The morning after the fire was gray and cold.
Smoke still rose from the ruins of the communal hall. The bucket lines had saved the surrounding buildings, but the heart of the valley was gone. The place where we had gathered. Where we had planned. Where we had survived.
Now it was ash.
I walked through the wreckage, my boots crunching on charred wood. The fire had been hot—hotter than it should have been. The beams were blackened to the core. The stone walls were cracked. The iron hinges had melted.
This was not an accident.
I knelt beside the hearth—or what remained of it. The stones were warm, even now. I touched one. Pulled my hand back.
Hotter than it should have been.
Ami found me there.
"The people are scared," she said.
"I know."
"They're asking questions. Who did this. Why. When it will happen again."
I stood. Looked at her. "What did you tell them?"
"The truth. I don't know."
I nodded. "That's all we can say."
We gathered in the largest remaining cabin.
Ami. Corrin. Kael. Selene. Vex. The leaders of the valley. The ones who had been there from the beginning.
"The fire was deliberate," I said. "No accident. No natural cause."
Corrin frowned. "How do you know?"
I looked at him. "I felt the stones. They're still hot. Hours later. Fire doesn't do that."
Silence.
"Someone wanted us to know they could reach us," I continued. "Someone wanted to send a message."
"What message?" Selene asked.
I thought about the dream. The static. The glitching. The light that fought to survive.
"That we're not safe."
Kael spoke. "I saw something. Before the fire. At the treeline."
Everyone looked at him.
"A figure. Tall. Wearing dark armor. I only saw it for a moment. Then it was gone."
"Could you see its face?" Ami asked.
He shook his head. "It was too far. Too dark."
"Demon?"
"Maybe. Or something else."
I looked at Kael. At the fighter who had learned to be somewhere else. "Something else?"
He met my eyes. "The way it moved. It wasn't like the demons we've fought. It was... smoother. More controlled."
Military, I thought. Trained. Disciplined.
The King's army.
Or something worse.
The meeting ended.
People dispersed to their duties. Rebuilding. Patrolling. Mourning.
I stayed behind.
Ami stayed with me.
"You think it was the same person who knocked you out," she said. "In the free-for-all."
I looked at her. "Maybe."
"Why?"
I thought about the figure in the forest. The one who had waited until I was broken, until I couldn't fight back. The one who had struck from behind and disappeared.
"Because they're not trying to kill me," I said. "They're trying to send a message."
I spent the day walking the perimeter.
The forest was quiet. Too quiet. No birds. No animals. Just the wind through the dead leaves.
The tracks were there.
Faint. Almost invisible. But there.
Boot prints. Not demon—human. Or something that walked like one.
I followed them to the edge of the valley, where the trees grew thick and the light barely reached.
They stopped.
As if the figure had simply... vanished.
I stood there for a long time.
The forest pressed around me. The silence pressed with it.
Someone was watching.
I could feel it. The weight of eyes on my back. The prickle of unseen presence.
I turned.
Nothing.
But the feeling didn't fade.
That night, I didn't join the others.
I climbed the ridge above the valley, away from the lights, away from the noise, away from the questions.
The stars were out. The moon was thin. The world was quiet.
I sat in the darkness.
And I reached inside.
The power was there. Always there. The soul I had carried for three thousand years, compressed into something that should not exist, waiting to be reclaimed.
7.5% of what I had once been.
It was not enough.
Not against Caelus. Not against the figure in the forest. Not against what was coming.
I reached deeper.
Not for new power—for old power. The power I had already claimed. The power I had been using since I woke in this body. The power that had carried me through every fight, every wound, every victory.
I pulled it up. Let it rise. Let it burn.
The stars seemed to dim. The air around me grew heavy. The stone beneath me cracked.
7.5% became 7.7%.
Then 8.0%.
Then 8.3%.
It was faster now. The power was waking, responding, remembering. The fire in the forge had opened something. The tournament had tested it. The dream had stirred it.
8.3% became 8.6%.
Then 8.9%.
Then 9.0%.
I opened my eyes.
The stars were back. The air was light. The stone beneath me was whole.
9.0%.
Not enough.
But closer.
I stood. Walked to the edge of the ridge. Looked out at the valley, at the settlement, at the people who were waiting for me to protect them.
The figure was out there. Watching. Waiting.
I needed to be ready.
I returned to the valley at midnight.
Ami was waiting at the gate.
"You were gone for hours," she said.
"I was training."
"At night? On the ridge?"
I met her eyes. "I was regaining something I lost."
She didn't ask what. She had learned, over the months, when to stop asking.
"Did it work?"
I looked at my hands. At the scars that were fading, the strength that was returning.
"Some of it."
The next morning, we received a message.
A runner from a settlement to the south. Pale. Out of breath. His hands were shaking.
"They're gone," he said. "Everyone. The whole settlement. Just... gone."
Ami caught him as he stumbled. "What do you mean, gone?"
"Empty. No bodies. No blood. No signs of struggle. Just... empty." He looked at me. "You're the sword-breaker. You faced the ascendant. You have to help us."
I looked at Ami. At Corrin. At Kael.
"We'll go," I said.
The settlement was called Oakhaven.
The same name as the town where I had fought Vorthar's hounds. Where five soldiers had died. Where I had killed twenty demons before they brought me down.
The same name.
Different place.
But the same silence.
We walked through the empty streets. The cabins were intact. The doors were open. The fires were still burning in the hearths.
But no one was there.
"It's like they just... left," Corrin said.
"They didn't leave." I knelt beside a hearth. Touched the embers. Still warm. "They were taken."
"By who?"
I looked at the forest. At the darkness beyond the trees.
"By something that walks like a human."
We searched the settlement.
Found nothing. No bodies. No blood. No signs of struggle.
Just... emptiness.
And at the center of the town square, carved into the stone:
THE KING IS COMING
Ami stared at the words. "The Demon King?"
I touched the carving. The letters were deep. Precise. Made by something that knew exactly what it was doing.
"Maybe," I said. "Or something worse."
We returned to the valley at dusk.
The message spread quickly. People gathered in the remaining cabins, whispering, frightened.
The King is coming.
The words hung in the air like smoke.
I stood at the edge of the settlement, watching the treeline.
Ami found me there.
"What do we do?" she asked.
I looked at her. At the woman who had followed me from the ruins of Lancet to this valley of survivors.
"We prepare," I said. "We train. We get stronger."
"And then?"
I looked at the forest. At the darkness that never quite lifted.
"And then we fight."
That night, I sat on the ridge again.
The stars were bright. The mountains were dark. The valley was quiet.
I reached inside.
9.0%.
Not enough.
But closer.
I let the power settle. Let it rest. Let it wait.
Tomorrow, I would train. Tomorrow, I would grow.
Tomorrow, I would be closer to ready.