought me new names."
Suddenly, it lunged.
Caelum reacted instantly, slamming his weight into the specter, knocking it back into the trunk.
It howled—not in pain, but laughter.
Elira dropped to the roots and pressed the burning glyph to the mark in the wood.
"Elaran... Vyntheris... Elu'naal!" she shouted the glyphs she had learned.
The roots flared white-hot.
The entity shrieked, its shape unraveling, breaking apart like smoke in wind. The tree trembled, groaned, cracked.
The light from the journal faded.
Then—silence.
The entity was gone.
But so was the light in the Heart-Below.
Caelum fell to his knees, gasping. Elira crawled to him, grasping his arm.
"You're hurt."
"No," he said, voice low.
"Not yet."
But she could see it—binding energy had touched him.
Part of him had held the seal just long enough.
They needed answers. Fast.
And they needed Selene again.