The ground trembled slightly… first as a short, shy shake, as if something huge was breathing under the soil.
No one noticed it.
In the middle of the chaos, no one could distinguish a single tremor from the hundreds of small explosions caused by claws clashing, bodies tearing, and powers colliding.
But after a few moments… The second tremor came. Stronger… heavier… Everyone felt as if the air itself had changed.
The soil shook under the fighters' feet.
Even the wolves, those crazed beasts that did not know fear… stopped for a moment.
The giant wolf stopped fighting and looked down at the ground, its ears trembling. The two sect leaders exchanged a quick glance.
The old man stared at the ground, at the large stone that stood only a few meters away from Ashin.
The strange thing…
was that Ashin opened his eyes.
Slowly.
Completely calm.
Without any other reaction.
In the middle of the battlefield, a small pool of mud and blood began to move. A dot… then a line… then a circle of liquid blood began sliding toward the massive stone… Gliding over the rocky ground as if it had a will.
A man from Blood Blade Sect said while panting: "The blood… is moving?!"
Another man stepped back: "This is not a human spell… this is something else!"
The wolves began retreating. Even the two giant wolves hesitated to attack, as if their instincts warned them that something unpleasant was about to be born.
The old man said in a low voice: "Be careful… this is not normal… this is a summoning…"
But one of his grandchildren shouted: "By who?! Who is doing the summoning?!"
At that moment, all breathing stopped.
---
Blood from every direction was gathering. Human blood… wolf blood… the blood stuck on the rocks, and the blood leaking between cracks in the soil. Little by little… It all moved toward one point…
The massive stone… The dark one… The one that had stood in the stone forest for hundreds of years.
Strange marks began appearing on it. At first faint red lines… Then full circles… Then symbols that did not resemble any human spell… Nor any beast spell…
Something… else.
The oldest commander of Blood Blade Sect said with a broken voice: "This… is not from the continent's schools… and not from any cultivation ritual… what is this?"
The old man muttered as he stepped back: "This… looks like a forbidden summoning… or one of the cursed arts…"
The girl, his granddaughter, put her hand over her mouth as she trembled: "Grandfather… the blood is devouring the ground!"
---
Indeed…
The blood began covering the earth, cutting paths toward the stone like small rivers.
Then… The stone began to crack.
The air filled with the smell of rotten flesh… The smell of death… The smell of something that should not exist.
Everyone stepped back. Both sects, the old man's group, even the wolves gathered behind, releasing howls of anger… defense… worry…
As if all of them… were united by fear of something worse.
And Ashin…
was still sitting on his rock. The moonlight covered his face, his eyes watching the stone crack open, without curiosity, without fear, without interest.
As if he knew this scene. As if he had seen it before. In another place… Another world… Another era.
---
Cracks appeared at the top of the stone. Then spread like a web of bloody veins.
One of the sect soldiers shouted: "It's… it's opening!"
Then…
The stone exploded.
The explosion was not loud, but deep… Like the sound of giant bones breaking for the first time in a thousand years.
Shards of stone flew through the air, some falling on the fighters. But no one cared about the shards…
Everyone… was staring at what came out from inside the stone.
The first thing that appeared… was an eye.
A single eye. Vertical. Wide open. Its color a mix of blood and rot… Shining with a primal hatred for life itself.
Then part of the head appeared… Then the face…
Or rather…
the faces.
Dozens of human faces stuck together. Each one crying… screaming… smiling… Faces with open mouths, with exposed teeth, frozen in a moment of eternal pain.
One fighter whispered, his voice broken: "What… what did they do to them?"
Then the torso appeared… Huge… deformed… Many human arms coming out of it, some complete, some missing parts, some moving as if begging for help.
The two main arms… were like the arms of a giant gorilla, covered in thick dark red skin. Each strike from them could crush half a man.
Then the lower part appeared… The body of a giant spider, covered in coarse black hair, with long legs tapping the ground like the fingers of a dead man.
The creature… was complete now.
Nine meters tall. With a single central eye that moved from person to person… as if choosing its next meal.
A member of Blood Hand Sect whispered with a trembling voice: "This… this is not a beast… this is a nightmare…"
But the disaster was not over.
After a few moments… The rest of the stones in the forest began moving.
Then cracking.
From inside them… bodies emerged. Humans… But their bodies were deformed, gray, with empty white eyes, and half their faces missing.
Zombies. But not normal zombies…
They were moving in sync. Slow… but steady. Advancing toward the humans. And with every step… Black blood dripped from their mouths, evaporating before it touched the ground.
A man from Blood Blade Sect said as he stepped back: "This… an army of the dead… this is the work of the Corpse Purification Sect!!"
Right then…
They appeared.
Dozens of people wearing long black coats marked with a bloody skull. Their faces covered by masks. They stood on top of the rocks, watching the chaos.
One of them laughed and said loudly:
"The leader's plan worked… exactly as he expected."
Another said: "Spreading chaos between the sects… planting lure spells everywhere… a brilliant plan. We will gain plenty of powerful sorcerers' blood to continue the experiments."
Then he pointed toward the giant creature: "All of this… for this body."
A mocking laugh: "After it drinks the blood of all these people and beasts, it will become much stronger. It will become more complete."
All of this… All of this hell… The chaos… the monsters… the blood… the zombies… the appearance of the Corpse Purification Sect…
And Ashin was still lying down. His eyes on the moon. As if the entire universe was just background noise… As if this hell… meant nothing to him.