Until Dusk Protocol-Chapter 24: The Wolf Must Hunt

As Esmeray's voice echoed through the cavern, the ground beneath the group trembled as the faint scent of charred sweetness filled the air. Then the roof of the cave further cracked open, revealing a dark void above. From this void, red droplets began to fall like acid rain, burning holes into the earth wherever they landed.

Esmeray's Leere, a glowing crimson book, hovered before him, its pages flipping with a ferocious speed as if possessed. His voice carried a despair that he had long endured as he proclaimed: "I have conquered the moon. With its power, I command not just light and shadow but the beasts born of it. Witness the hunger that devours all."

The red rain intensified, heralding the arrival of the Husks, dropping like skyeels upon their prey. They crawled, slithered, and leapt from the gaping void, attaching themselves to the cavern walls. A grotesque menagerie of creatures emerged—hulking bear-like beasts with exposed ribs, skeletal birds with blackened feathers dripping shadow, serpentine fish thrashing through the air, and swarms of insects, their bony wings cutting the air like razor blades. A black mist enveloped them all, pulsating with malice.

The group couldn't do anything but watch the hunter's oppressive haze gripping their lungs like a vice.

Tang-Ji stumbled backwards, her face pale, her nails digging into her palms so hard they drew blood. Besides her, Junyo muttered furiously under his breath, his fingers working on his gauntlet as if in a trance.

Kompto's normally calm demeanour fractured slightly; his gaze locked on the creatures as his thoughts exploded like firework. 'Their movements... they're calculating. They aren't mindless beasts. He's controlling them. This isn't just chaos—this is a hive mind.'

But it was Emiko who broke the silence. Her teeth clenched, her breath sharp as a blade, she gripped onto the paper talisman in her hand, the effigy she'd crafted, so tightly her knuckles turned white. The words Esmeray had spoken earlier burned in her mind: 'A golden bird cage.'

"I'll show him whose wings are clipped!" she snarled, her body trembling with raw, unfiltered rage. Without warning, she charged headlong into the black haze, her form disappearing into the shadow. Her right arm drew back, fingers curling around nothing, tension coiling in her muscles as if bracing against an unseen force. Her left hand shot forward, grasping at the air with an unrelenting grip, her stance solid—poised, as if she were aligning herself with something only she could see.

"Emiko, stop!" Ji-Soon called out, but his voice was drowned in the roar of the Husks.

A blur of motion—the metal giant lunged after her, his larger frame tackling her mid-run. They tumbled to the ground, his weight pinning her down.

"Get off of me!" She screamed, thrashing like a wild animal, her fists pounding against his iron chest plate. "I don't need you—or any man—to save me!"

The light that was flowing through Decker's mask flickered slightly. Gripping her wrists with the mechanical arm, he barked, his tone dripping with sarcasm and barely contained rage: "Yeah, sure, Princess, go on! Charge in like some tragic hero! I'm sure those bones-for-brains beasts'll line up to thank you for the fight before they rip your dumb ass to shreds!"

She froze momentarily, glaring up at him, her chest heaving.

He leant closer, his voice low but cutting; his aggression sharpened into brutal clarity. She could also hear his faint breath through the blue mask.

"Listen here, princess. Its time to get your mind out of this little fantasy of yours about men being the big bad and women being angels." He dragged the words out, slow and deliberate. "Grow up. Do you think this is about you? Do you think throwing yourself into their jaws is gonna prove you're strong? No—it proves you're a fuckin' moron. You wanna shove that creep's words down his throat? Then work with the team, not like some idiot trying to prove a point to a dead man."

Emiko scoffed, her head pressed against the simmering, unrelenting ground, heat curling around the edges of something she refused to name. "Says you. The asshole who decided to act mature for once."

"Go fuck yourself," Decker spat. "You can kill yourself later, but some of us would like to live, so help us and yourself, or I will make you."

For a moment, silence hung between them. Then, slowly, Emiko's struggling ceased, though her glare remained fiery. She hissed through clenched teeth, "Get off me."

"Hmph," Decker smirked grimly but relented, rising to his feet and offering her a hand. She ignored it, standing on her own, her shoulders squared.

"You can't make me do anything," Emiko muttered. "I'll do it for myself."

