Lord of the realm

It was moving towards Jaenor, Rena, and Baren with deliberate steps.

Darian was busy fending off the creatures, but he still saw the human-like fiend coming at them.

He quickly moved to block its path, but the fiend merely flicked its hand—Darian was hurled through the air and slammed hard against a tree, with a bone-jarring thud.

Elizabeth and others were too busy fighting those creatures that they barely noticed what's happening here.

"Our lord is waiting for you at Shademore Gorge," it said, its voice cutting through the sounds of battle like a knife through silk. "She grows tired of this game of hide and chase."

All of them froze in terror, completely stunned and shocked to move. They stood rooted to their spot; Rena tightened her grip on Jaenor's arms as he stared at the fiend's eyes.

Baren and Taeryn barely moved. Its menacing presence and its tall and roughly built physique scared them to death, and the black energy it gave off was unsettling to all of them.

Jaenor knew that it was talking to him.

This creature knew where to find him and knew that he was the one they sought. The red haze around his hands began to flicker more brightly, responding to his fear and anger.

But before the fiend could reach them, Morgana appeared like a bolt of lightning.

She had been fighting three black creatures at once, but somehow she broke free and threw herself between that fiend and them.

"You will not touch them," she snarled, her hands blazing with silver colored energy.

The black fiend tilted its head, studying her with those burning red eyes. "Ah... the last of your kind. Strong, perhaps—but still just an insect beneath my heel."

It raised one clawed hand, and dark energy crackled around its fingers.

Morgana met the attack with her own power, and when the two forces collided, the air itself shook violently with a cracking, thunder-like sound.

The battle around them had become complete chaos.

Elizabeth was hurling bolts of dark lightning at shadow creatures, each bolt destroying two or three at once, but more kept coming. Katerina had surrounded herself with a whirlwind of ice and cutting wind, tearing through enemies like a frozen tornado.

Raelana fought with the power of the living forest itself. Trees bent down to crush those black creatures in their branches, while thorny vines erupted from the ground to strangle and tear. But despite their incredible power, the witches were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

The black creatures seemed endless, pouring out of the forest in waves.

For every one they destroyed, two more took its place.

And through it all, the black fiend fought Morgana with casual ease, as if this were nothing more than a training exercise.

"Your power is impressive," the fiend said as it deflected another of Morgana's attacks. "But you cannot protect him forever."

Morgana's surprise was evident on her face. She couldn't believe the fiend was talking, and it was talking about one of them, and suddenly she started to feel more anxious.

Was it talking about Jaenor?

As if to prove its point, it gestured with its free hand, and a dozen of those black creatures broke away from the main battle. They rushed toward Taeryn and Baren, who had no defenses against such numbers.

Darian was now occupied with two creatures, and he was struggling because he had hurt his back from the earlier impact.

Morgana was forced to split her attention, sending walls of fire to protect her companions while still fighting the black fiend. But the creature had been waiting for exactly this moment.

With speed that seemed impossible for something so large, the black fiend slipped past Morgana's defenses. Its clawed hand shot out and grabbed Jaenor by the arm, lifting him off his feet as easily as picking up a child.

Jaenor had no way of stopping the fiend. He was completely overpowered. As soon as the fiend touched him, it was like every bit of energy in his body drained. It got to him so fast that he barely registered its movements.

"No!" Rena screamed as she was pushed aside brutally.

"Jaenor!" Baren shouted, swinging his burning branch at the fiend, but the creature backhanded him casually, sending the big man flying into a tree.

It happened in a blur—too fast to comprehend. Rena cried out, her voice breaking against the night, but all she could do was watch as the fiend closed its claws around Jaenor and dragged him.

Morgana spun around and noticed immediately. She could see Rena and two of the young men who were going after that fiend.

She looked at the fiend who was carrying Jaenor with it.

Her eyes were blazing with fury, but the black fiend was already moving. It carried Jaenor toward the edge of the clearing, moving faster than any human could run.

With that, it leaped into the forest canopy, moving from tree to tree like a giant spider.

In seconds, it had disappeared into the darkness, taking Jaenor with it.

The rage that filled Morgana in that moment was like nothing she had ever felt before. It burned in her chest like molten metal, and the power in her blood responded to it with frightening intensity.

She raised both hands toward the sky, and the silver fire around her suddenly changed. It became something else, something brighter and more terrible—a blue light that was almost too intense to look at directly.

This was the Origin power itself.

The blue light exploded outward from her in all directions, washing over those black creatures like a tide of pure destruction. Where it touched them, they didn't just die—they just faded into the void, erased from existence as if they had never been.

In less than ten seconds, every black fiend in the clearing was gone.

Morgana quickly moved towards Rena and asked her, "What happened? Why is that creature taking Jaenor?"

Rena shook her head, crying. She was frantic and said, "Tha-that thing said, it said that someone was waiting at Shademore Gorge."