When the beast had toppled onto its back moments ago, the hunters had surged forward like a breaking wave, determined to gouge as much damage into it as possible before it could rise again. Now their blades, halberds and axes rose and fell in a blur, pounding at the armored hide as the mages' offensive spells rained down from behind, the whole formation moving as one living machine of war.
However, nothing unfolded the way they had hoped.
[-The Final Draft-]
Volume XV - Apocalypse
-LdrQll
One after another, hunters fell. The battlefield that moments ago thrummed with coordinated strikes now lay scattered with groaning bodies and shattered weapons.
I never thought it would turn out like this... Luke's own breath rasped in his throat. What the hell is that thing? If my squad had fought it alone, we'd all be corpses by now. Because of my reckless decisions...
He pressed himself tighter against a jagged slab of debris, blood dripping from his right arm where the bone had snapped under the beast's strike. Every tremor of its footsteps vibrated through the ruined street. We could've ended it with a couple of spells and clean strikes. I didn't know it could regenerate this fast when I accepted the contract. How could I be so stupid? If the Silver Sword hadn't come, we'd already be finished.
He dared a glance around the rubble. The creature loomed higher than ever, roaring with a sound that shook the dust off walls. Its hindquarters were bristling with new spikes, its chest plated over in dark steel, as though it had melted the ores inside itself and reforged its own armor.
Luke's hand tightened on his blade. His heartbeat thudded like a drum in his ears. This was no longer the same beast they had been fighting at the start.
Then—through the ringing in his ears—Luke caught a faint cry. He jerked his head, eyes darting across the wreckage until they fixed on a small gap beneath a collapsed wall. Two familiar silhouettes crouched there.
His heart lurched. Selene... Vi... no.
"Get out of there," he hissed under his breath, lifting his good arm to signal them with frantic motions.
They didn't move. Maybe they couldn't hear him over the din.
Luke shifted his gaze back to the beast. It had turned, slow and ponderous, toward the shattered rubble where the girls were hidden. Each thunderous step it took seemed to pull the blood from his veins.
Too close. Far too close.
With everything he had left in his lungs, Luke bellowed, "Run!" His voice cracked in desperation, echoing across the rubble like a flare.
The two mages jerked their heads up. Pale, trembling, they scrambled from their hiding place and bolted toward him, skirts of their robes whipping in the hot wind.
The earth thudded beneath their boots. The beast was moving. Each step of the living mountain made the ground vibrate like the roll of distant thunder.
"Luke!" Selene's voice broke as she clutched Vi's hand, dragging her along.
Pain lanced up Luke's broken arm but he gritted his teeth, fingers tightening on his sword. "I'm here! Look at me!" He shouted at the beast, waving the blade, trying to drag its focus away.
But the creature didn't turn. Its head remained locked on the two fleeing mages.
It raised one jagged limb. The shadow of it swept over the ruined street. Then it slammed down.
The ground convulsed. A sound like a cannon blast ripped the air as fractured stone and steel exploded outward. The shockwave hit like a wall, pitching Selene and Vi apart.
"Vivienne! No!" Selene screamed, voice raw with terror. She spun to see her friend half-buried in shattered debris, dust rising in choking clouds. Vivienne was alive—but her leg was pinned under a slab of stone, blood already seeping across the rubble.
The beast loomed above them, its silhouette blotting out the sun, the steel crust of its chest glowing faintly as if molten. Its roar rolled over the battlefield again, louder, deeper—hunting.
For a heartbeat the world fell silent.
The beast's bone-chilling scream ebbed into a guttural hiss, its massive frame lowering until its jagged maw hovered just above the rubble. Dust rolled off its plated chest in gritty sheets.
Vivienne lay frozen, breath ragged. Time seemed to slow, each heartbeat hammering against her ribs like a drum. She stared into the creature's mouth — rows of uneven, stone-colored fangs slick with blood and saliva — and in that suspended second she understood there was nowhere to run.
Its breath poured over her in hot, metallic gusts. The smell of scorched iron filled her lungs. Even with a few yards still between them, she could feel the pressure of its hunger as if the air itself were collapsing inward.
