The air in the stone forest had become thicker than blood itself.
Every stone pillar was trembling, every shadow twisting as if alive… all because of one thing:
The giant.
The twisted body rose above the rocks, fifteen meters of warped flesh, broken bones glued together in a horrifying way, and the human faces spread across the sides of its head were breathing as if alive.
It stood like a blood-soaked mountain… while Ashen, only one meter and eighty tall, looked like a small red dot facing a disaster.
Yet… his eyes did not shake.
---
Suddenly, the monster raised its four arms toward the sky.
Two arms were the size of ancient temple pillars—arms like those of a massive gorilla—while the other two human-shaped arms still carried traces of the human lives buried inside this thing.
The air vibrated.
Above the four arms, blood spirals gathered and slowly turned into massive blood blades… dozens of them… each at least three meters long.
They spun slowly at first, then sped up until their sound became like blades slicing through air.
Then…
they dropped.
The blades fell from the sky toward Ashen like red meteors.
Each one left a glowing trail behind it, streaks of vaporized blood as it cut through the air.
Ashen did not wait.
He dashed forward, sideways, upward… moving between the stone pillars with sudden, sharp motions. His small body almost disappeared in the shifting shadows.
But every blood blade crushed the ground like a falling boulder, and every impact sent black dust into the air from the force alone.
One blade hit hard enough to make a thick stone pillar collapse like straw.
Another tore the ground and left a deep trench.
A third passed just above Ashen's head… his hair scattered from the pressure wave alone.
But the giant did not intend to stop.
In one moment…
the creature opened its deformed mouth and released a wave of toxic blood mist.
A red cloud exploded outward, thick, sticky, spreading between the pillars at high speed.
It was not normal mist—this was a mixture of rotten blood and corrosive energy.
Every rock it touched began to decay like flesh dipped in acid, and even dead leaves dissolved in seconds.
Ashen felt the heat burning his lungs.
But this was only the beginning.
---
The monster's vertical eye… the frightening slit running from its forehead to its mouth…
lit up.
A dense blood-colored glow appeared, like a dying star.
With that glow, the mist started to gather.
To condense.
To change…
Shapes formed.
Within only a second…
dozens of wolves appeared.
They had no flesh, no skin… only fog-like bodies filled with toxins.
They released low hissing sounds, then lunged toward Ashen with speeds faster than galloping horses.
Ashen moved back, changing direction sharply.
The wolves followed, each step melting the stone under their paws.
Then…
The ground shook under him.
A hundred blood arms burst from the soil and rocks.
They stretched upward like twisted trees, making ripping flesh sounds as they moved.
The arms tried to grab him, crush him, drag him down.
Ashen jumped upward, spinning in the air, but a blood arm struck him from the side.
His ribs cracked.
Blood shot from his mouth.
He rolled across the stones, hearing only one thing:
The giant's footsteps.
This creature…
was not giving him even a moment to breathe.
The wolves attacked from the front…
the blood arms rose from beneath him…
the blood blades fell from the sky…
and the toxic mist closed in from every direction.
But the worst…
was about to happen.
---
The giant opened its mouth and released the Catastrophe Howl.
It was not just a sound.
It was a shockwave of blood power.
It shot out like light, but it was not light—an invisible blade cutting the air itself.
Rocks in a wide circle around the monster lifted, then shattered like glass.
The wave hit Ashen, and even though he shielded himself with his arms, his body flew like a leaf in a storm.
He crashed into a stone pillar.
The pillar broke entirely.
His eyes turned red… not from anger, but from the pressure that tore the vessels inside his skull.
But the giant was not done.
The vertical eye glowed again…
and a destructive beam shot out.
A concentrated blood beam that cut everything it touched.
Ashen barely avoided it.
It passed beside him and left a long, deep trench as if the ground had melted.
The monster was growing stronger.
Its spells were no longer techniques.
They had become a moving disaster.
And while Ashen tried to regain balance… something else happened.
The monster pressed its four arms together, blood energy rising around them.
Above its head, two curved blood blades formed, each one meter long, glowing with power strong enough to distort the air.
Then four more giant blades formed, one in each monster hand.
The creature's voice changed…
heavier, deeper, more violent.
Then…
it vanished.
At least from Ashen's viewpoint.
Its speed became outrageous.
A strike from above!
A strike from the side!
A strike from below!
Attacks coming from angles no human could even understand!
The air around Ashen collapsed from the pressure.
His hair broke apart, his skin cracked from the force.
Each time he dodged one blade… another hit him.
The fight became almost one-sided.
The giant…
with 16,000 kg of strength…
and with its new spells…
had turned into a living blood storm.
And Ashen… despite his speed and power…
began to lose control.
His body tore open, his shoulder dislocated, blood dripping on the ground…
the world turned into a spinning storm of dark red.
---
Then…
the giant turned all four arms toward Ashen, raising the four massive blades over its head, ready to end everything with one strike.
The scene was beyond logical.
A massive monster, the size of a building, holding blades larger than Ashen himself…
and the ground shaking beneath it.
But before the strike fell—
Something inside Ashen moved.
Something dark… wild… ancient.
His body trembled, his chest rose, and the blood around his legs literally began to boil.
Then…
a murderous intent burst from him.
It was not just power.
It was overwhelming chaos, a desire to kill, a pressure that crushed bones and stole breath.
The air changed.
The stone forest stopped moving…
the mist… fell silent.
Even the monster… froze for a moment.
It lifted its head.
For the first time…
it trembled.
Before it could react…
A massive crimson eye appeared above Ashen.
Five meters wide…
formed entirely from pure killing intent.
It floated above his head like a blood-colored moon.
That eye…
did not look at the giant's body.
It looked at its soul.
The monster gasped.
Its huge legs lost balance.
All its spells collapsed immediately.
The human faces on the sides of its head began to burst like blood bubbles.
Its vertical eye dripped dark blood.
Then…
It fell.
A direct spiritual strike.
Something it had never experienced since the day it was remade.
The monster tried to rise, but it froze.
Its eyes widened.
Its soul shook.
The pressure was unbearable.
Then…
a second spiritual strike hit its core.
It screamed…
a scream that shook the entire forest.