"When hunger takes form, it does not stop to ask whose flesh it consumes." , Broken inscription, northern plateau ruins
The Shard-Bound Beast lunged again.
Its vast coils heaved like collapsing walls, smashing through pillars as though they were reeds. Each impact tore the chamber apart stone by stone; fractured blocks tumbled from above in shattering avalanches. The ruin groaned in protest, its ancient frame quaking as if the architecture itself were alive, unwilling to bear witness to the birth of such a monstrosity.
Dust thickened the air, choking every breath.
Leo raised his hands, the veins across his forearms blazing with fragment-light. He barely braced himself before the beast's tail swept across the chamber like a falling tower. The strike caught him full on the ribs, the world exploding into white pain as his body was hurled across the floor. He struck a pillar back-first, the impact cracking stone and crushing air from his lungs.
