The Warm Cycle deepened as the moss thinned into patches of dry earth.

  The heat didn't drift like usual but instead gathered in a heavy, constant whirlpool.

  Naro kicked at a loose pebble as they walked, watching the dust rise and hang oddly warm in the air.

  "You feel that?" Rami asked quietly.

  "Yeah. The ground's hotter than before."

  He nudged the dirt with his boot. The warmth wasn't surface heat. It was rising from under the hills.

  Rami pressed her palm to the soil, testing it the way her mother had taught her.

  "Something's pushing the heat upward."

  Naro didn't say it, but the name of the one responsible already appeared in his head :

  Paro.

  If a Guardian was corrupted... the land itself would warp before they ever saw him.

  Rami stood and adjusted her staff. "Stay sharp. Heat like this draws Shell-Gleams."

  Naro glanced around. "They prefer warm terrain, sure. But this far upslope?"

  "Not unless they're being displaced."

  She tapped her staff lightly. "Or following stronger heat."

  The air shimmered.

  A faint metallic smell rode the next breeze like newly cracked stone.

  Then a soft plop sounded behind them.

  Rami went still. "There."

  Two small, armored slimes slid from behind a cracked ridge.

  Their translucent bodies reflected the Warm Cycle haze, plates glinting with reddish shimmer not the usual pale sheen.

  Naro slid the visor on his head back in front of his eyes, unsheathed his blade from its scabbard and raised it at them.

  "They're overheated," Rami murmured. "Their plates shouldn't glow like that."

  Before either could react, one slime lunged.

  Naro struck it cleanly at an angle, aiming for the exposed joint like Hama taught him years ago.

  The blade pierced through soft matter.

  The creature dissolved.

  The next one shot forward with unusual speed.

  Rami slammed her staff down, sending a pulse of force that knocked it to the side.

  "They're fast !" she she remarked

  Naro had struck another one at the same time.

  "They're adapting to the heat."

  She looked at him. "...Or reacting to something bigger."

  The ground trembled softly, like a heartbeat traveling through soil.

  They both felt it.

  Another heavy tremor.

  Rami's fingers tightened around her staff.

  When they turned toward the ridge, something huge pulled itself over the top:

  A Shell-Gleam leader.

  Its body was towering over them at three meters in height, jelly heated to a dull red glow.

  The armor plates were bulging, stretched thin from internal pressure.

  Naro stepped forward automatically.

  Rami grabbed his arm. "Be careful. Overheated leaders explode when their cores rupture."

  He nodded.

  The creature lunged.

  He dodged, barely, feeling the heat wash over him like opening a furnace door.

  Rami tried to stun it with one Rune-spell, but the pulse only staggered it for a moment before it reoriented.

  The leader slammed downward, missing Naro by inches.

  Rami stumbled back as a smaller slime lunged at her from the side.

  Naro cut through it before she could even lift her staff.

  her expression had a slight relief in her expression until...

  "Naro— behind you!"

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  He spun just in time and delivered a quick slash.

  The Leader reared back by a few meters, core pulsing violently.

  It retaliated, myriads of scorching tentacles coming at Naro in every direction.

  'Gaon damn-'

  He dodged the ones coming from the left, blocked those coming at his right with his vambrace and tried to cut coming in front of him just to watch them grow back.

  His training helped him keep up with the Leader's assault but it was a losing battle :

  The slime would continue keeping him at a distance and overwhelm him with it's tentacles and then eventually self-destruct with him.

  As he cut through another wave of tentacles, heat shimmered off his blade.

  The runes glowed faintly.

  He already knew their function, but a name formed in his mind:

  'Storm Strike '

  He didn't like relying on the sword's power, but the creature gathered heat and was close to bursting.

  He took a step forward :

  'Thrust. Straight through the core. Don't let that thing overheat.'

  Naro exhaled once, his eyes narrowed and drove the blade forward with both of his hands.

  The runes flared as the sword extended and grew several meters in an instant.

  A clean, controlled yet devastating thrust.

  The point plunged straight into the leader's pulsing center.

  The slime froze, body contracting inward, then collapsed into steaming residue across the dirt.

  Naro lowered the sword as it shrank back to normal.

  After killing a species leader, the sword solidified and sharpened.

  Rami approached, brushing moss and dust off her clothes.

  "You good?" she asked.

  "I'm fine."

  He didn't look at her, staring at the blade instead.

  He didn't hate it.

  But something about holding it felt... imposed.

  As if it was a decision made long before he ever held it.

  Rami followed his gaze, then smiled to lighten the mood.

  "This thing's amazing, right?"

  Naro looked back at her, visor still hiding his eyes.

  His voice carried no emotion.

  "Yeah. Amazing."

  She sensed his discomfort, nodded once, and looked toward the hills.

