The Earth Realm greeted them not with open arms but with silence.
Dense mists curled around moss-covered trees as Jack, Nyssa, and Kael stepped through the moon gate. Their boots sank into soft loam, the air thick with the scent of damp wood and wild herbs. The Heartwood, ancient and vast, stretched in all directions like a breathing labyrinth of bark and shadow.
But to Jack, it wasn't just a forest.
It was home.
Or close enough.
The breeze smelled faintly of wet earth and hibiscus—the same kind that grew by the window of his childhood bedroom. His chest ached with memories. The soil, the stars, the hush in the trees—it all felt eerily familiar, but… different. Purified. As though they hadn't just returned to Earth, but to a version of it untouched by pollution, sorrow, or noise. The air felt sacred, humming with warm energy, free from the choking soot and drainage stink of the cities. Here, everything pulsed with life.
"I… I know this place," Jack murmured. "But it feels like another plane. Everything's alive."
He stopped in his tracks, turning slightly toward the east.
"My mom. I want to see her."
Nyssa was instantly at his side, her hand gripping his arm. "No. Jack—no diversions."
His brow furrowed. "Just a minute. One glance—"
"Even a second could shift the time balance. We're not protected here. Auren's cloaking spell no longer works in this realm. We're vulnerable. Isolde could strike at any moment."
Jack exhaled, jaw clenched. He gave one last look in the direction of his old neighborhood—though it no longer lay beyond those woods—and nodded. "Alright. Let's get this done."
"Stay close," Nyssa added, now more tense than ever. "This forest isn't what it seems.
The trees… they remember."
Kael snorted. "Trees can't—"
A sudden rustle cut him off.
A whisper.
Jack froze.
The voice was faint, but unmistakable.
"Jack…"
He spun around, eyes wide. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Nyssa asked, already drawing her twin crescent blades.
Kael shook his head. "I heard something. A name."
"They know you're here," Nyssa muttered.
"The Heartwood tests all who seek the Tear.
It's alive—and it knows your heart."
They pressed on, each step deeper into the living forest, each breath a little heavier.
Jack's palms tingled with magic—unsteady and alert. He could feel the Tear of Elumir calling to him. But something else stirred in the woods.
They reached a clearing, a stone dais at its center covered in ivy and ancient runes. And there it was—a silver droplet hovering in the air, suspended by nothing, glowing with soft, holy light.
"The Tear," Jack whispered.
But as he stepped forward, the ground trembled. The mists thickened. Shadows surged.
Suddenly, the trees behind them split apart with a deafening roar. A massive creature emerged—twelve feet tall, its body composed of bark, bone, and rot. Once a guardian beast of the forest, it had been twisted by dark magic. Vines writhed from its limbs like serpents, and its eyes glowed with violet corruption.
"The Verdant Horror," Nyssa whispered, face pale. "It's been corrupted… Isolde must've turned it."
The beast let out a soul-rattling shriek and charged.
Kael threw up a shield of energy, barely deflecting a massive claw. "We're not cloaked anymore, remember? This thing is here to kill us!"
Nyssa darted in, blades slashing at its legs, but the vines struck back like whips, flinging her aside. Jack dodged left, landing hard, and scrambled to his feet. He reached inside himself, feeling the pulse of the Tear ahead—but the magic around them pulsed with chaos.
"Jack!" Kael shouted. "Now would be a good time for some of that moon stuff!"
Jack focused, hands trembling. He remembered Auren's words.
"Water bends. Moon reveals. Use both—flow and illuminate."
"Ael'riventha!" he cried—the moonlight incantation.
A column of silver light crashed down on the creature, exposing the corrupted heart pulsing at its core.
Kael saw it too. "The heart—aim for the heart!"
Nyssa rolled to her feet, eyes blazing. "With pleasure."
She moved like a flash of silver wind, leaping into the air. Jack followed with a surge of water magic—"Syla'noré!"—that slammed into the creature's face, staggering it.
Nyssa struck.
Her blade pierced the corrupted core.
The creature howled, vines flailing—and then it crumbled into ash, releasing a final breath of green mist that returned to the soil.
Silence returned.
The Tear of Elumir hovered still.
Jack stepped forward, and as his fingers closed around the artifact, warmth flooded his chest. A vision rushed into his mind—Thalon wielding the same Tear against a horde of shadow beasts. Isaldora whispering to her unborn child, "You must find it someday."
He gasped.
"Are you alright?" Nyssa asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Jack nodded slowly. "One down."
Kael grinned. "Two to go."
—
But far away, in the crimson shadows of her sanctum, Isolde clenched her fist.
"So… the boy claims the first. No matter. Let him taste victory."
She turned to the robed servant behind her.
"Send the Shade Serpent to the Sky Temple. Let him feel loss."