Ethan clenched his jaw, forcing down the chaotic energy surging through his body. His eyes swept the depths of the crumbling palace.

Through the roar of collapsing stone and the shriek of tearing runes, he finally spotted it—a massive, gaping hole yawning open at the far end of the wall.

"There."

He didn't hesitate. Spinning his axe to his side, he used the recoil from the last clash to launch himself backward, out of the battle's center, and shot toward the void.

Behind him, the armored brute let out a furious roar and gave chase. The scythe came down again and again, each swing unleashing black shockwaves that slammed into the floor just behind Ethan, shaking the corridor with every impact.

Ethan sprinted through the narrowing passage, the pressure of the giant's aura clawing at his back. Then the corridor changed—dimly lit, impossibly long, and sloping downward.

And stranger still—

It wasn't just a tunnel. It was a slide.

The moment his foot hit the incline, the energy in his legs dulled, and his body lurched forward, pulled by some unseen force. He lost control, sliding fast into the depths.

The air reeked—sharp and metallic, like rusted iron soaked in blood, with an acrid bite that stung the nose like acid.

The walls on either side were etched with grotesque, shifting runes. Just looking at them made his skin crawl.

Ethan tried to slow himself, to anchor his body with energy—but it was useless.

He was going down, whether he liked it or not.

He didn't know how long he slid—seconds? A full minute? Time warped in the dark.

Then, suddenly, the slope leveled out. The tunnel opened wide.

And Ethan dropped into a cavern so vast it made the palace above feel like a broom closet.

But it wasn't stone or ore piled around him.

It was bones.

Mountains of them.

A sea of white, stretching in every direction.

Bones of all shapes and sizes, from creatures he couldn't begin to name. Some were massive, others delicate, but all of them radiated a lingering pressure—faint, but unmistakable. Power. Even in death, they hadn't let go of it.

Ethan froze.

This place…

It wasn't just a graveyard.

It was a mass tomb for the powerful.

A pit carved out to dispose of the remains of beings who had once shaken the world.

He took a breath, slow and shallow.

His chest tightened.

"If even monsters that strong died here…"

For the first time, a chill of real despair crept into his heart.

"What chance do I have?"

Then—movement.

Auri and Idra slipped free from his body, their forms glowing faintly as they floated above the bone sea. Without a word, they began to draw in the lingering energy from the remains below.

"Father!" Auri's voice rang out, bright with sudden excitement. Her body shimmered with swirling vortexes of power, each one spinning faster as she absorbed more. "There's ancestral energy here—my bloodline's power!"

Ethan blinked, still reeling, but before he could respond—

The air above them rippled.

Hummmm—

A figure shimmered into existence.

It was… strange.

Its proportions were all wrong—its head far too large for its wiry, compact body. A pair of crystalline wings hovered behind it, translucent and gleaming like glass. Its skin was etched with glowing, ancient runes that pulsed with quiet menace.

From a distance, it looked like a fairy.

But every movement it made was slow, deliberate—heavy, like the air around it was thick with gravity.

Auri froze. Ethan did too.

Neither of them moved, breath caught in their throats, as the strange creature hovered before them—its wings still, its glowing runes pulsing like a heartbeat.

Then, slowly, it spoke.

"…I never thought… that the bloodline of the Fairy God still lingered in this world."

Its voice was hoarse, brittle with age, but trembling with joy.

"To see you today… I can die without regret."

And with that final whisper—

Its body ignited in radiant light.

But the light didn't scatter. It surged with purpose, flowing like a river toward Auri, drawn to her as if answering a call written into her very bones.

BOOM.

BOOM.

BOOM—!

The power poured into her like a waterfall, crashing through her small frame. Light swallowed her whole, and her Tier began to climb—fast. With each leap, the air trembled, the ground hummed, and Ethan's eyes widened in disbelief.

He could only watch as the last of the light vanished into her.

The creature's form flickered, then began to dissolve—its body turning translucent, then fragmenting into shards of light.

And just before it vanished completely—

Those shards coalesced into a stream of memory, a glowing current that flowed straight into Auri's forehead.

Ethan's heart clenched.

When Auri opened her eyes again, they were no longer the same.

Gone was the innocence. Gone was the wide-eyed wonder.

What stared back at him now was pain. And fury.

She stepped forward, trembling, her voice shaking but clear.

"Father… I know everything now."

Her fists clenched tight, her small body quivering with the weight of what she'd seen.

"This place—Sol'Rakka—was once our kingdom. The land of the Fairies."

She bit her lip hard, drawing blood.

"Then the demons came. They slaughtered us. Twisted the power of this land into something monstrous… and turned it into this."

She looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears that refused to fall.

"Father… you have to kill them. All of them. For our people. For every last one of us."

Ethan's throat tightened. He reached out and gently ruffled her hair, his voice low, steady.

"I promise you."

He met her gaze, his own eyes hardening.

"Every drop of blood they spilled—I'll make them pay for it."

Not far off, Idra hovered in the air, her silver eyes glowing like twin moons.

Though this place held no trace of her own ancestors, the bones piled around them were steeped in ancient dragon energy. She had drawn from it, transformed by it. Her power still surged, coiling beneath her skin like a storm waiting to break.

She landed beside Ethan, her breath steady, her presence sharper than ever.

Ethan exhaled slowly, his mind shifting back to the present.

They were in a sealed chamber.

The only exit was the tunnel they'd slid down—but that path was saturated with strange forces and a pull that felt more like a trap than a way out.

There was no going back.

He frowned, scanning the walls for anything—anything at all.

Then—

Rumble…

A soft tremor rolled through the chamber.

The walls began to glow.

Not with the cold, draining runes from before—but with a warm, gentle light. The symbols that lit up now pulsed with a familiar energy, one that resonated with the Fairy God's power.

Even through the air, Ethan could feel it—pure, ancient, and unmistakably Fairy.

Then, as if answering some silent call—

The runes peeled away from the walls.

They drifted into the air like glowing petals, dissolving into a rain of light.

One by one, they streamed toward Auri.

The energy came in waves, each stronger than the last, pouring into her like the land itself was awakening to her presence.

...