The forest had finally grown quiet.
Not peaceful.
Never peaceful.
Only exhausted.
Smoke drifted slowly through the remains of the destroyed camp while the scent of blood and burned flesh lingered heavily in the cold night air. Wolves and soldiers alike lay scattered across the battlefield in silent heaps, their deaths now meaningless beneath the stillness that followed war.
But General Campbell Jedidiah could not rest.
Something about this entire massacre disturbed him deeply.
Wolves attacking camps was not unusual.
Starving packs often became desperate enough to challenge armed men.
But this…
This was different.
Far too organized.
Far too deliberate.
Different packs had united.
That alone defied nature itself.
Wolves did not move like armies.
They did not abandon territorial instincts to follow one another without reason.
And yet tonight…
They had.
Not only that, but the claw marks covering the battlefield told stories Campbell had never encountered before. Entire steel barricades had been torn apart from the inside. Iron chains had shattered like brittle twigs. Soldiers trained for war had died without even managing to defend themselves.
No ordinary beast could have caused this.
Campbell knew that much.
And Jeremiah knew more than he was saying.
The old commander's expression hardened as he stepped through the ruined remains of the camp, his boots crushing broken arrows and bloodied cloth beneath him. Medics rushed past carrying the wounded while exhausted soldiers attempted to gather bodies from the battlefield.
Still…
Campbell's thoughts remained fixed on one thing.
What exactly had Jeremiah unleashed?
At last, he arrived outside the command tent.
Two guards immediately stepped aside without question as Campbell entered.
Inside, the atmosphere smelled heavily of medicine and blood.
Jeremiah lay across a wooden table, pale and shaking violently while medics desperately worked to stop the bleeding from his severed arm. Thick bandages wrapped around his shoulder, already soaked dark crimson from fresh blood loss.
His once-proud expression was gone.
Only fear remained now.
Pure fear.
Campbell stared at him silently for a long moment.
Even injured, Jeremiah still looked disturbed beyond reason, his eyes wide and unfocused as though his mind remained trapped somewhere inside the horrors of the battlefield.
One of the medics lowered his head respectfully.
"General Campbell, the commander has lost too much blood. He needs rest—"
Campbell ignored him completely.
His cold gaze never left Jeremiah.
"What exactly happened here?"
The question cut sharply through the tent.
Jeremiah twitched violently.
Campbell stepped closer.
"Judging by the destruction outside," he continued calmly, "something insane happened in this place."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"What did you do, Jeremiah?"
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Uncomfortable.
The medics exchanged nervous glances before quietly stepping farther away from the conversation.
Campbell's face remained unreadable, though beneath his calm exterior, even he felt unsettled by what he had seen tonight.
Not frightened.
Campbell Jedidiah was not a man easily terrified.
But cautious.
Very cautious.
Because whatever had destroyed this camp was unlike anything he had encountered before.
Jeremiah's lips trembled weakly.
"He…" he whispered.
Campbell leaned slightly closer.
But Jeremiah's voice only became more broken.
"The eyes…"
His breathing quickened.
"The chains… he broke them…"
Campbell frowned deeply.
"What are you talking about?"
Jeremiah suddenly grabbed Campbell's coat weakly with his remaining hand.
"He wasn't human anymore," he whispered hoarsely.
Fear consumed his expression completely now.
"That thing… that thing looked at me…"
His body trembled uncontrollably.
"The wolf…"
Campbell's eyes sharpened instantly.
"What wolf?"
But Jeremiah no longer responded clearly.
His words dissolved into frightened murmurs and half-finished sentences.
"Red eyes…"
"Darkness…"
"The roar…"
"He took the child…"
Campbell slowly pulled away from him.
The old commander's expression darkened further.
He could make no sense of Jeremiah's ramblings, yet one thing became painfully clear.
Whatever Jeremiah saw tonight had shattered him mentally.
And Jeremiah was not a man easily broken.
Campbell turned without another word and exited the tent.
Outside, dawn had begun creeping slowly over the horizon, though the weak sunlight did little to wash away the horror surrounding the camp.
The remaining soldiers stood battered and exhausted.
Some wounded.
Some grieving.
Some simply staring blankly into the forest.
Campbell inhaled deeply before raising his voice firmly across the camp.
"All surviving soldiers capable of movement are to prepare for departure immediately!"
The camp stirred at once.
"Gather the prisoners!"
"Pack remaining supplies!"
"We leave within the hour!"
The orders spread quickly through the exhausted forces.
At last…
They were leaving this cursed forest.
Leaving behind the death.
The wolves.
The nightmares hidden within the trees.
To many soldiers, it felt like salvation itself.
No one wanted to remain there longer than necessary.
Not after what they had witnessed.
Not after hearing those howls in the darkness.
Not after seeing entire men ripped apart by shadows moving too fast to follow.
Even the bravest among them no longer viewed the forest as natural land.
It had become something cursed.
Something alive.
Yet while the soldiers prepared desperately to abandon the ruins behind them…
General Campbell remained standing alone near the shattered cage once meant to hold Narito Tiza.
The broken chains still hung from the twisted iron bars.
Massive claw marks carved deeply into the metal.
Campbell studied them silently.
Thoughtfully.
Jeremiah's terrified words echoed faintly in his mind.
Red eyes.
Darkness.
The wolf.
Slowly, Campbell crouched beside one enormous footprint pressed deeply into the mud outside the cage. The mark was far too large to belong to any ordinary wolf Or any ordinary man.
His expression hardened.Because despite ordering the army to retreat…His curiosity had not faded.
If anything—It had only grown stronger.
Somewhere inside that endless forest…Something had awakened.Something powerful enough to unite wolves.Something violent enough to massacre an army.And General Campbell Jedidiah intended to discover exactly what kind of monster had been released into the world.