Nyra led them in absolute silence.
For hours, they moved through red grasslands that snapped and swayed like blades beneath the wind. Above them, Zarhama's golden sun beat down mercilessly, scorching the earth until the air itself seemed to shimmer on the horizon. In the distance, the echo of Leontaris roars would occasionally rumble across the plains, a constant reminder that they were still crossing hunting territory.
Emily noticed that the young woman was limping with increasing difficulty.
"You don't have to push yourself," she murmured beside her, offering her support.
Nyra shook her head, gritting her teeth.
"I can't stop. If night catches us out in the open…"
She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to. The tension in the air spoke for itself.
When the savanna finally began to give way to massive roots, they did not find a village.
They found a fissure.
A massive crack split through the earth, hidden among the colossal trunks of a handful of ancient trees. Nyra knelt before a flat rock and struck its surface in a short, precise pattern.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, alert for any movement.
"A signal?"
Nyra nodded without raising her head.
"So they know it's me. No one enters this place without warning."
A few seconds later, two pairs of eyes glimmered in the darkness of the fissure.
Small.
Human.
Deeply distrustful.
A thick rope dropped from above.
"Quickly," Nyra whispered. "Before something catches our scent."
Elizabeth descended first to secure the area. Emily followed with practiced agility, immediately followed by Kara, Isabella, Adela, and Dayana. Lusian was the last to let himself drop into the abyss.
The moment his boots touched the ground, he felt the dense, ancient mana permeating the stone walls.
The cave was enormous, far deeper than the entrance above suggested. But it was not a home.
It was an improvised refuge.
Bare stone, bone structures, tattered blankets, and small dying fires made up the only things these people could call their own.
Children watched from the shadows, far too thin. Adults stood with faces gaunt from exhaustion, their skin marked by old scars.
They were neither warriors nor savages.
They were survivors.
Nyra rushed toward the back of the cavern, where two figures were tending a low fire. A woman worn down by exhaustion and a strongly built man covered in scars.
"Mom! Dad!"
The woman sprang to her feet and pulled the young woman desperately into her arms.
"Nyra!"
Her father remained frozen for a couple of seconds, blinking as though he needed time to comprehend that his daughter was alive. Then his gaze abruptly shifted toward the group. When he noticed Elizabeth's immaculate armor and the weapons they carried, his expression darkened.
"Who are they?"
Nyra reluctantly pulled away from her mother.
"They saved me. The Lamihya cornered me and…" She swallowed, a shiver running through her. "They saved me before the Lamihya could take me."
The man immediately went pale.
"The Lamihya saw you?" He looked toward the rope, panic taking hold of him. "Did you lead them straight here?"
"No," Nyra replied firmly. "No one followed us."
Kara stepped forward, calmly flexing her claws.
"And neither did the Leontaris."
A tense murmur swept through the cave. The mere mention of the beast seemed to freeze the blood of everyone present.
An old woman slowly emerged from a darkened corner, leaning on a twisted wooden staff.
"Don't lie, girl." Her grim gaze locked onto Kara. "Leontaris never retreat."
"They retreated," Kara replied with a cold smile. "When they saw Lusian."
Silence fell over the refuge.
And in the middle of the darkness, every gaze turned toward him.
Lusian remained completely silent.
The old woman took several more steps toward him, dragging her staff across the cold stone.
"You…" She studied him carefully, her gaze traveling over his figure before stopping on the intensity of his eyes. "You are not human."
Adela stepped forward, her hand brushing the hilt of her weapon, but Lusian raised one hand in a calm gesture.
"No."
The old woman held his gaze without blinking.
"Then what are you?"
"Lusian."
The answer seemed to confuse her, furrowing her brow even further.
"That doesn't answer my question."
"It's the only answer I have," he said without the slightest change in tone.
The woman remained silent for a long moment. Finally, she turned toward one of the cavern walls, where the light from the dying fires barely illuminated a series of ancient murals, worn down by the passage of centuries.
They depicted crude but explicit scenes: humans fleeing in masses; demi-humans pursuing them with claws and spears; figures surrounded by auras representing the ancient gods.
But at the exact center of the mural stood a different figure.
Completely black.
With golden eyes.
The old woman placed her wrinkled hand against the painted stone.
"This story is older than any of us."
Elizabeth moved a couple of steps closer, examining the mural with narrowed eyes.
"A prophecy?"
"A warning," the old woman corrected before looking back at Lusian. "It speaks of someone who will break the cycle."
Isabella crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow skeptically.
"And that someone is supposed to be him?"
"I don't know." The old woman slowly shook her head. "But in all my years, I have never seen eyes like his."
From the darkness at the back of the cavern, a little girl quietly slipped forward. She was so thin that she looked as though a gust of wind could snap her in half.
She approached Lusian before her parents or anyone else could react and, without the slightest hesitation, took his hand.
"Will you help us?" she asked in a small voice.
Lusian lowered his gaze toward her.
Not this shit again.
The girl understood nothing of what was happening. She did not know that she was standing before the one they called the Devil.
All she saw was a man who, for the first time, had made the monsters that haunted her dreams retreat.
Lusian remained silent for several endless seconds.
Then he turned his gaze toward the old woman.
"Who hunts them?"
The woman blinked, caught off guard.
"What?"
"The Lamihya, the Leontaris, the others. I want to know who hunts all of them."
The old woman understood immediately.
He had not promised to save anyone. He had not even said he would stay and protect the refuge.
But he had asked a question.
And for a tribe on the brink of extinction, that was more than enough.
"All of them," she replied bitterly.
Lusian slightly furrowed his brow.
"Then start by telling me which one is the strongest."
The cave fell into deathly silence.
At that exact moment, outside, a cavernous, colossal roar tore through the night, making dust shake loose from the stone walls and extinguishing the flames of the fire.
Nyra jerked her head upward, her face turning pale.
"That one."
The roar echoed again in the distance.
This time, much closer.
"The one who rules this part of Zarhama."