[POV Liselotte]
The forest surrounding the capital was no longer the one I remembered. The influence of the Shadow spread like an invisible poison, twisting the branches of ancient oaks until they resembled pleading claws. The violet mist that enveloped Whirikal seeped between the trunks, reducing our visibility to only a few meters. We moved in tense silence, broken only by the crunch of dry leaves and the restrained breathing of the survivors.
Elliot kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, scanning the darkness with a gaze searching for redemption. Leah walked beside me, her warmth the only thing keeping me from dissolving into the forest’s cold.
“Lotte, that howl from earlier…” Leah whispered, breaking the silence. “It sounded close—but also like a warning. Do you think Chloé found something?”
“Chloé doesn’t howl for pleasure when she’s hunting,” I replied, stopping to scent the air. “I smell iron—but not fresh blood. It’s the scent of the Shadow’s beasts. They’re close, stalking us from the trees.”
Suddenly, a gray blur crossed the path at blinding speed. The heroes of Terra snapped into formation instantly. Julian raised his shield, and Mizuki readied her spear—but I lifted a hand to stop them.
“Don’t attack,” I ordered.
From the undergrowth emerged Chloé. Her fur was bristling, and her golden eyes burned with wild intensity. Dark blood stained her claws, but she appeared unharmed. She approached us, panting, and her expression softened when she saw Leah safe.
“Finally out of that stone anthill!” Chloé exclaimed, partially shifting her face to speak. “I’ve been circling the tunnel exits for hours. The Shadow has eyes everywhere, Lotte. I had to take down a couple of trackers that reeked of rot before they found you.”
“What have you seen, Chloé? How bad is it beyond the forest?” Elliot asked, stepping forward.
“Bad, Your Highness. Very bad,” the wolf replied, shaking her head. “The main roads are blocked by patrols of soldiers walking like corpses. But that’s not the worst part. To the north—to the Valley of Laments—the air feels… heavy. Like reality itself is bending. I’ve seen strange lights on the mountain peaks. Not fire. Not any magic I recognize.”
Leah pressed her father’s letter against her chest. “My father is there, Chloé. We have to reach the valley.”
Chloé looked at her with a mix of compassion and resolve. “I know, pup. That’s why I’ve been clearing a trail along the Hunter’s Path. It’s narrow and dangerous, but it’ll keep us out of sight of the main patrols. Still… we’re not alone. Something’s been following you since you left the tunnel.”
As if her words had summoned them, the forest around us came alive.
Not human soldiers this time.
From the shadows emerged twisted creatures—a grotesque fusion of wolves and darkness, with elongated limbs and eyes pulsing with the same violet glow as the capital.
“Shadow beasts!” Arthur shouted, drawing his practice sword, now faintly glowing with returning mana.
“Defensive formation!” Elliot ordered. “Protect the civilians!”
The creatures lunged at us with suicidal ferocity. They had no tactics—only the desire to tear us apart with their shadowed claws. Julian took the first impact, his sacred shield erupting in golden light that burned the hide of the first beast—but three more leapt at him from the trees.
Chloé became a whirlwind of gray fury. She pounced on one creature, ripping out its throat with her teeth before launching herself at the next. Mizuki used her spear to keep the attackers at bay, her movements precise and lethal—but for every creature that fell, another seemed to rise from the mist.
I stayed by Leah’s side.
Extending my hands, I formed a ring of ice spikes around our central group. Any beast that tried to leap through was impaled on crystal before dissolving into black smoke.
“We have to move!” I shouted over the chaos. “If we stay here, we’ll be surrounded! Chloé—lead the way!”
“Follow me!” the wolf roared, tearing through the underbrush with raw force.
We ran along the Hunter’s Path, a steep trail climbing the mountainside. The battle didn’t stop—it became a relentless pursuit. We fought as we advanced, the heroes guarding the flanks while I sent bursts of ice behind us to seal the path and slow our pursuers.
After what felt like hours of desperate running and fighting, we reached a clearing atop a cliff.
The mist thinned slightly, allowing us to see north.
There—between two colossal peaks—stretched the Valley of Laments.
But it was nothing like the green, somber valley described in books.
A translucent dome of energy covered it, distorting the starlight. Within it, black lightning struck the ground again and again.
“What… is that?” Leah whispered in horror.
“It’s a mana collapse zone,” I said, feeling the Guardian’s Eternal Seal on my chest vibrate with warning. “Someone has forced the valley’s ley lines to create a prison of reality itself. If King William is inside… he’s trapped in a place where time and space don’t behave normally.”
Elliot stepped forward, staring at the dome with unwavering resolve. “Then there’s no doubt. The message in the cave, the Church’s delay… it was all to buy us time to reach this point. The Shadow wants us to go in.”
“It’s a trap,” Chloé growled, sniffing the air. “Smells like bait. Like the Lion is alive—but being used to lure us all into the same cage.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Leah declared, stepping forward. “If my father is in there, we’re going. Whirikal may have lost its throne—but it still has its heirs. We won’t leave him alone in that hell.”
I looked at Leah, then at the black dome.
Chloé was right—it was an obvious trap.
But she also knew what I did.
We had no other choice.
If the Shadow consumed King William inside that anomaly, the entire world would follow the fate of the capital.
“We rest for one hour,” Elliot ordered, turning to the exhausted survivors. “Eat whatever you have. Check your weapons. When the moon reaches its zenith, we descend into the valley. Lotte, Chloé… prepare yourselves. Whatever is inside that dome is unlike anything we’ve faced before.”
I sat on a rock, watching Leah try to comfort a frightened servant. I pulled out the portrait of the demon family and studied it once more. The children in the image smiled—unaware of the horror their kind, or whatever controlled them, was unleashing.
Who are you really, Shadow Merchant? I thought, closing my fist around the cold paper. And why do you need the King for your final act?
Night in the Valley of Laments was about to become eternal.
And as ice began to creep over my hands in preparation for battle, I knew the true sacrifice had yet to begin.
The exodus had led us to the wolf’s jaws—
and now, all that remained was to step inside
and see who bore the longer fangs.
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