A slimy thing slammed into Kai's face before he could even process what was happening. A small, deformed body, with no fixed shape…
More teeth than flesh… And a single eye rolling across its surface like a sickly bubble. The entity screamed in a torn, childlike voice:
"I found you!"
He didn't get a chance to respond. Three more fell from the ceiling at the exact same moment.
Skyler moved instantly. The blade gleamed. It struck. One of them was cleaved in half.
But… Both halves moved. Both of them. The ground beneath their feet rippled. Human fingers emerged from the rock… then their palms opened… and turned into mouths.
—"Mom… here too…"
Kai took a step back, his eyes narrowing.
"…What the hell is this?"
An entity leapt from the wall toward his neck. Skyler caught it in midair and stabbed it. The blade pierced it with unnatural ease.
For a moment, He didn't feel like he had cut through flesh… But something without density… like living mist.
Another appeared. Then another.
The ceiling tore apart. Fleshy bodies began to pour down like rain. Eyes, Mouths. Limbs connected in ways that shouldn't exist. Broken laughter filled the cave.
—"Warm…"
—"I want this…"
—"Let me bite…"
Beneath Kai's foot, A hand burst out of the ground and grabbed his ankle. Teeth opened up inside the palm.
He struck it with force. The bone broke. But the hand didn't let go. It laughed instead.
—"It hurts…"
Skyler cut it with a single strike. Blood splattered. And from the severed spot… Three new hands emerged. A heavy silence passed through Kai's mind. One realization only:
They… cannot be killed.
Skyler retreated until his back was close to Kai.
"Don't kill them recklessly."
He said it, panting.
An entity crawled onto Kai's shoulder. It opened its mouth near his ear and whispered:
—"Your scent… is different…"
Kai grabbed it and smashed it onto the ground. It shattered. And from the crushed flesh… Small eyes began to open. Laughter. Dozens of throats laughing together.
The walls pulsed. The ground breathed. The creatures began emerging from everywhere— From the cracks, From the floor, From the remnants of themselves. Their numbers doubled before their eyes.
Skyler said in a low voice:
"They're filling the place…"
Kai didn't answer. He closed his eyes. He whispered:
"Stone Art - Moon Wolf Stone - Level 1: Moon Sense."
Then he opened his eyes. A faint lunar glow passed through his pupils. The world slowed. Scents exploded inside his consciousness.
Rot. Demonic energy. Invisible movement within the void. He realized the truth immediately.
"They're not individuals…"
He said in a low voice.
"They're… a single mass."
At that very moment, A full wave surged toward them. Skyler raised his weapon.
"Stone Art - Solar Stone - Level 3: Collapsing Ray."
A compressed golden beam shot forth. It was not light… But a line of collapse. It struck the first of the entities And vanished. It didn't burn. It didn't tear. The void swallowed it.
The resonance spread through the ground. Several creatures approached the same point And tore themselves apart, As if their existence there was a mistake.
For a single second… The crawling stopped. But the laughter returned. Louder. Hungrier.
—"Fun…"
—"Do it again…"
—"We want more…"
The ground shook with even greater violence. Something deeper stirred beneath them. Kai lowered his body. A primal chill gathered in his chest. Then he released it. He whispered:
"Level 4: Wolf Howl."
The howl was not a sound. It was a primal wave. The air shattered. The rock cracked.The entities froze. Fear. An instinct older than their current forms struck them all at once. They recoiled. They trembled. They weakened.
Skyler sensed the opportunity immediately. He raised his weapon. Solar energy gathered around him as a single note.
"Solar Stone - Level 5: Voice of the Sun."
The sound emerged… pure… heavy… As if it were a proclamation of existence higher than this deformity. The light passed through the entities. And for a second, They fell silent.
Then, They tore apart. A collective explosion of flesh.
Kai breathed. Skyler breathed. They stood back to back. The ground was covered with trembling remains… which then melted.
A brief silence. Skyler said without looking back:
"…It's not over."
Kai gave a faint, weary smile.
"I know."
Beneath their feet… The ground moved again. A massive collision. They didn't see the movement.
Only, The ground beneath them exploded. A vertical force surged from below as if a mountain had struck them.
Kai's body was violently lifted into the air, air blasted from his lungs in a single burst.
Skyler was thrown in the opposite direction, his back hitting the rock before he could comprehend what happened.
A deep, shattering sound echoed through the cave.The stone surface between them… split. A black line spread quickly, Then, An explosion.
A massive rock formation rose from the ground like a living wall, Falling between them, Blocking their vision. Cutting the distance. Cutting the sense of the other's presence. Dust filled the air.
