They ran through the forest now… or rather, through the infamous Blood Zone and Azel could finally understand why the place carried such a chilling, visceral name.

It smelled like blood.

Not metaphorical blood and not the mild iron scent that stayed after battle… no, it was the thick, nauseating, coppery stench of fresh, wet blood soaked into the earth, the air, the bark, the wind.

Every breath tasted like blood and even the mist rolling between the trees looked tinged red, as if the fog itself was blood.

Everywhere he turned, Azel saw the forest shifting.

Trees that should've been green were blooming red petals. Not red flowers… literal blood-colored growths that looked like veins carved into bark and among them hung strange fruit the color of raw meat.

"What kind of cursed forest is this…" he muttered under his breath.

"We haven't run into any monsters…" Azel said aloud as they continued sprinting deeper in the direction of the monster's lair.

His aura wrapped around his feet to prevent slipping on the blood-slicked soil.

"There aren't any monsters in the Blood Zone," Mira said without turning back with her sword drawn at her side.

"Then why is it called that? Because it stinks of blood?" Azel asked, genuinely confused. If there were no monsters, then the threat wasn't creatures… which meant it was something worse.

"No," Mira replied. "There's a certain lore about it. I wasn't even born when it happened."

Mynes jogged beside them as Mira added. "Since you were at the Academy, I'm certain you've seen Grand Mage Luke at least once."

Azel nodded.

"In his prime… around when he was fifty, Aegis and Starbloom were locked in a massive war," Mira continued. "This zone was one of the deadliest battlegrounds. Multiple hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers died here. The forest used to be even thicker than this. During the war it was bathed in so much blood that it became a symbol of guaranteed death."

Mynes picked up the explanation, her tone unusually sober. "And then Grand Mage Luke was brought to the battlefield. The first thing he did… was eviscerate the entire forest."

Azel slowed slightly. "He what?"

"He destroyed it," Mira said flatly. "This entire forest… miles and miles of land completely erased in one spell. He killed enemy soldiers, battlefield beasts, even some of the Empire's own soldiers who weren't fast enough to escape."

Azel blinked. "…Yeah, sounds like Luke."

He nearly sacrificed him to deal with Skinbutcher and then took some of his mana shortly after…

"And after that," Mira said, "the Grand Mage of Blood, who's dead now recreated the Blood Zone using the blood of everyone who died. Every single thing here, from the trees down to the fruit, is made from condensed blood he shaped with magic."

To prove her point, she touched the bark of a tree. Instantly, a wet red liquid seeped out, dripping down her fingers.

It was blood and it was warm too.

"As for why the Blood Zone is so dangerous," Mira continued, "it's because the blood mage rigged this entire place with traps. Constructs. Mimicked creatures. Everything here was crafted to kill Aegis soldiers. But before he died, he rewrote the traps to target intruders of any kind."

She looked back at them, her expression was very grim. "I know the locations of most of these traps. As long as we don't trigger a single one, we won't incur the wrath of the blood."

She then turned to Mynes. "I'm sure Grand Mage Stella taught you the trap locations as well, right?"

"Of course, of course," Mynes said, brushing off invisible dust with false confidence as they slowed to catch their bearings.

She leaned casually against the nearest tree. "Why would I… the daughter of a Grand Mage, not know the locations of measly trap—"

BOOOOOM!!!

The tree behind her exploded into a towering fountain of blood.

Mynes screamed and jumped away, splattering red droplets on her boots as Mira immediately retreated several steps.

"What… what… what the fuck?!" Mynes shrieked, staring wide-eyed at the geyser of blood that was now slowly shrinking back into the bark.

"You triggered a trap," Mira sighed with the exhaustion of someone who had predicted this would happen. "Let's hope it's not a serious—"

But then they all looked upward.

Because above them… far above, where the canopy broke open enough to expose the sky, a bead of blood was hovering in the air like a floating ruby. A single, trembling droplet suspended by magic.

Then it expanded.

And expanded.

And expanded.

Mira instantly slashed upward, sending a blade of aura slicing the blood shard cleanly in half. For a moment the blood trembled, as though considering dissolving… then it swelled violently into the size of a house.

A gigantic blood giant formed, towering over the forest.

"What the fuck?" Azel cursed as the monstrous construct lifted one titanic foot and slammed it downward.

The impact sent a brutal shockwave tearing through the ground, launching Mynes into the air as Azel and Mira shielded themselves.

A whole chunk of the forest behind them… trees, blood-soil, the wet ground was pulverized into liquid mist.

"Run!" Mira shouted, aura bursting around her as she sprinted.

Azel did the same, igniting his body with aura. The giant lifted its other foot slowly, shadow stretching beneath its mass.

"Stay behind me and make sure not to trigger more—"

But Mynes sprinted past her, her arms flailing wildly as glowing runes and enchantments orbited her in panic.

"Ahhhh!!! Run!!!" she screamed, bolting ahead like her life depended on it because it did.

The giant stomped again. Another shockwave ripped through the forest.

Azel staggered, nearly knocked sideways, but tightened his grip on his bone sword.

Divinity surrounded it.

He slashed upward, sending a blade of divine energy that struck the giant vertically. The monster split cleanly in half…

Only for both halves to reform into two separate giants.

"Oh, come on!" Azel barked.

More footsteps like thunder.

The giants moved to crush them.

Azel didn't wait. He shot forward, aura flaring violently, and saw something ahead… an abrupt change in the forest.

The trees were darker and it looked like a boundary line of sorts.

They all leapt across it.

Instantly, the forest changed.

Instead of bloody trees, there was nothing but darkness… inky black and endless darkness.

The ground beneath them looked like water, but when their legs sank in, it clung to them, trapping them all the way up to their knees.

Behind them, the blood giants froze at the boundary… then dissolved back into liquid, splattering harmlessly against the unseen barrier.

Azel exhaled slowly. "Where are we…?"

A cold touch slid along his cheek.

Something was massaging him.

Azel tensed.

It was Wendy.

A tendril of shadow stroked him, coiling like a mockery of affection.

Mira swallowed. "I think… we fell into a trap."

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