The tent reeked of unwashed bodies and damp earth, its canvas walls and racks of metal working equipment shuddering with every distant explosion.

The black rain pattered against the roof, a constant, oppressive drumming that did little to muffle the screams and snarls of battle beyond.

Sophia stood just inside the entrance, her silk attire damp from the drizzle, her green eyes scanning the rows of bound men within the tent.

They knelt in the mud, wrists lashed behind their backs with thick, chafing ropes, none of them spoke.

None of them dared to look up, their faces were hollow, their eyes dull (not with fear), but with the resignation of those who had long since stopped hoping.

Cerberus lingered beside Sophia, his armored frame casting a long shadow over the prisoners.

His helm was on, revealing nothing but his haunting green eyes, which shone with the emerald glow natural to green-eyed Wizards.

He held his sword loosely, but his gaze never settled, always watching, always assessing, and in his assessment, he noticed that Sophia appeared troubled, so he initiated conversation.

"You shouldn't be here, High Scioness," he began, voice low. "This is no place for you, and no, I don't mean this place, but the Thornak Empire entirely. What were you thinking?"

Sophia's fingers tightened around the fabric of her sleeve. "I had to," she said with a pause, her breath short. "All my sisters have been here before, all have experienced the cruelty of war. I can't be the exception; I can't watch the title of Archduke slip away."

At her words, Cerberus exhaled through his nose, a sound almost like a laugh, but too grim for humor. "High Scioness, there are other ways to gain merit, you didn't have to prove yourself, you never had to suffer like this."

"Neither do they," Sophia responded, nodding toward the slaves.

A muscle twitched in Cerberus' eyes, "No. They're worse off."

One of the prisoners, a gaunt man with sunken cheeks, lifted his head slightly at those words.

His lips parted, as if to speak, but no sound came. Just the distant crash of another explosion, the faint tremor underfoot.

Not even noticing the slaves, Cerberus spoke, softly this time. "About the incident at the Misty Marsh-"

"Don't," Sophia interrupted as she stepped forward, her voice barely above a whisper, changing the subject. "What happens to them after? The slaves."

Cerberus didn't answer immediately. Instead, his eyes flicked to the tent's entrance, where the flicker of green firelight painted the rain in eerie hues. "If they live? They'll be chained again, used again."

He paused before adding. "If they die? No one will remember their names-"

"But that's not right." Sophia swallowed.

"It's war; it's cruelty. And something tells me you have grown to understand that," Cerberus said, a cold breath escaping him as he said with a lighter tone. "The fact that you are not proposing to buy all these men like you did with the slaves Valen means that you have finally learned that not all men deserve retribution, albeit Valen is much more valuable than these men if I say so myself."

"My god I'm turning into you," Sophia muttered and shook her head, her shoulders slumping slightly.

There was silence after that as Cerberus studied her for a long moment, his expression unreadable, then, quietly, he reassured "You still believe in right and wrong, High Scioness. That's why you shouldn't be here."

Before she could reply, the tent flap was thrown open revealing a soldier who stood there, breathless, his armor streaked with black blood.

"Cerberus," the man panted. "Knight-Arcanist Holdo summons you, Commander Olga is experiencing burnout and the existence of an evolved monster has been confirmed. They need you on the field."

His words took but a moment to sink in, and when they did, Cerberus didn't hesitate; he turned to Sophia, his voice firm. "Stay here, where it's safe, he will protect you in my stead."

Sophia opened her mouth to argue, but the soldier cut in, urgent. "Forgive me High Scioness, but there is no time for this."

With those words, Cerberus was already moving.

Adjusting his helmet, he spared Sophia one last glance, his eyes hard. "Stay alive," he growled, then he was gone, rushing into the distance.

-----

As Cerberus ran through the rocky terrain, his eyes caught sight of something above, his narrowing as he thought, 'What the hell is that?'

Above the battlefield hung a figure with no tangible shape.

The entity hung in the sky like a passing cloud, but it was different too notable a writhing mass of glowing white smoke against the starless, ink-black sky.