Kai tried to rise… His knees trembled. His head spun.
"Skyler...!!!!!!"
His voice didn't reach.
On the other side, Skyler gritted his teeth, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, Clutching his weapon instinctively.
"Kai!"
No answer. The silence between them didn't last. A step. The ground trembled beneath it. A harsh… deep… primal voice filled with rage:
"You will… not fight… together."
The air grew heavier. The shadow before Skyler rose slowly… Two horns… Massive shoulders… A body like cracked stone.
And on the other side, The deformed creatures began crawling toward Kai from the walls… the ceiling… the floor.
In a single moment… Both of them realized the same truth: They had been separated. Not by choice.
_
Then the giant Wasn't given Skyler a moment to catch his breath. The black threads extending from his body plunged into the walls… the ceiling… the floor… As if the cave itself was bound to him.
It stopped.
Its hollow eyes fixed solely on Skyler. Its voice emerged like the grinding of rocks inside a tomb:
—"You… how dare you… separate us?"
The Loom advanced further:
—"We are the bloodline of demons…"
Skyler wiped the blood from his brow… Took a single breath… then said calmly:
"I don't know about them."
He raised his weapon.
"But you… are far too loud."
The world erupted. The threads moved. They weren't thrown. They vanished from one place and appeared in another. The giant whispered:
"The Loom - Thread of Veil - Depth VIII: Near-Far Collapse."
Skyler saw the giant at a distance, But a strike hit his chest. Blood exploded. His body was flung backward, smashing into the rock.
Before he could regain his balance, A second strike came from a "wrong distance."
Skyler tried to block it But his weapon didn't reach. As if the distance itself had betrayed him. The threads embedded into his shoulder. Flesh tore. The giant spoke slowly, with a sickly tone:
"Distance… is not real."
It pulled the threads, Forcing Skyler's body forward against his will.
Skyler spat blood. Then he whispered:
"Level 1: Solar Hum."
A faint ringing… Not heard by the ears… But inside the skull. The heat rose. The light became… heavy. The threads pulling him slowed. The giant paused for a moment. It rebounded against him.
Its perception lagged by half a heartbeat. For the first time, Its timing faltered.
Skyler didn't waste the moment. He raised his hand.
"Level 3: Collapsing Ray."
The beam didn't shine. It didn't burn. Instead… it compressed. A golden line pierced the giant's chest. No wound. No burning. Only Void.
A part of its body… vanished. The ground around it entered a single resonance. The threads trembled. Any wrong movement Amplified the damage.
The giant moved. Another part of its shoulder tore apart automatically. But It didn't scream. It laughed instead. The threads surged toward the wound. And stitched it. The flesh healed… by force.
"Our threads allow us to thread ourselves, so we… do not bleed like you."
Suddenly, The giant whispered:
"Depth V : Shaking of Certainty."
The world trembled inside Skyler's mind :
Had he actually hit his target?
Had the ray succeeded?
Had the giant moved… or not?
He wavered. Half a second only. But His body refused to obey. The threads took advantage of the pause. They plunged into his stomach. Blood exploded. The giant raised its arm. The distance warped again.
Skyler sensed danger behind him— He turned. Nothing. And in that same moment, A real strike crushed his ribs from the side. He fell to one knee. Blood filled his mouth. He breathed with difficulty.
Then, He smiled.
"Good…"
He slowly raised his head. The light around him suddenly contracted. Then collapsed into a single point. He shouted:
"Level 6: Solar Singularity."
The sun… wasn't unleashed. It was pulled inward. A golden point appeared before him. Small. Calm.
But, Everything began to be pulled in. The rock. The dust. The threads. Even the giant's own body. The gravity wasn't a pull… But an absolute command. The threads that granted it control began retracting toward him against his will.
The giant planted additional threads into the ground to resist. But, Any movement within the light's field became slower. Heavier.
Skyler stood with difficulty… blood dripping from his chin.
"I told you…"
The pressure increased. The flesh on the giant's body began to tear. Even its threads Pulled it… and were drawn in the opposite direction.
"The sun is not to be chased."
Skyler raised his weapon.
The solar point reached the limit of collapse.
"It is the one that…"
Explosion. Silent. But the entire cave compressed and then expanded like a heart struck by shock. The threads tore. The giant's body was violently hurled across the ground, carving deep furrows behind it.
Silence.
Dust. Labored breathing.
Skyler staggered upright… his body bleeding from multiple wounds.
Then, The threads moved again. Slowly. They gathered. They stitched the flesh. It rose. And the giant's voice emerged… deeper… angrier:
"Now…"
The threads spread more than before.
The battle had begun.