The sky darkened abruptly, as if someone had turned the page from day to night. The sun vanished behind a dense, living shadow. We rushed out of the house, and what we saw froze the air in our lungs.
The ground warped before our eyes, turning into a black, pulsating, grotesque mass, with thin trails of smoke curling upward in slow spirals. The trees, once sturdy and green, twisted like broken bones, shedding their leaves until they stood bare, gnarled, almost human in their deformity.
"Oh no…" Alissa murmured, her voice heavy with tension. "This is the domain of monsters and rulers."
Her gaze met Foster's, who was already gripping his sword. The blade trembled with a faint shimmer, almost as if it could sense the threat. He moved quickly, scanning the area, and his face hardened a moment later.
"Damn it! The passage isn't anywhere nearby!"
The air seemed to compress. Then, behind us, the house exploded with a sharp, violent impact, hurling debris in every direction.
Instinctively, we moved back, turning to face whatever had caused it.
And there it was.
A colossal eagle, its wings spread wide like living walls, hovered above the remains of the house. Its sharp beak caught the dying light of the sky, and from its mouth slithered a grotesque tongue, thin and long like a serpent's
— only much larger than I remembered.
It was the same creature that had greeted me the moment I stepped onto this board of death. But now it seemed more monstrous. More… corrupted.
"A corrupted monster of the second cycle…" Alex's voice was low, but laced with concern.
I knew the weight of those words. Moments earlier, Alissa had explained the hierarchy to me: corrupted monsters formed the base of the chain, but with each cycle, they evolved into something deadlier. A second-cycle corrupted was already strong enough to massacre us effortlessly.
And from the look we exchanged, we all understood the same thing: the only way out now… was to survive.
The eagle raised its head and unleashed a scream that seemed to slice through the air itself. But it wasn't just sound. It was a brutal wave of wind, so dense it tore our feet from the ground. We were thrown like rag dolls against the trees, branches snapping and bark tearing at our skin. We barely stayed conscious.
Still dizzy, I staggered to my feet. Beside me, Alex was already standing, eyes locked on the threat. Then, in a blur, the eagle's grotesque tongue shot forward, wrapping around Alissa's leg and yanking her into the air.
"Alissa!" Foster shouted, his voice raw with desperation.
But Alissa was not the type to be dragged away without a fight. With her free hand, she drew an arrow and fired at the creature. The impact echoed, but the projectile shattered against the reinforced feathers, unable to pierce through. The tension thickened in the air like a choking knot.
"Damn it…" I muttered before moving.
My wings snapped open, and with a burst of speed, I closed the distance between us. Sword in hand, I struck without hesitation, slicing through that cursed tongue once again.
The eagle's scream made the ground quake. Its fury was now beyond control.
"You okay?" I asked, helping Alissa to her feet. She limped, leaning on me for support. Her ankle was damaged. Not broken, but enough to slow her down.
A massive shadow loomed over us. The eagle dove again, its frigid roar and crushing pressure bearing down with it. But this time, I anticipated it. I saw the shift in its inner energy before the attack even came.
"Alissa! Fire one of those elastic arrows!"
She didn't hesitate. The bowstring sang, and the arrow shot forward. The moment it left her grip, I beat my wings hard, channeling the wind to propel us away. Within seconds, we were nearly fifty meters from the beast.
"We have to find the passage, Foster!" Alissa shouted, breathless.
Foster, wielding the sword that could detect passages, began turning in place, trying to sense the direction. But there was no time.
The eagle spread its wings and, to our surprise, didn't advance through the air. Instead, it pulled back… and then dove abruptly, slamming its talons into the ground.
The impact was not just a sound— it was a roar from beneath the earth. The ground vibrated, then split into fractures that spread like black veins. Trees toppled, chunks of earth rose and fell, and the air was consumed by the roar of shattering stone.
The ground beneath Alissa and me gave way. In an instant, we were plunging into a bottomless pit. I tried to spread my wings to slow the fall, but fate was cruel— a colossal rock plummeted right above us, slamming into my back and crushing me against the empty air. The blow tore the breath from my lungs and forced me to fall with her.
"NO!" Foster shouted, his face twisted in despair. His sister was vanishing into the darkness, and he could do nothing.
Behind him, Alex didn't move.
He simply watched. And when Foster wasn't looking, a slow, macabre smile crept onto his face… as if he had been waiting for this moment all along.