The four sentries blocking their path were unlike the lesser shadows they'd just defeated. These creatures stood nearly eight feet tall, their forms more solid and defined. Instead of borrowed human features, they wore masks of polished obsidian, each carved with different expressions; rage, sorrow, hunger, and despair. Dark robes flowed around them like liquid shadow, and where their feet touched the ground, frost spread in perfect circles.
"Reapers," Professor Nyala breathed, her face pale. "The Kala Drah has called its elite servants."
The nearest Reaper — the one wearing the mask of rage — stepped forward and spoke in a voice like grinding stone. "The triangle will not leave this place. The Devourer has claimed you."
"The Devourer?" Saguna asked, though he kept his fire ready.
"Possibly something far worse than what we've faced tonight." Professor Nyala explained grimly.
The Reaper raised one hand, and immediately the temperature plummeted. Ice began forming on the nearby trees, and Saguna's breath came out in visible puffs. But this wasn't just cold, it was the absence of warmth, the antithesis of life itself.
"Spread out," Saguna said quietly to his friends. "Don't let them corner us together."
But even as they began to move, the Reapers acted with coordinated precision. The one with the sorrowful mask gestured, and the ground beneath their feet turned to thick, clinging mud. Radji immediately countered, solidifying the earth back to stone, but the moment of distraction was all the hungry-masked Reaper needed to launch itself at Osa.
The creature moved with inhuman speed, its claws raking toward Osa's chest. Water rose to meet it, but the Reaper's touch froze the defensive barrier solid. Osa rolled aside just as the ice shattered, sharp fragments whistling past his head.
"They're fast," he panted, already forming another water shield.
"And coordinated," Radji added, his earth-sense picking up the subtle vibrations as the four creatures repositioned themselves. "They're herding us toward the Kala Drah."
Saguna looked back toward the ruins and saw it was true. Each attack, each movement by the Reapers was slowly forcing them in a specific direction, back toward where the grotesque entity waited.
"Not happening," he muttered, then called out to his friends. "Push through on the left. Follow my lead."
He didn't charge forward mindlessly this time. Instead, he sent his fire ahead of him in a wide arc, not trying to hit the Reapers directly but heating the air between them. The sudden temperature change created a updraft that stirred the leaves and disrupted their coordinated positioning.
Osa caught on immediately. His water followed Saguna's fire, but instead of fighting the heat, he used it. The superheated steam billowed outward, creating a concealing cloud that obscured the Reapers' vision.
Through the steam, Radji struck. Not at the creatures themselves, but at the ground beneath them. Stone spikes erupted upward, forcing the Reapers to dodge and breaking their formation.
"Now!" Saguna shouted, and they pushed through the gap.
But the Reaper with the despairing mask wasn't finished. As they passed, it spoke a single word in a language that hurt to hear. The sound hit Saguna like a physical blow, filling his mind with visions of failure—Sahara's face as she was pulled into the shadow realm, his parents' disappointment, his friends' deaths, a world consumed by darkness.
He stumbled, his fire guttering as despair threatened to overwhelm him. Through the haze of induced misery, he heard Osa cry out—his friend was experiencing something similar, water falling from his hands as hopelessness drained his will to fight.
Only Radji seemed unaffected, his analytical mind providing some protection against the psychic attack. "It's not real!" he shouted, his earth abilities creating a barrier between them and the Reaper. "Fight it! Remember what we've accomplished!"
Saguna gritted his teeth, forcing himself to remember. They had activated two anchors. They had contained the breach. They had saved each other multiple times. Whatever this creature was showing him, these weren't certainties, just fears.
His fire blazed back to life, burning away the false visions. Beside him, Osa straightened as well, his water reforming with renewed purpose.
The Reaper hissed in frustration, its despair-mask seeming to crack slightly. But before it could attack again, Professor Nyala stepped forward, her silver sigils blazing brighter than Saguna had ever seen them.
"Servants of shadow," she declared, her voice carrying an authority that made the air itself seem to thrum with power. "By the ancient compact, I claim safe passage for these marked ones. They are under Academy protection."
The Reapers paused, their obsidian masks turning toward her with what might have been surprise. The one with the sorrowful mask spoke: "The compact... has been... broken. The Academy... falls. Your authority... means nothing."
"Perhaps," Professor Nyala admitted. "But it still has enough power for this."
She threw her hands forward, and every sigil she'd created over the past hour suddenly flared to life simultaneously. Silver light erupted in a blinding flash, and when Saguna's vision cleared, a path had opened through the jungle, the Reapers driven back by the sheer force of accumulated protective magic.
"Run," Professor Nyala gasped, swaying on her feet. "I can't maintain this long."
They didn't need to be told twice. As one, they sprinted toward the opening she'd created, leaving the frustrated howls of the Reapers behind them. The jungle closed around them, and for the first time since they'd arrived in Teluk Jati, Saguna felt like they might actually escape.
But behind them, the Kala Drah's voice echoed through the night, carrying easily through the trees: "Run, little flames... but you cannot... hide forever... The Devourer... knows your scent... knows your fear... We will find you..."
As they plunged deeper into the jungle, following the smuggler's path by moonlight, Saguna couldn't shake the feeling that this was only the beginning. Whatever the Devourer was, whatever force was behind all of this—it was far from finished with them.
The escape was just the first step in a much longer, more dangerous journey.