The morning mist drifted low and thick across the damp forest floor, curling between the roots of withered trees like restless spirits. Sunlight barely pierced through the tangled canopy above, but the faint golden shafts that did manage to break through painted the Hollow with an ethereal glow.
A new day had begun in the heart of the Deadroot Forest, and with it, the awakening of trials older than any living memory.
Naena stood before the seven massive statues, each carved from stone that pulsed faintly with dormant power. Each statue represented a sacred path—each one echoing one of the primordial essences that shaped Aetheris in the Age of the Juggernauts.
And today, only one of them would open its path.
