The forest deepened around them, its branches intertwining like the fingers of forgotten gods. Leaves rustled with a breathless murmur, and the scent of moss and ancient wood filled the air as Arin and Evelyne continued their cautious path. The Kaelinths were no longer their concern—the last known group had been dealt with. What had begun as a simple hunt now unraveled into something stranger.
Evelyne paused mid-step. Her brows furrowed as a strange sensation fluttered through her chest.
"…Do you feel that?" she whispered.
Arin slowed. "What is it?"
She closed her eyes, breathing in the silence. "It's… familiar. Like something from a story I once heard. A presence, not hostile—but ancient."
The pull was faint at first, like a string drawing their senses toward something buried within the brush. The foliage thickened unnaturally, yet as they pushed through, the trees thinned into a hollow glade hidden in a spiral of vines and roots that made no sense to the landscape. There, camouflaged as though time itself tried to erase it, stood an ancient ruin.
Built into the forest itself, its grey stones shimmered with the faintest of light, almost invisible if not viewed from the right angle. Moss covered carvings they could barely make out, and the ruin had no clear entry—only a jagged arch barely tall enough to crawl through.
"This is impossible," Evelyne murmured. "Unclaimed ruins this old don't just appear—especially not this close to known regions."
"They don't," Arin agreed, kneeling by a pillar overgrown with ivy. "Unless… this wasn't always part of our reality."
"You mean…" Evelyne turned to him, her voice low. "A dimensional seam?"
Arin nodded, his thoughts racing. "Some cracks in time and space might not be permanent. They only respond to certain resonances—power echoes that align with a person's essence. Maybe this place drifted from the past… or was hidden."
Evelyne frowned. "How would something like this go unnoticed for centuries?"
"It might not have even existed in our timeline until recently. Not fully." Arin studied the air. "Some beings believe the world overlaps with others—echoes of choices that never happened. And sometimes, a powerful enough trigger draws them in."
The ruin's energy shimmered. It didn't hum like normal Samsāra resonances—it sang, soft and sorrowful, like the melody of a forgotten past.
Inside, the ruin was cool and dim, lit by light filtering through vine-cracked ceilings. Strange patterns lined the walls, symbols in a script neither of them fully recognized. They traced the carvings, brushing dust away with reverent care.
"I can't read it entirely," Evelyne muttered, "but… this part, I think it says 'Binders of Flame…'"
Arin followed the lines of the next etching. "'…Twinned by Oath, Divided by Time.'"
The floor sloped gently down into what might've once been a ceremonial hall. At the center, a pedestal stood—weathered, half-shattered, yet still pulsing with quiet energy. Upon it lay two rings. One was silver chased with midnight-blue patterns, the other gold with swirling violet gemstones.
They stepped closer, hands instinctively reaching out.
"These are…" Arin whispered.
"Artifacts," Evelyne finished. "From before even the recorded reigns. No doubt."
Without a word, they each took one. Arin's fingers brushed the silver ring, and as if pulled by fate, it slid onto his finger as though it had waited only for him. Evelyne did the same with the gold one.
The moment the rings touched their skin, a pulse thundered through the ruin.
A flash.
A scream not heard but felt.
Then—searing pain.
Arin staggered back, clutching his head as images—not memories, but fragments—flared behind his eyes. Not visions of war or prophecy, just raw emotion: betrayal, love, sacrifice… timelines burning.
Beside him, Evelyne collapsed to one knee, gasping.
"Arin—!" she tried to speak, but her voice cracked like glass.
Before either could reach for the other, their legs gave way. The weight of something unfathomable crashed into them. A roar of unseen tides, of voices lost in the folds of time.
They fell.
And the forest fell silent once again, as the ruins swallowed their breath and the rings shimmered, humming softly against the threads of fate.