Mira turned in the direction of the rustle only for a squirrel to run past. The tiny creature darted between roots then disappeared into the dark brush.

"I thought it would be a monster…" Mira muttered under her breath, lowering her sword just as Azel sat up beside her.

The teleportation nausea was finally gone… his head was no longer spinning and his breath felt steady.

'My lap feels a lot lighter now,' Mira lamented internally, already missing the warmth his cheek left on her thighs.

Azel dusted off the front of his shirt and rose to his feet, stretching his spine until it cracked.

"What was our objective here again?" he asked, extending a hand toward no one in particular. "It's just simple hunting of a monster that has kidnapped soldiers from both sides, right?"

Mynes shook out her arms, adjusting her sleeves before standing. "I don't think it's as simple as that…" she said. "My mother was telling me about the monster here."

"She was aware something was killing humans in this forest?" Mira asked, her brows scrunched.

"No, calm down." Mynes waved her hand dismissively. "She was talking about folklore, there is an urban legend in these parts… about a monster called Wendy."

"I heard of that one too," Mira said. "We don't have time for urban legends though…"

Azel blinked. "Who the hell is Wendy?"

He looked back and forth between them, clearly out of the loop about whatever strange bedtime stories nobles used to scare their kids.

"Wendy is…" Mira inhaled, gripping her sword tighter. "A monster who eats human heads. She's shaped like an oversized dog and can move between shadows. Some travelers claimed to have seen her outside these walls before the Blood Zone was blocked off."

Azel raised an eyebrow. "So basically an edgy mutt with teleportation."

"It's more complicated than—" Mynes began, but Mira cut in.

"There's no proof she's real. No body. No clear witness. Just stories. Still…" She looked toward the forest's thick interior. "It's said she only hunts at night and leaves headless corpses."

"Nice." Azel sighed. "Great way to start a mission."

Mynes extended her hand. "Azel… Azzy."

He visibly flinched at the nickname, but allowed her to take his hand anyway.

"Please give me some holy energy. I need to create runes."

Azel placed his palm over hers, and immediately holy energy cascaded through her arm like warm light.

Ten shimmering runes bloomed around her like floating complex symbols, they circled her wrists, forming a temporary halo of magic.

"I've set ten conditional runes," she explained as they faded from sight. "They'll release a blast of holy energy the moment we set eyes on Wendy or anything shaped like her."

Mira gave Mynes a subtle once-over.

'She's taking this extremely seriously.' The Blood Zone wasn't a place people entered lightly. If something was kidnapping fully-armed soldiers… something intelligent… something fast… then they couldn't afford even a moment of carelessness.

But what bothered her most was something else.

'Why didn't the Emperor assign a Grand Mage to this?' Luke, Stella, even Torrent… any one of them would've been a superior pick.

There had to be another reason.

"Let's head toward the Starbloom wall first," Mira said decisively. "We can gather more information from the surviving soldiers, if any are left."

She lifted her sword and pointed toward a thick cluster of branches overhead.

A single thrust of her blade unleashed a compressed wave of energy that sliced through them, opening a clear view toward the distant white stone walls and the shining crest of the Starbloom Empire engraved into them.

"We're not far," she said.

…

It took about ten minutes of trudging through roots, brambles, and suffocating shadows to reach the open slope leading up to the wall.

The Blood Zone stretched behind them… a massive canopy of twisted branches and fogged darkness, like an enormous beast breathing quietly.

At the top of the hill, Azel paused and looked back.

"It looks beautiful…" Mynes whispered beside him.

Azel looked from the forest to her.

'Beautiful?' All he saw were roots tangled like skeletal fingers and shadows that watched them.

The Blood Zone had a strange aura like the forest itself was alive.

They walked toward the towering wall.

"Be on your best behavior," Mira said, sheathing her sword with a click. They reached the base of the wall, and…

Mira froze.

The color drained from her face while Mynes placed a hand over her mouth.

The soldiers stationed at the bottom of the wall… were dead.

They hadn't been slain… stabbed or cut… They were headless.

Every single one of them.

There was no sign of struggle, only that they were wearing the military uniforms and their heads had been chomped off.

Before they could say a word, another body toppled from the top of the wall landing with a wet, splattering thud right in front of them.

It too was headless.

Mira swallowed hard. "…Is that Wend—"

A flicker of black appeared directly in front of her face.

It was a shadow… with teeth.

Enormous, jagged ones, forming a grotesque grin as it lunged for her head.

Mira didn't even have time to flinch.

Azel grabbed her by the waist and yanked her backward so sharply she nearly fell on him.

In that exact instant, all ten of Mynes' runes burst into existence.

A halo of holy magic exploded outward from them… white and gold light slamming into the shadow, ripping it apart into shrieking fragments.

The entire force of the blast shook the ground, scattering the shadow into pieces that dissolved into different patches of nearby darkness.

Azel skidded back with Mira in his arms, his boots dragging grooves in the soil. Mynes was blown back too, sliding several feet before catching herself.

Mira trembled slightly in Azel's arms, her own arm braced over her stomach.

"Mira, are you okay?" Azel asked, leaning over her face. His hand remained around her waist, still holding her steady.

Her heart hammered violently in her chest.

'I'm… His hand is…' She rubbed her thighs together internally. "Regardless, even if you hadn't intervened, I would have used my defensive measure."

Mynes crossed her arms. 'Girl… just say thank you.'

Azel sighed.

"Let's check on the people here," he suggested, though he had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

A very, very bad feeling.

His eyes traveled slowly across the wall, the corpses, the smeared trails of blood leading upward like something had dragged itself along the stone…

He already knew.

Everyone here was dead.

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