The Protectors: Rising from Ashes [Progression Fantasy | Action-Packed | Epic Battles]

The dining hall had gone eerily quiet.

Plates had barely been touched, steam curling upward in ghostly trails. The long obsidian table that seated the Chosen Ones, Sentinel, Cassandra, and now Maris, seemed far too heavy with the weight of what was about to be said.

Eddy sat between Elias and Alice, shoulders tense, trying to shrink beneath their expectant stares. His fingers twisted nervously in his lap. Across from him, Lyric toyed with the frayed edge of her sleeve, her eyes darting between his face and the untouched goblet before her. Aiden lounged back, arms crossed, blue eyes sharp and watchful. Thorne sat stiff on his chair, jaw tight, storm-gray eyes locked on Eddy. Even Maris, who rarely gave anything away, sat still, one finger tapping faintly against her wrist.

Cassandra's fingers were laced together, resting beneath her chin. Her eyes were steady, calm, but watchful.

At the head of the table, Sentinel sat in his towering, high-backed chair, his presence commanding even without words. He had said little since they sat down, but his gaze hadn't left Eddy once.

"For real this time," Aiden muttered, breaking the silence, his tone rough but not cruel. "Tell us how you knew to kill that thing. And maybe why you even showed up at all."

Eddy's lips parted. "When I was sleeping in my room—"

"Start from the beginning," Cassandra said gently, but there was firmness in her tone that made even Aiden fall silent.

"In a way we can understand," Thorne added with a low grunt, gesturing vaguely with one hand.

Eddy nodded, swallowing. He glanced around the table again, as if searching for someone who might rescue him from his own words. No one did.

"I… I'll try to explain. What I think I understand," he said. "But I don't really know how or why it all happened."

A chair creaked as Sentinel shifted, folding one hand over the other, his voice calm and even.

"Let him speak. No interruptions," he said, gaze sweeping across the table. "We can ask questions once he's done."

Eddy exhaled sharply through his nose. His shoulders slowly lowered. His hands gripped the edge of the chair as if anchoring himself to reality.

"It started a week before the demon attacked," he began, his voice low but growing steadier with each word. "I started seeing all of you."

His eyes drifted to each of them: Elias, eyes unreadable but focused; Alice, her lips slightly parted in a quiet gasp; Lyric, tilting her head like a child hearing a ghost story; Aiden, motionless now; and Thorne, who blinked once, slowly, his mouth a thin line.

"In my dreams," Eddy continued. "At first, they were just flashes. Shapes. Shadows. Movements. Your voices were there too—shouting, fighting, warning each other, but they were muffled, distorted. Like echoes through a tunnel. I couldn't make sense of it."

Lyric leaned in slightly, her hand frozen halfway toward her goblet.

"But every night, the dream came back. And every night, it got clearer. The blurs became outlines. The voices sharpened. The setting stayed the same, this massive mall. Glass ceilings, marble floors, flickering lights. And always... fear. Chaos. You were all fighting."

Thorne's knuckles whitened around the fork he hadn't touched. It scraped faintly against the plate as he set it down with restrained tension.

Eddy's eyes lowered, his thumb absently brushing the edge of his plate. "Then came the day of the attack. I woke up with the worst headache I've ever had, like someone was hammering inside my skull. I didn't go to class. I popped a couple of painkillers and lay down again, hoping sleep would knock it out of me."

He paused. His breath hitched faintly. Elias turned his head toward him for the first time, not speaking, just watching.

"When I closed my eyes," Eddy said, "I was back in the dream. But this time, it wasn't a dream. Everything was real. Crystal clear. I could see each of you—your faces, your movements, the way you fought, the demon itself."

He looked directly at Elias. "And I saw you kill it. You drove his own blade straight through its heart."

Elias froze.

His hand, resting on the table, curled slowly into a fist. His brow furrowed. His jaw tightened. But his eyes didn't leave Eddy's.

A small gasp escaped Alice. She turned to Elias, then back to Eddy, her expression torn between disbelief and awe.

"You… saw that?" she whispered.

