The first sign was the silence.
Not the peaceful kind that blanketed the academy during deep night, but a chilling, unnatural stillness. Birds had vanished from the skies, their songs silenced. The wind whispered no more through the trees. Even the fountains within the academy's central courtyard had stopped flowing—frozen in place by forces beyond natural comprehension.
It was as if the world itself had paused in fearful anticipation.
Nat stood by one of the windows in the library's upper level, watching storm clouds churn with a sickly violet hue in the distance. Lightning flickered silently within them, like the angry pulse of something ancient and awakening.
Lan approached, silent as always, and placed a hand on Nat's shoulder. "It's starting."
Nat nodded grimly. "The darkness is spreading faster than we thought."
Within days, the academy's elemental wards began to fail. A sudden drought struck the western fields, while torrential storms battered the eastern shore. Fire affinity students reported their flames flickering uncontrollably, while those of water and wind described their elements turning against them. Even Lily's spirits appeared confused—skittish and erratic, as if sensing a looming predator.
Professor Kael, a veteran of the last Elemental War, issued a rare academy-wide warning: "No student is to leave the grounds without permission. The balance has been broken. The source is unknown. We suspect foul influence… possibly ancient."
But Nat already knew.
He'd felt the pull through his system—the same intuitive connection that had guided him since the day he awoke in the past. It whispered now, more urgently than ever, drawing his attention to the corrupted threads of elemental energy scattered across the land.
They all felt it.
Neph's flames flickered blue at the tips, responding to an unseen pressure. Shen's wind danced erratically around him, howling without command. Lily had stopped summoning her spirits altogether, afraid they might turn on her.
And Nat… his Scan ability, once a precise tool, now showed strange distortions. Enemy traits blinked in and out, warped with unstable data. Something was bending reality.
"This can't be coincidence," Shen muttered, pacing their dorm room. "Everything started after that last Rift Trial."
"You think something came through?" Neph asked, arms crossed.
"Or someone," Nat said quietly. "The Shadow Binder."
The name hung in the air like a curse.
The team gathered what supplies they could and met at the teleportation gate, slipping out under the cover of night. Whatever was happening, they couldn't wait for the academy's bureaucrats to make a move. The world didn't have that kind of time.
Their journey beyond the academy's walls was like stepping into a dream gone wrong.
Forests had withered into ash-gray husks, and rivers bubbled with unnatural heat. Elemental beasts, once bound by instinct and territory, now roamed in violent packs, lashing out at anything that moved. They passed through several villages, all abandoned or destroyed—walls clawed down, crops rotted in the field, and not a single soul in sight.
By the fourth day, they reached the desolation.
It was a wasteland—miles of broken earth twisted into unnatural formations. Rocks jutted upward like ribs of a buried beast, and shadows clung unnaturally to the ground even under the midday sun.
In the center of the blighted land stood the fortress.
It wasn't made of stone but of shadow made solid—towering spires of blackened essence twisted upward like a scar on the sky. It radiated malevolence, and even the bravest of beasts steered clear of its presence.
"This is it," Nat said, staring up at the looming stronghold. "The source."
Shen drew his twin blades, eyes narrowing. "Then we end this."
As they approached, the shadows themselves moved.
Figures emerged—warped beasts and humanoid shapes with bodies half-submerged in darkness. Their eyes glowed an eerie crimson, and dark tendrils danced around them like living armor. These were no ordinary creatures. They had been bound—enslaved—by the Shadow Binder's will.
"Form up!" Lan shouted, slamming his sword into the ground. A wall of earth shot upward, deflecting the first wave of attacks.
Nat activated Resonance, the faint blue light of his system's circuits wrapping around his arms. His scan flared briefly, catching fragmented data:
> Name: Corrupted Wraith (Bound)
Element: Shadow / ???
Status: Hostile | Immune to standard elemental disruption
Weakness: Light-based constructs (low effectiveness)
"Watch it! They're resistant to most elemental attacks," he warned.
Neph responded with a roaring blaze, fire bursting from her fists and engulfing three of the wraiths. They shrieked as the flames clung to them, but didn't fall.
"Not enough," she growled.
Lily hesitated, eyes wide, hands trembling.
"Lily!" Nat shouted. "You can do this. Call them. The spirits still trust you!"
She bit her lip and closed her eyes, reaching into the spirit realm. A glowing orb of white light appeared at her side—then another. Small, fluttering beings with barely formed wings and curious eyes.
They circled her protectively, then surged forward, striking the shadows with flashes of purified essence. The shadows recoiled, hissing, and the team pushed forward.
One after another, the warped guardians fell—some to Shen's rapid strikes, others to Neph's overwhelming flames, and some to Lily's unexpected support. Lan's stone barriers protected the group, while Nat coordinated with precision, striking weak points revealed by his scanning ability.
But even as the last of the creatures crumbled into dust, the shadow fortress pulsed again.
A deep, resonating hum echoed from within.
"That was just the gate," Lan muttered.
Nat stepped forward, his system flaring at his fingertips. He could feel the presence within the fortress—the mind behind the corruption. Cold, intelligent… and watching.
"The Shadow Binder is inside," Nat said. "And they've been expecting us."
He turned to his friends. "We don't know what we'll find beyond these walls. But we've come this far together."
"We end it together," Shen said, raising his blades.
Neph cracked her knuckles. "Let's burn this nightmare out of existence."
Lily nodded silently, her spirits swirling protectively around her.
Lan simply grinned and stepped to Nat's side. "Lead the way."
As the massive gates creaked open, spilling violet light across the ruined land, the team stepped forward into the unknown.
The final battle was about to begin.
And the fate of the world would be decided in the shadows.