The deeper Vixen and Zavrion stepped into the straw-walled hut, the heavier the air grew. Their eyes widened, not with mere curiosity but with a creeping dread. Every inch of the wall was carved with symbols—spells scrawled in jagged strokes, demonic seals glowing faintly as if feeding on the darkness itself.
Vixen's gaze dropped, and his heart clenched. On the dirt floor, written in fresh blood, were the words:
"I am coming soon."
For a moment, Vixen forgot to breathe. His hand trembled as he lifted his gaze again, but before he could take another step forward, a suffocating darkness swallowed him whole.
"Zavrion!" he shouted, but his voice was devoured instantly, echoing only inside his skull. His arms and legs refused to move; he was trapped in a void, paralyzed. The world around him was gone.
In the hollow silence, a voice rang in his ears—a voice that froze his blood.
It was his own. His past self.
"Did you really believe," the voice mocked, deep and venomous, "that you destroyed me seventeen years ago? You can never kill me. Just as I ended you and your husband five hundred years ago… I will do it again. And this time, the ending will be far worse."
Vixen's throat tightened. His chest heaved as he tried to fight against the invisible chains binding him. "You won't touch my family!" he roared into the darkness.
A low, cold laugh echoed all around him. "You will watch. And you will break."
But just then, a faint pulse pierced through the void—a strange warmth seeping into him. Vixen blinked. The suffocating chains weakened, the darkness cracked like broken glass.
Zavrion's power.
Through sheer instinct, Zavrion's Enigma pheromones had burst forth, wrapping his father in a protective shield, dragging him back from the abyss.
Vixen collapsed forward, gasping, vision returning to him. His son's arms were already around him, trembling but firm.
"Father!" Zavrion's voice broke with fear. "What just happened? Your eyes… they turned completely white. You weren't responding, and I didn't know how else to bring you back. So I—"
Vixen silenced him gently with a hand ruffling his hair, though his own fingers still shook. His voice was steady, but the weight of it carried a promise as sharp as a blade.
"Whatever happens, I will protect all of you. Even if it costs me my life, I will not falter."
Zavrion's jaw clenched, his own eyes burning with defiance. He hugged Vixen tighter, whispering through grit teeth, "No. As long as I'm here, no one is dying. Not you, not Kin, not Kenny. I'll protect everyone—no matter what."
Inside that cursed hut, surrounded by symbols of death and shadows of the past, father and son clung to one another. The battle was only beginning, and both of them knew it.
But for the first time, Vixen realized… his son wasn't a little boy anymore.
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