Before either could say more, Esmeray's laughter boomed through the cavern.

"How quaint," he sneered, his voice dripping with mockery. "Look at you—a pack of confused deer, huddling together, hoping the lion won't notice. But even deer have more sense than to challenge the chef."

He extended an arm, the glowing crescent moon tattoo on his chest pulsing with eerie light.

"I have spent my life scavenging scraps, turning them into feasts, only for others to consume what I laboured for. But now? Now, I am the one who decides the menu. And you..." He gestured at the group with a theatrical flourish. "...you are just the appetisers."

A sinister energy surged through the cavern as the creatures began to advance. The hunter smirked, his violet eyes gleaming.

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The cavern trembled, black mist creeping closer like an unrelenting tide, swallowing the space between them.

Kompto's voice rose above the chaos as the ground quivered beneath them with an uneven tremor that sent loose pebbles skittering across the stone. "Junyo, grab Kazami! Get behind cover!"

Junyo's trembling hands clutched Kazami's motionless body as Kompto dragged him towards a large, jagged boulder near the wall. Dust from the collapsing tunnel clouded the air, but even as the debris rumbled behind them, Kompto's attention snapped back to the others.

"Move!" he shouted, his voice raw. "We're running out of time!"

But no one moved.

Tang-Ji stood frozen, her legs rooted like deadened tree trunks. Her breaths came shallow, her gaze blank, and her mind a cacophony of fractured thoughts. Something heavy and cruel pressed down on her chest, an invisible weight that suffocated her will to act.

'I'm not even worth killing,' she thought bitterly, her vision blurring as a dark, inky shade began creeping over her sapphire eyes, fully hollowing them out like an abyss.

Kompto's frustrated cries grew distant, swallowed by the deafening silence within Tang-Ji's mind. The world outside faded, and when her focus returned, she found herself standing in a void—a space stripped bare of everything except an old television flickering with static.

The sharp hum of static buzzed in her ears as she cautiously approached. The screen seemed impossibly vivid in this barren space, and as she drew closer, the distorted pixels began to resolve into a shape—no, a reflection.

Tang-Ji blinked. It wasn't quite her reflection, though it was eerily close.

The girl on the screen smirked, her sharp red eyes brimming with confidence. Her short bob haircut, streaked with vibrant crimson highlights, framed her face like a blade. She wore Tang-Ji's school uniform, but draped over it was a jacket adorned with intricate patterns, its bold design clashing against the uniform's simplicity.

"Hey," the girl drawled, leaning forward with a sly tilt of her head. "Been tryin' to reach you for a while. Looks like we've finally gone and done it."

Tang-Ji stumbled back a step, startled by the voice.

"You gonna keep gawking at me, or are you gonna speak?" The girl said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I—" Tang-Ji stammered, words tumbling over each other, but she couldn't form a proper sentence. So many questions occupied her mind. 'Who are you? Where am I? Why do you look like me? I... I need to get back to everyone—'

The girl cut her off, her voice sharp but laced with an amused edge. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Who are you, where am I, blah blah blah. Trust me, I've heard this script before."

Tang-Ji froze. 'How did she know what I was going to say?'

The girl's smirk widened, her expression dripping with mischief. "Oh, that's easy. I've seen this movie a hundred times. I know exactly what's coming next."

The void around them began to tremble, the ground quaking beneath Tang-Ji's feet. She stumbled, glancing around in panic.

"See?" The girl said with a casual shrug. "That's your cue. Things are about to go really bad out there. So, you ready to wake up yet?"

Tang-Ji's voice cracked. "Wake up? I... I'm not strong enough. I can't do it. Not even Kazami was able to win. Even with everyone's effort... there is no way I—"

"Stop." The girl's voice sliced through Tang-Ji's spiralling thoughts. Her bold tone softened just slightly, but her red eyes burned with an almost primal intensity. "You still don't get it, do you? You don't need to be like Kazami or anyone else. You need to be you."

The world around them shuddered again, cracks splitting the void as the girl straightened, her gaze piercing. "You're not ready to die, are you? You've got things left to do. People waiting for you. You don't want to let them down, right? You've already made it this far, so what's one more step?"

