A small mound of freshly turned earth sat beneath the trees.
A single stone had been placed at its head.
The crew stood around it in silence.
The captain lowered his head and quietly said his prayers.
Nobody else spoke.
Merlin sat a short distance away.
His back rested against a tree.
Requiem rested against his shoulder.
He stared into nothing.
From a distance, he could still hear the raging beasts.
Requiem hummed again.
This time, softly.
Merlin sat and listened.
It wasn't humming.
It wasn't a cry.
It was a song.
Merlin finally understood.
He had made a contract with Requiem.
But you couldn't make a contract with an inanimate object.
That meant Requiem was no longer inanimate.
At least, not to him.
Merlin knew it had a consciousness.
He just didn't know how it worked.
But right now, Requiem was...
Singing.
The sound made his muscles tense uncomfortably.
Merlin stared at the sky.
A tear slipped from his left eye.
The raging beasts continued in the distance.
He remembered hearing the captain say they would need to dispose of them.
Perfect.
Merlin rose to his feet.
He held Requiem lightly in his right hand.
He paced himself as he walked toward the beasts.
They rushed toward him.
Merlin raised Requiem.
He swung.
One after another, the beasts came and went.
With every kill, the song became clearer.
A song of sorrow.
Merlin swung again.
A song of grief.
Another beast fell.
A song of loss.
Another swing.
A song of mourning.
Another.
A song for the dead.
Merlin stopped.
The beasts were still coming.
Requiem continued to sing.
And Merlin listened.
Swinging to every beat of the song, Merlin danced across the battlefield, spilling blood like a raging berserker.
Yet his mind was disturbingly calm.
A disturbing hum briefly resonated inside his head.
Merlin paid it no mind.
The song continued.
The rest of the crew watched him.
Nobody said anything.
Later that day, the crew packed up in preparation for the morning.
The camp was quieter than usual.
The sounds of bags being tied and equipment being gathered filled the silence.
Merlin sat beside the fire, Requiem resting against his side.
He watched the flames for a while.
Brody walked past him, carrying his spear.
He stopped.
For a moment, it seemed like he wanted to say something.
But He didn't.
He continued walking.
Merlin looked after him.
Then he turned back toward the fire.
The sky was already beginning to darken.
One by one, the others finished packing and settled down.
Merlin remained awake.
He looked toward the trees.
The forest was dark now.
Somewhere beyond it, the dungeon was still there.
And so were the beasts.
Merlin lowered his gaze to Requiem.
It was done singing.
He went inside and sat down.
Sleep eventually took over.
Morning came.
Everyone was already up.
They packed their things and continued their journey.
The forest gradually gave way to open land as they followed the road toward the next settlement.
By afternoon, they finally arrived.
The crew carried the goods through the gates and headed toward the place they had been instructed to deliver them.
It didn't take long.
Once everything had been handed over, the crew gathered outside again.
They were ready to leave.
Something felt off.
The crew was in a hurry.
Normally, they would have stopped to spend the night. This time, they had barely spent an hour in the settlement.
Harvey looked at Merlin.
"You must be confused about what's been happening lately."
Merlin nodded.
"Figures," Harvey said. "No one really took the time to explain."
He adjusted the strap of his bag and started walking.
"The dungeon you found is one of only three in the world."
Merlin looked at him.
"The three Monarch Dungeons," Harvey continued.
He glanced back toward the settlement.
"What's inside them isn't just valuable. It's necessary."
"For what?"
"Restoring the world."
Merlin remained silent.
Harvey continued walking.
"Things weren't always like this. The beasts, the corrupted lands... all of it was caused by one man a long time ago."
He looked ahead.
"With the help of various demons he created, he made the Monarch Dungeons."
Harvey's expression hardened.
"Now, those same dungeons are the only way to reverse what he did."
He paused.
"At least, it's the first step."
Harvey's pace quickened.
"The first step toward returning the world to normal."
The crew kept walking, never stopping during the day unless necessary.
At night, they would set up shelter and sleep, only to pack everything up again as soon as morning came.
On top of that, no one in the crew seemed particularly talkative anymore.
Not even Harvey.
Maybe it was because they had just lost a member, Merlin told himself.
But he knew that wasn't the answer.
Four days passed.
It was nighttime.
The crew had set up shelter beneath the trees.
Merlin sat outside, staring into the fire.
The flames flickered quietly.
He heard footsteps behind him.
Leon walked over and sat down beside him.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Leon stared into the fire.
"So..."
Merlin glanced at him.
Leon remained silent for a few seconds.
"You ever wonder what you'd do if you knew you wouldn't make it tomorrow?"
Merlin stared at him.
Leon gave a faint smile.
"Because I have no idea what I'd do."
He looked back at the fire.
"I'd probably just wait until it happens."
Merlin said nothing.
The fire crackled between them.
"If we all die one day and you end up surviving..."
Leon paused.
"Could you complete our mission?"
Merlin stared at him.
Leon looked at him for a moment.
"Never mind."
He rested his arms on his knees.
"Get some sleep tonight."
Merlin looked at him.
Leon stood.
"Tomorrow might be a long day."
He walked away.
Merlin watched him disappear into the darkness.
His eyes returned to the fire.
Something about Leon's words bothered him.
Morning came, the crew was ready to leave.
After walking a few minutes the forest had become strangely quiet.
No birds.
No insects.
Not even the distant cries of beasts.
Merlin looked around.
Something was wrong.
The captain had noticed it too.
Nobody spoke.
Suddenly a screech tore through the sky.
Merlin froze.
He knew that sound.
His eyes slowly lifted.
The sky above them distorted.
The sky went dark, a cold chilling wind washed over the crew.
A dark rift began to spread across it.
But this time, the forest didn't change.
No trees were torn apart.
No earth was ripped from the ground.
Nothing moved.
The force remained in one place.
Beneath the rift.
Merlin squinted.
There was something beneath the rift.
Not a shadow.
A figure.
It was almost invisible, its body blending into the distortion around it. Merlin could barely make out its shape.
Then he saw the limbs.
Three extended from one side.
Three more from the other.
All of them seemed to emerge from the same place, branching from a single shoulder like the body had been built around an anatomy Merlin couldn't comprehend.
But those weren't the worst of it.
Around the figure, the air was breaking apart.
Dark disruptions opened and closed around it.
Something enormous protruded from one of them.
A curved claw.
No—
A blade.
It disappeared back into the distortion before Merlin could understand what he'd seen.
Another emerged somewhere else.
Then another.
Massive scythe-like limbs surrounding the barely visible figure.
Merlin's blood ran cold.
He looked at the crew, no one seemed terrified. He looked at Leon, Leon starred at the creature, a faint smile suddenly appeared on his face.
Merlin looked back at the creature.
Those limbs!
He knew them.
One of them had killed the fox on his way to the Len division.
It was the same limb that impaled the fox without warning.
And now they were all pointed toward them.