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The world doesn't end with a bang.
It ends with a click—the sound of reality locking into place like a loaded gun pressed to your skull.
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[[ The lunar blessing has ended. Recovery status removed. All damage penalties restored. ]]
Pain returns first.
A slow, boiling crawl through my spine, bones humming like broken tuning forks. Every cell feels like it's wincing.
Then the pressure hits.
A wall of killing intent so thick it might as well be a living thing—pressing down on me, licking at my neck like the breath of something ancient and hungry.
The monster—if it even qualifies as that—is already moving.
Too fast.
Too big.
BOOM!!!
The ground trembled.
Elin barely had time to blink. Instinct screamed—ice surged from her hands, forming a jagged wall of frost between her and the charging beast.
It didn't matter.
The obsidian howler smashed through it without slowing. The wall shattered with a shriek, shards glinting like broken glass in the dark. Its paw—massive, gnarled, claws like obsidian blades—ripped through the crumbling ice and buried deep into her chest.
There was no scream.
Only the sickening, wet crunch of bones giving way. Her lips parted, but no sound came out—just a breath that never finished.
She was already dead.
The force of the blow threw her like a broken doll, her body twisting mid-air before slamming into the ground with a lifeless thud.
The monster loomed in the silence that followed, its glowing eyes flickering like coals, watching... uncaring... hungry for more.
[[ The constellation "Fallen Prince of the Lunar Throne" gazes skyward with a clenched jaw. No words. Just silence. ]]
[[ The constellation "Ephemeral Blossom That Grows from Graves" lowers her petals in silence. ]]
"No… Elin…"
I couldn't move.
I couldn't breathe.
One moment she stood tall—undaunted, radiant in the cold light of her ice magic. The next… she was gone. Torn apart like nothing. Her chest opened by those obsidian claws, and her body flung away like trash.
It didn't feel real.
Elin… Elin couldn't die like that.
She was stronger than me. May be stronger than any of us.
And yet…
Not even a second of resistance.
Not even a scream.
Just silence… then blood.
Fuck.
Everything we prepared… every formation, every strategy—useless.
There's no power that can match this thing. No plan that can stop it.
My hands were shaking. My vision blurred.
My whole body felt like it was freezing from the inside.
"Elin… no. No, no, no..."
I barely registered Aren's scream.
He sprinted past me, eyes blank like a ghost. Grief made him reckless. Maybe it made him brave.
Maybe it just made him next.
A massive sword of ice burst into his hands—unstable, jagged, a weapon forged from pain more than magic. He didn't hesitate. He ran straight at the howler like he was ready to die.
"AREN, STOP!"
Elena's voice cracked the air like lightning—pure desperation. She screamed like her soul was splitting in half.
"GO! GO! HELP HIM! SAVE HIM!"
Her spirits launched forward, streaks of glowing energy racing toward Aren. But deep inside me, something had already broken. Some voice whispered:
It's too late.
The monster hadn't even moved yet. It didn't need to.
We weren't fighting it.
We were feeding it.
I was behind Elena the whole time.
Frozen.
Not by magic—but by pure, crushing fear.
My legs wouldn't move. No matter how much I willed them to, they felt like stone, chained by the weight of what I'd just seen. Elin… gone. Aren… about to die.
Move... damn it!
I clenched the dagger in my hand so hard it cut into my skin—but it wasn't enough.
So I did something stupid.
In a fit of desperation, I took the dagger and stabbed it into my own thigh.
Pain exploded up my leg.
"SHIT—THAT HURT!"
But it worked.
My body finally obeyed.
Fueled by adrenaline, rage, and horror—I sprinted toward the monster.
I didn't know what I was doing. I had no plan. No strategy. Just a dagger, and a scream lodged in my throat.
Elena must've seen me—because she didn't stay back either.
She charged forward, riding a beast of swirling water—a summoned tiger, sleek and vicious, its body surging like a living wave. Her eyes were wild, her hand drawing a glowing water-forged bow, a magical arrow forming with it—vibrating, deadly.
