Hyoga darted up from the depths of darkness with a silent scream tearing from his throat. His lungs burned, and his heart pounded as if trying to shatter his ribcage. He could still feel the cold breath of death on the back of his neck, and the phantom sharpness of the axe in his skull.
CRACK.
Hyoga came to his senses as if plunging into ice-cold water. His body was drenched in a cold sweat, his hands trembling uncontrollably. His first reflex was to check his throat and stomach with shaking fingers. No wounds. No blood. The phantom pain left by the axe was still screaming through his nerve endings, but his body was whole.
"Hyoga? Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?"
Naomi's sleepy voice scattered the deadly silence in his mind. When Hyoga turned his head, he saw his friend breathing safely right beside him. She was alive. Naomi was still alive.
"I... I just..." The words caught in his throat. His hand instinctively went to the necklace around his neck. Expecting the familiar smooth surface, his fingers brushed against a harsh, jagged fissure.
The necklace was split right down the middle with a deep, ominous crack.
As Hyoga tried to calm his racing heart, he realized this was no nightmare. He deduced that this crack was the price the necklace had paid to warn him when he was on the brink of death. He hadn't seen the killer's face in that bloody vision, but it was impossible to forget the heavy blow of the axe. This meant everyone in the camp was a potential executioner.
"Naomi, we have to get up," he whispered. His voice was trembling, but his resolve was unshakable. Valerius's words echoed in his mind: "If you don't know your enemy, the safest place is right under the crowd's nose."
Seeing the indescribable terror in Hyoga's eyes, Naomi stood up without asking a single question. They slipped silently out of the tent and headed toward where Shizuka and Sophia were sleeping. Beneath his clothes, Hyoga gripped the hilt of the dagger Emily had given him as if it were his only anchor in the world.
Shizuka and Sophia rubbed their eyes in surprise upon seeing the two children standing before them in the middle of the night. Hyoga spoke without trying to hide the tremor in his voice:
"We got scared... The noises outside and the dark... Please, can we sleep next to you tonight?"
This vulnerable, childish request touched the women's hearts. Sophia smiled gently and pulled her blanket aside. "Of course, little man. You're safe here. There's nothing to be afraid of."
Naomi quickly fell asleep under the soothing influence of Shizuka's light magic. But for Hyoga, rest was impossible. His mind was preoccupied with a single question: Who was wielding that bloody axe? If the killer was within this group, they wouldn't dare attack in front of the others.
Hyoga's body shuddered with the bitter aftershocks of the massacre he had just witnessed in his mind. Sophia, lying next to him, noticed this trembling immediately.
Sophia opened her sleepy eyes and, without hesitation, wrapped her arms around Hyoga, pulling him to her chest. "Shh... It's over, little man," she whispered. Her voice was like a warmth breaking through the cold of the night. "I'm right here. You don't have to be afraid anymore."
As Sophia looked at this fragile child in her arms, she was actually seeing her own past, not Hyoga's. Years ago, she too had been torn from her family, left all alone in a merciless world. She had never forgotten that freezing loneliness, that sharp taste of despair in her throat. While stroking Hyoga's hair, she felt a fierce protective instinct awaken toward him.
"Look at me, Hyoga," she whispered, locking the boy's trembling gaze with her own. "I don't completely understand what you've been through or why you're so terrified... But there is one thing you need to know. I've walked those dark paths too. I know what it means to not have a hand to hold onto."
This time, her voice carried not the softness of a guardian angel, but the steel will of an experienced warrior.
"I swear to you and Naomi. No matter what crosses our path, no matter who stands in our way... As long as I draw breath, I will protect you both. I won't let anyone hurt you or steal your joy. This is my oath of honor to you."
The warmth in Sophia's arms and the certainty in her voice broke the dam inside Hyoga. He could no longer stay silent. If he didn't speak, the cold face of that axe would bleed into reality. With a trembling voice, he began to tell her everything—Naomi's final look, that massive shadow descending upon him, and how the necklace shattered to bring him back to this moment...
Sophia went rigid as she listened. This pure fear and helplessness in a child's eyes couldn't be faked. "If what you say is true," she whispered, "that demon will come tonight to finish what he started."
They wasted no time. Sophia quietly woke Shizuka, the light and healing mage, and explained the situation. They set up dummy targets by stuffing pillows under the blankets in Hyoga and Naomi's tent.
When midnight arrived, the forest plunged into a deadly silence. As the last embers of the campfire died out, heavy footsteps were heard approaching through the brush.
Hyoga held his breath, hiding in the dark behind Sophia.
The tent flap slowly parted. A massive hooded figure slipped inside, wielding a colossal axe that gleamed in the moonlight. The figure approached the "sleeping children" and raised the axe high into the air as if to execute them.
Just as the blow was about to fall—
"NOW!" Hyoga shouted.
Sophia thrust her hands forward, unleashing her magical power: "Ice: Tier 3... Crystallized Prison!"
The air inside the tent froze instantly; ice-cold air filled Hyoga's lungs. Massive ice runes rising from the ground encased the attacker in a transparent block of crystal in seconds, starting from their feet. The axe-wielding figure was frozen solid like a statue, caught right in the middle of their striking stance.
Hyoga's heart was pounding wildly. Sophia stepped forward, reached out, and forcefully yanked back the frozen figure's dark hood.