Lux walked for nearly an hour before the forest changed once again.
The towering trees gradually disappeared.
The dense vegetation gave way to an enormous valley.
At its center stood a lone mountain of black stone.
No...
It wasn't a mountain.
It moved.
A pair of crimson eyes slowly opened.
The entire valley trembled.
Rocks rolled down the cliffs.
The surrounding trees bent as an immense wave of prana swept across the land.
Lux stopped.
His expression remained calm, but his silver eyes sharpened.
"...So you're the guardian, this is going to be a tough fight, there's no doubt about it."
The colossal creature rose to its full height.
It easily exceeded thirty meters.
Its body resembled a fusion of a giant and a beast, covered in layers of obsidian armor that looked as though they had been forged from cooled volcanic rock. Crimson veins pulsed beneath every plate, releasing waves of suffocating pressure.
Two enormous horns curved backward.
