The bird-like creature galloped itself recklessly across the crimson planes, an unknown amount of time passed.
Hours?
Days?
They no longer knew.
This was a risk, and this was especially true given the constantly developing fatigue amassing within its body.
It wanted to rest, but it physically and mentally couldn't spare such a luxury.
They were within unknown territory, the normal landscape of visceral red was beginning to reach a closure, they were nearing the end of the Crimson Plains—the landscape began to change. The terrain, rather than its relative monotony, had now developed into a more complex array of natural structures.
Stone pillars towered from the ground, and the grass took on a more rugged appearance with the crimson grass diluting into a deathly gray, and a more diverse selection of plants sprouted.
A large untamed collision of fog blanketed over this new landscape—oddly, their perception was cut to only a mere seventy kilometers.
The fog held a distinct property that hindered perception, it warped and perversely deteriorated vision over a certain distance.
As much as the bird-like creature desired to alter its current route—maneuvering past this territory by taking a more lengthy, albeit more tedious venture, but still in general relatively safe to travel.
However, this was currently impossible.
That damn apocalyptic wall's pace was gradually increasing its current constant pace. Even more mortifying and threatening, its size had increased an additional several hundred meters since the first time Rue had seen it.
it had purged and absorbed the Will of countless creatures—plundering them of their bodily Will, garnering it as their own.
If one measured the amount of that Will this Wall of doom possessed, then they would reach a daunting summation.
The sheer pressure it had on reality was on par with that of someone in the peak of the Fifth Destination.
That was nearly two Destinations higher than Rue and the bird.
The terrifying thing about the wall apart from this, was the fact it was still gaining Will!
Thus its Destination was still increasing.
So screw waiting or lounging around for rest!
They wanted to live!
Glaceing at the bird's front, Rue was able to quickly deduce that the bird was severely fatigued, such was evident from its growingly sluggish behavior.
'Well, I don't want to die…' Rue inner monologued, casting his gaze over his shoulder, he sighed.
'Sigh…'
The fog.
Due to the fog's natural restrictions, he was no longer able to see the distant Wall.
Luckily, from his prior estimation he deduced they had around fifty five minutes of comfort room between them and the Wall.
As long as they kept their distance, and maintained their current pace, then fretting over the wall would only be secondary.
Contemplating his following actions, Rue resolved himself.
If the birdy needed energy, then why not give it some?
Narrowing his eyes, Rue grinned before raising his left hand into the air, while at the same time tightening his right hand's grip on the bird.
"Hey birdy, would you care for a sna–?"
Pop… BURST!!
Immediately a blood-red mist covered Rue and the bird.
"...."
Reaching into his neck, Rue pulled out a piece of shrapnel from the sudden explosion.
It was a shard of a skull
The bird cooed with glee as it licked its beak of any residue blood, with a final content caw the bird swallowed a hurled eye that it was able to catch with its tongue...
Nom!… nom!...
Watching the sight, Rue rolled his eyes.
Typical, this was the seventh time the beast had pulverized into some poor random beast that was waltzing around, minding its own, before bashing into them with the same power as a freight train against a mortal man— essentially turning them into an unrecognizable shower of filth and blood.
This beast had no decency…
Whelp, another poor soul down, but who cares.
Slowing its pace, the bird-like creature soon halted into a stop.
Raising its gait, the bird's neck twisted 360 facing Rue, with a slight gesture of its head, the bird more or less pointed towards the general direction of a large stone ledge in the distance.
Following the bird's aimed direction, Rue scrutinized the ledge for several moments, before noticing something amiss.
There was a small clique of beasts tailing them from a distance.
Nodding in understanding, Rue hopped off the bird.
Landing on his feat with a thud, Rue smiled as he popped his knuckles and cracked his neck.
He needed to alleviate some tension.
From within back muscles, Rue 'unsheathed' the bone blades he had lodged into his deltoids and wings.
