The first thing I felt was weight.

Not the crushing kind, no, this was worse. It was the sudden, humiliating realization that I was no longer falling with purpose. I was tumbling, spinning, scraped raw by violet light that bit at my skin like static and heat all at once.

The portal swallowed me whole.

Sound vanished.

Direction vanished.

Up and down became suggestions rather than rules.

For a brief, stupid moment, I wondered if this was what being unmade felt like.

Then the world slammed back into place.

I hit the ground hard.

Hard enough to drive the air from my lungs in a sharp, choking gasp. My shoulder struck first, then my hip, then my head bounced once against something solid and unforgiving. Pain bloomed in bright, immediate flares, grounding me far more effectively than any training exercise ever had.

I lay there, stunned, staring at nothing.

Then I rolled.

Instinct kicked in, years of training moving my body before thought could catch up.

I twisted onto my side, then my knees, forcing my body to move even as my vision swam. My hand went to my belt automatically, fingers curling where my weapon should have been.

It wasn't there.

Of course it wasn't.

I swallowed, breath coming shallow, and forced myself to stay still.

Listen.

Feel.

Assess.

The ringing in my ears faded slowly, replaced by a low, constant hum not magical, not mechanical. Just… alive. The sound of a forest breathing. Leaves shifting. Wind threading through branches thick enough to be mistaken for buildings.

No immediate threat.

Good.

I opened my eyes properly.

The forest loomed.

That was the only word for it.

Trees rose around me like towers, their trunks so wide I couldn't have wrapped my arms around even one of them. The bark was dark and ridged, spiraled in patterns that felt deliberate rather than natural. Their branches stretched impossibly high, disappearing into layers of foliage far above my line of sight.

The leaves were enormous.

Each one easily longer than my forearm. Some were broader than my chest, and mind you, my chest was enormous, so mere leaves being bigger than my breasts came as a surprise. Thick veins crawled over their surface, heavy enough that when they fell, they didn't flutter; they dropped. I watched one detach somewhere overhead and crash to the ground with a dull, wet thud that sent dirt puffing outward.

I flinched despite myself.

Still no attack.

No movement beyond the gentle sway of greenery.

I pushed myself to my feet slowly, testing my balance. My legs held. My mana responded when I reached for it, sluggish, but present. I wasn't drained dry.

Good.

I rotated in place, scanning.

Nothing.

No monsters.

No hostile aura.

No distorted mana fields screaming danger.

Just forest.

Which somehow made it worse.

My pride caught up to me then.

It hit harder than the ground had.

I clenched my jaw, jaw muscles tightening as the memory replayed itself unbidden—too vivid, too sharp.

The fight.

Eight of us.

Eight of the strongest first-years Astralis Academy had produced in decades.

We'd gone in confident.

Prepared.

Coordinated.

And we'd been dismantled.

One by one.

I felt my hands curl into fists.

Losing wasn't unfamiliar. I'd lost sparring matches before. Duels. Simulations. That wasn't what gnawed at me now.

This had been different.

That thing hadn't fought like a student. Or a monster. Or even a construct.

It had fought like a mistake.

I shuddered despite myself, a chill crawling up my spine as I remembered the moment its head had exploded.

Not metaphorically.

Literally.

Sebastian's strike, clean, decisive, had taken it clean off. The force had been enough to scatter fragments across the forest floor, splattering the floor in wet, awful pieces.

For half a heartbeat, hope had flared.

Then the head had grown back.

Right in front of us.

Bone knitting. Flesh reforming. Eyes opening as if nothing had happened.

As if death was a mild inconvenience.

My stomach twisted.

I forced the reaction down ruthlessly.

Fear was allowed.

Hesitation was not.

Whatever that thing was, it existed. Which meant it could be understood. Studied. Countered.

Eventually.

I inhaled deeply, grounding myself in the scent of damp earth and greenery. The air here was thick, heavy with mana, so saturated it almost tingled against my skin.

This place was dangerous.

Just… not immediately.

I adjusted my posture, shoulders straightening. Whatever had happened back there, whatever humiliation I'd suffered, it didn't matter right now.

My companions were scattered.

Somewhere.

Alive,or not.

I intended to find out.

I picked a direction at random and started walking.

The forest floor was uneven, layered with roots as thick as walls, mossy growth clinging to everything. Each step required attention. I kept my pace measured, senses extended just enough to warn me of sudden movement without broadcasting my presence to the entire ecosystem.

As I moved, my thoughts churned.

Sebastian.

If anyone had survived being thrown through a portal of unknown origin, it was him.

Kent too. Blunt, loud, deceptively clever when it mattered.

Lillith.

Annalise.

The others.

Eight of us.

Scattered across gods-knew-where.

I swallowed.

The forest shifted subtly as I walked, light filtering down in broken beams through the canopy. Time felt… strange. Not wrong. Just stretched, elastic.

Every snapping twig made my muscles tense.

Every rustle sent my pulse spiking.

But nothing attacked.

Minutes passed.

Then more.

The disorientation faded gradually, replaced by a cold, steady focus.

If this was a trap, some kind of plan to kill us.

If this was some twisted extension of whatever nightmare we'd been dragged into.

Then, unfortunately, the perpetrators would be disappointed.

I reached a small clearing where the ground dipped slightly, forming a shallow basin. In its center lay a pool of water, perfectly still, reflecting the towering greenery above like a mirror.

I approached cautiously, peering into the surface.

My reflection stared back.

Scraped. Dirt-smudged. Eyes sharp, jaw set.

Still me.

I knelt, dipped my fingers into the water. Cool. Clean. I splashed some on my face, letting it run down my neck, grounding myself further.

Then I froze.

A ripple.

Not from me.

From the far side of the pool.

I straightened slowly, hand drifting toward my side where my weapon should have been, then stopping uselessly.

"Hello?" I called, voice steady despite the tension coiling in my chest.

Silence.

The ripple faded.

Nothing emerged.

I waited another long moment, then exhaled.

False alarm.

I stood, turning away from the pool and nearly collided with a massive leaf drifting down from above.

I caught it reflexively.

It was heavier than it looked.

I stared at it for a second, then let out a quiet, humorless breath.

"Get it together, Nora," I muttered to myself.

I dropped the leaf and resumed walking.

Somewhere out there, my companions were doing the same thing. Assessing. Adapting. Surviving.

And somewhere.

That thing existed.

The one that had shattered us.

The one that regenerated like death was optional.

My steps slowed, resolve hardening with every breath.

Next time.

We wouldn't be caught unprepared.

Next time...

We would make sure it stayed dead.

I vanished into the forest, senses sharp, pride bruised but unbroken, moving forward with quiet determination as the giant trees closed around me once more.

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