It was not that it had no form; it simply had too many at once, twisting and coiling until it solidified into something it fancied, a nightmare given shape to the eyes of any observer.

Jagged limbs, too many and too long, unfolded like broken bones resetting; a maw, gaping and endless, yawned wide enough to swallow a man whole, (eyes), countless, lidless, blinked in and out of existence, fixing their gaze upon the figures below.

Cerberus was sure that one of these eyes was staring at him.

It was at that moment that he noticed something, it would seem that Holdo's people had begun fighting back.

Flaming shafts hissed upward, piercing the being's ephemeral flesh.

The fire burst through its form, casting a hellish light across the battlefield, illuminating the creature further and revealing, for a fleeting second, the nothingness in its form.

The arrows did nothing, for they had shot at a literal cloud.

"Loose!"

Cerberus could hear Holdo's command as he arrived at the battlefield, his eyes quickly processing the information that graced his eyes:

About fourteen foot soldiers stood loosely, gazing at the entity above. The only active people were the archers, releasing arrow after arrow into the sky.

Cerberus then spotted Olga and noticed how pale she looked sitting at the side, so he approached her first.

"Commander, Olga you shouldn't be here," he said upon arriving, his tone grim. "I heard about your state."

"Don't worry, I'm getting better," Olga grunted as she sat up, her gaze brushing past his.

"We both know that you'll need at least half a day to recover from the burnout; you need rest," Cerberus said, but was met with no response from Olga.

"Don't bother with her, she's impossible," Holdo's voice could be heard from the side as he approached, his steps firm.

"What's the situation?" Cerberus then asked as he rose; he showed no fear, nor did he show any sign of submission.

Shaking his head, Holdo looked to the being above, his tone grim. "It doesn't make sense, we've hit it with our fire, but it didn't work-"

"Then there are only two possibilities, one: it is simply strong enough to not be affected or we're not hitting the right spot," Cerberus theorized.

"It's unlikely, from what I gathered-" Holdo muttered as he observed the beast which stared not just at him, but at everything else.

"What did you gather? Did you ask the slaves procured from this area, to see if they recognize the being?" Cerberus followed up.

"I did," Hold nodded grimly before saying. "Only an old man answered. He said he knew of a small clan that worshiped a cloud monster like this one, but he couldn't remember the details, no matter how much I pressed him."

"Did you-"

"Screech!" A shrill screech tore from the entity, as if it had waited long enough, and suddenly, part of its form exploded into a hundred tiny pieces, falling upon them like rain amid the actual rain.

Everyone saw it and no one wanted to be the first to come in contact. "Take cover!" Holdo yelled, hoisting up the remains of a nearby tent to cover himself.

Everyone did something similar, with Cerberus covering both he and Olga while the rest of the twenty soldiers did the same.

One of these soldiers, a female archer with short brown hair and glowing green eyes, observed something horrifying.

Following the raindrops down, the black-speckled white fragments seemed about to hit the ground, but then they stopped, remaining stationary, levitating at only a finger's length from the soil.

It was then that one of these things changed direction and shot towards her faster than she could react.

The other fragments likewise shot off in different directions.

"No!" The brown haired soldier scrambled, discarding the tents she had used for cover; unfortunately, she could not escape it.

A sickening crunch sounded as the fragment slammed into her temple, leaving behind a bloody hole that leaked blood.

She could feel it within her, wriggling, embedding itself into her brain stem, but it wasn't as painful as she'd feared; it just felt... numb.

"What is this shit!" Cerberus thought as he glanced at Holdo. "Are you seeing what I'm-"

"I'm afraid I see it too," Holdo murmured his tone deeper as he observed Olga, who previously sat beside him, a single hole in her head leaking blood.

There was a brief silence, a brief stillness until. "Olga.." Cerberus choked, his eyes trembling slightly, and yet he stepped back (both men stepped back).

In the next minute, Cerberus and Holdo exchanged a single glance (a silent understanding passing between them) in the split second before chaos erupted.

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