He grabbed Mozrael and pulled her back just as the creature's jaws snapped shut where she'd been standing a heartbeat earlier.

The sound was like thunder as teeth crashed against earth and splintered rock.

The beast turned toward them, and its grin widened.

"More face… more face to wear…Pretty face..."

Aramith let her go gently. "You can rest for now. I'll handle this."

Mozrael looked confused.

She looked at the creature, then at Aramith.

"I thought you were—"

"I understand," he cut her short. "Let me deal with this thing first."

"No, I can still help."

"Very well." Aramith didn't argue.

The creature's laughter distorted, echoing from every direction. It stretched its arm and tried to slash at him.

Aramith raised his hand.

His form blurred, vanishing just as the claws ripped through the ground. He reappeared above the beast, shadows spiraling around him as his sword took shape—sleek, jagged, and with black smoke dripping from its edge.

The monster looked up, and Aramith descended.

The blade tore through its back, slicing across the inverted face. The creature shrieked, its body writhing and splitting apart again, fragments of it scattering into smaller, twitching shapes.

MOzrael quickly responded with blue waves rolling from her hands, cleansing the fragments as they hit the ground. But each one screamed as it burned, forming mouths in the fire that cried out in the same voice:

"Mozrael, save us…""Mozrael, save us…"

She faltered, her hands trembling, but Aramith shouted, "It's using them—don't listen!"

He spun his blade, darkness rippling outward like a tidal wave. The shockwave ripped through the burning clearing, swallowing sound itself for a moment.

Then the ground split, and the monster emerged whole again—smaller, but faster. Its limbs contorted, moving like an insect as it climbed trees and leaped from one trunk to another, its upside-down face watching them from above.

"Pretty little lights… so many to wear…"

Mozrael's flames gathered again, coiling along her arm until her sword burned brighter than the fire around them. "Aramith," she said through gritted teeth, "we'll do this together."

He nodded once, acknowledging her will to kill it herself.

The shadows around him deepened, and his eyes glowed like molten violet.

The creature howled and lunged, its limbs stretching, claws ready to tear through them both—

And they moved as one.

Darkness and fire collided, forming a single blazing arc of blue and black that met the beast mid-leap. The impact shattered the trees, sent shockwaves rippling across the forest, and silenced the world for one second.

The explosion collapsed on itself, swallowed by the darkness.

When it cleared, the creature lay broken—its grin gone, its head twisted and melting into the soil. But even as it faded, its voice still lingered in the burning air.

Mozrael fell to one knee, exhausted. Aramith caught her before she hit the ground. Her body trembled, and faint traces of light still pulsed beneath her skin.

"Hey," he said softly. "It's over."

Her eyes fluttered open, reflecting the dying fire. "No," she whispered, staring into the smoke. "Not yet. It's not dead."

Aramith's gaze hardened. That's when he felt it shifting under the ground, faint but present.

The creature dragged itself out, half its body missing, but its grin was back—upside down, split from ear to ear. Its flesh writhed and reshaped, cycling through the faces of the students it had devoured.

"Mozrael…""Save us…""I don't want to die..."

Its voices are layered, dozens at once, echoing through the hollow woods.

Mozrael tensed, ready to summon her flames again, but Aramith lifted a hand slightly.

"Don't. You'll only drag this on."

His voice was calm. Too calm.

The darkness on the ground shifted, forming a wide ring around him.

The creature's grin faltered. IT sensed the danger, but the greed of consuming another person was too good for it to just give up.

It lunged, but Aramith didn't move. He raised his right hand with and palm upward. From the ground, a dozen tendrils of darkness erupted, snapping through the air like whips. They intercepted the beast mid-charge, piercing through its limbs, chest, and neck with the precision of spears.

The monster screamed, twisting and changing faces as it tried to break free. One moment, it was the girl who'd screamed Mozrael's name, the next it was the face of a man, the next a child's broken form.

But the tendrils didn't loosen.

Aramith lowered his hand slowly, and the tendrils obeyed, dragging the beast down. It clawed and thrashed, but every movement only earned another spear through its flesh.

He wasn't blinking. He wasn't even breathing fast.

With his left hand, he raised two fingers. Thin strings of darkness extended from them, slicing through the air like razors.

They latched onto the creature and began to pull.

Each string moved independently, controlled with surgical precision. They tugged, twisted, and shredded the beast's body piece by piece until the clearing was littered with chunks of black flesh, still twitching and trying to rejoin.

The creature screamed with a dozen voices now.

"Stop—"

"Help—"

"Mozrael—save us—"

But Aramith didn't stop.

His shadows tore the pieces apart again and again, faster and finer, until the screams were nothing but whispers.

Then the whispers turned into a hollow, guttural laughter that came from everywhere at once.

Aramith's eyes narrowed. The tendrils rose once more, and the strings snapped downward in one final motion.

The creature's remains were consumed, shredded into black dust, then crushed into nothingness.

Silence fell again. Not even the wind dared to move.

The shadows receded slowly, returning to the ground like obedient servants.

Mozrael could barely speak. "You… killed it."

He turned slightly, his expression unreadable. "We need to move.

Then he turned toward the dark horizon, eyes glowing once more. "Before—"

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

A loud bell resounded above them all, and when they looked up, the orb was there once again.

Lynnor's playful voice filled the empty skies.

"Time's up, children!"

"Tch!" Aramith frowned.

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