Pain kept pounding in every fiber of Ryuusei's body, a constant reminder that he was still alive. His breathing was a gasping sound, his chest rising and falling with frantic urgency as he tried to process the impossible: Death hadn't sent the rotting beast alone. He had sent the Black Herald.
It was no longer a hunt. It was a personal execution.
Kenta had taken refuge behind Daichi, his entire body trembling.
"What... What's going on? Kenta whispered, a barely audible voice.
Daichi did not answer. His eyes, once dark, were now a mirror of icy terror.
Aiko let go of her hand. "We have to help him. We have to do something.
Haru shook his head, his voice low and icy. "We can't. Don't you see? El Heraldo... it is on another level. A single movement and it erases us all.
"But it's Ryuusei!" Aiko stood, her small body stiff with determination. We can't abandon it!
"If we go, we'll die," Haru said, not raising her voice, but with a firmness that froze the girl. If we die, he dies alone. At least like this... perhaps one will survive to raise the alarm.
Kenta poked his head over Daichi's shoulder. "No... they can't be serious. We can't leave it there. He is...
"He's the target," Haru added emotionlessly. Death didn't send that thing for fun. He sent it for him. We are collateral damage if we get close.
A crack opened in the earth at his feet with a dull thunder. Ryuusei, in the distance, sat up trembling.
"He wants to end this," Ryuusei muttered under his breath, his voice reaching them like a whisper blown by the wind. He wants to see me dead as soon as possible.
Aiko sobbed. "No... Ryuusei... no...
Daichi, who had remained silent, stood up completely, slowly drawing his katana. "He's the target. But we are his team. We will not let him die.
"You're crazy, Daichi," Haru said, but his voice didn't sound so confident anymore.
"Perhaps," Daichi replied, his eyes fixed on the Herald's unchanging figure. But he is the one who has kept us alive until now. The one who found the weapons, the one who saved us from that rotten thing. If you have a chance, you're with us.
Kenta nodded frantically. "Yes!" Daichi is right! There's no way we're going to leave him alone!
Haru sighed, his calculating gaze suddenly filled with tangible frustration. "Good. But let's not be idiots. We will move in a group, and we will only attack if we see an opening. If the Herald listens to us, we run. Got it? It's our only chance.
Aiko nodded, her face covered in tears but her eyes ablaze with determination. The four moved cautiously, using the devastation of the landscape as cover, approaching the battlefield.
In front of Ryuusei, the Black Herald's figure stood unwavering, his obsidian sword resting on his shoulder. His dark cloak fluttered like a living shadow, and his presence exuded an unsettling calm, a calm that Ryuusei felt like the anteroom to his own grave.
"You are taking too long," the Herald said in a deep, distorted voice, a resonance that came not from his throat but from the air itself. Finish dying, human.
Ryuusei raised his hammer. His arms trembled, but fear was mixed with uncontrollable fury. He couldn't give up. If he did, his companions would die. His family. And with a rallying cry, a mixture of rage and despair, he went on the attack.
The clash was immediate. The sword and hammer collided with a force capable of splitting the sky. Shock waves destroyed the nearby trees, and the ground was fragmented into a thousand pieces.
Ryuusei teleported repeatedly, a blur in the air, attacking from different angles, but the Herald predicted every move with chilling ease. It was as if his mind was a spreadsheet, analyzing every variable and every possible movement.
"Boring," the Herald whispered, blocking each blow with one arm, his voice an echo of disinterest.
"Shut up!" Ryuusei bellowed, feeling his fury crackle inside him, fueling his blows. "You don't know me!" You don't know what I am!
The Herald paused for a moment. His eyes, two orbs of crimson light, fell on Ryuusei's weapons, then returned to his face, unchanging. A smile formed in the darkness of his helmet. It was not a smile of joy, but one of mockery, of cruel sadism.
"When I'm done with you, I'll go get your family."
Ryuusei's hammer came to rest in mid-air. His legs faltered. His mind, his fury, stopped.
"I'm going to rip out their organs one by one. To make them scream while I slowly tear them apart.
Ryuusei's stomach sank as if he had been thrown into an abyss. His breathing became erratic. A cold sweat ran down his back. The Herald's words conjured up a vivid image in his mind: his sister, his mother, his father... their faces, their pain...
Fear. Not for his life. For theirs.
The Herald noticed it... and the smile on his helmet widened.
"Ah... So this is your real fear. You cling to them like a child to his blanket. How pathetic.
Ryuusei tried to move, attack, but his body didn't respond. His mind was caught up in the image of his family being massacred. His muscles refused to obey. All the power he had felt moments before, all the fury, vanished in an instant.
"Don't listen to him, Ryuusei!" Don't listen to it! Aiko's scream, in the distance, reached her ears.
The Herald looked up, noticing the group. The smile faded. With a quick and accurate movement, he punched Ryuusei in the stomach.
The devastating impact hit him in the stomach. It was as if five trucks had hit him at once. His bones creaked. Blood gushed out of his mouth. His body was thrown through, piercing a tree and tearing it apart in the process.
He fell to the ground in convulsions. His breathing was erratic, his eyes unfocused. The pain was unbearable. His conscience was reeling. Death was approaching.
The Herald moved slowly, enjoying every second. "It's over," he whispered, raising his sword for the final blow.
The black edge descended.
Ryuusei tried to move. He did not answer. Just one thought: I don't want to die.
A burst of blinding light interrupted the attack.
The Herald stopped. He frowned on his bones. He turned his head.
Ryuusei, barely conscious, also looked.
The earth shook violently. Something else had entered the scene.
And then, from the crack opened by the impact, an even more monstrous presence emerged.
The Beast.