Silence followed violence in a way that always felt unreal.
The streets of the broken town no longer rang with hyena laughter or the clash of steel and spell. What remained was the sound of water receding, trickling back into cracks and gutters, carrying blood with it in thin red streams. Steam rose where Flambe's fire had met Aldwin's summoned tides, fog drifting low and heavy across the ground.
Jax still lived.
Barely.
The three headed gnoll lay half buried in rubble at the center of the street, its massive body twitching as it tried to push itself upright. One head howled in pain, jaw hanging at an unnatural angle. Another cursed in broken english, spitting blood and fragments of teeth. The third stared at Aldwin with raw hatred, eyes burning even as its body failed it.
Aldwin walked forward.
The humans noticed first.
Weapons lowered. Spells flickered out. One by one, the defenders realized the battle had shifted from survival to aftermath. Their eyes followed Aldwin, some in awe, some in fear, all of them understanding that whatever he was, he was not their enemy.
Hatch planted his axe into the ground and stepped aside.
Flambe lowered himself, coiled and watchful, heat pulsing just beneath his scales.
Corvus perched atop a broken streetlight, wings folded, gaze never leaving Jax.
Aldwin stopped a few meters from the fallen boss.
Water gathered around his feet, shallow and still.
"You ruled this place," Aldwin said quietly. "You ate them. You decorated your throne with their faces."
One of Jax's heads laughed weakly.
"Prey," it rasped.
Aldwin raised his hand.
The water rose, wrapping around Jax's leftmost head first. It tightened, compressing slowly, deliberately. Bone cracked. The laughter turned into choking panic.
With a clenched fist, Aldwin twisted.
The head came free.
The body convulsed violently, the remaining two heads screaming in fury and pain. Blood sprayed across the street, steaming briefly before being absorbed into the water at Aldwin's feet.
The system chimed softly in his awareness.
[Boss Integrity Compromised]
He did not look away.
He stepped closer.
The second head snarled, trying to bite despite its failing body.
Water surged again.
This time Aldwin did not rush.
He remembered his uncle's face.
His sister's eyes.
The water tightened, crushing jaw and skull alike until resistance vanished. The second head tore free with a wet crack, falling lifelessly into the pooled street.
Only one remained.
The last head glared at Aldwin, defiance etched into its features even as terror crept in.
"You think this ends it?" the gnoll hissed. "Others will come. Gods will notice."
Aldwin knelt.
Water formed a blade in his hand, its edge so fine it hummed with contained pressure.
"Good," he said.
The blade fell.
The final head rolled free, joining the others.
The body collapsed fully, life extinguished.
[Boss Monster Defeated: Jax, Three Headed Devourer]
[Contribution Points Acquired]
Aldwin stood slowly, the water dispersing as the weight lifted from the air.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then a human stepped forward.
A man with a cracked helmet and lightning scorched armor lowered his weapon completely and bowed his head.
"Thank you," he said simply.
Others followed.
Some nodded. Some offered quiet words of gratitude. A few wept openly, staring at the severed heads with expressions of grim satisfaction.
None of them questioned the demons.
Hatch was approached cautiously by two armed survivors, who stopped short when he inclined his head in acknowledgment. Flambe received wide eyed stares, children peeking out from behind barricades as heat rippled gently around him. Corvus vanished and reappeared at Aldwin's shoulder, silent as a shadow.
"They are with him," someone whispered.
"No," another replied. "They work under him."
The distinction mattered.
Aldwin felt it settle into place as surely as the system notifications that followed.
Not authority claimed.
Authority recognized.
Gnoll packs tried to regroup on the outskirts of town, sensing the loss of their leader. Aldwin did not give them time. With the humans at his back and his demons moving in practiced coordination, he led the counteroffensive.
Water surged through alleys, flushing enemies into kill zones. Hatch broke lines with brutal efficiency, his axe rising and falling without hesitation. Flambe controlled the battlefield with bursts of flame that herded gnolls where Aldwin wanted them. Corvus eliminated scouts and messengers before they could flee.
The humans fought harder now.
Not desperate.
Determined.
Aldwin reinforced them without words, shaping water into shields, reinforcing barriers, extinguishing fires, and crushing enemies where lines faltered. He felt the rhythm of battle settle into something almost calm.
Between strikes, his eyes drifted to the heads he had taken.
They were proof.
Not just of vengeance.
Of resolve.
By nightfall, the gnolls were gone.
Those who survived fled into the forest, their laughter replaced with fear.
The town stood battered but breathing.
Aldwin sat on the steps of a ruined building, exhaustion finally catching up to him. His mana dipped, but not dangerously. The embodiment's toll lingered in his bones, a dull ache beneath the surface.
A woman approached and offered him water from a dented canteen.
He accepted it silently.
"What will you do now?" she asked.
Aldwin looked toward the road that led deeper south.
"I'm going home," he said.
The severed heads were mounted at the edge of town by morning.
Not as trophies.
As warnings.