The ground trembled as Adrien, Ria, and Han closed in. The Thrall's shimmering heart now fully exposed, suspended within a nest of writhing roots, pulsed faster, erratic, terrified, alive. But it wasn't giving up. Not yet.
With a guttural screech that rattled the very air, the Thrall's core lashed out.
From the soil, from the canopy, from the air itself, vines erupted.
They weren't like the coordinated growths they'd fought before. These were desperate. Intelligent. But they moved with purpose, coiling around the crystal core in thick, protective layers.
One after the other, wrapping tighter and tighter, forming a living cocoon of bark and vine that pulsed like a second heart.
"It's shielding itself," Han muttered, breath ragged. "It knows it's in danger now!"
"Then we tear it open," Adrien growled, stepping forward, sword gripped in bloodied fingers. The blood had caked around his hands. The wounds underneath mostly healed.
Ria's flames roared back to life with a feral scream of power, her hands glowing as she hurled a stream of searing fire.
It licked across the first layer of vines, burning them to brittle ash. Han followed, slamming his Aether-infused shield into the base of the root cluster.
The ground cracked from the force, splinters of bark flying in all directions. Adrien didn't wait, his blade flashed, cutting through the charred tendrils and striking the hardened bark beneath.
But with each vine they severed, more sprang up. Twisting. Twitching. Furious.
Each new vine came laced with thorns, with barbed hooks that glistened with a strange, gluelike sap.
They didn't just lash—they fought. One slammed into Ria's chest, knocking her back. Another wrapped around Han's leg, thorns digging in, anchoring itself like a parasite.
Adrien growled and slashed downward, cleaving through it with brute force.
The Thrall was panicking.
It was like peeling an onion, a monstrous, venomous onion that bled and screamed and made you bleed in turn.
Layer by layer. Strike by strike. Pain with every inch.
The forest around them felt like it was crying out in tandem, trees moaned, shook, winds howled with an unnatural pitch, and the sky above them darkened as clouds of ash and spores swirled in choking spirals.
The air was thick with tension, with the feeling of fear, not theirs, but the Thrall's. Adrien could feel it, like a pressure in his skull, a shiver in his bones. It tried it's best to snake into their minds, laced with malice.
"It's afraid..." he whispered, almost in disbelief. "It's actually afraid."
He staggered for a moment, absorbing the realization. This thing wasn't just reacting. It was feeling. Sentient. Terrified. Almost, human.
"It's alive," Adrien muttered. "Truly alive. It's not just instinct. It knows."
Ria, flames flickering, coughed blood from her lips but pressed forward. "Then let's make sure it knows what pain is."
With renewed fury, they attacked.
Ria ignited a firestorm with a sweeping motion, carving deep scars into the vines. Han switched from defence to offense, his shield erupting with concussive Aether blasts that shattered bark and snapped roots like twigs.
Adrien surged in between them, dancing with blade in hand, slashing through defences in precise, brutal strikes.
But every attack came at a cost.
Ria's sleeves were soaked with blood, her skin torn and blistered. Han limped now, dragging his right leg, each step agonizing.
Adrien's arms were raw, cuts crisscrossing every inch of skin, muscles screaming in protest. The vines lashed, raked, stabbed, they didn't aim to repel anymore. They aimed to maim. To kill.
But still, the trio endured.
Finally, with a triple strike—Ria's fire burst, Han's crushing shield, and Adrien's blinding arc—the final layer of vines tore away, revealing the Thrall's heart in full.
It pulsed wildly. Frantic. Exposed.
And then
It lunged.
The core, no longer content to defend, thrust itself forward, dragging the remnants of its broken body in a suicidal charge.
Vines and roots exploded outward in a cyclone of hatred, launching in every direction, slashing at everything, throwing up soil, ash, and blood.
"Adrien...!" Ria screamed.
Adrien moved.
One final time attack, was all he needed, 'One final, lethal blow.'
His body felt like it was moving underwater. Slower. Heavier. Time bent. Every sense screamed at him, don't go, run, you'll die.
But he ignored it all.
He stepped forward into the storm. Into the maelstrom of the Thrall's death throes. Flames scorched his side.
A vine nearly crushed his ribcage. The sky above him cracked with the force of the creature's dying wail.
He raised his sword, gritted his teeth, utilising his broken, but exhausting time stop ability, the one he hadn't used up until now, because he knew how much it drained him.
'I won't be able to move after this.' He thought inwardly, but he needed to do this. They were all on their last legs, 'If I don't end it now, we might never defeat it. We have been fighting for too long, I have to take a gamble.'
Everything around them stood still, time stopped, literally. The vines, the rampaging foliage, Han, Ria and most importantly, the Thrall.
Everything went completely silent. Except, he could see it all, he could move. And so.
He moved.
Enveloping his sword with every single drop of Aether he had in his body. Aiming straight for the core, and then, time resumed.
