The forest did not brighten.
It fractured.
The light did not spill in gently like dawn, nor flare like fire. It cut through the darkness with merciless precision, as if something sacred had been forced into a place that had no right to contain it. A lattice of gold-white brilliance stretched across the trees in perfect lines, slicing through shadow, weaving between trunks, wrapping around stone and air alike.
And for the first time… The creature stopped.
It did not recoil like an animal.
It glitched.
Its massive form flickered, unstable, as though it did not belong beneath that light. The shadows composing its body writhed and peeled away in strips, dissolving wherever the lattice touched them. The darkness pouring from its mouth recoiled sharply, snapping back into it like a wounded limb being dragged into place.
Aveline's breath caught.
"What… is that…?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