Tang-Ji's mind reeled, memories flashing before her eyes. She saw her parents' faces, their strained smiles hiding a sadness they couldn't quite conceal. She thought of Kazami, his reckless kindness and his relentless determination to bring people together.

'He saved me,' she thought. 'He showed me a world beyond the hollow shell I was living in. Even in this nightmare, I've started to feel... alive.'

The girl behind the screen leant closer, her crimson eyes gleaming. "So, here's the deal. You want resolve? The power that will free you from this boring life of yours. I'll give it to you. All you have to do is say the word."

Tang-Ji hesitated, her fists clenching at her sides.

"Tick-tock," the girl teased, tapping her wrist. The void began to crack and splinter, the tremors growing stronger. "Come on. He's waiting for you. You've got nothing to lose—except everything."

Tang-Ji's breath hitched. Her voice, quiet but steady, cut through the chaos. "I'll fight. Not for me, but for them. I'll protect them."

The girl's grin widened, and she clapped her hands together with exaggerated enthusiasm. "There it is! Finally, some fire! Now, go show them what you're made of. Although I do have to give you a word of advice..."

The mysterious girl paused for a moment, her eyes looking down as her tone changed. "It would be wise for you to give up on the idea of protecting others. It'll only lead to more suffering."

As the void shattered, Tang-Ji felt a strange sensation coursing through her limbs. Her body trembled—not with fear, but for the first time with a resolve that she had been desperately seeking all this time. Her long black hair began to glow faintly, red strands weaving through the darkness like embers catching flame.

Everyone stood still as the scene unfolded before them. Tang-Ji's appearance suddenly changed. Her once-clouded eyes now glowed a vivid, unrelenting red, and the faint light of her hair cast a brilliance across her face.

She stepped forward, her meek voice cutting through the oppressive silence with surprising strength. "Everyone! Get behind me," she said, her tone steady and sure.

The black mist hesitated, as if sensing the shift in her presence.

The hunter tilted his head, his amused smirk faltering for the first time. "Well, well," he murmured, his voice laced with curiosity. "It seems the deer has decided to become a wolf."

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The silence was sharp, heavier than the moonlight spilling violet across the ground. Tang-Ji—or whatever stood in her place—was not the girl they knew. Her red-tipped hair swayed faintly, as if in defiance of the breeze that swept past them. Even Decker, who always had something cutting or crude to say, remained silent. His gaze locked onto her, a flicker of something—fear, awe, perhaps both—gleaming in his eyes.

This wasn't Tang-Ji. It couldn't be.

A low rumble pulled their attention back to the horde of black mist marching forward like a tide of ink, its formlessness alive, clawing for prey. The ground beneath their feet continued to tremble, a soundless scream rippling through the earth. Some fell to their knees, clutching at the dirt for balance as the tremor swelled. "What the hell was that?" Decker's voice cracked the tension, but before anyone could answer, the earth split with an otherworldly glow.

A towering green light began to take shape before them, a slow, deliberate emergence as if the earth itself had birthed it. The glow stretched skyward, refracting against the violet moonlight in shimmering hues of jade, gold, and black. The light twisted, reshaped, and materialised into a colossal pair of jade shears. Its edges shimmered like molten glass, cutting through the dark mist with radiant defiance. The mist recoiled, its advance faltering as if the light had whispered something too terrible to bear. The shears' blade was half submerged in the ground, a spectral sentinel standing between them and the abyss.

The mist slowed. Not by the hunter's command, but by something far older, far heavier. Even Esmeray's confident smirk faltered as his head tilted in confusion. The air itself shifted, as though the weight of the universe had condensed into this single patch of earth. The shoreline ahead compressed, its very essence crushed into something unrecognisable. The minerals groaned under the force, their roots clawing desperately at the ground before splitting. Winged beasts plummeted from the air, their freedom ripped away by gravity's merciless hand. The weight of existence itself pressed down, squeezing life into silence.

Ji-Soon's eyes flicked back to the girl in front of him. She turned to face them, her expression unreadable. Her hair, streaked with crimson at the tips, caught the jade light and shimmered like molten metal.

"What... is this?" Ji-Soon's voice was barely a whisper. He stared at her as though she were a stranger, a ghost wearing Tang-Ji's skin. The girl who could barely meet his gaze before now exuded a confidence that didn't belong.

