They didn't walk far before Ezra stopped, crouching low. "Tracks." His fingers brushed faint depressions in the dirt. "Bus tires? But they just… stop."
Kyle leaned closer, frowning. "Stop? How can a bus just..."
"...shh." Nia lifted a hand, her eyes narrowing on the woods.
A sound drifted from the trees. Like someone chewing on something too tough to swallow.
Figures shifting between the trees, pale shapes moving with jerky motions. As the squad adjusted their eyes to the dark, the details sharpened: thin, gaunt bodies hunched low, arms too long for their torsos. Their skin was ashen gray, stretched tight against bones, with black veins pulsing like worms beneath the surface. Their mouths split wide, filled with crooked teeth that clicked audibly even from a distance.
"Nakamores." Nia muttered.
One stepped into the moonlight, its face smeared with something dark. Its hollow eyes gleamed, its jaw working restlessly. Then, with a shriek that cut through the silence, it lunged forward.
Ezra's grin spread like a blade being drawn. He raised his hand and the shadows behind him twisted, coiling into the monstrous outline of a shark with two skulls where its head should be. The double-skulled demon let out a guttural roar, rows of jagged teeth glinting.
"Let's do this, Wrech..." Ezra muttered.
Wrech lunged, ripping through the nearest Nakamore in a spray of blood and broken bone. The creature's scream was cut off as its head vanished.
Nia was already moving, her katana gleaming as she dashed forward. Her cuts were clean, precise... each strike removing a limb, a head and splitting torsos like paper. She fought with terrifying grace, her every movement purposeful.
Kyle stood frozen for a moment, before another Nakamore came at him, claws flashing. He swung wildly, ripping it's arm. The blow staggered it but didn't stop it.
"Move!" Nia shouted, cutting through another demon before pivoting to knock the one off Kyle.
Kyle gasped, stumbling back. "I...I hit it! But it..."
"These aren't humans, dumbass." Ezra yelled, his shark demon swallowing another Nakamore. "You have to kill them!"
The woods began to writhe. Shadows shifted, revealing more and more Nakamores spilling out from between the trees.
Kyle's breath hitched. "There's too many…"
Nia's brow furrowed. "No, this is not possible. Nakamores are territorial hostile even to each other. They don't group like this." Her katana slashed another, blood spraying. "So why are they…?"
Her words trailed as the woods groaned with movement. From every direction, pale bodies poured in, dragging themselves forward with manic hunger.
Ezra snarled, and raised a hand... the teeth from his demon lashed out, each one shredding through the skull of a Nakamore. "Now's not the best time for questions."
Kyle swung the scythe in a wide arc, the blade hissing through the dark as it split a creature's skull clean open. The body crumpled, twitching but another three lunged to fill the gap almost immediately. His grip trembled from the weapon's weight, every swing burning through his arms. He stumbled back, parrying clumsily as teeth and claws snapped too close. Nia cut down three that had nearly overwhelmed him, her strikes still precise but slowing under the sheer press of bodies.
The circle tightened, the road was gone... swallowed by pale bodies.
Nia's eyes hardened. "This has gone too far."
Her breath came sharp, focused. Her katana pulsed faintly in her grip. Kyle froze, staring.
In a blink, the woods melted away.
Gravestones jutted from the earth, crooked and endless, stretching out into a gray fog. The oppressive weight pressed down, suffocating, as though the very world had been drowned in death. A vast graveyard stretched as far as the eye could see.
Kyle's heart pounded, awe and fear choking him. "What… the hell is this?"
"Syrren : Belmore Graveyard." Nia's voice was steady but her knuckles whitened on the katana. Her demon, Syrren, loomed faintly in the fog, a skeletal wraith wrapped in chains.
Kyle shivered at its presence.
"This domain can take thirty-eight." she said sharply. "No more, Ezra cut them down to size."
Ezra barked a laugh. Teeth fired shattering skulls. In minutes, seven Nakamores were reduced to mangled husks. "Done!"
"Eternal Rest." Nia whispered.
Her katana drove into the dirt.
In an instant, coffins materialized around the remaining Nakamores. Dozens of them, slamming shut with deafening finality. Gravestones erupted in their place, each marked with nothing but silence.
The screams stopped and the horde was gone just like that.
Kyle stood shaking, the scythe hanging heavy and limp at his side. His wide eyes swept across the endless graveyard. "She… she just…"
"Sent them to eternal rest." Ezra's grin was wide but his eyes were sharp with respect. "Not bad, princess."
Nia swayed, breathing heavy. Her face was pale, sweat dripping down her temple. The gravestones began to fade, the oppressive weight lifting as the real woods bled back into view. The domain vanished, leaving only the corpses Ezra had cut down by hand. Then Nia collapsed to her knees.
"Nia!" Kyle rushed forward, catching her arm. Her body trembled, drained from the massive expansion of her domain.
Ezra crouched nearby, eyes narrowing. "You over did it once again."
Before anyone could speak further, the air changed. A dark aura seeped from deep inside the woods, colder than anything yet.
A new figure emerged. It was tall, humanoid... its body corded with thick muscle. Its skin was purplish and raw-looking, stitched crudely across places where eyes and a mouth should have been.
"Are you the ones responsible… for killing my pets?"
Kyle's blood ran cold, Ezra's grin faltered. And even Nia, stiffened.
The stitched figure tilted its head, the seams across its face pulling unnaturally as if it were smiling.
"Time to die, humans."