After sealing the servant contracts with every last Fairy, the party moved on.
It wasn't long before another village came into view—but this one was different.
This wasn't ruin. This was rot.
The place looked like time itself had gnawed it down to the bone. Roof beams had collapsed, walls were scorched black, and the slightest breeze sent flakes of ash drifting like dead snow. The air was lifeless—no birds, no bugs, not even a blade of grass that hadn't withered to glassy husks.
Ethan didn't like it. He was about to order a retreat when a sound tore through the silence—
A metallic shriek, like steel being ripped in half.
—ROAR!
The ground trembled. Rubble surged like a wave. A mass of blood-red shadow burst from beneath the earth, shooting skyward in a spiral of mist and pressure. The sheer force of it warped the air, like the world itself was being wrung out.
Ethan took a step back and raised his hand, calling up the system interface:
Bloodfiend-Fairy Hybrid