Emiko broke the silence. "Wait, is this your ability? You can just... change your hairstyle mid-battle?" Her voice trembled, torn between awe and disbelief.

Tang-Ji smirked, a lopsided grin that didn't match the timid girl they had known. "Yeah, sure. It's my secret weapon. Call it... uhhh..." She paused for a moment. "Red Hood." Her tone was light and teasing, but her eyes glinted like a dying ember. She turned back to Ji-Soon, catching his confusion like an echo. "It's still me, Tang-Ji; I'll explain later. Right now, we've got bigger problems."

Kompto's hand trembled, just for a second, his fingers curling as though to steady himself. He didn't react beyond that, his expression flat, but his gaze lingered a moment longer on the strangely familiar figure.

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Junyo's panicked gasps came from behind a boulder. His mechanical glove whirred, tiny arms extending to stitch Kazami's wounds with surgical precision. Needles danced, threading flesh back together with a speed and care that belied Junyo's trembling hands. "We need to run," he stammered. "There's no way... no way we can beat him. We're... we're out of our depth here!"

"No," Tang-Ji said firmly, her voice cutting through his panic. She stepped forward, placing herself at the centre of their group. "We can win. Each of us has something that can turn this around." She paused, her confidence wavering for a fraction of a second. Her eyes darted to the jade shears, then back to the group. "But I can't say more than that."

Kompto's eyes narrowed. "You're hiding something, aren't you?"

Tang-Ji didn't deny it. Instead, she nodded. "I am. But right now, we need a plan. We should split into three groups: one to cover from behind, one to hold the horde, and one to take on Esmeray."

"Sooo... who's gonna take on that maniac?" Emiko asked, glancing around, eyes narrowing at the thought of who would be brave or rather crazy enough to go face against such might.

Tang-Ji leant back slightly, a quick gesture of her thumb over her shoulder, a quiet confidence in her smile. "That would be me, of course."

"You can't be serious." Ji-Soon interjected, his voice rising. "You're going after him?"

Tang-Ji's grin widened, sharp and unyielding. She raised a hand, tapping her temple lightly as if to remember something. "I'm the only one who can break through his defences." She flicked her wrist dismissively. "My Leere—it's gravity manipulation, I think... don't quote me on that." She paused, then shot a wink, a teasing glint in her eyes. "Pure destructive potential. And I'm going to use it to obliterate that overripe souffle of a weirdo."

Ji-Soon blinked, brow furrowing. "...Obliterate that overripe souffle of a weirdo?" His gaze lingered on her, confusion settling in his chest. Any doubt of this being another person was no longer there. He was certain that this was not the Tang-Ji he knew... "You—" He hesitated, words caught in his throat.

Decker snorted, his impatience boiling over. "Can we stop with the yapping? I don't think the veggie wizard will give us anymore time." He pointed towards the floating figure, hands extended, eyes glowing purple as the book pulsed furiously. "You can tell just by looking. The freak is definitely charging up his skill. We don't have time left."

Decker snorted and turned back to Tang-Ji in the same motion with his hand still pointed out. "Now tell me, girl, who's gonna handle the fuckfest in front of us?"

Tang-Ji's eyes locked onto him. "You are."

Decker froze, his hand dropping like a lead weight, as if the intense gravity ahead of them had shifted under him instead. "What? Are you out of your goddamn mind?" He laughed, the sound harsh and bitter. "You are asking me to commit suicide. Why the hell would I listen to someone who couldn't even speak her mind five minutes ago?"

Tang-Ji's gaze hardened, not with anger but with an unshakable confidence that made Decker falter. "Because I know you can do it," she said simply. Her voice carried a weight that matched the gravity she commanded. "You don't believe in what that man said, do you? That your heart is bound by chains of fire and ice? Searing rage and freezing doubt—neither letting you love nor forget." She recited the passage with an unnaturally deep voice.

Decker's eyes enlarge, her words striking something deep and raw. His hands clenched into fists as her words sunk in. "You think... you can just provoke me into this?"

Tang-Ji smirked. "Is it working?"

Decker growled, running a hand through his crack iron mask before turning towards the horde. "Fine. The funny thing is, I know you're playing me, but you're right. Having people around always holding me back. It's a massive pain in the ass."

