Ashes Beneath a Silent Sky

Right now, the Lavahound specialists were nearly panicked. Ash and far-off blood scents rode the breeze along the rampart, touching skin like winter breath. Veterans used to battles wreathed in flame and blade stood frozen, chests heaving, glances darting. Unease pulsed behind every stare.

Facing Leon’s question, silence held everyone back at first.

Eye contact passed between them, brief but heavy. Silence hung there instead of speech.

He stood there silent, yet his presence demanded attention. One wrong word might change everything. Their replies needed weight, not haste. This person wasn’t someone to brush off with casual talk. Each syllable had to land just right.

A soft wind lifted the edges of his dark robe, threads of purple glimmering as if lit from within. Behind him, strands of black hair floated slowly, moving like smoke around still features. There was no rage there. No rush. Just silence where emotion should be - and somehow that peace felt sharper than any scream.

Out of nowhere, Lavahound Elder moved ahead.

Only he stayed steady on his feet when everyone else faltered.

A quiet breath filled his lungs, grounding him before he shaped his hands into a bow.

"Respected One," he began, his voice firm but carrying a faint strain beneath the surface, "our Lavahound family has been wandering outside the city for several days... but we have not seen the Inferno Swift Bird."

His eyes dipped just a moment while talking - no sign of giving in, only the hush before what followed.

"However..." he continued, his tone tightening slightly, "we did encounter several ancient ferocious beasts."

A pause.

Heavy silence pressed close. Stillness thickened like storm clouds gathering above rooftops at dusk.

"Their strength... was extraordinary."

A tremor ran through the group behind him, fingers tightening without thought. Knuckles turned pale under strained hands. A fold of cloth slipped on one man, showing gauze stained brown near the elbow. He did not move it back. Elsewhere, someone rocked weight from heel to toe, hiding how the ache caught breath low in the chest.

Lavahound Elder had no reason to stretch the truth. There it stood, clear as day.

"Our Lavahound family paid a heavy price for this," he said quietly. "We were... almost wiped out."

Silence followed.

Heavy, that quiet. Full, though no words were spoken.

From just off center, Harry Taylor stood still, breath caught low in his ribs.

It hit him then, watching them - never thought they’d fall so far. Their pride gone, replaced by scars that spoke of struggle - and suddenly, he didn’t feel triumph. Instead, a quiet discomfort settled in, uninvited. The sight lingered, raw and unfamiliar.

Almost wiped out...

It never came out of their mouths unless it meant something real.

Lavahound Elder spoke on, tones dipping like shadows at dusk - saying the words seemed to stir something best left still.

"At this moment... it’s already an abyss of suffering outside the city."

Out of nowhere, a rush of air slipped through the crack in the stone, dragging behind it sounds from beyond - muffled growls, the ring of metal on metal, a shudder in the voice of some creature meeting its end miles off.

"There are battles everywhere," he said.

Everywhere at once. No single point held.

Everywhere. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"All the major households... and the famous powerful sects... have already joined the battle."

His glance rose just a bit, face half hidden in dim light.

"It’s a world-shaking war."

Just saying them was enough.

Down they came, heavy as a rock in calm water - waves moving out, reaching each person there.

Unseen tension made a few people by the edge gulp without thinking. Over there, some looked off to the far line of the world, eyes catching on thin trails of smoke rising - slow, like old wounds opening into the air.

Harry exhaled slowly.

A shiver climbed his back, though he thrived on disorder, craved attention, sparked conflict by design. Silence weighed heavier than noise that day.

This chaos didn’t invite laughter.

This one didn’t chew. It gulped.

For a breath, Lavahound Elder stopped. Then came the words, slow at first, like something heavy needed lifting.

"Someone... saw the Inferno Swift Bird in the direction of the Southern Ridge last night."

The moment those words fell—

The atmosphere shifted.

Leon’s eyes didn’t visibly change, but something deeper stirred beneath their calm surface.

Sharp.

Focused.

Listening.

"At that time..." Lavahound Elder’s voice grew heavier, slower, "...there was a group fleeing the area."

He didn’t call them weak.

Didn’t call them anything.

Just... people trying to survive.

"Thousands of people..." he said, and for the first time, his composure cracked slightly, "...were swallowed by it."

A faint tremor passed through his voice.

"No one survived."

The wind seemed to fall silent.

Even the distant chaos felt muted for a heartbeat.

"It was... tragic."

That single word carried more weight than any description.

Not exaggerated.

Not dramatic.

Just truth.

Harry’s expression, for once, lost its usual smugness. His lips pressed into a thin line, eyes flickering with something uncertain.

Thousands...? Just... gone?

No fight.

No resistance.

Just swallowed.

It hit him harder than he expected.

Lavahound Elder inhaled slowly, regaining control.

"Ever since that night..." he continued, "the Inferno Swift Bird has disappeared from the Southern Ridge Region."

He shook his head faintly.

"No one knows where it is now."

That uncertainty hung in the air like a blade.

"I suspect..." he added, his gaze drifting toward the distant, endless wilderness beyond the city, "...that it has already entered the uninhabited region."

The moment he said it, a quiet understanding spread among those listening.

The uninhabited region...

A place where even experts vanished without a trace.

A place where the land itself seemed to reject human presence.

A place so vast that searching it blindly was no different from chasing shadows in the dark.

Leon stood there, unmoving.

But inside—

His thoughts turned sharp.

So it’s gone back...

His brows furrowed ever so slightly.

Things were indeed moving toward the worst possible direction.

Once the Inferno Swift Bird entered that region... finding it again would be like searching for a single drop of water in an endless ocean.

Mountains upon mountains.

Valleys that stretched for miles.

Hidden caves, ancient nests, unseen dangers lurking beneath every shadow.

Even with his strength... it wouldn’t be easy.

No...

He corrected himself silently.

It wouldn’t just be difficult.

It would be uncertain.

He exhaled slowly.

But then—

Another thought surfaced.

It came out... for the mountain treasure.

That hadn’t changed.

Whatever that "old turtle" was—whatever secret it held—it was still the center of this storm.

And the Inferno Swift Bird...

Would not ignore it.

Leon’s gaze drifted toward the horizon.

As long as that thing appears again...

It will come back.

That certainty settled in his mind—not as hope, but as calculation.

The storm hadn’t passed.

It had only shifted.

After understanding everything, Leon nodded slightly.

A simple motion.

But to the Lavahound family members standing before him—

It felt like a mountain lifting off their chests.

They had braced themselves for interrogation.

For pressure.

For something worse.

But instead—

Nothing.

No blame.

No intimidation.

No unnecessary words.

Leon didn’t make things difficult for them.