The silhouette slid through the haze. Silver instantly grasped why Pandora had warned him not to compare it to the wolves—those had only been corrupted animals. This was the source of their corruption. It didn't walk so much as drift, its form a hazy, shifting mass of dull grey matter folding endlessly in on itself. Parts of it would fade to near transparency before thickening again elsewhere, making its size impossible to pin down. Long tendrils dangled from the central mass—some trailing across the ground without stirring the dust, others drifting lazily in the air. And scattered along their lengths were eyes.
Dozens, maybe hundreds. Different sizes, different shapes. Some were half-buried beneath the gray surface, others jutting out from the ends of thin tendrils. They moved on their own—searching, watching. Then, one by one, they all turned toward Talon. Every single one. Talon froze. The Devourer's body swelled slightly, its tendrils unfurling. There was no visible mouth, but the meaning behind its movements was clear: hunger. Talon's earlier technique had unleashed a significant amount of mana.
To the creature, he must have seemed like a meal. June and Julie instinctively huddled closer, while Talon, calm even against the corrupted wolves, stayed perfectly still. Silver could hear his own heartbeat pounding as his thoughts raced. How much mana could it devour? Would darkness hurt it? Could they get away? Could—
Calm your mind.
Pandora's voice sliced through the noise, and Silver had to remind himself to breathe.The Devourer drifted closer.
Do not allow those tendrils to remain in contact with you. If it establishes a connection, it will drain your mana directly.
Silver tightened his grip on his staff.
And if it drains everything?
Pandora was silent for a moment.
Then Silver Crow ends.
Silver's breathing stopped.
Pandora continued with cold precision.
Your mana is part of what anchors your living essence to your body. A Devourer doesn't simply empty that reservoir. Given enough time, it strips away what makes the body yours.
Silver looked toward the corrupted wolves behind them.
He finally understood.
Corruption.
Yes.
Pandora searched for words Silver could understand.
Imagine a body that has lost its soul but continues moving.
The Devourer's tendrils spread wider.
A puppet without strings.
Silver felt his stomach turn.
No will. No identity. No consciousness waiting underneath. The Devourer's corruption becomes the only thing left capable of moving what remains.
That's what had happened to the wolves.
They weren't possessed.
There was simply nothing left inside them to take.
Pandora's voice grew firm.
So control your fear. Watch it. Do not let your thoughts outrun what is actually happening in front of you.
Silver focused as the Devourer shifted, a tendril rising slowly toward Talon, its many eyes widening. Talon's darkness began to gather, June's foxfire flared to life, and Julie crouched into position. Silver raised his staff, but no one struck—they weren't sure if an attack would destroy it or only feed it. Then the street bathed in crimson. Silver glanced up to see an enormous, compressed sphere of fire hurtling down from above, violent and unstoppable.
The fireball consumed the Devourer, sending waves of heat surging through the street. Silver threw an arm over his face while June's tails wrapped around Julie, shielding her from the worst of it. The Devourer vanished into the raging inferno. A figure dropped down between them and the flames—Scarlet, her crimson tessen already open, fire spilling from its edges. Beside her stood Cornelius—alive.
His clothes were torn from battle, exhaustion etched into his features, yet his stance stayed firm. Silver's shoulders eased. Scarlet didn't glance their way.
"Attack it."
Talon paused.
"It feeds on mana."
"I know."
Scarlet's flames roared higher.
"Then give it more than it can handle."
Cornelius caught on instantly, mana swirling around him. Scarlet's tessen slashed forward, unleashing a burst of fire. Cornelius charged in after her, followed by Talon, June, Julie, and finally, Silver.
Elemental mana poured into the street as the Devourer emerged from Scarlet's first inferno. Its tendrils unfurled, and the fire touching its body didn't extinguish—it vanished, pulled straight into the shifting grey mass. Cornelius's strike came next, only to be swallowed whole. A rush of wind followed, swelling the creature's form, and June's foxfire was absorbed in an instant. Silver saw the countless eyes across its body widen. For one chilling moment, it seemed Scarlet's assault had backfired—they weren't destroying it, they were feeding it. And then, Pandora realized the truth.
It has a limit.
Silver's eyes went wide as the Devourer swelled again, its form warping and shuddering under the surge of mana flooding into it. The grey mass rippled violently, unable to keep up. Scarlet noticed too. "Don't stop!" she shouted, snapping her tessen fully open as fire mana burst from her. Cornelius unleashed everything alongside her, while Talon's shadowy crows gathered above, their wind blades slicing down. June and Julie added their own strikes, Silver's darkness joining the onslaught. Still, the Devourer consumed, growing larger with each wave. Eyes sank beneath its surface—some bursting into grey vapor, others rolling erratically as it struggled to cope. Tendrils whipped through the street, cracking stone. One lashed for Scarlet, but Cornelius batted it aside without breaking her focus. She kept her attack steady as the Devourer devoured yet again.
