Renn Varn crawled out of the dark.
The ground of the other side was not soil or stone — it was a living lattice of pressure and memory, a place built from everything the Seal had buried. Renn tore himself through it with bloodied hands, ribs cracking, breath ragged as he forced his way back into reality.
The breach spat him onto a cliff overlooking a ruined coastal city.
He collapsed, gasping.
The world smelled wrong.
Human.
Animal.
Fear.
And something else.
Hunger.
Renn screamed as his body twisted, veins darkening beneath his skin like black lightning. His wounds would not close. The seal-wounds burned, refusing to heal.
The presence beneath the world whispered.
YOU WILL DIE HERE.
Renn dragged himself toward the carcass of a fallen mid-rank beast that lay half-submerged in the surf.
"No," he rasped. "Not yet."
He bit into it.
Flesh tore. Energy surged.
His scream became a roar.
The beast's essence flooded into him — burning, corrupting, rebuilding. Bones snapped, reforming stronger. Muscles thickened unnaturally. His eyes burned with a predatory gleam as the hunger settled into him like a second heart.
When Renn finally stood, blood dripping from his mouth, he was no longer fully human.
Nor fully beast.
He smiled with sharpened teeth.
"Now," he whispered, "I can hunt again."
The Grey Hunt — Days Later
Kael felt the imbalance before it happened.
Not the Mark.
The world.
Something old and wrong was moving fast.
Nyx felt it too. Her hands never strayed far from her blades now.
Borin and Elyra moved through the ruins of a once-bustling trade town, tracking a mid-rank beast that had been slaughtering refugees.
The hunt was going smoothly.
Too smoothly.
Nyx suddenly froze.
"Kael… we're not alone."
The air shifted.
Then the scream came.
A beast — not the one they were tracking — was ripped in half as something massive burst through the treeline.
Renn.
But not the Renn they knew.
His cloak hung in tatters. His skin was etched with dark veins. His eyes glowed like molten amber, and blood dripped constantly from his mouth.
And he was smiling.
"Well," Renn said, voice layered with something inhuman, "look at us."
Kael raised his bow instantly.
"Renn."
Renn sniffed the air.
"Gods… you smell like the Seal now."
Nyx stepped in front of Kael.
"Back away."
Renn laughed — a sound that had too many echoes.
Behind him, the Gilded Fang emerged.
Cressa's eyes were hollow.
Halvek's hammer was blackened with corruption.
Two new figures stood with them — hunters who had abandoned their guilds for power.
"Your friends look worse," Borin growled.
Renn's grin widened.
"They adapted."
The attack came without warning.
Renn vanished.
Kael barely twisted aside as Renn's clawed hand tore through where his chest had been a moment before.
Nyx struck back, blades flashing — and Renn caught one with his bare hand, crushing it.
Nyx screamed.
Borin slammed Renn with his hammer, sending him flying into a ruined wall.
Renn rolled to his feet instantly, blood spraying from his mouth.
"Yes," he breathed. "That's it."
Elyra raised her staff, chanting, tearing another memory from herself to bind Renn in place.
It lasted half a second.
Renn broke through it.
He slammed Elyra into the ground so hard the stone cracked.
Kael loosed three arrows in rapid succession — two struck Renn's torso, one his neck.
Renn didn't fall.
He ripped them out and threw them back.
One grazed Nyx's side.
She collapsed with a cry.
"NYX!" Kael shouted.
Renn lunged.
Kael met him head-on.
The Seal erupted between them like a storm.
Their clash shook the ruins.
Light and shadow tore through buildings.
Kael drove Renn back — but Renn bit him.
Literally.
Teeth tore into Kael's shoulder.
Kael screamed as the Mark reacted violently, energy exploding outward and hurling both of them apart.
Renn landed laughing.
"Oh I can taste it now."
The Gilded Fang advanced.
Borin pulled Nyx behind him, bleeding badly now.
Elyra struggled to her knees.
Kael forced himself upright, blood pouring down his arm.
They were losing.
Renn's voice echoed across the battlefield.
"Run."
Kael's jaw clenched.
Renn's eyes gleamed.
"Run. And let the world see who the real monsters are."
Kael made the call.
"Fall back!"
They retreated under fire, barely escaping as Renn let them go — not out of mercy.
Out of promise.
The Consequence
Hours later, before the blood had dried…
The Hunter Registry acted.
Emergency declarations.
Expulsions.
Panic.
Both the Grey Hunt and the Gilded Fang were stripped of their licenses.
Declared too dangerous to operate.
Outlaws.
And as the political chaos exploded—
The world burned.
Beast waves hit five major cities within a single night.
