Ryn took the blade by his side and plunged it into the ground.

Without any command at all, light started folding inward as his Pact Armament unraveled, enlarging, expanding—

Until Snow stood once more as a massive tiger, paws sinking lightly into the frost.

It shook itself, scattering ice crystals into the air, then glanced at Ryn. He gave it a pat on the head. Snow purred, rubbing its own head against his chest.

Jay blinked. "… I forgot it can do that."

Ryn hopped up onto Snow's back, then reached down and hauled Jay up with him.

"Hold on," Ryn said.

Snow's tail flicked once.

Then it stepped forward, toward the edge of the Snow Isles—

And leapt off.

"WOOOOOAHHHH!" Jay shouted as they dropped, Ryn's own breath tearing free a split second later.

Wind howled past them.

Then Snow exhaled.

Cold surged outward, moisture in the air snapping instantly into ice. A solid platform formed beneath them just in time.

Snow landed, pushed off, and leapt again.

Another breath.

Another block of ice.

The tiger bounded through the open sky, forming its path one step at a time, moving from frozen platform to frozen platform as effortlessly as if it were racing across high jungle branches.

Below them, the Desert Isles drew closer, sand and broken stone rising to meet them as heat shimmered upward.

The final block of ice shattered beneath Snow's paws as they landed.

Sand exploded outward on impact, grains stinging exposed skin as heat rushed up to meet them. The shift was immediate and violent—cold evaporated instantly, replaced by a dry, crushing warmth that pressed against Ryn's lungs with every breath.

The tiger lowered its body, paws digging into the sand as its chest heaved. Thick breaths tore free of it, vapor flashing briefly before vanishing in the heat.

Ryn felt it through the bond.

This place was wrong for it.

"Easy," Ryn said quietly, sliding off its back.

Snow tried to straighten, but another breath came, harsher this time. Its ears flattened, tail flicking irritably as the sand scorched its pads.

Jay wiped sweat from his brow. "That's… not normal, right?"

"No," Ryn replied.

He rested a hand against Snow's shoulder, closing his eyes for just a moment.

"Back," he murmured.

Snow hesitated—then nodded once.

Light folded inward again, ice and fur dissolving into a sharp, clean line of steel as the tiger's form compressed. A heartbeat later, Snow rested in Ryn's hand as a sword, its surface cool despite the heat.

The pressure eased instantly.

Ryn exhaled. "Stay like this for now."

The blade hummed faintly in response.

Jay glanced around uneasily.

"So, how are we supposed to find this next guardian…?"

"And can I stay out of it? The dragon's warnings were pretty harmless after all." Jay gave a dry laugh, but the sarcasm was unmissable.

Ryn's gaze swept across the dunes and half-buried ruins, heat warping the distance until nothing looked quite real.

"We don't," he said.

Jay blinked. "We don't… what?"

"Find her," Ryn replied. "Not like this."

He crouched slightly, pressing his palm into the sand.

It was warm. Too warm. The heat bled upward unnaturally, pulsing in slow waves rather than radiating evenly, like a heartbeat buried beneath the ground.

"She'll find us," Ryn said.

Jay opened his mouth—

The sand shifted.

A low, grinding sound rolled across the dunes as the ground itself began to move. Sand slid away from stone in long, deliberate lines, exposing fragments of old roads, broken pillars, and half-buried walls that hadn't seen the sky in centuries.

Jay swallowed. "Okay. I take it back."

Ryn straightened, Snow's blade steady in his grip.

The heat spiked sharply.

The air shimmered harder, mirages collapsing into something solid as a presence pressed down on the island, unmistakably aware of them.

"She knows we're here," he said quietly.

Somewhere beneath the shifting sands, something answered.

The sand collapsed. Not all at once, but in precise, circular pockets.

Ryn felt it an instant before it happened. The ground beneath his foot hollowed out, giving way as sand spiraled downward like a draining whirlpool.

"Move!" he snapped.

He kicked off just as the ground vanished, dropping into a yawning pit that snapped shut a heartbeat later, barely managing to grab Jay by his backpack's handle.

The desert was moving.

Not shifting randomly, but responding to something's command.

Sand erupted forward as something immense rose beneath it, displacing the dunes with brutal force. A massive shape pressed against the desert, its outline warped and indistinct through heat and drifting grit.