Eddy nodded. "I didn't just see it. I felt it. Like I was inside you, Elias. For a second, our hearts beat as one. Same rhythm. Same pressure in my chest. Same fear. Same—"

He stopped. Elias leaned back slightly, one hand drifting instinctively to his chest. His expression shifted—not fear or confusion, but a deeper, raw emotion.

A kind of knowing.

Aiden leaned forward, blue eyes narrowed, suddenly alert. Thorne tensed, muscles tightening as he exchanged a glance with Elias. Maris's usual calm cracked, her tapping finger halted mid-motion. Cassandra's brows drew together in quiet realization, while Sentinel's gaze darkened, unreadable, as he studied Eddy like a riddle that had just spoken aloud.

Eddy looked away quickly. "And then… everything shifted. I wasn't in my bed anymore. I didn't wake up."

He lifted his eyes slowly.

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"I was standing there. In the mall. In the middle of the fight. I could feel the heat, the magic in the air, the roar of the demon. Everything. Like I'd… been pulled through the dream into the real world."

No one spoke.

Even the room seemed to hush around them, the overhead lights dimming slightly, casting long, flickering shadows as if the space itself was holding its breath.

Alice reached out, her fingers brushing his sleeve, eyes wide. "You… didn't imagine this?"

"I lived it," Eddy whispered. "Somehow."

A low breath escaped from Thorne, his gaze darting from Cassandra to Sentinel, as if searching for answers neither had spoken. Lyric sat frozen, her lips slightly parted, the color drained from her usually radiant face.

At the head of the table, Sentinel leaned forward slightly. His voice, when it came, was barely louder than a whisper, but it cut through the silence like a blade.

"Dreams do not carry flesh through space and time."

His eyes locked with Eddy's.

"Something far older does."

Eddy's words still hung in the air, but before anyone could break the silence, he exhaled shakily and continued.

"But that's not the end of it."

Elias looked up sharply, as did Cassandra. Even the Sentinel tilted his head slightly.

"When I found myself in the mall… it was chaos," Eddy said, his voice lower now, like the memory itself unsettled him. "People were screaming. Running in every direction. It wasn't just panic, it was wild. They weren't moving normally… their speed, their expressions, it was like the world had been tilted sideways."

Lyric's brows lifted slightly. "You were in a vampire territory," she said, her voice soft but clear. "Those weren't humans. Their speed would've been far above what you're used to."

Eddy blinked, surprised. "I had no idea at the time. I just knew something was off… everything felt wrong."

He said, rubbing his temple like trying to pull the right words free. "They were running like they were trying not just to escape, but to avoid something. Like they knew being seen, being in someone's way, meant death. But they were too fast, blurry, like the moment was sped up or I was slowed down. Nothing felt… right."

Aiden had stopped fidgeting. He was now fully leaned in, one arm resting on the table, his expression unreadable but locked onto Eddy.

"I didn't know what to do," Eddy admitted, voice cracking slightly. "The panic around me, it got to me. I was terrified. It felt wrong, like I was standing in a place I wasn't supposed to be. Like the world itself knew I didn't belong there."

His hand trembled slightly as he ran it through his hair.

"I was just thinking about how to survive, whether to run or hide. Then I saw a clothing store on my right," he said. "The lights were flickering. Clothes were scattered across the floor. The door was half open, and I just… ran inside. I didn't even think."

Elias leaned forward slightly, brows furrowed. "That was the place where we found you."

Eddy nodded. "Yeah, but I didn't want anyone, or anything, to find me. I was scared out of my mind. I ducked into a closet in the back, one of those giant fitting room storage things. It was dark and cramped. Smelled like dust and old perfume. I could barely breathe."

He looked down, blinking hard. "And while I sat there, crouched between torn coats and fallen hangers… I just kept thinking, What is happening to me? How did I even get here? I was sleeping in my dorm room, and the next thing I knew, I was in the middle of a nightmare. Why was I dreaming about all of you since I was a kid? And now suddenly… I was there, like everything just collided."

Alice's eyes widened. "You've been dreaming about us… since childhood?"

Eddy gave a faint nod. "Yeah… I was seeing all of you, what was happening around you."

He stole a quick look at Elias, then at Thorne. "I kept trying to make sense of it, searching for anything… clues, knowledge, something that could explain it."