She was ready to kill.
So was I.
But it didn't matter.
Nothing mattered.
All our careful plans.
Our ranks.
Our formations.
Pointless.
This thing… this obsidian howler...
It was A-rank.
We were barely E rank, scraping the edge of D rank.
We weren't hunters.
We were prey.
But we ran toward it anyway—because Aren was going to die, and we weren't going to let him fall alone.
Even if it meant dying too.
We were running—Elena and I—charging toward Aren like fools chasing hope on shattered legs. We thought maybe… just maybe we'd make it in time.
But what we saw next ripped that hope apart.
Aren had conjured a massive ice sword, the kind that should've split a mountain in half. He swung it down with everything he had—his fury, his grief, his soul behind it.
And the obsidian howler…
It didn't even flinch.
With a lazy swipe of its paw, it shattered the sword like glass, the shards evaporating into mist before they hit the ground.
> No...
Before Aren could even react, the monster grabbed him by the head.
He stared into its eyes—those glowing, red mist-filled voids—and I saw his body stiffen. He wasn't seeing us anymore.
He was seeing something worse.
The howler's curse.
Those eyes… they pulled you into your own hell.
Aren trembled violently. He screamed, not from pain, but from inside the vision.
"Elin! No! Elin, no, no—stop—PLEASE!"
He was trapped.
Forced to watch Elin his twin sister die again and again… in his mind… in his soul.
Then—snap.
In one blur of monstrous strength, the howler ripped Aren's head clean off—like he was nothing.
And then—
CRUNCH.
Its teeth crushed his skull.
Blood. Bone. Brain. All of it splattered across the ground.
Too fast. Too brutal.
Too real.
[[ The constellation "Void That Watches Through Broken Mirrors" is delighted by Aren's torment.]]
[[ The constellation "She Who Walks With Grief" clutches her chest.]]
I felt my stomach twist. Elena screamed. Her spirits surged forward in panic, trying to protect her.
The howler ripped through them like shadows, like their magic didn't even register.
And then—it turned its gaze on her.
Princess Elena.
It began walking straight toward her, slow and merciless, death incarnate.
I stood frozen again—
Heart in my throat.
Hands shaking.
Feet nailed to the ground.
I can't stop this. I can't stop it. There's nothing I can do…
Why?
Why am I so powerless?
Why?!
"Elina…! Just—just survive a second longer. Please. I'll do something. I'll save you."
Yeah. I was shouting. Begging, actually. Like that ever worked.
My voice cracked under the weight of panic, but the tears didn't fall. They just stung. Hung there like they were waiting for permission.
The only thing falling was the world. Piece by piece. Body by body.
Elin.
Aren.
Now… her?
She turned to look at me.
That face—once full of light—now just smeared red. Not with paint. Not with makeup. With blood. And the worst part?
It wasn't just her face. Her eyes.
They were crying. But not tears.
No, it was something worse—
Blood trailing down like her soul was bleeding too.
"Lucifer," she whispered. Calm. Too calm.
"Run."
Three letters. A single syllable. But it hit like a sledgehammer.
"Run away now. I'll hold it off for as long as I can…"
Right. That's not bravery. That's a goodbye pretending to be noble.
And asking me to run?
That's not saving me.
That's just sentencing me to a slower death.
[[ Constellation Fallen Prince of the Lunar Throne watches silently, waiting—for your decision will shape what comes next.]]
[[ Constellation Ephemeral Blossom That Grows from Graves lowers her petals in sorrow, reminding you that even beauty fades in the face of fate.]]
[[ Constellation Void That Watches Through Broken Mirrors reflects your deepest fears, revealing the torment within and the path you must confront.]]
[[ Constellation She Who Walks With Grief clutches her heart, mourning the fallen and urging strength in the face of despair.]]
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[[ Author's Note:
If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a comment and a Power Stone! Your support means a lot to me. ]]