The deeper Areus moves into the mission, the clearer the truth becomes. This is not a local conflict. It is a planetary crisis already unfolding. Under Santia’s guidance, Areus begins to understand the true nature of the Hydroverse, a force that connects all life, including the very enemy he must one day face. What begins as training quickly transforms into a confrontation with impossible truths, where power, free will, and destruction are all bound within the same system. As new abilities awaken through the amulet and the Words of Power begin to take form, the scale of the threat intensifies. A bounty has been issued for Areus, marking him as a target, while reports of missing people, infected wildlife, and spreading corruption across Lakomea confirm that something far darker is advancing beneath the surface. The search for Rya leads them into the quarantined Ironbark Forest, a place already touched by darker forces, where entire ecosystems are collapsing and fear has driven civilisation to seal it off. But the danger escalates beyond anything expected when a Shadow Fleet craft appears overhead, confirming that the enemy is no longer distant or hidden. It is here. It is searching, and it knows exactly where to look.