The last sparks of the fallen distortion creature flickered out across the shattered courtyard of the dormant shrine. The ground still steamed where Danny's creation flame had torn through it, cracks glowing faint gold before fading into pale ash. For a moment—just a moment—there was stillness.
Then the wind screamed again, dragging grit and broken sigil fragments into the air.
Danny exhaled, steadying himself. The sigil stone sat in a protective cradle of twisted metal, its once-brilliant glow dimmed into a faint, almost lifeless silver. It didn't pulse. It didn't hum. It didn't respond. It felt… cold. Not dead—sigil stones could not die—but drained to the point of dormancy.
Swift approached cautiously, brushing debris from his shoulder where scales had begun to form again. "Is it still… you know… a thing?"
Danny rested a hand above the stone without touching it. A faint warmth rose toward him, like a helpless child reaching weakly for a parent.
"It's alive," Danny murmured. "Barely."
Jake jogged closer, Bumble clanking behind him with excited chirps. "So… we take it back to HQ, yeah? Recharge it somewhere that isn't actively trying to kill us?"
Bumble projected a thin beam of blue light over the sigil stone. Symbols scrolled across his display screen. He beeped sharply, projecting a diagram:
Energy drainage pattern—Tempestron's signature.
Danny stiffened.
Swift sucked in a slow breath. "She's alive then."
He didn't have to say Mira's name. No one did.
Danny stared at the stone, jaw tightening. "He drained it to power something. And he's keeping her close while he does it."
Jake swallowed, nervous and angry. "Then we go get her."
Danny didn't move.
Swift stepped forward, placing a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Hey. Don't even think about it."
Danny blinked, realizing only then that his veins had begun glowing gold. His pupils had narrowed. That subtle tugging sensation—the pull of creation toward its stolen fragments—was swelling again in his chest, like someone calling his name from thousands of miles away.
"Danny," Swift repeated, firmer. "Don't run off again. Not alone."
Danny inhaled sharply—and pulled back, manually forcing the glow from his eyes.
"I'm not running," he said. "Not this time."
But the pull did not stop.
It simply waited.
A faint tremor moved beneath their feet. Swift instantly shifted his stance. Jake raised his fists. Bumble beeped in warning.
The air over the shrine vibrated—once, twice—then settled.
"Another sigil," Danny whispered. "Somewhere far. Being drained."
The words tasted wrong. Wrong in a way he couldn't articulate, as if something deep inside him recognized the loss, the violation.
Swift glanced at him sideways. "The stones are calling to you harder, aren't they?"
Danny nodded.
Jake muttered, "Yeah, that's totally not concerning at all."
They gathered themselves quickly. The shrine was too exposed. Too vulnerable. Too full of residual storm energy that could attract anything with teeth and intent.
Bumble chirped, projecting a map.
Not a full one—just a faint trail of sigil resonance threading through twisting terrain, leading north… then curving sharply west… then zigzagging like a lightning bolt thrown by a drunk immortal.
Then suddenly—
It bent sharply.
Toward Shadeclaw's direction.
Danny's breath caught. "He's close."
Swift's eyes sharpened. "Then we move."
Jake nodded, setting Bumble onto his shoulder. "Let's go before this place wakes up again."
They left the shrine behind—never noticing the faint glimmer of the stone brightening a fraction as Danny walked away. The sigil knew its dragon.
And it waited.
—
Shadeclaw stumbled once before catching himself against a jagged rock wall, claws sinking deep into the black stone. His breathing was heavy, each inhale vibrating with leftover fury. His shadow fur hadn't fully retracted—it clung to him like smoke refusing to let go.
Jade stood beside him, hands bloody but steady as he wrapped a makeshift bandage around Shadeclaw's arm.
"You done being a monster for the day," Jade grunted, "or should I prepare a lullaby?"
Shadeclaw didn't look at him. "I didn't lose control."
Jade arched a brow. "Mate, you bit a rock. A whole one. Then growled at your own reflection in a puddle."