Mid-rank beasts.
High-rank horrors.
Entire regions fell.
The Seal was no longer enough.
And Renn Varn was no longer human.
The war had begun.
The world did not pause after the ambush.
It lurched.
Cities burned. Borders closed. Beasts prowled highways once meant for trade and families. The Hunter Registry's declaration—all unlicensed hunters are fugitives—spread faster than any flame, turning heroes into criminals overnight.
And somewhere beneath that chaos, the Grey Hunt was bleeding.
Nyx woke to pain.
It wasn't the sharp kind. It was the deep, hollow ache that lived inside bones and refused to be ignored. Her side burned like it had been branded. Every breath scraped.
"Hey," Borin said softly.
She opened one eye. "If you tell me I look terrible, I'm stabbing you."
Borin smiled, relief flickering across his battered face. "Wouldn't dream of it."
They were in a half-collapsed chapel, stone pillars cracked and leaning like tired sentinels. Elyra sat near a broken altar, hands glowing faintly as she tended Nyx's wound with magic that left faint ash drifting from her palms. Every time she inhaled, her shoulders trembled.
"Don't push yourself," Nyx muttered.
Elyra's eyes glistened. "You were dying."
Nyx swallowed. "Still am. Just… slower."
Footsteps echoed.
Kael entered, his coat torn, blood dried dark along his shoulder where Renn's teeth had pierced him. The Mark beneath his skin glowed faintly, like embers refusing to die.
Nyx forced herself upright. "You look worse than I do."
Kael's mouth twitched. "That's hard to believe."
He moved to her side carefully, as if afraid touching her might break something.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
Nyx scoffed weakly. "If you apologize one more time, I'll make you regret it."
Borin crossed his arms. "Please do."
Kael met Nyx's eyes. "He was aiming for me."
Nyx's gaze sharpened. "He always is."
Silence settled, thick and heavy.
Elyra finally whispered, "The cities…"
Kael nodded. "Three fell overnight. Two more are under siege. The Registry's forces are stretched thin."
Borin muttered, "And they threw us away."
Nyx clenched her jaw. "Let them choke on it."
Kael looked at her. "They're afraid."
"So am I," Nyx snapped. "Doesn't give me an excuse to betray people."
Kael didn't argue.
Outside, the chapel doors creaked.
A figure stepped in.
Cressa.
Her armor was cracked. Blood streaked her face—not all of it her own. Her spear was gone. Her eyes were haunted.
Kael raised his bow instantly.
"Don't," she said hoarsely. "I'm not here to fight."
Borin stood slowly, hammer in hand. "You're with Renn."
"I was," she said. "Not anymore."
Nyx pushed herself up. "Then you picked a bad time to visit."
Cressa looked at her wound and flinched. "He did that."
"Yes," Nyx replied flatly. "He did."
Cressa swallowed. "He's changed. More than you know. He eats beasts now. Their energy. Their flesh."
Kael's Mark pulsed angrily.
"He's becoming what he controls," Elyra whispered.
Cressa nodded. "He's not leading them anymore. They follow him because he terrifies them."
Borin's grip tightened. "Where is he?"
Cressa shook her head. "Everywhere."
Kael's voice was quiet. "Why come to us?"
Cressa's eyes filled with tears. "Because I couldn't stop him. And now… I have to stop what he's become."
Nyx studied her for a long moment. "You brought the apocalypse."
Cressa nodded. "I know."
Silence stretched.
Finally Kael lowered his bow.
"Sit," he said.
She did.
Hours passed.
Wounds were cleaned. Maps were spread. The world shrank into flickering candlelight and whispered strategy.
Nyx dozed in and out of consciousness.
Every time she woke, Kael was still there.
"Go sleep," she murmured.
He didn't move. "Later."
She managed a faint smile. "You always say that."
He took her hand gently. "I'm not going anywhere."
Nyx's voice softened. "Don't make promises you can't keep."
Kael met her gaze. "I will keep this one."
Elyra watched them, a sad smile on her lips.
Borin cleared his throat loudly. "So. We're criminals. Monsters are eating cities. And Renn is a half-demon nightmare."
Kael nodded. "Yes."
Borin sighed. "Just checking."
Cressa whispered, "The Seal… it reacts to him."
Kael looked at her. "He's a wound in it."
Cressa swallowed. "Then he won't stop."
"No," Kael said. "But neither will we."
Night fell.
Far away, beasts howled.
Somewhere even farther, Renn Varn stood atop a mountain of corpses, blood dripping from his mouth as he lifted his head to the moon.
"Come find me," he whispered.
And deep inside Kael, the Seal answered.
The war was no longer coming.
It had already arrived.