The moment Y/N launched forward, the forest exploded into chaos.
Flames streaked from his fists, crashing into the hooded cultist who dared speak his fate aloud. The impact blasted the man off his feet, hurling him into the blackened husk of a tree that snapped like a twig under the force. The cultist didn't rise.
The others responded instantly, spreading into a defensive formation—arms raised, chanting low and fast in that same twisted tongue that had haunted Y/N's nightmares since the last encounter.
Diana and Masumi followed without hesitation.
Diana: "I'll cut left—keep them distracted!"
Masumi: "On it!"
Diana sprinted toward the flank, slashing through the remains of the underbrush, her twin daggers gleaming with enchanted steel. She vanished between shadow and light—reappearing behind a second cultist and driving a blade into their side before they could complete their incantation. Magic sputtered from their fingertips, and they dropped like a stone.
Masumi charged the center line, his fists wreathed in sparking energy, veins glowing faintly with his lightning-imbued power. The third cultist tried to counter with a barrier rune—but Masumi shattered it with a thunderous punch that echoed like a storm breaking through mountains.
Y/N reached the fourth cultist—this one older, taller, the lines of ancient magic woven directly into his robe. The man smiled at him.
Cultist: "You are the storm. The flame. The seed of ruin made flesh. Embrace it, Dragon Vessel."
Y/N: "Shut. Up."
He unleashed a roaring column of green fire. The blast engulfed the man—only for the cultist to vanish, replaced by a smoldering illusion.
Y/N's eyes narrowed.
Behind him, he felt the air twist.
Too slow—
A whip of cursed energy lashed out from behind, wrapping around his wrist. Another cultist—hidden in the seal's shadow—had emerged. The corrupted shard in Y/N's hand flared violently in response.
Diana saw it—eyes widening.
Diana: "Y/N! Drop the shard!"
But it was too late.
The shard pulsed once—twice—and then released a violent burst of green flame that surged up Y/N's arm, searing through his sleeve and into his skin. Pain lanced through him. He roared, half in agony, half in fury.
Visions assaulted him.
Fire. Ruin. The bones of dragons burned to ash.
And at the center of it all—himself, cloaked in emerald fire, wings of flame erupting from his back, his voice not his own but a beast's, ancient and unforgiving.
Y/N clutched his head, staggering backward.
The cultist holding the whip stepped closer, still channeling.
Cultist: "It is beginning. The Verdant Beast wakes. The seal breaks."
Masumi barreled through the cultist before he could utter another word, snapping the whip with a crack of lightning. He reached Y/N and grabbed him by the shoulders.
Masumi: "Focus! Don't give in to it!"
Diana rushed to Y/N's side, driving a dagger into the last standing cultist's throat before they could finish a binding spell. Blood sprayed, and silence returned.
Only the wind remained—hot, heavy, tainted by magic.
Y/N collapsed to one knee, breathing hard. The shard rolled from his hand, dimming slightly, its glow no longer pulsing.
Masumi: "You alright?"
Y/N's eyes flickered open—still glowing green, but fading.
Y/N: "...Yeah. For now."
Diana dropped beside him, gripping his arm tight.
Diana: "You're not allowed to break apart on us, got it? Not here. Not now."
Y/N nodded slowly, still fighting the lingering echoes in his mind.
Y/N: "They're using the shards to fracture the seals. Every site they hit—it weakens the prison holding the Verdant Beast. I felt it."
Masumi glanced toward the ruined seal, now fully emerged. The cracked stone glowed faintly—like a dying heartbeat.
Masumi: "So what now? We bury it? Destroy it?"
Y/N stood, retrieving the shard with a grim expression.
Y/N: "No. We gather them. All of them. If they're pieces of the prison... then they might also be the key to stopping it."
Diana looked to the horizon, where more smoke twisted faintly in the distance.
Diana: "Then we'd better start hunting."
Y/N: "We tell Makarov everything. The Broken Circle isn't just a cult anymore. They're activating something old... older than any of us. And if we don't stop them before they find the rest—"
Masumi: "Then there won't be a world left to save."
The three stood in silence, the ruined forest stretching around them like a graveyard of forgotten gods.
Y/N turned his gaze toward the cracked seal one last time.
Y/N: "You're not getting out."
He crushed the shard in his hand.
Green fire flared—then vanished.
To be continued…