Two massive horns emerged from the deep, announcing its entrance before the rest of its body came forward.

Four limbs anchored it.

Ryn caught that much immediately.

Sand slid from its sides in heavy sheets as the shape hauled itself free, stone grinding against stone beneath the movement.

Two points of amber light burned through the drifting grit.

They fixed on Ryn.

The sand responded instantly.

The ground beneath his feet hollowed out, collapsing inward in a perfect circle. Ryn leapt back just as the pit snapped shut, grains slamming together with enough force to crack stone beneath.

Jay yelped, scrambling onto a nearby rock for stable ground.

"What is that!?"

Another circle formed where he would land, sand spiraling downward like a drain opening into nothing.

Ryn felt the drop a heartbeat too late.

"—!"

He twisted instinctively, boots scraping uselessly against collapsing sand as the pit yawned open beneath him.

Then—

Ice formed under his foot.

Not from him.

A thin platform flashed into existence just long enough to catch his weight. Ryn landed hard, barely keeping his balance as heat hissed against the frozen surface.

The ice melted almost immediately.

"What—?"

Snow's blade vibrated sharply in his hand.

Ryn's eyes widened as another patch of ice bloomed ahead of him, already forming before he moved. He took the step without thinking, landing just as the platform began to dissolve.

Snow was doing it.

On its own.

Jay shouted from behind.

"Since when could it do that!?"

"I didn't know it could!" Ryn snapped back.

Ryn skidded across scorched sand before catching himself.

For half a heartbeat, the battlefield cleared.

The creature stood fully exposed now. No longer a silhouette.

Four massive limbs were planted firmly into the desert, each step having compressed the sand beneath it into stone-hard plates.

Its body was low and broad, built for weight and endurance rather than speed, scales layered like cracked slabs of rock packed with grit.

Its wings were folded tight against its sides, looking more like a failed evolutionary trait rather than a beneficial one.

A thick tail dragged behind it, carving a shallow trench through the sand.

The head remained lowered, horns curving back along a reinforced neck, amber eyes fixed on Ryn with a steady, unblinking stare.

The sand around it lay still, waiting.

Ryn's breath slowed.

"…An earth dragon," Jay whispered, almost in awe.

Before they could fully comprehend what they were looking at, the earth dragon tilted its head.

Just slightly.

The sand at her feet shifted, stirred, like it was trying to remember something.

"…You're late."

The voice rumbled through the ground rather than the air, low and fractured, layered with grit and stone. It wasn't loud, but more like…exhaustion.

Ryn's heart skipped.

"I'm not—" he started.

"You said you would return," the dragon continued, amber eyes narrowing as they traced his silhouette.

"You say you'd bring me along."

The ground beneath Ryn's boots tightened, grains compressing until it felt like standing on stone.

Jay took a step back. "Ryn…?"

Ryn didn't look away from her.

"I'm not the one you're waiting for," he said carefully. "That was Asteris."

The name hit her like a blow.

The desert shuddered.

Sand lifted into the air, spiraling violently before slamming back down in jagged waves. The dragon reared slightly, wings grinding as they scraped uselessly against her sides.

"LIAR!"

The word tore through the desert.

It darkened as it moved, grains clumping together as if soaked through with something heavier than heat. Veins of dull, blackened earth traced briefly along the dragon's scales, spreading from the joints of her limbs before sinking back beneath stone and sand.

Her breathing changed.

Each exhale came with a grinding rasp, the ground responding unevenly. Sections of sand hardened into brittle stone while others collapsed into shallow pits that closed just as quickly.

Her pupils fractured, light splintering outward like cracked glass, and the sand beneath her claws fused into jagged plates that pulsed faintly with corrupted heat.

Ryn recognized the signs immediately.

Frenzy.

Jay's voice dropped to a whisper. "Ryn… she's not listening anymore."

He already knew.

The dragon lowered her head fully now, horns angling forward, posture no longer that of a guardian barring passage, but of pure, although misguided, hostility.

Snow's blade vibrated in Ryn's grip.

The desert fell silent.

No wind. No movement.

Only two figures facing one another across broken stone and shifting sand.

One who fought because of the past, and the other who fights because of the future.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.