It was only a second, between him stopping time and moving to attack while the thrall couldn't act, not much in the grand scheme of things but he was already upon in.
He struck.
Kachaaa!!! Booom!!!
The blade cleaved straight through the core.
A brilliant light burst from the wound.
The air fractured. A sound like the snapping of the world itself rang out. A spatial rift erupted, ripping a hole in the very fabric of reality.
The forest bent inward toward it like it was being sucked into a vacuum. Leaves, bark, corpses—everything spiralled into the glowing maw.
Adrien was caught at the centre.
"ADRIEN!!" Han and Ria screamed in unison, reaching forward, but the force was too strong. He was already airborne, already being dragged into the rift, his body vanishing into the spiralling chaos.
Adrien's eyes locked on them.
One last look.
One last defiant look.
Then the rift swallowed him whole.
And he was gone.
Just like that.
The forest fell silent.
No screech. No growl. No vines.
Just absence.
Han dropped to his knees. Ria stood frozen, lips trembling, arms still raised as if reaching for something, or someone.
The silence that followed wasn't peace, to them, it was void. Empty. Unnatural. The kind of silence left behind by something stolen.
They stood there for what felt like hours.
A realization dawning slowly, agonizingly.
He was gone.
And this time… for some reason, it felt like he was well and truly gone.
Ria closed her eyes, biting back the tears. Han slammed his fist against the ground in frustration.
The Thrall was gone. But so was Adrien.
The spacial tear had taken him.
And the world was suddenly much quieter without him in it.
The trees no longer moved. The whispers had died. The oppressive heat of the corrupted forest was gone, replaced by a cold stillness, like a breath held too long.
Ria stood in the crater where Adrien had last been. There was no ash. No blood. Not even scorch marks from the golden explosion that had cut through the Thrall like divine judgment.
Just a slight, unnatural ripple in the air, like the world had flinched and never reset.
Han was silent beside her. His shield arm hung limp, wrapped in scorched cloth and dried blood.
Ria's flames had long since faded, leaving only smoke trailing from her skin like a forgotten battle wound.
They stared for what felt like an eternity.
"He's not coming back," Ria finally whispered, her voice hollow.
Han didn't answer. He didn't need to. The truth settled into their bones like a sickness.
The Thrall was dead. The forest, at least for now, was quiet. But Adrien Cortez was gone.
Gone.
They didn't speak as they turned away from the hollow.
Every step back through the ruined forest felt wrong, like their feet were trespassing on sacred ground.
The once-hostile woods had grown still, passive, like they too were mourning.
Ria clenched her fists. Part of her wanted to scream. Part of her wanted to burn every tree down in rage. But she kept walking.
They moved in silence, navigating broken branches, melted vines, and the remains of beasts they'd slaughtered.
It took longer to get back than it should have, every root, every turn, every shadow a reminder of who they had lost.
When they finally reached the rocky clearing, the one they had left behind what felt like days ago, three figures waited.
Sarah sat hunched, arms wrapped around her knees. Alex was sharpening a dagger out of habit, the blade biting into a stone with a quiet rhythm.
And Mel was pacing in tight circles, glancing back toward the path every few seconds.
When they saw the two of them, Han limping, Ria walking like a ghost, the trio stood as one.
Alex's eyes lit up. "You made it. Where is Adrien?"
Ria stopped.
She couldn't speak.
Han took a step forward. His voice cracked.
"We won."
Sarah blinked. "Where's Adrien?"
Silence.
Ria's knees buckled, and she sank to the ground. Her hand covered her mouth, trembling.
"He…" Han looked at the ground. "He didn't make it."
For a moment, the world held its breath.
Mel dropped the dagger. It clattered on the rock.
"No. No, no, that's not funny. You said you won."
"We did," Han whispered.
"But where is he?" Alex demanded, panic rising in his voice. "Where is Adrien?!"
Ria finally looked up, eyes red. "He's gone."
Sarah didn't scream. She didn't cry. She just sat down again, slowly, like her strings had been cut. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
Mel walked forward slowly, deliberately, and grabbed Han's collar.
"What do you mean, he's gone? Explain!"
Han didn't resist. His eyes were distant. "He saved us. All of us. But when went to deal the final blow. But the Thrall retaliated with its own attack, and some sort of rift appeared in the aftermath. He got sucked in… it took him. Or something maybe else did, I'm not sure. There was a suction force. A rift. And then he was… gone."
Alex took a step back, shaking his head. "No. He's Adrien. He always makes it out. He, he promised me."
No one had anything left to say.
The sun broke through the trees then, casting long shadows over the rocks. For the first time in days, the sky was visible above them. Blue. Clear. Empty.
They sat in silence, surrounded by nature that had stopped trying to kill them, and the aching in their chests only grew more blaring.
"Why?"
Alex's low sobs echoed soon after, she just couldn't believe it.