Kai couldn't stop laughing. The sound rolled out of him wild and free, bouncing down the ridge and echoing off the valley below. The Veil Horror twitched, its body bending and breaking in strange places, its many faces opening and closing as if his laughter struck them like blows.
Lyra grabbed his arm, yanking hard. "Stop! You'll make it worse!"
But Kai only laughed harder. "It's already worse!"
The Horror bellowed, shaking the valley. Birds scattered from the trees, and the ground trembled under its weight. Its long limbs stretched, bending the wrong way, and its faces screamed without sound. The thing was massive—bigger than a house, bigger than any monster Kai had ever seen even in movies. Yet the more it writhed, the more his grin widened.
"Come on then!" Kai shouted, his voice carrying with a manic joy. "Let's dance!"
The Horror lunged. The ridge cracked beneath its weight, sending rocks tumbling. Lyra cursed and pulled Kai back, but he slipped free of her grip and ran forward like a madman, charging straight toward the impossible.
"Kai!" she screamed, but he didn't look back.
The Horror's arm came down like a falling tree. Kai laughed, a sharp bark of sound, and the world twisted. Gravity tilted sideways for just an instant. The Horror's arm slammed into the dirt yards away from him, gouging a crater into the earth. Kai rolled, came up grinning, and let out another laugh. The dirt under the monster's feet softened like wet clay, and it staggered, sinking knee-deep.
"Look at you!" Kai yelled, pointing as if mocking it. "Can't even stand straight!"
The Horror screamed silently. Dozens of faces stretched and warped, mouths gnashing. It tore itself free from the earth and swung again, faster this time. Kai laughed louder, and the air rippled. The Horror's limb twisted mid-swing, bending at an impossible angle, and it slammed into its own side.
Kai doubled over. "You hit yourself! Oh my god, you actually hit yourself!"
Lyra wasn't laughing. She sprinted down the ridge, knives flashing in her hands. Every step was sure and measured, even with the ground trembling. She slid in beside him, slamming the hilt of a knife into his shoulder. "Focus!"
"I am focused!" Kai said between laughs. "Look at it!"
"That thing is older than empires. You can't just laugh it to death!"
"Wanna bet?"
The Horror reared back, its chest splitting open into a gaping maw filled with rows of teeth. A wind roared out of it, cold and foul, carrying the stench of graves. Trees bent and snapped. Rocks skittered across the ground. Lyra threw an arm up to shield her face.
Kai spread his arms wide and howled with laughter. The wind broke against him like water against stone. The air around him shimmered, bent, and then pushed back. The Horror's scream faltered as if the sound had turned against it.
"See?" Kai shouted over the noise. "It works both ways!"
Lyra stared, eyes wide with something between awe and fear. He wasn't just fighting it. He was bending the world itself with nothing but his voice.
The Horror wasn't finished. Its many faces began to chant together, a soundless rhythm that beat against the inside of Kai's skull. His grin faltered for the first time.
"Okay," he said through gritted teeth, "that's new."
Lyra grabbed his wrist. "It's trying to break you. If you lose focus, it'll swallow you whole."
Kai forced another laugh, louder, but the sound came out strained. The ground shook harder. The ridge beneath them cracked wide open. He stumbled, almost falling. The Horror dragged itself closer, its mouths opening wider, the chanting drilling deeper into his mind.
Lyra shouted something, but he couldn't hear it over the pounding in his head. The faces, the mouths, the endless screaming—he felt them pressing against the edges of his grin, trying to force it shut.
And then, through the chaos, he remembered something.
On the train, when everyone had screamed and prayed, when the horn had twisted into something impossible, he had laughed. Not because it was funny. Not because he wanted to. Because fear wanted to choke him, and he refused.
He sucked in a breath, planted his feet, and laughed from deep in his chest. The sound tore out of him raw and wild, echoing across the valley.
The effect was instant. The ground tilted, gravity flipping for just a moment. The Horror reeled back, its chanting cut short. Its faces warped, cracking like porcelain. The world bent under the force of his laughter, and the Horror stumbled, thrashing against rules that no longer made sense.
Kai didn't stop. He laughed louder, harder, until tears streaked his face. His ribs hurt. His throat burned. But he kept going. Every sound twisted the air, broke the earth, and shattered the monster piece by piece.
Lyra covered her ears, knives clenched, watching as the impossible unfolded.
With a final scream, the Horror collapsed. Its body broke apart into ash and smoke, scattered by the wind. The valley fell silent.
Kai dropped to his knees, coughing, clutching his chest. His grin was still there, weak but stubborn. "Ha… told you. I could laugh it to death."
Lyra stared at him, stunned. She sheathed her knives slowly. "You're insane."
"Yeah," Kai wheezed. "But it worked."
She looked out over the valley, where nothing remained of the Horror but drifting smoke. Her jaw tightened. "That wasn't supposed to be possible. Not even war mages can scratch a Veil Horror."
Kai flopped onto his back, arms spread wide, laughing softly to himself. "Guess I'm not a war mage."
Lyra sat beside him, silent for a long time. Finally, she said, "You're going to draw attention. The Crown's power… it's too loud. People will come for you."
Kai tilted his head toward her, grinning. "Then let 'em. I'll make 'em laugh too."
She didn't smile. But she didn't argue either.
The two of them sat on the broken ridge as the red light of the three moons faded into a darker shade of day. Emberfast waited below, its crooked walls rising against the horizon. Beyond it, more dangers, more monsters, more kingdoms and wars he couldn't even imagine.
Kai closed his eyes, his chest still burning, and laughed one more time. The sound was softer now, but it still bent the world, just a little.
And the world, somewhere deep and hidden, laughed back.