  The air was even hotter now.

  The moss was nearly gone, replaced by cracked stone.

  Rami murmured, "Shell-Gleams don't get like this unless something is very wrong."

  Naro quietly scanned the horizon.

  "Paro's close," he said.

  Rami didn't answer, She didn't feel the need to.

  They kept walking, the ground warm enough to sting through their boots, the air carrying the metallic scent of stone melting under pressure.

  ____________________________________________________

  On the tallest peak of the hills, a gentle giant of stone and grass sat watching the horizon of the kingdom he guarded. A small, sad smile creased his features, his voice heavy with melancholy.

  "I will miss this view."

  "Yeah, same here, big guy."

  The giant searched for the source of the casual-toned voice.

  He looked to his right, to his left, then downward, and found his lifelong friend:

  A knight in armor as white as the snow of Yura's Deserts, standing beside his steed as it munched on the grass.

  "Damn, are your ears getting old too, Paro?" the knight asked with a snicker.

  The giant stayed quiet, feeling the steps of the animals in his lands, the chirping glider birds, the flowers blooming. Then he finally answered:

  "No, they're completely fine. Thank you for asking, Hama."

  Hama tilted his head, somehow managing to look perplexed despite the warden helmet hiding his face.

  "...I was jok—"

  "I know."

  Paro cut him off quickly, silence stretching for two heartbeats before he spoke again.

  "Tell your steed to calm down her appetite. It tickles."

  Hama shrugged.

  "I'm not the Guardian of horses. I can't control what she does."

  "In any case, I came here for a different reason... but that will have to wait."

  The Knight's red plume fluttered in the wind. His tone shifted to a serious one, with a hint of anger. A sharp contrast to his casual demeanor around the giant.

  "I know you didn't mean 'I will miss this view' the way I first thought. So what are you planning, Rockhead?"

  Paro paused, taken aback, then chuckled.

  "Perceptive as ever, huh? You haven't changed, Ha—"

  "Answer me," the knight cut him off again.

  The giant fell silent, then sighed. The nearby trees shivered with it.

  "...I will shrink my physical body. Dig into the depths of my kingdom and seal myself there. The corruption of that wretched thing has begun within me, and I cannot remain above like the rest of you."

  He continued.

  "I planned on telling you all one day, but I assume you'll share the news with the others even if I ask you not to."

  "You bet I will."

  Hama breathed deeply, forcing himself to calm down, then spoke with concern:

  "What about your people? Did you at least notify them?"

  "I've told them to evacuate slowly. We still have twenty years before all of us succumb to it."

  Hama's voice softened.

  "I could say the same about you, Paro. Twenty years is a lot, even for us. Don't you want to spend time with Fatale? I also adopted a kid. I wanted you to see him... even if he looks like an ugly wrinkled thing right now."

  The giant laughed, the sound rumbling through the earth.

  "You adopted a kid when we have twenty years of sentience left? How irresponsible of you, Hama."

  Hama gave him a side-eye.

  "I don't want to hear that from the guy who's about to dig his own grave."

  His tone shifted, full of certainty:

  "I'll raise him so he can survive on his own when the time comes. I'll make sure he becomes the sun of this dawnless world."

  Paro fell silent.

  "...Still an optimist, huh?"

  He paused, breathed deeply, then sighed.

  "I hope he does. But remember: he's not the only kid you'll share part of your Authority with."

  Hama shook his head.

  "I won't share it with him. That would tie him more to this world, and Spike warned me not to."

  The giant raised a brow.

  "Any reason why?"

  Hama shrugged.

  "I don't know half of what goes on in that scorpion's head. I'll just heed his warning. He has the best intuition out of all of us."

  He tapped his steed's flank, prompting her to prepare to depart.

  "I'm leaving now. Try to at least show up to my son's tenth birthday."

  He mounted the steed.

  Paro looked at him with a quiet melancholy.

  "You know well I won't be able to."

  Hama lingered for a moment before turning away.

  "...Yeah, but I still wanted to say it!"

  'It'll be one of the last things I say to you, you idiot...'

  The giant stayed silent for three heartbeats before asking:

  "Hama... what will the boy's name be?"

  The Alabaster Knight stilled, then looked back at the Gentle Giant of Kresha.

  An audible smile colored his voice as his steed reared:

  "Naro. His name will be Naro!"

  Then he rode off toward Zyr at a rapid pace, his scarlet cape and plume rippling behind him.

  The giant watched his departure.

  "This guy... he just replaced a letter of my name with another!"

  He laughed heartily.

  A moment passed after the knight disappeared from sight.

  His laughter faded into quiet sobs.

  Then into tears.

  The streams of Kresha overflowed that day.

  The day the Gentle Giant of Kresha last saw the starlit sky.