The creature hit the gate like a battering ram.
Wood exploded.
Iron groaned.
The impact echoed across Havenfall.
For one terrible moment, nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Nobody understood what they were looking at.
Then panic erupted.
"Get back!"
"Move!"
"Protect the civilians!"
Children cried.
Merchants abandoned their stalls.
Families rushed away from the square.
The guards reacted instantly, forming a defensive line between the damaged gate and the fleeing crowd.
Kael found himself frozen.
Not because of the monster.
Because of what he had seen.
No Threads.
Every living thing possessed Threads.
People.
Animals.
Even the stray dog on the hill.
Yet the creature had none.
Only emptiness.
A hole in the weave.
His head still throbbed from the brief glimpse.
Another crossbow volley filled the air.
Bolts struck the creature's hide.
Most bounced off.
The few that pierced barely slowed it.
The monster rose from the splintered gate.
Tall.
Far taller than a man.
Its body looked wrong.
As though several creatures had been stitched together by someone who only half remembered what living things were supposed to look like.
Its skin was black and smooth like polished stone.
White eyes stared without blinking.
No pupils.
No emotion.
Nothing.
Just hunger.
The sight made Kael's stomach twist.
"What is that?"
Finn stood beside him.
Pale.
Shaking.
Yet somehow still holding his notebook.
Kael stared.
"You're writing?"
Finn's pencil trembled.
"I cope differently than normal people."
"...Fair."
The creature suddenly tilted its head.
Slowly.
Almost curiously.
Then its gaze locked onto Kael.
The world seemed to stop.
Dozens of people stood nearby.
Yet it looked directly at him.
At him alone.
A cold sensation crawled down his spine.
The pendant beneath his shirt became warm.
Then hot.
The monster took a step forward.
A silver barrier erupted from the ground.
The creature slammed into it.
The impact shattered nearby windows.
The barrier held.
Standing between the monster and the crowd was Master Arlen.
The elderly instructor hadn't drawn a weapon.
Hadn't raised a shield.
Instead, glowing silver Threads floated around him.
Hundreds of them.
Kael's eyes widened.
He could actually see them.
Not clearly.
Only faintly.
But they were there.
Layer upon layer woven together.
Like a wall made from countless strands of light.
The creature struck again.
The barrier rippled.
Yet remained intact.
Arlen sighed.
"You should not be here."
The monster answered with a shriek.
The sound hurt.
Not loud.
Wrong.
Like hearing a language that reality itself rejected.
Several civilians collapsed clutching their heads.
The creature lunged.
Arlen moved.
For the first time, Kael understood why the Academy respected him.
The old man stepped sideways.
One motion.
Nothing flashy.
Nothing dramatic.
His hand traced a line through the air.
Silver Threads followed.
The creature's arm separated from its body.
Cleanly.
Effortlessly.
The severed limb crashed into the street.
The crowd stared.
Silence followed.
Then cheers erupted.
The cheering stopped immediately.
The arm moved.
The severed limb twitched.
Then crawled.
Like a giant black spider.
Straight toward the nearest civilians.
People screamed.
The limb launched itself forward.
Kael moved before thinking.
His practice sword was already in his hand.
The creature reached a small girl frozen in fear.
Kael stepped between them.
The limb struck.
The force threw him backwards.
Pain exploded through his arms.
His wooden sword cracked.
The girl screamed.
Kael barely managed to keep his feet.
"Kael!"
Finn's voice sounded distant.
The severed arm turned toward him.
White eyes blinked along its surface.
Far too many eyes.
Far too many.
The thing lunged again.
Time slowed.
The pendant burned.
The world blurred.
And suddenly—
Kael saw Threads.
Not just briefly.
Clearly.
Silver strands flowed through the air.
Connecting people.
Buildings.
The earth itself.
The entire city seemed woven together.
Beautiful.
Endless.
Alive.
And in the middle of it all...
The creature remained empty.
A tear in reality.
A missing piece.
Then Kael saw something else.
A single black Thread.
Floating beside him.
The same one he had seen near the bridge.
It drifted toward the creature.
Toward the emptiness.
Toward the wound in the world.
A whisper followed.
Soft.
Ancient.
Gentle.
Protect them.
The words weren't a command.
They felt like a promise.
A promise offered long ago.
A promise remembered.
Kael stepped forward.
Fear still filled him.
But something else stood beside it now.
Resolve.
The same resolve that had carried him through Ashvale's destruction.
Through three years of grief.
Through every day he trained despite being told he would never succeed.
The creature attacked.
Kael swung.
His cracked practice sword met the black Thread.
For a heartbeat—
The Thread wrapped around the blade.
Darkness flashed.
Not evil.
Not cold.
Simply final.
The color of endings.
The creature recoiled.
For the first time since entering the city...
It screamed.
Not in rage.
In pain.
The severed arm collapsed.
Black mist rose from its surface.
The white eyes vanished.
The limb became ash.
Silence spread across the square.
Everyone stared.
Including Kael.
He looked at the practice sword.
The black Thread was gone.
The weapon looked unchanged.
Ordinary.
Impossible.
Master Arlen turned toward him.
The old instructor's expression had become unreadable.
Not surprise.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
As though he had just witnessed something he had hoped—and feared—to see.
Far beneath the Black Forest...
Within the forgotten city beneath the roots...
Ancient black Threads stirred wildly.
The cracked obelisk trembled.
And deep within the darkness...
The ancient presence smiled.
"The First Test begins."
A pause.
Then:
"He carries the Promise."
And for the first time in thousands of years...
Hope awakened beneath the world.