Yam could no longer return home. He had done something terrible. His father might have been whatever he was, but he never wanted to kill him. He just lost control. As he wandered aimlessly, wondering what to do next, a person passed by him, giving off an unpleasant odor that reminded him of the abyss. It was a familiar smell. Out of curiosity, Yam followed the man, who was heading in the opposite direction toward a cabin very close to the city.
Yam followed the man for more than half an hour and from about seven meters away, he saw the man enter the cabin. He approached one of the walls. It was a very simple cabin, it only had the essentials, no fireplace, and certainly no fire pit. The walls were made of poorly cut sticks, held together with nails, and the gaps were filled with mud. It had a sturdy roof and, despite everything, four very nice windows. As he approached one of those windows, Yam noticed that the man had a girl as a hostage.
He took a quick peek and saw that the man had removed the girl's gag.
"Please don't hurt me," she cried. "My father has a lot of money. He'll give you whatever you want."
"I'm only interested in one thing," said the scumbag, licking his lips. "I just want to taste you, taste what you're like."
An expression of disgust and terror toward that individual appeared on the girl's face. The man looked toward the window, but Yam had already crouched down again, then peered out again very carefully through another window, this time getting a better look. As he did so, he saw that the girl's face looked familiar.
"Damn, it's that girl," he thought.
It was Vega, the girl who had helped him moments ago. Yam felt the need to help her, but he couldn't act so deliberately. In the Pit, he had learned to be patient, to wait for the right moment. No matter how strong his opponent might be, if he caught him off guard, he could kill him. Even though it was just one man, Yam wanted to make sure he didn't waste energy on unnecessary struggles.
"Stay still, it'll be quick," said the degenerate.
"Help me!"
"Shut up! If you don't be quiet, I'll have no choice but to kill you, although that would be a shame. The flesh of live prey tastes better. Come on, it'll just be a little bite..."
"Please, someone!" Vega screamed, terrified, her voice breaking.
The man frowned, climbed on top of the girl, and gagged her again. At that moment, Yam noticed that the window was open.
The girl continued to make sounds of resistance and struggle, but there it was. The opportunity Yam had been waiting for, a moment of distraction. Now that the man was distracted and had his back to him, Yam slowly opened the window and carefully entered, making no noise as he slowly approached.
"Mmm, that smell..." whispered the bastard.
But before he could react, Yam plunged his entire arm into his back until his hand came out through the man's abdomen. The man began coughing up blood and fell to his knees. Vega fainted when she saw the scene, but for a moment she was able to see Yam's face.
While the man lay on the floor, he freed Vega and removed her gag. He took her in his arms and began to walk away.
Then, a rather macabre crack, like branches breaking, froze his blood. He turned his gaze backward. And there he was: the man was standing again... with his head twisted backward at an impossible angle, as if his vertebrae had been broken.
"Fool, you've made a big mistake. I won't let you take my prey. She's mine!"
Yam was disgusted and bewildered; he still didn't understand what was happening. Carefully, he laid Vega on the ground, as if afraid that a single sudden movement might break her. His instincts screamed that something was wrong.
The man—or whatever that thing was—stared at him motionless, with an empty, piercing gaze.
"You'll pay for this..." he growled as he began to advance toward him, walking backwards with slow, crooked steps.
"What the hell are you?" Yam asked incredulously. Had the things he had faced in that nightmare world also crossed over into this one?
That monstrosity continued to mutter broken phrases as it approached very slowly, in a harsh, broken voice, until its words were distorted into a harsh, inhuman echo that reverberated like torn metal.
In the blink of an eye, the figure in front of him ceased to be human: its shoulders rose, its skin tore like wet cloth, a twisted spine emerged from beneath the flesh, and dozens of structures began to sprout from its arms like pulsating bubbles.
What once appeared human was transformed into a beast incapable of uttering a word. The face that was once human became disproportionate, with a mouth that stretched from ear to ear, filled with irregular, overly long teeth, sharp as shards of broken glass. Where the eyes should have been, there were only empty sockets; instead, both arms were covered with swollen eyes, embedded in the flesh, moving from side to side with a slow, moist blinking. At the end of those grotesque arms, the fingers were excessively thin, hard as bone needles.
Its growl was not a roar, but a multiple, incomprehensible murmur that scratched the ear.
Yam swallowed hard: the nauseating stench that this creature brought with it could only be perceived by another Bearer.
"What can I do... this is what I get for being curious and playing the hero. But I owed it to this girl," he thought, as he prepared to face the deformity before him.
