The forest had gone silent.
Not the ordinary hush of wind slipping between branches—but the unsettling, heavy silence of a world watching.
Chase stood in the clearing with his eyes closed, his bare feet rooted into the dirt. His breathing was shallow, controlled. The wind didn't bother him. Not anymore.
"You've been doing well, boy," Mason's voice drifted lazily from somewhere above. "But your progress is starting to bore me."
Chase frowned slightly. "Bore you? I haven't even learned half of what you said I needed."
"Oh, that's not what I mean," Mason drawled, floating on his back above the treeline as if it were a hot spring. "You're too... obedient. That worries me."
Chase didn't respond. Instead, he focused—hearing the rustle of a leaf five paces away, the buzz of a gnat two inches from his neck, the shifting of Milo's soft fur as the beast yawned behind him.
"Tell me," Mason asked suddenly, "Why do you want to get strong?"
Chase's jaw tensed. The answer wasn't simple. Revenge was a part of it—of course it was. But it wasn't everything.
"I don't want to be at anyone's mercy again," he said quietly. "I want to choose my own path."
Mason chuckled. "Not bad. Not complete either. But it'll do... for now."
Without warning, a thwip of sound cut through the air.
Chase ducked instinctively.
A wooden needle embedded itself in the tree behind him.
Another.
Then a third.
Chase didn't move. He exhaled. His mind reached out—not with sight, but with stillness.
He wasn't just listening now. He was sensing.
The space around him stretched like silk across his skin, and in its weave, he felt the vibration of movement—a squirrel bounding up a tree, a branch swaying under Mason's lazy weight, and—
There!
He twisted to the left, sweeping his staff up in a sharp arc. A thin whistle of air was his reward as another projectile missed him by a hair's breadth.
"Very good," Mason said. "You're starting to touch on it. Your spiritual sense. It's weak, but it's there."
Chase's chest rose with pride. "I can feel it. Like a thread pulling at the world."
Milo, lying like a lazy cat, raised his head.
"About time," a voice whispered in Chase's head.
He jumped, his head whipping back. "Did—Milo?"
The beast yawned again, fangs showing. "Telepathy. You finally unlocked enough spiritual energy for me to use it. Thought you'd never get there."
Chase's face lit up. "You can talk?"
Milo looked vaguely smug. "Of course I can talk. I'm not some dumb forest mutt."
Mason cackled overhead. "What's that? Is your imaginary beast speaking to you now, boy? Should I start preparing you a nice padded cell in case your brain's leaking?"
"He's talking," Chase said, still amazed. "Milo can talk!"
"Finally," Milo said again, eyes gleaming. "Do you know how boring it is to listen to you mutter about firewood for weeks?"
Chase laughed, the sound rough from disuse. "You've been eavesdropping on my thoughts?"
"You think loudly."
Mason floated down with a slow spin, feet hovering inches above the ground. He eyed the pair with a mild frown.
"Hmm. Talking beasts. Spiritual sense. I guess I did pick the right idiot."
Chase blinked. "What does that mean?"
Mason smirked. "It means your training is over."
Chase's heart sank. "What?! But I just started unlocking spiritual sense!"
"Exactly. And now it's time to test it properly." Mason clapped his hands once, sharp and loud. "You're going to climb the obsidian cliff."
Chase tilted his head. "Climb? I'm blind."
"Didn't seem to stop you from dodging flying needles," Mason shrugged. "And the cliff is a rite of passage. You want strength? You want to inherit my path? Then you'll climb, or you'll die."
Chase's voice dropped. "Inherit your path?"
Mason's expression darkened, just for a moment. "I've walked many realms. Fought emperors, devils, monsters. Lost more than I kept. But my legacy? I'm not letting it rot with me."
He stared at Chase with a gaze that cut through the trees.
"You carry lightning and darkness in your blood. A body branded by betrayal. If that doesn't qualify you to walk the Shadowstorm Path, I don't know what does."
Milo sat upright now, his silver-furred tail curling behind him. "He's serious, Chase. He's giving you something rare."
Chase was silent for a long time. The fire in his chest had cooled into something sharper. More focused.
He turned toward the northern ridge.
"Where's this cliff?"