Mary's eyes flickered open to a dim light filtering through the fractured remnants of the cavern ceiling. Dust still hung thick in the air, drifting like ash after a wildfire. Her body ached from the blast, her limbs stiff and heavy. Every breath she took sent a sharp pain through her ribs. She groaned as she tried to sit up, a dull throb echoing behind her eyes.
The core was gone. She could feel the absence of it, like a void no longer pulling at her soul. But something else had taken its place. A silence that wasn't natural—too absolute, too still.
"Lela?" she called, her voice hoarse. She coughed against the dust in her lungs, forcing herself to her feet. Her eyes scanned the ruined chamber. Huge chunks of stone had collapsed where the heart of the rift once floated, and strange veins of shadow-stained rock snaked through the ground, still pulsing faintly with residual magic.
"Loosie?"
There was a weak groan from beneath a shattered slab of stone to her left. Mary rushed over, adrenaline pushing past the pain. She heaved at the rock with trembling arms until it shifted just enough for Loosie to wriggle free, covered in grime and blood but alive.
Loosie gave a shaky grin. "Ten out of ten, would not recommend standing too close to a collapsing magical rift," she rasped, coughing hard. "Did we… do it?"
Mary helped her sit up. "I think so. It's gone. The core's gone." But even as she said it, she didn't fully believe the victory was complete.
Where was Lela?
A fresh wave of dread surged through Mary. She darted across the broken floor, calling out her sister's name again and again. Finally, a faint reply came—a whisper, no louder than the sound of air slipping through leaves.
"Here…"
Mary found her half-buried beneath a cascade of rubble near the far edge of the chamber. Her sword lay broken beside her, the blade cracked straight down the middle. Blood stained her tunic, and her left arm hung at an unnatural angle. But her eyes were open, and when she saw Mary, her mouth curled into the faintest smile.
"You always take your time saving me," Lela muttered weakly.
Mary knelt beside her, brushing dirt and matted hair from her sister's forehead. "You're lucky I love you."
Loosie limped over and knelt beside them. "We need to get out of here before the rest of this place collapses."
They worked quickly, fashioning a crude sling for Lela's arm and using the remnants of shattered stone pillars to brace their path. As they made their way back up the ruined tunnel that had once led into the heart of the rift, Mary couldn't shake the feeling that something was still wrong.
It wasn't just the silence. It was the presence she'd felt in those last moments before the explosion—the thing stirring in the dark. She hadn't told the others yet, but she'd felt something watching them even after the rift shattered. Not the core. Something older.
Outside, the world looked eerily unchanged. The sky was still the soft gray of dawn, and the distant mountains stood silent as if nothing had happened. Birds chirped in the trees, and the wind whispered across the grass. It was almost peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Loosie dropped to the ground with a long sigh. "Okay, I'm declaring this an emergency nap. Someone wake me up when the kingdom throws us a parade or the apocalypse resumes."
Lela gave a small laugh, then winced. "Don't make me laugh. My ribs hate you."
Mary didn't sit. She stared out across the fields. The grass rustled gently in the wind, but her skin prickled with unease.
"You guys… something's wrong."
Loosie cracked one eye open. "Define wrong. You mean wrong like 'there's another ancient evil' or wrong like 'I forgot to pack a snack?'"
Mary shook her head slowly. "No, it's… I don't know. When we destroyed the core, I felt something else wake up. Not part of the rift. Something… buried deeper."
Lela frowned. "You mean like another rift?"
"No. Worse. The core felt chaotic, unstable. Like a storm. This thing… it felt cold. Calculated. Patient."
Loosie slowly sat up. "Okay. That doesn't sound ominous at all."
Before Mary could reply, a low rumble passed beneath their feet. At first, she thought it was just the last remnants of the collapsing cavern—until she looked up and saw the sky darken.
Clouds swirled in fast, unnatural spirals, and the birds that had been chirping moments before scattered in every direction. The wind shifted, sharp and cold, and then the ground trembled again—this time stronger.
All three of them were on their feet in an instant, adrenaline kicking in once more.
"I thought we ended this," Loosie whispered.
"We did," Mary said, her voice tight. "But I think we uncovered something older. Something buried by the rift. Maybe even sealed away by it."
A crack split the sky—lightning that shimmered with black and violet, tearing across the heavens like a wound.
And then, from the center of the field where the cavern had once stood, a figure began to rise from the earth.
It wasn't a person—at least, not anymore. It had once worn the shape of a man, but the thing now emerging from the earth was draped in shadows, its form wrapped in tattered robes that moved like smoke. Eyes glowed with molten gold beneath a cracked iron mask, and its presence sent shivers of primal terror down their spines.
Mary stepped forward, shielding her friends instinctively. "What is that?"
The creature's voice was like the grinding of ancient stones. "You have undone the seal. The rift was not a prison—it was a ward. A warning. And now, the Guardian has fallen."
Mary's breath caught in her throat. "You were trapped there. The rift was keeping you in."
The being tilted its head. "The world forgets. It always forgets. But I do not. I remember the blood. The fire. The ancient war. And I… have returned."
The skies above churned, and a bolt of dark lightning struck the earth beside them, splitting a tree into flaming splinters.
Loosie stumbled back. "I liked it better when the big bad was just a screaming void."
Mary didn't move. She stared into the golden eyes of the shadow-thing and felt the gravity of what they had done settle on her chest like a stone.
They had destroyed the rift.
But in doing so… they had set something worse free.