"The beast without and the beast within, they test the same heart." , Hunter's Proverb, etched on shattered bone
The ruins shuddered like a wounded beast, breathing mist from every crack and shadow. Glyphs etched into the floor burned green and gold, their glow cutting through haze so dense it felt like smoke after battle. The air reeked of blood, wet stone, and ancient rot.
Through that veil prowled the Alpha.
Its movements were slow at first, deliberate, its glowing eyes twin embers in the fog. Its tail swayed in precise rhythm, claws scraping against cracked stone with a sound like whetted blades. The ruins themselves seemed to bend with it, as though the chamber were an extension of the predator's body.
Leo's chest rose and fell in sharp, heavy breaths. The fragment-light coursed through him in jagged streams, every heartbeat a pulse of fire that scalded his veins. He felt its hunger pressing into his skull, whispering relentlessly:
Unleash. Devour. Break them. Rule.