Shadeclaw glared.
Then his shoulders sagged a fraction. "It… almost took me. Again."
"Yeah," Jade said softly. "But you're here. Which means you beat it. Again."
They walked in silence for a few moments until Shadeclaw stopped suddenly, ears snapping upward.
He felt something.
A ripple.
A warmth.
A pulse of gold.
Danny.
Jade felt it too—like a gust of fresh air cutting through the stale domain.
"Oh, good," Jade muttered. "We're not hopelessly alone. Just mostly."
Shadeclaw's claws flexed. "He's close."
"And just loud enough to attract every elemental freak in this place," Jade said.
Shadeclaw growled. "Good. They won't take Mira from me."
They moved faster.
—
The Elemental Lords gathered within their obsidian citadel, the great chamber illuminated by pulsing sigil flame stolen from the drained stones. Tempestron's eyes gleamed with arrogance as he traced energy across a floating ring of lightning.
"Another sigil stirs," he announced. "The dragon approaches."
Pyronyx scoffed. "Then we crush him now."
Terragorn rumbled from beneath the floor, his voice echoing through stone. "Not yet. The realm's defenses are incomplete."
Myrraline cast a worried glance across the chamber. "Mira must be moved. If Shadeclaw reaches her—"
"He will not," Umbrakrell murmured from a corner of shadow, eyes glowing white. "His claws sharpen, but his leash remains."
Solmara stood apart, arms folded, watching the assembly with a mixture of disdain and concern.
Tempestron smiled with all the cruelty of a god convinced of destiny.
"Let them come. The golden child, the shadow wolf, the king, the pack—they all march into our hands."
Only Solmara whispered the truth under her breath:
"Or into their deaths."
—
Danny and the others moved through terrain that bent itself into spirals and loops. Trees inverted. Rivers flowed upward. The ground rearranged itself under their steps like a puzzle deciding which answer to allow.
Swift shifted partially into silver dragon form, scales covering his legs and forearms.
"Someone's messing with the paths," he said.
"No," Danny murmured. "Someone's trying to lead us."
Jake pointed toward a narrow canyon splitting the land ahead. "Good or bad?"
"Yes," Swift replied.
They pushed forward.
—
Shadeclaw hit the canyon from the opposite side, claws scraping deep gouges into stone as he descended. Jade used chi bursts to hop down ledges with ease.
Mira's shadow-tether pulsed stronger here, vibrating like a heartbeat beneath Shadeclaw's skin.
Then he froze.
Danny's creation pulse was here.
Fresh.
Strong.
He bared his teeth. "He's close."
"So is trouble," Jade said.
—
The Wolf King crashed through a cliffside miles away, landing in a spray of shattered stone. He didn't bother dusting himself off.
He smelled Shadeclaw.
He smelled Danny.
He smelled Jade.
He smelled danger.
He ran.
Every footfall cracked the earth.
The realm shook.
A king was coming.
—
Danny reached the center of the canyon and stopped dead.
Shadeclaw stepped into the light from the opposite side.
The two stared at each other—shock, relief, and raw fury mixing in equal measure.
Before either could speak, the shadows above twisted.
A figure materialized on the high ridge, darkness peeling itself into form.
Umbrakrell.
His voice rolled through the canyon like a cold tide.
"You hurry so beautifully toward your doom."
The canyon walls warped, twisting into a labyrinth. Shadow beasts poured from crevices like wolves made of broken night.
Danny's eyes went gold.
Shadeclaw's went white.
Jake backed up, Bumble screaming in beeps.
Swift fell into a half-dragon stance.
Jade cracked his knuckles.
Umbrakrell spread his arms. "Dance for me."
Danny roared first—
a young dragon trying to hold in a sun.
Shadeclaw roared next—
a shadow-wolf declaring his claim.
And from the depths of the canyon, shaking stone and sky—
a third roar answered, deeper, older, heavier:
THE WOLF KING.
The hunt had begun.