Maren's vision blurred as he stared at the night sky, his entire body feeling impossibly cold since the terrifying, overflowing power sustaining his mutated form was completely gone.
His core was a hollow, fractured void, drained entirely dry by the very person he had tried to humiliate.
He heard the slow, steady crunch of footsteps approaching through the forest, triggering every instinct screaming in his mind to drag his broken body away.
He wanted to escape the terrifying pressure radiating from the boy walking toward him, but his limbs refused to respond, his muscles completely paralyzed by the sheer exhaustion of having his demonic essence forcibly ripped away.
Frustration and pure terror choked his throat as the footsteps finally stopped right beside his head.
"Monster," Maren whispered, his voice nothing more than a cracked, pathetic wheeze while looking up at Hajin, who was standing there with eyes glowing a faint, dangerous purple hue.
