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Immediately after the crystal in Adrian's hand disintegrated, he bolted forward with frightening speed. The ground beneath his feet cracked as his figure blurred, and in an instant, he rammed straight into Aldric.
The impact was so fierce that Aldric's ribs screamed in protest. He coughed up blood, barely managing to stay on his feet before Adrian's next blow came crashing down. The two of them exchanged several strikes, fists and mana colliding with the dull sound of bone meeting flesh.
Aldric's vision blurred for a moment, but he didn't falter. He ducked under a punch and swung his arm upward, releasing a burst of raw mana that sent both of them tumbling backward.
Then it came.
The moth that Adrian had summoned spread its grotesque wings. With a single flap, the entire mountain peak they stood upon shattered into fragments. The sound of cracking stone echoed through the valleys as debris rained down like a storm.
Both Aldric and Adrian lost their footing. They rolled down the steep slope, their bodies colliding with jagged rocks as they continued to strike at each other even while falling.
Neither man showed any hesitation. They fought as if their lives meant nothing, their attacks wild yet precise.
But amid the chaos, a thought crossed Aldric's mind.
It attacked just like that... no hesitation, no warning. If Adrian summoned it, shouldn't he be commanding it?
The idea gnawed at him as they crashed against the ground below, the sound of distant thunder mixing with the cries of the beasts around them.
The destruction of the mountain peak had not gone unnoticed. The shockwave had drawn countless beasts from the surrounding wilderness. Some were humanoid with claws and twisted limbs, others were lupine with glowing eyes. Winged creatures circled above, shrieking as they fought each other for dominance.
The once-silent mountains had turned into a battlefield.
But all of that chaos was nothing compared to the devastation brought by the moth.
Every flap of its wings tore through the clouds and split the air itself. The pressure alone was enough to crush boulders, but that wasn't the worst part.
It wasn't just a physical attack.
The sound it made carried something deeper—something that dug into the minds of all who heard it. The howling wind mixed with the wails of countless unseen voices. Voices of agony, despair, and endless regret.
Aldric clenched his teeth as the sound hit him. It felt like a thousand whispers clawing inside his skull, each one trying to drown out his thoughts.
And then he noticed something that made his heart tighten.
Adrian wasn't immune.
He was staggering, his hand pressed against his temple as if the voices were tearing through his mind as well. His attacks grew wilder, less precise, his focus breaking apart.
So he doesn't have full control...
Aldric forced himself to move, ignoring the ringing in his head. He swept Adrian's legs from beneath him, sending him crashing into the mud. The two struggled, each strike slower than the last as the mental pressure increased.
But before Aldric could press the advantage, the sound changed.
The moth had ascended above the clouds, and for a moment, everything went quiet.
Then, it looked down.
Its massive, tattered wings unfolded fully, covering the sky like a curtain of darkness. Its body was that of a colossal moth, but its head... its head was that of a pale woman. Her expression was calm, almost sorrowful, as if she mourned everything she saw beneath her.
Her empty eye sockets seemed to weep.
Aldric could barely breathe as he stared at it.
The air grew heavy. The ground trembled.
Dark clouds swirled overhead, lightning flickering inside them. Slowly, the first drops of rain began to fall. The wind howled through the broken mountain range, carrying the scent of wet earth and blood.
The woman's face tilted upward toward the sky, and then... she began to cry.
But the tears that fell weren't water.
From her eyes streamed thick, black liquid that glimmered faintly as it fell. And within those black streams were countless moving shapes—small, writhing larvae, each one twisting violently as it descended.
The ground hissed wherever the black tears landed.
Aldric took a step back. The rain around him turned cold. He raised his hand to block his eyes, but curiosity made him look again.
Every droplet that fell to the earth began to swell, pulsing with unnatural life.
And then, one after another, they split open.
From within the swollen larvae burst forth creatures—smaller versions of the moth, each one with distorted faces and malformed wings. Their bodies radiated a sickly light as they screamed into the storm.
The moths' vile spawn had been born.
Their cries merged with the storm, creating a sound that was neither natural nor sane.
Aldric's eyes widened as he turned to Adrian, but the latter was already standing again, drenched in the black rain, his expression hidden beneath his wet hair.
His hand trembled slightly as he looked up at the monstrous creature in the sky.
For the first time, Aldric saw something in his eyes that wasn't anger or cunning—something that looked a lot like fear.
But before either of them could react, the largest of the larvae burst open near them.
A humanoid shape crawled out, its arms long and slender, its head splitting open to reveal rows of sharp teeth.
Aldric's heart pounded in his chest.
The rain fell harder. The moth's scream echoed across the land.
And in that moment, the Blood Fang region was swallowed by chaos once again.
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