Harem Sync: Divine Edition-Chapter 46: The Fox That Falls on Its Feet

The mud pulled at Aldric’s feet with every step, sucking his boots up to his ankles, making each movement cost twice as much energy. He ran anyway, his vision blurred by tears and pain.

Behind him, the sound continued steadily.

* ... Another creature, resembling a monstrous lizard the size of a large cart, covered in bony plates that grew from its skin forming natural armor, a wide jaw full of serrated teeth, each the size of a butcher’s knife.

The two monsters stared at each other... a tense silence for two seconds.

Then they attacked.

The creature with the arms advanced first, moving like a giant spider on its multiple limbs. The lizard opened its impossible mouth and bit, its jaw closing with such force that it broke three of the creature’s arms at once.

The remaining arms grabbed the lizard by the neck and ribs, squeezing so hard that it began to crack the bony plates.

The two gigantic bodies clashed in brutal combat, tearing small trees at the roots, kicking up waves of mud everywhere, the sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing echoing throughout the swamp.

Aldric stood still for a second, still lying in the mud, somewhat confused.

The fight was absurdly brutal. Bites tearing chunks away. Arms crushing ribs. Dark blood mixing with the dirty water, forming oily puddles.

For a moment... Aldric thought he might escape. Maybe that thing would kill the monster chasing him. Maybe he could run while the two killed each other. Maybe...

A horrible snap.

The creature’s arms wrapped completely around the lizard’s neck, all at once forming a ring of flesh around its thick throat.

They twisted, and broke.

The lizard’s enormous body fell heavily into the mud, trembled for three seconds, and remained motionless.

Absolute silence.

The creature slowly turned its large head towards Aldric. All the small eyes scattered across its face focused on him at the same time.

The smile returned.

"shh..."

Aldric tried to run again, crawled upwards using the arm he had, managed to stand, took three steps...

Then something changed.

The air vibrated all around. A deep sound ripped through the sky from above, as if something gigantic were falling at terminal velocity.

The creature stopped.

All eyes instinctively looked up.

A shadow descended from the sky in a straight line towards them. Too fast.

Then...

Something fell directly onto the creature’s arms.

The impact exploded mud, water, and chunks of flesh in all directions within a ten-meter radius; a crater formed instantly, the shockwave knocking down small trees.

The monster’s body was crushed against the ground, the bones of its large head cracked like eggs, its arms scattering in random directions, some still twitching by pure reflex.

Aldric had been thrown back by the force of the impact, rolling another three meters before stopping. When he lifted his head, coughing up mud and blood...

He saw a small figure standing over the creature’s destroyed body, planted right in the center of the smoking crater.

Messy hair full of dirt and dried blood.

Clothes torn in several places, stained with blood that wasn’t hers.

Smiling... It was Kira.

She looked at the corpse beneath her feet with almost scientific interest, then plunged her right hand inside the creature, her fingers disappearing into the flesh up to her wrist.

She ripped something out—a random organ... Guts slid into the mud around it.

Kira laughed joyfully, lightly, almost childlike.

"HAHAHAHA!"

She began to disembowel the body as if opening a birthday present, pulling organs out with pure curiosity, flesh tearing with moist sounds, bones breaking as she forced her way to deeper parts, black blood spreading in the swamp water, staining everything a dark, oily color.

Aldric fell sitting in the mud, his heart pounding so hard in his chest it felt like it would explode, his breath coming in short, rapid gasps that didn’t bring in enough oxygen.

His eyes widened, fixed on her; he didn’t know if this was a savior.

Or another monster.

Kira finally looked at him, turning her head slowly, covered in blood from head to toe.

Her eyes were still like a predator’s, focused on Aldric with complete attention.

Heavy silence.

Only the sound of dripping water and the wind rustling through the dead trees.

Kira blinked slowly, her expression gradually changing as the pure adrenaline began to subside.

Her eyes remained sharp and predatory.

"Aldric?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as if processing difficult information.

Aldric didn’t answer, only continued staring at her, frozen, trembling violently, one arm clutching the stump of the other, which was still bleeding slowly.

Kira looked at her own hands covered in blood and viscera, then at the mangled body beneath her, and finally seemed to understand what she had done.

The smile vanished. Her fox ears lowered slightly.

"Ugh, disgusting..." she murmured, getting off the corpse and stepping into the mud towards it. "You’re... you’re hurt." Aldric instinctively recoiled even while seated, trying to move away from her by dragging his body through the mud with his arm.

"N-no... stay away..." he managed to stammer, his voice coming out sharp and broken.

Kira stopped instantly, realizing he was afraid of her. His eyes finally returned to normal, his pupils round again.

"I won’t hurt you," she said firmly but quietly, raising her stained hands in a gesture of peace. "The creature that was chasing you... I killed it. You’re safe now."

"Safe..." Aldric repeated the word without fully processing its meaning, looking between her and the destroyed body. "You... you fell from the sky... you crushed..."

"I know." Kira slowly crouched down to his level, keeping her distance. "Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. When the adrenaline kicks in, I kind of lose a part of myself..."

He looked around, assessing their location: a swamp surrounded by dead forest, two giant monster bodies rotting in the mud, no sign of Isabela or Haru.

"Where’s Isabela?" he asked.

"I... I got lost... she was with me but... the tunnels... they changed and..."

He stopped mid-sentence and fell backward. Aldric fainted.

"Huh? Is he dead already?!"