Granny Yaga held her face while screaming in agony. Tears of blood streamed from her black-ringed eyes as the light of her ability ended. Noah was completely unharmed by the [Prophecy] ability mysteriously ending.

"The Child of Ruin! He's taken my eyes!" Granny Yaga shouted hysterically.

The old crone was still unaware of Noah standing behind her at the table. Illustrations had appeared on three of the previously blank cards. The fourth had turned black. The first card displayed the boy Noah had seen in the vision, the Child of Ruin. The second card was an illustration of the featureless masked man, the Shepherd of Dust. The third card contained a stylized image of the man with filed-down teeth gnawing on the arm with the snake tattoo. It was labelled as 'Scavenger'. Noah was unsure what the black card meant.

The child, Lyn, ran to Noah's side, pulling on his hand urgently. Noah allowed himself to be tugged toward the door. Lyn released his hand to run back to the table. He swept the deck of cards into the smouldering fire, causing embers to scatter across the room. He grabbed the slender blade from where it had fallen onto the tabletop then thrust it through the crone's hand, piercing through it into her already bleeding eye. The boy removed the knife while shoving Granny Yaga into the flaming fire. Lyn dodged her flailing arms to grab something from her skirt pocket as it ignited in flames. He quickly tucked the object away in a pocket to blow on his singed fingers.

"Why did you push her into the fire?" Noah asked as the boy joined him at the open door of the cottage.

"Granny Yaga wanted me to be her apprentice after she murdered her twin sister and buried her in the garden. She told me that she would bury me there too if I tried to run away," Lyn responded with a resolute expression on his immature face.

"So you did it to avoid future retaliation. I'm impressed by your forethought. I could have learned a thing or two from you myself, not long ago," Noah praised the boy.

"Quickly! She's coming!" Lyn shouted as he shoved Noah out of the doorway, pulling the door closed while holding it with both hands on the handle, using his body weight to keep it closed.

The door rattled as Granny Yaga managed to pull the door open, dragging Lyn with it. The boy didn't hesitate as he plunged the slender blade blindly into the opening. The burning old crone shrieked as she fell backward, taking the knife with her. Lyn slammed the door shut to lean against the doorframe as he panted heavily. It was dark outside. The garden was illuminated by shining vegetation along with the aurora in the sky above. The plants were glowing in various hues and colours.

"We've got to go now. I can't hold the door for much longer!" Lyn shouted before grabbing a bow and quiver standing beside the entrance.

Lyn started to run awkwardly, clutching at his chest in an attempt to calm his pulsating heartbeat. He was overwhelmed by the adrenaline caused by his revolt against Granny Yaga. Lyn stopped running once he noticed that Noah wasn't following.

Noah was standing in the garden, looking thoughtfully at the cottage covered in glowing blue ivy. The overgrown vegetation completely camouflaged it. What caught his attention was how the ivy seemed to be squirming as it detected heat rising inside the building.

"Are you coming?" Lyn called to him.

"Wait a moment. Why is the plant moving?" Noah asked.

"All plants do now. The magical ones are a lot smarter. The blank ones only react, but the magic ones will hunt you if you're not careful. Granny Yaga planted that ivy inside my little sister, Maddy's chest. She cut like she did on you and put a seed inside it before burying her. Seed shells change into crystals when they grow. My sister was a witch-like you, so the ivy stole her magic," Lyn replied with barely restrained anger and hatred in his young voice.

"Did it absorb your sister's origin crystal to get her ability?" Noah asked.

"No. Granny Yaga took it and kept it in her old coin purse. That's what I took from her pocket after I pushed her into the fire. My sister was turned into fertilizer, just like Granny Yaga's twin who made the magic plant that put you to sleep," Lyn replied while pointing at a plant nearby.

Noah recognized the leaves as the herbs that Granny Yaga burned to induce his visions about the Kraken. The plant was a shrub of a kind Noah didn't recognize. Its leaves were trimmed short from the old crone's multiple harvestings to be used for mystical purposes. It glowed brightly in the dim light with pink lifeforce. It was planted on a sizeable suspicious mound. Noah believed it must belong to Granny Yaga's twin. Her cursed state must have driven her to insanity, like how Ronan was said to have become mad. As if he wasn't before.

"Granny stole her powers from her twin's crystal. She was jealous of her, and after she awakened her second ability, Granny got so angry she stabbed her more than ten times with a kitchen knife. Granny started talking to herself and became vicious after she was bitten by a soulless, who's buried there," Lyn said as he pointed to another mound.

The second mound was far more noticeable. The soulless must have been at least grade two. Black mushrooms grew from the eye-sockets and mouth of an exposed skull. The fungi had a demonic appearance as an inky black substance oozed from the mushroom cap. A single drop of the substance dripped onto the soil, eroding the dirt away to expose more of the soulless's corpse.

"There's one more body in the garden, Granny's husband, Grandpa Finnigan. But he wasn't buried here. The old oak tree in the field ate him," Lyn was about to show him but was Interrupted.

Movement from the glowing blue ivy drew Noah's attention back to the cottage. The building was overcome with flames. The ivy was thrashing wildly to avoid the touch of the fire, exposing the third mound at its base. This mound was much smaller than the other two. At the ivy's roots, a mysterious glowing blue object had been uncovered. The thing seemed to be a part of the plant. Noah cautiously approached the distraught ivy to retrieve it.