Its body shuddered violently, and Pandora's voice boomed inside Silver's head.
Now.
Scarlet swung her tessen down, and the street erupted into flames. For a moment, the Devourer swallowed that power too—until it couldn't. Cracks of pure elemental light split across its grey mass: fire burst from one, wind from another, and darkness tore through its center. Its ghostly body began to collapse under the sheer flood of mana. Eyes vanished one by one, tendrils withered away, and the central mass contracted violently before vaporizing. A wave of grey mist blasted outward, only for Scarlet to burn straight through it. Nothing was left. Silence fell over the street as Silver stared at the empty space where the creature had stood. The Devourer had endured attacks that would have obliterated lesser monsters many times over—yet it had fallen, not because it couldn't absorb mana.
Because eventually, it couldn't take in enough. Pandora spoke softly. "Remember this." Silver watched as the final gray wisps vanished into Scarlet's flames.
They are Devourers. Not bottomless pits.
It should have been reassuring.
It wasn't.
Silver knew how much power it had taken to bring down just one. And somewhere beyond the northern borders—there were more.
For a few moments, no one moved. The street still radiated heat from Scarlet's flames, stone faintly glowing under layers of ash, the last wisps of gray vapor fading into the air.
Silver lowered his staff. The danger was gone—for now.
Scarlet finally turned to Cornelius, scanning him from head to toe before her shoulders eased. Cornelius noticed but stayed silent.
Talon leaned on the remains of a wall while June and Julie caught their breath nearby. Silver stood rooted, eyes fixed on the spot where the Devourer had fallen.
One creature. It had taken all of them to bring down one creature. And according to Talon's reports, the attacks had started days ago.
Silver faced Cornelius.
"What happened here?"
Cornelius's face darkened as he looked north.
"A few days ago, the first attacks reached the capital." His voice was weary.
"At least, we thought they were the first."
Everyone listened.
Cornelius explained that the earliest reports had come from towns further north. Confused messages about people disappearing, military posts losing contact with one another, refugees moving south.
Then came the attacks.
"At first, we thought they were people."
Silver frowned.
"They were."
Cornelius nodded, and that was the truly horrifying part.
The first wave to reach the capital wasn't made up of strange grey creatures. They were human—men and women from northern cities, soldiers, travelers, even some wearing the uniforms of Vallahia's own provincial guards.
They came south in groups, silent and relentless. Some carried weapons, others fought with their bare hands.
"They didn't respond to warnings," Cornelius went on. "They didn't surrender, and they didn't retreat when wounded."
His gaze lingered on the remains of the corrupted wolves.
"We thought they were being controlled somehow."
The defenders had formed lines, trying to restrain them rather than kill their own countrymen.
That hesitation had cost lives.
"When a few of our defenders moved in, they found there was almost nothing left inside those people."
Cornelius tapped his chest.
"No proper mana flow. No normal reaction to pain. Nothing in their eyes."
Silver felt Pandora shift.
Puppets without strings.
The same thing—only human.
Cornelius went on.
"Then the real creatures showed up behind them."
Scarlet's face tightened.
"The grey ones."
"Yes."
That's when confusion turned to panic.
Elemental attacks just disappeared into them, and soldiers who got too close quickly grew weak. Some collapsed without even realizing what was happening. Those who were completely drained… didn't always stay down. Cornelius went quiet, and no one needed him to say more. Julie turned her gaze aside, June's tails drooped, and Talon's expression hardened. Silver finally understood why the capital had been so terrified—the enemy wasn't just attacking Vallahia, it was using its own people as the next wave. Cornelius let out a slow breath.
"Once the palace understood what was happening, the Emperor stopped treating this as an ordinary invasion."
The Emperor had gone north, and he hadn't gone alone. His sons were with him, along with his personal entourage, imperial commanders, and some of Vallahia's toughest warriors. They'd marched straight toward the largest horde of Devourers before it could threaten the capital's heart. Scarlet's eyes narrowed.
"They held them?"
"So far," Cornelius replied, glancing at the distant smoke.
"The main advance has stopped."
That was why the capital still stood. But no defense was flawless. The Emperor's forces had focused on the biggest wave, leaving smaller groups to slip through—corrupted humans, twisted animals, and, every so often, one of the true Devourers.
"They're scattered throughout the northern districts now," Cornelius said. "The army is hunting them street by street."
Talon straightened.
"And beyond the capital?"
Cornelius hesitated, saying nothing.
The silence spoke volumes.
Silver's gaze turned north.
The Emperor was fighting to stop the advance.
The capital wrestled with whatever slipped past him.
Scarlet closed her tessen.
For the first time since arriving, the question looming over everything shifted.
It was no longer just about what the Mana Devourers were.
It was—
what had happened in the north before they reached Vallahia?