The traveler's tattered cloak collapsed, billowing with pale gray ash.
The ash collapsed before the campfire, gathered, and melted into gray-black dire wolves. Dense shadows and gray frost clung to them, as though they themselves were phantoms. The stranger took a step forward, and the ash wolves immediately bared their gleaming white fangs, growling threats from their throats. He swept aside his cloak, revealing the greatsword hidden beneath the worn, coarse fabric. Golden flames poured from its scabbard, and Maximus saw the air warp from the heat. Terrifying fire instantly ignited the dark forest lining both sides of the road. At that moment, a brief agony swept through his body and made Maximus' eyes widen, but a gentle voice kept reminding him to sit by the bonfire and not leave, while staying away from those golden flames.
The gray ice on the ground melted, evaporated, and vanished in the blink of an eye.
"You have no choice." One ash-gray dire wolf spoke in its usual sly, carefree, cheerful tone. Maximus had no idea that the wolf was speaking Hebrew rather than the Inhumans' common language. He had not even realized that he could understand a language he had never learned. "Why resist fate? Why give everything for this frail race? You are destined to carry out Aether's will. You are destined to climb the steps, sit upon the throne, and wield your power. Every choice you make will lead you back to our side, Joshua. This is the future ordained for you."
The ash-gray dire wolves circled the stranger, and Maximus noticed that the latter's body had visibly tensed.
The violent headache made his vision increasingly blurred, while the intense dizziness made it difficult for him to keep thinking. Flames danced before his eyes, racing along his nerves into his