The creature took another step toward Yam. Each movement was accompanied by a wet crunching of bones, as if something inside its deformed body didn't quite fit. The multiple eyes on its arms blinked in unison, focusing on him, and suddenly it lunged.
The needle-like fingers cut through the air like spears, seeking to pierce his neck. Yam reacted with reflexes honed by his bitter experiences in the Pit: he ducked and rolled to the side, feeling one of those needles graze his cheek and leave a thin trail of warm blood.
"This thing is fast... too fast for how deformed it is," he thought, gritting his teeth.
He lunged forward and, with a roar of effort, threw a punch straight at its chin. His fist collided with that strange flesh; it was like hitting wet leather. The impact resonated, but the creature barely flinched. Instead, its enormous mouth opened wider, releasing a shriek that sounded like hundreds of voices speaking at once. The sound scratched at Yam's mind, forcing him to stagger.
The monster took advantage of his daze to lunge at him. Yam raised both arms to block the attack; he felt the sting of needles tearing at his skin. In that moment of closeness, just as the jaws were about to reach him, he planted a brutal knee to its abdomen, managing to push it back.
The two stood face to face, breathing heavily.
"It seems that blows are not enough..." he gasped, his eyes fixed on the monster's arms.
He had noticed something.
He jumped up and began to move in a zigzag pattern. At that moment, he confirmed it: the eyes embedded in the arms trembled every time he moved too fast, as if they couldn't quite keep up with him.
He smiled with his broken lip.
"So that's it... they don't like to lose sight of me."
He changed direction, bent his legs, and this time began to move in fast circles around the creature. The swollen eyes spun frantically, unable to follow him, until the monster began to stagger. Yam seized the moment.
"Oops, did you get dizzy?" he said with a satisfied smile.
He lunged with all his strength at one of the arms, grabbed it with both hands, and with a bloodcurdling scream, tore it apart, crushing several of those eyes at the same time with a brutal knee strike.
The creature screamed, its multiple voices breaking into a chorus of pain as it staggered backward. Yam, splattered with the Bearer's dark fluids, gritted his teeth.
"Finally, I've hurt you!"
The creature, enraged, opened its mouth so wide that its jaw tore. It was preparing for one last attack. Yam adjusted his stance, ready to play his last card. The monster arched backward, its grotesque mouth open like an abyss filled with jagged teeth, preparing a scream that seemed capable of tearing apart sanity itself. The air vibrated, and Yam felt a sudden dizziness, as if everything around him were twisting.
"Looks like I've gotten dizzy too... I can't wait for it to pass."
He lunged forward just as the creature released its scream. The sound pierced his eardrums, making his ears bleed, but he didn't stop. He broke through that wall of pain with a roar of his own, driven by pure stubbornness.
The needle-like fingers descended, seeking to pierce his chest, but Yam twisted his body, allowing them to only scratch his side. It didn't matter: he was already close enough.
With a desperate leap, he climbed up the creature's slimy torso as if scaling a breathing wall, and with all the strength in his right arm, he struck the enormous mouth. He felt the teeth tear his knuckles and blood run down his hand, but he didn't stop: he kept punching, over and over, until the jaw began to crack like a breaking log.
The monster screamed; its many voices broke into a chaos of pain. The eyes on its arms spun wildly; some burst like popped blisters.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Yam shouted, and with one last effort, he ripped out one of those jagged fangs. He used the fragment as a makeshift weapon and stabbed it several times into the side of the beast's neck, tearing it completely apart.
The screech stopped abruptly. The creature shook violently, its arms flailing like whips, but soon began to convulse. A blackish liquid spurted from its mouth and wounds, soaking the ground.
Yam fell to his knees, panting, covered in blood and that dark substance. His breathing was a ragged wheeze, but his eyes never left the monster. He watched it stagger, take a few steps back, and finally collapse like a sack of rotten meat.
Silence fell over the cabin, broken only by his irregular breathing.
He put a hand to his wounded side and let out a bitter laugh.
"I did it... it's not my time to die yet."
He looked up, trembling but steady. Despite his wounds, exhaustion, and blood, Yam had won.
He moved away from the corpse, only to fall back to his knees, and watched as Vega slowly began to open her eyes. The girl looked at the mess around her until their eyes met. He looked down.
"You..."
She took uncertain steps toward him as he remained on his knees, bleeding from his arms, hands, and side. Vega needed no explanation: the boy kneeling before her had saved her.