He swallowed, the words slower now. "For the longest time, I thought I was just some weird kid with strange dreams."

His fingers fidgeted in his lap.

"But yeah, as time went on, my dreams started becoming more real, it felt like I was always with you all."

He met Lyric's gaze for the first time. "And when I saw you fighting the demon in the mall, in the dream, I realized... it wasn't a dream at all. It was something else. Something bigger."

A soft gasp escaped Aiden. His eyes widened, flicking toward Alice with unspoken shock, but he said nothing.

"Then," Eddy said, glancing up, "I heard voices. Real voices. From the store outside the closet. I held my breath and listened. It was all of you. Talking. Shouting. Planning."

He looked at Elias, then at Thorne and Lyric.

"I knew those voices. Even without seeing you. They were the same from my dreams."

His breath hitched. "But I'd been in that closet too long. I was sweating. My chest felt tight. It was like the air was thinning. I couldn't take it anymore. I pushed the door open, and then you all saw me."

His voice trailed off into silence as he looked at them, one by one.

"You know what happened after that," he said quietly, eyes falling on Thorne, Elias, Lyric, and Alice. "You remember."

Thorne leaned back slowly in his chair, arms crossed tightly against his chest. His jaw shifted, as if he were grinding through thoughts he couldn't yet voice. Elias just stared, lips slightly parted, his eyes distant, like he was trying to piece together something that refused to make sense.

Alice's hand hovered near Eddy's arm but didn't touch, her face frozen in wide-eyed disbelief. Lyric sat motionless, her gaze fixed on the table, brows drawn, as if replaying every word in her mind.

Sentinel, unmoving at the head of the table, finally spoke.

His voice was quieter now. "And in the moment after you emerged, you knew exactly where to strike the demon. How to end it."

Eddy nodded once.

"Yeah...," he whispered. "Because when I came out of that closet and saw all of them, I just knew, what I saw in the dream was true. That was the way to kill it."

He hesitated, then added quietly, "And I had this strong feeling… deep down… that what I saw was true."

Sentinel's eyes narrowed, not in suspicion, but calculation. Like something ancient had just slotted into place inside his mind.

He felt Vaelthar stir.

The boy's connection runs deeper than sight, the voice echoed in his mind. What he saw was not memory... but alignment. Echoes syncing across time.

Sentinel didn't respond, not aloud nor within. But his gaze lingered on Eddy a moment longer, sharp, probing, thoughtful.

Cassandra broke the silence next, her voice still gentle, but laced with disbelief. "But how's that possible? I mean… you're human. Have you ever come into contact with anything magical?"

Eddy shook his head. "Never."

A tense beat followed.
Sentinel's eyes stayed on him. The others might not have noticed, but his gaze had sharpened, subtle, but unmistakable. Like a puzzle piece had clicked into place.
He tilted his head slightly, as if studying Eddy for threads no one else could see.

He doesn't even realize what he is, Vaelthar murmured in Sentinel's mind. No idea how deeply he's tied to all of this.

He's never come into contact with magic, Sentinel answered silently. Not knowingly. But it's there, inside him.

Eddy shifted slightly under Sentinel's gaze, unaware of the silent exchange.

Silence returned, heavier than before.

Until finally, Maris spoke, her voice low and speculative. "He was connected to the moment. To the place. To them. It wasn't chance."

All eyes turned to her.

"Echo Weaving," she said softly. "The magic of dream tethering. It doesn't just show you the future, it pulls you into it. If the bond is strong enough… reality makes space."

Sentinel slowly nodded in agreement.

He leaned forward, fingers steepled beneath his chin. His voice dropped, steady and clear.

"This wasn't coincidence. This was all set in motion by the Eclipse Heart. From the very beginning, you were all being chosen." His gaze swept across Elias, Alice, Lyric, Thorne, and Aiden before settling back on Eddy. "Even your dreams… seeing them since childhood, it wasn't random. It was the Heart's will. Long before any of us realized it, you were meant to meet them."

He paused, eyes sharpening with quiet certainty.

"Fate hasn't just marked you, Eddy. It's been waiting for you."