Eren stood before the portal that had split from the stone pillar. The darkness behind it moved like a living being. Waves of shadows undulated, as if breathing slowly, while faint whispers seeped within, carrying promises of destruction and despair.
Lylin raised her hand, its red flame slowly glowing in the darkness, emitting a small warmth amid the ash-heavy air. The wind whipped Eren's hair, as if preparing to rush with him through the shadows.
Rain stood beside them. "When we pass through, pay no attention to the voices, and do not open your hearts to the darkness. The Ash Lord tests those who enter by trying to break their will before granting them death."
Sera gestured with her wand, drawing a small circle of green light on the ground, slightly dampening the air pressure around them. "I will keep the connection between us strong, but if your hearts are torn apart, the shadows will consume you."
Eren and Leylin exchanged a silent glance, wordlessly agreeing, then together they advanced toward the gate.
With his first step inside the gate, Eren felt the air thicken, as if the wind had turned into an invisible wall, pushing him back. His heart pounded, and he began to hear distant whispers:
You are just a false heir... you cannot protect anyone...
But Eren closed his eyes for a moment, recalling his late father's face, smiling at him on the last night he saw the stars clearly. He remembered his young promise to be the wind that protected everyone.
He opened his eyes, and the winds swirled around him stronger, tearing those whispers apart like dry leaves.
As for Leylin, she felt the fire in her heart weaken for a moment. She heard voices she recognized, the screams of her village the day the ash first swallowed it. She saw her mother's face as she cried out her name before the shadows dragged her away.
The flame flickered in her hand, nearly extinguished, but she remembered the smiles of the children whose nights she had lit with her fire. She remembered Eren's laughter the first time he'd said to her, "Your fire is beautiful."
The flames blazed again, this time purer and stronger, driving away the shadows creeping into her mind.
They took step forward, Raen behind them, sending small currents of air to push the shadows away, and Sera whispering green spells to keep them bound together, preventing the shadows from separating them.
Suddenly, darkness opened before them onto a strange land: a gray sky filled with cracks of red lightning, and the ground covered in a fine layer of ash that covered the footprints of enormous creatures.
Eren looked around, "This is... the Land of Shadows."
On the horizon, there was a massive black structure, like an upside-down castle, its towers dangling towards the ground, and gigantic black roots emerging from it, embedding themselves in the earth and leaving swirling ash trails in their wake.
Sera said in a low voice, "There is the center of the shadows... there lies the Ash Lord."
As they watched, the ground began to shake, and a massive shadow emerged from the ashes. It was a black creature with four arms and a face devoid of features except for two glowing blood-red eyes. It stared directly at Eren and Leylin.
Rain said in a steady voice, "This is the first manifestation of the Ash Lord... a test of the entrance exams."
Eren raised his hand, the wind gathering around him. The air felt different here, heavier but filled with an unfamiliar power.
Leylin lit a fire in her hand, but it wasn't completely red. Instead, it mingled with a faint gray flame, as if the fire had absorbed something strange from the surrounding ash.
Eren said,
We fight together... there's no retreat now.
The shadow swooped down, and Leylin unleashed her fire, while Eren pushed the wind forward. The fire and wind met, creating a whirl of moving flames that slammed into the creature, which let out a scream that shook the ground.
But the shadow didn't fall. Instead, it ripped through the whirlpool with its black tubes and charged again. Leylin backed away slightly, saying, "It absorbs fire!"
Rain replied, "The Ash Lord created these manifestations from his own ashes. Fire alone won't suffice. We need to free the fire from the ash within it."
Eren said, concentrating the wind in his palm, "Then I'll make the wind open the way for the fire."
It lunged at the creature, the wind swirling around its hand. Its fist slammed into the creature's chest, sending a burst of air piercing the black ash layer covering its body, and small red cracks appeared.
Leylin looked into the cracks, reached out, and fired pure flame directly into the cracks. The fire exploded within the creature's body, which let out a loud scream before disintegrating into black ash that scattered into the air.
Silence fell after the explosion. Ash fell like black snow from the sky, while Leylin's flames and Eren's winds danced peacefully within it.
Sera said, advancing, "This is just the beginning... We have a long way to go before we reach the Lord of Ashes."
Eren replied with a calm smile, "But we have entered his land... and we will not leave until this darkness is over."
The winds blew, stirring the ash across the ground, while the fire lit the path ahead toward the Black Castle, where the final battle would begin.