Yam raised his head with a tired half-smile.
"Looks like we're even now."
The girl knelt in front of him and tried to stop the blood flowing from his side with her own trembling hands.
"You! If you hadn't been here... I... I..." She couldn't hold back the tears.
Yam hugged her gently.
"Don't worry, I know. Don't worry, everything's fine now... and I'm not going to die.
He let out a broken laugh, and for a moment, their eyes met. Vega felt a wave of gratitude and fear at the same time: gratitude because Yam had risked everything to save her, and fear because that boy seemed willing to take on all the shadows of the world if necessary.
Behind them, the monster's corpse began to slowly disintegrate, as if it had never existed as anything more than a nightmare made flesh. A cold mist filled the cabin. Only then did Vega notice the horrendous lifeless body. Yam held her arm to help her to her feet, even though he was the one who needed support the most.
"Come on... I'll be happy to answer all your questions, but first let's get out of here," he said in a hoarse but firm voice.
She nodded, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, and placed her arm under his shoulder to support him. They walked away from the cabin together. Vega squeezed Yam's hand tightly, as if by doing so she could keep him on his feet and remind him that, at least to someone, he was no longer just a monster, but a savior.
As they walked toward the city, they exchanged names and words, seeking respite in the shadows.
A few hours earlier, in a gloomy valley far from the city, stood the Reicas' headquarters. The wind moaned relentlessly between the mountains, and the setting sun reflected off the nearby lake like a lonely lighthouse watching over the silence.
It is not a building that invites you in, but one that commands respect: a stone fortress blackened by the smoke of countless bonfires, with crenellated towers rising like claws pointing to the sky. The walls are engraved with ancient runes that, in the dim light, take on a metallic sheen, as if they were breathing.
The wrought-iron main gate is adorned with symbols and scars from old battles. Above it hangs the petrified head of a forgotten beast, a perpetual reminder that even monsters bleed... though never without a price.
Inside, the atmosphere is a mixture of discipline and danger. The corridors are lit by torches fueled by alchemical oils that seem to never burn out. On the walls hang grotesque trophies: fangs longer than swords, skulls with empty eye sockets that seem to follow visitors with their gaze, membranous wings pierced by silver stakes. Every corner speaks of victories won at the cost of scars.
The assembly hall is as vast as a cathedral. Oak seats are arranged in a circle, and in the center stands a table—or rather, a block of obsidian—over which hangs a silver candelabra with strange tallow candles, whose bluish glow tinges the atmosphere with a spectral glow.
Beyond lie the training quarters, where the echoes of metal against metal and the roars of captive beasts used for testing resound. There, the air is thick with sweat, iron, and dried blood.
Beneath the ground, in the forbidden levels, lies the crypt: a labyrinth of sealed chambers that hold sealed weapons, jars with still-beating monster organs, and relics whose purpose few dare to mention. They say that the echoes heard down there do not always belong to human footsteps.
At the top, the central tower holds the Ian Lookout, a circular room surrounded by instruments for monitoring the nearby forests.
The Reicas headquarters is not just a refuge: it is a pact carved in stone and blood. A place where every wall reminds hunters that their duty is not to survive, but to keep at bay the chaos that lurks in the shadows.
In one of the training barracks was Dum, whose bearing now reflected the three years of discipline that had led him to become a Koen, the highest rank within the Reicas, second only to the Starkers, the strongest members. It was Aiden who told him about those men, whose strength bordered on the inhuman.
While waiting for Aiden to arrive, Dum let his gaze wander over the marks on the walls of the barracks.
The echo of metallic clashes in the adjacent arenas mingled with his thoughts, and he couldn't help but remember the day he first arrived at headquarters three years ago, still weighed down by a past he couldn't quite let go of.
The van moved slowly along the path. The valley was shrouded in thick fog that hid the cliffs until they were almost upon him. Dum, barely a nine-year-old boy, clenched his fists silently as he watched the dark silhouette begin to take shape in the distance: the Reicas' fortress.
As he got closer, the wind brought him the smell of ash and damp iron. The gate, blackened and covered with runes, seemed more like a threshold to another world than the entrance to a barracks. Above it, the petrified head of a beast he did not recognize stared at him with its empty eye sockets. Part of him wanted to turn back. The other, more stubborn and stronger, felt excitement.
"This is huge... and amazing."
Aiden watched with delight as an expression of surprise and excitement spread across Dum's face.
"This is nothing. You still have many things to see and learn that will surprise you."