Pinned beneath the slab, she tried to claw at the rubble, nails breaking, her limbs trembling violently. No matter how she strained, the weight held her fast. The beast's shadow fell across her completely, swallowing her in a darkness thicker than the dust.
Luke moved before he had even thought, boots pounding across the fractured street. Vivienne was cornered. Even if he reached her, he knew the monster could pivot and crush them both with a single snap of its jaws.
The beast lunged. Rubble exploded outward from its path, jagged chunks of stone spinning like shrapnel.
Vivienne didn't move. Her eyes fixed on the incoming mass, the cavernous mouth opening wider and wider. It was less an animal now and more an avalanche in motion, a train barreling off the rails straight for her.
"Vivienne!" Luke's voice tore out of his throat, hoarse and cracking. His broken arm burned, every step stealing what little strength he had left. Still he pushed forward, refusing to slow.
Time itself seemed to thin, stretching every heartbeat into an eternity. He could see the beast's teeth, the quivering lines of saliva between them, Vivienne's pale face, the tremor of her lips.
Then—impact.
A colossal blow slammed into the beast's head from the side, a thunderclap so violent it made the street jump. A shockwave burst upward in a vertical wall, rattling Luke's bones and flinging dust and debris in all directions.
He staggered, shielding his eyes as the haze swallowed the battlefield. Vivienne was gone from view, the monster's shape blurred to a massive silhouette inside the churning dust.
Inside the choking haze, Vivienne lay trembling, lungs tight from dust and fear. She could barely breathe, her voice caught in her throat. As a healer, her spells were meant to mend, not to fight — and right now, she was powerless, pinned by the slab of stone crushing her leg.
Tears welled and rolled down her cheeks as she clawed at the rubble, nails splitting against the cold surface. Every pull sent knives of pain up her body. The dust burned her eyes, but she kept struggling, desperate, frantic.
Then — a thunderous crash.
A massive, fur-matted arm slammed into the ground just in front of her, cracking the stone beneath it. The sound rattled through her bones. She froze, breath held.
A low growl rumbled through the haze — deep, ragged, pained. Not the guttural roar of the Mountain like beast from awhile ago, but something... different.
Her heartbeat quickened. The creature's claws scraped at the earth, dragging itself forward as if wounded, struggling to rise.
Vivienne's eyes widened when its head began to take form through the veil of dust — Bear face, coarse fur, and those glowing amber eyes, dull but familiar.
Her breath hitched.
"A... Grizzleback?" she whispered, disbelief strangling her voice.
The beast was barely recognizable. Its face was a ruin of torn flesh and cracked bone, one eye split open by a deep vertical gash that ran from forehead to cheek. It groaned, staggering forward through the haze, dragging its heavy body closer to where Vivienne lay.
She tried to crawl backward, desperate to put distance between them, but the pain in her crushed leg was unbearable. Every movement sent shockwaves of agony up her spine. She could only watch as the creature's shadow loomed larger.
Then, a voice cut through the haze — calm, almost playful, a tone that did not belong in a place like this.
"Oh my... going somewhere, are we?"
Vivienne's heart jolted. She turned toward the sound, eyes widening as a figure slowly emerged from the fog — tall, steady, walking with unnerving ease.
"We still have unfinished business," the man said, his words edged with quiet amusement.
As he stepped into the clearing light, she saw him clearly: a man draped in a brown trench coat, the coat tails fluttering in the wind. Beneath it, a black-and-white suit — old, outdated — one she recognized instantly as the attire once worn by the Hunter's Association.
But what truly froze her blood was the black blindfold covering his eyes, strands of curtain-dark hair brushing against it as the wind stirred.
He stopped before the wounded beast, his stance relaxed, one hand buried in his pocket. Then, with casual indifference, he pressed his shoe against the creature's snout.
A smirk curled his lips — the kind that belonged not to a savior, but to someone who found delight in another's suffering.
"You gave me trouble before," Ivan said, his voice low yet laced with that teasing calm. Slowly, he drew his left hand from his pocket and raised it above him. "I remember losing the equipment of my squad because your kind attacked first," he continued, as if chiding a misbehaving child rather than addressing a monster.
That was when Vivienne realized—he was talking to the beast.
"Well then... let me pay you back," he added with a faint smirk.