Freeing his Radius and Ulna, from his flesh, he twirled them in his fingers several times.
"Well, we have some easy game. Whelp this was arrogance on their part, should have been more aware." he mused with mirth.
Those beasts were merely 3rd Destination bearings, with a shrug Rue exploded forward.
…Boom!
Without sparring a second of hesitation, both individuals rushed forward towards the easy energy.
~~~
~~~
~~~
Seeing as their prey suddenly stopped, the beasts all in a unison salivated, they were so close.
Standing at the front was the pack's leader.
Staring down the pray, the leader, a beast with a similar silhouette as a wolf, let out a bark.
They were the alpha within this pack, they were a respected 4th minor path, Third Destination Being. The strongest here, thus they were respected by their subordinates.
Simply, leadership among beasts was based on strength, not competence.
'Stay put,' the beast barked, threatening one of the weaker and less intelligent beasts that moved without its orders.
With a yelp, the wolf's ears submissively flattened against its head as it moved back, adhering to the alpha's order.
Scoffing in detest, the pack leader decided that it would continue its scrutiny later, clearly it needed to be tough
Throwing its gaze back at the prey, the wolf suddenly felt weak—the feeling of weightlessness engulfed the beast as it lost control over its body.
.
This felt bad.
Really bad!
It was like a puppet whose marionette's strings were severed.
'Wait, why is the world upside down?'
These were its final thoughts.
It fell
~~~
~~~
~~~
Decapitating the wolf with his blade, a powerful gust of air stirred from the whiplash and small vacuum created from his speed.
Thud
The wolf's body collapsed onto the stone plateau.
With a shrug, Rue watched as the bird slaughtered the remaining wolves.
It only took a few seconds.
With its final kill, the bird had made a huge ass mess from the carcasses of the wolves.
Blood, filth, and thrown entrails splattered across the canvas of the stone plateau.
The stone stained from the blood.
With a lazed kick, Rue tossed the pack leader's head towards the bird.
Feeling a higher density of energy circulating within the head, the creature happily accepted it.
Pecking into the cranium of the wolf's skull, the bird poked a small hole into the bone.
With its beak, the bird began to straw out all of the brain matter within the skull's cavity.
Annoyed by the bird's antics, Rue walked towards one of the relatively more intact corpses.
"Well, I'm not as bashful as to not accept such a meal."
Plunging his fingers into the beast's thigh, Rue with leg pressed onto the beast underbelly. Cusping each back leg, he applied just enough force to tear off the appendages from their socket.
Crunchhhh!
Wolf legs in hand, Rue sunk his teeth into the flesh regardless of fur or not.
Taking a seat on a rock, the inquisitor enjoyed his meal.
"Well, this is a better prospect than the thing that I was going to do," he mumbled through his munching. "Originally I planned to feed that birdy my left arm, as to give it a quick burst of energy, lucky me" he finished.
Licking his lips of spilt blood, Rue drove his hand into the wolf's chest, feeling the wolf's heart around his fingers, he clenched his hand encasing his grip around the heart.
With a motion similar to that of starting a lawn mower, he tore out the heart.
Bringing the wolf heart to his mouth, Rue bit into it like an apple.
It tasted like rubber, and mud.
After a minute of feasting on the heart, he felt his dormant Will Emission spark to life before quickly dispelling.
Rue sighed.
With the Will contained in the wolf heart, he had hoped that by some chance it would be enough to jump start his atrophied Will.
Unfortunately it didn't, and for the time being manifesting his Will Emission was a no-go, at least until his Initial's recovery.
Rue's Initial would heal naturally, given enough time.
With the bird-like creature finishing its last morsels of the pack's leader, it began to scavenge across the plateau, digging into the remaining corpses of the wolves—searching for any piece that sanctioned energy.
After a few more minutes of feasting on the dead, the bird found itself satisfied and full.
Seeing as the bird was done with its gourmet, Rue without much thought got back onto the bird.