The rain did not stop.
But...
something *had* stopped.
Tiger's heartbeat.
He could no longer hear it.
Nor could he feel it.
He stood up with difficulty, leaning against a sharp rock, while droplets of blood mixed with the rainwater and streamed down toward the valley.
He looked at his hands.
The wounds that, moments ago, were so deep his bones were showing...
nothing remained of them except faint scars.
"Am I... alive?"
Even he did not know the answer to that question.
On the mountain peak...
Gwen stood under the rain, her sword still in her hand.
She stared into the abyss for a long time.
"It is over..."
she said in a low voice.
There was no joy in her eyes.
Nor regret.
Only turmoil.
For she knew that a fall from this height leaves no survivors.
She turned around slowly and headed back toward the palace.
But she did not notice...
that a black shadow had passed for a brief moment over the valley.
Inside the palace...
everyone had returned to their normal lives.
The servants were cleaning the corridors.
The knights were training.
As for the head of the family...
he didn't ask a single question about his son.
As if he had never existed from the very beginning.
One of the servants said fearfully:
"My lord... Prince Tiger has not returned."
The man looked at him coldly.
Then he said:
"Then do not mention his name ever again."
Silence prevailed.
Then everyone bowed.
"As you command."
In the valley...
Tiger began to walk.
Every step pained him.
But the strange thing was...
he no longer felt bothered by the pain.
It was as if it had become merely a piece of information his body was telling him,
rather than a sensation.
Suddenly...
he stopped.
Before him stood a massive gray wolf.
Its eyes were crimson red.
And its fangs were longer than a human arm.
An Iron-Rank beast.
A monster that could easily kill ten grown men.
The wolf growled.
Then it lunged forward with speed.
Tiger raised his head.
And for the first time...
he did not feel fear.
Nor did he feel courage either.
He was empty.
Completely.
And before the wolf could reach him...
the beast suddenly froze.
It began to tremble.
It took a step back...
then two steps.
And let out a howl filled with sheer terror.
After that...
it fled.
Tiger kept staring at the spot where it had vanished.
Without understanding.
Meanwhile, in a distant place...
inside an ancient temple, an elder suddenly opened his eyes.
"Impossible..."
He turned to his disciples.
And said in a voice that trembled for the first time in fifty years:
"Search..."
"Something that should have stayed dead has returned."