Chapter 84

The narrator and Essi are surrounded by a pack of crowls in the Mists. After Essi is wounded and collapses, the narrator fights off multiple beasts before summoning the fire god Ignos to create a wall of flames. As a dragon arrives to feed on the burning crowls, Essi inexplicably walks into the inferno and vanishes.

The narrator sprints across snow-covered plains toward Essi, discovering her bleeding and exhausted, her arm bound around her abdomen. As crowls emerge from the encroaching Mists, the narrator engages in brutal combat, killing several beasts while trying to protect Essi. Overwhelmed by the pack's numbers—at least nine crowls closing in—the narrator retrieves a weald and invokes Ignos, the God of Fire, summoning a torrent of flames that engulfs the surrounding area and ignites the creatures. During the chaos, a Moltenmaw dragon descends through the smoke to feed on the burning crowls. The narrator turns to evacuate Essi, only to witness her stepping deliberately into the wall of fire and disappearing.