He snapped his fingers.
The haze exploded outward in a shockwave, revealing a massive slab of concrete—an entire fragment of a collapsed building—suspended high above the wounded Grizzleback.
"Bye bye," Ivan murmured.
The moment he released it, the air screamed.
The debris plummeted like judgment itself, crashing down with a thunderous impact that shook the ruins to their foundations. Dust and gravel rippled outward in a wave, drowning the beast's final roar beneath the sound of ruin.
Moments passed before Luke sprinted through the haze toward Vivienne.
"Vi!" he shouted, his voice breaking through the settling dust—drawing Ivan's attention.
After sliding across the rubble, Luke wedged his hands beneath the slab pinning her leg and, with a strained grunt, heaved it aside. Vivienne winced but managed to stand with his help, supported by Selene who rushed to her side.
Luke cast a quick glance at the blindfolded man standing a short distance away. "We should leave this place," he warned, breath heavy. "I don't think the beast is dead."
Ivan turned toward him, head tilted slightly, confusion painting his face.
"What beast?" he asked.
"The beast that yo—" Luke was cut-off mid-sentence.
A shadow loomed behind Ivan.
Before anyone could react, a massive draconic arm swung from the haze and struck Ivan with earth-shattering force, sending him hurtling several yards away.
"Shit," Luke muttered, eyes widening in disbelief as the ground trembled once more.
Luke dragged Selene out after lifting Vivienne, his arms trembling as he pulled them both toward what little safety remained. They ran—or tried to—but their bodies were already drained from hours of fighting. Their steps were heavy, breaths ragged, and each heartbeat drowned by the distant rumble behind them.
The beast saw them.
They knew then—there was no running.
The creature loomed like a mountain of iron and bone, its shadow swallowing the battlefield whole. Despair crept up their spines as its roar broke the air again, tearing apart what remained of the haze. The shockwave flung debris in every direction, ripping the sound from their ears.
It raised its colossal arms, claws glinting beneath the sun, each movement slow but filled with crushing weight.
"Shit... shit! This is totally shit!" Luke cursed, clutching his weapon though he could barely stand.
His mind screamed for his benefactor—Mikhael... please!—but the angel's presence was absent, unreachable.
Time slowed.
The beast's arm descended, its massive claws blotting out the light.
A breath, a heartbeat—
Snap.
A sharp sound cut through the chaos.
And in the next instant, the world shifted.
Luke blinked—and they were gone from where they stood. In a blink of time, the three of them reappeared far away, the battlefield now a distant scar on the horizon. The beast still towered there, roaring aimlessly at the ground they'd vanished from.
Silence.
Confusion filled their faces, their minds struggling to catch up. None of them could answer the same question running through their heads—
How did we end up here... when we were just about to die?
"That was close, wasn't it?"
A playful tone cut through Luke's thoughts, freezing him mid-breath.
He turned—slowly—and there he was. The same man who had been sent flying by the beast's massive arm not minutes ago now stood beside them as if nothing had happened.
Luke's eyes widened. So did the others'.
"Ahh... my head..." Ivan muttered, massaging his temple as though shaking off a mild hangover. "Sorry, that boulderhead hit me harder than I thought. Think it rattled something loose."
He stepped forward casually, each stride measured, as though the colossus ahead wasn't a monster but merely an inconvenience.
"W–where are you going?" Luke called out, voice trembling.
"Where else?" Ivan replied, not looking back.
From beneath his coat, he drew something gleaming—sunlight danced across the golden frame of a revolver.
Luke felt his stomach drop. "Don't tell me... you're going back there?" he asked, disbelief trembling in his voice.
Ivan tilted his head slightly, the faintest smile curving under the shadow of his blindfold.
"Why wouldn't I?"
Luke's thoughts stuttered—Was he the one who teleported us?
His gaze lingered on the man's covered eyes, on the strange, unbothered calm that surrounded him even as the ground still trembled from the beast's distant roars.
Something about him didn't feel human.
Not anymore.
"who... is he~" selene muttered as she looked at the man who's walking casually toward the storm, like a dead man walking. "i dont know" Lucas replied.
"something feel's off" Vivienne muttered.