A flickering noise pulled their attention to the black mist. The jade shears that were lodged deep in the ground trembled, then snapped back with a force that should have been impossible to control. But Tang-Ji's fingers moved with practiced ease, catching the enormous blades by the ring as if they weighed nothing at all. Her grip was effortless, like she'd done it a thousand times before. The shears responded to her touch as though they were an extension of her own body. The blades glowed brighter in her hands as she balanced its edge on her shoulder. "Alright everyone, follow my lead. I got a plan."

Esmeray's voice rang out, smooth and chilling. "Level 7 deployment, amplification techniques: Feast of the Longing." His smile broaden, a predator's grin. "Let's begin tonight's course. Level 6 deployment, rush techniques: Amuse-Bouche—The Shards of Ice."

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Shards of frozen amuse-bouche rained down like divine punishment—shrimp entombed in crystals of ice, slivers of citrus suspended mid-air like severed halos, whole fish spiralling towards the earth with the force of comets. The moment they broke formation, the moment their breathing hitched in the cold—she was already moving. A flick of her blade severed a limb, cutting through the bony parts of the beast before the body it belonged to even registered pain. She twisted, her blade catching the edge of an incoming projectile, the deflection sending a pulse through her arm. Another step, another flicker of motion, and she was gone again, leaving only a mist of warm, pixelated, red shards evaporating in the cold.

The rocky terrain groaned under the assault, cracks opening in the wake of each impact. Tang-Ji ran against the storm, slicing where she could and dodging where she couldn't. Even when her blade cleaved the ice, the payload within crashed down with merciless weight.

It was like a frozen graveyard of ice and steel; even the sky was slowly splitting open by streaks of red and blue as the console's algorithms wove shifting death patterns through the violet storm above. The purple moon above continued to rise higher and higher, casting a condescending stare down at those under its gaze. Snow formed with every cast of Esmeray's skill as it churned around them, thick and blinding, swallowing the shapes of distant enemies. Tang-Ji didn't need to see them.

She felt them.

"Junyo!! Speed buff!" She barked, urgency flashing in her voice.

Behind the boulder, Junyo barely glanced up from his work. His fingers wove through the air, casting an amplifier field around her, light refracting off her limbs like she was a comet barely tethered to the ground. Beside him, Kazami continued to lay still, his wounds mended but his consciousness locked away. No flicker of waking.

Tang-Ji's steps didn't falter, but for a brief moment, she glanced back—not just out of habit, not just to mourn what had already happened, but as if she could catch a glimpse of something lost to time.

"Kazami." She murmured, the name clung to her tongue like a half-forgotten melody, its notes fraying at the edges, dissolving into the hush of the moment—familiar, distant, spoken in a lifetime that was no longer hers.

But time was cruel, and so was fate.

The black mist loomed ahead—dense, shifting, alive. From within, Esmeray's unseen hand commanded his horde, their silhouettes twisting like ink bleeding through paper. But then in her next breath...

"Move!" a mechanical voice barked.

Tang-Ji hit the ground hard, rolling out of range just as Decker let out a deep breath. A sudden mechanical pulse ripped through the darkness, a bolt of blue parting the fog. Those still tethered to him vanished, their existence wiped from the wastes like stray chalk lines washed away by rain.

He surged past her, a steel meteor colliding with shadow. Tang-Ji pivoted midstride, calling over her shoulder.

"Ji-Soon!" Before she could finish her sentence, a mechanical slot materialised above her. The slot reels spun behind his head, their soft mechanical chime almost mocking the chaos. Ji-Soon squinted up at them as they slowed to a halt.

Three shields.

"Lucky me."

A shimmering blue barrier snapped into existence just as the ice storm intensified, catching the lethal rain before it reached Tang-Ji. Ji-Soon barely hesitated before the slots spun again, his fingers flicking forward in silent command. The air split with a metallic howl as the first turret materialised, its iron frame crashing onto the rock with a seismic jolt. Hydraulic pistons hissed, stabilising its massive weight, while clawed braces dug into the terrain with the shriek of grinding steel. Cannons followed—barrels thick with heat vents, gears clanking into place as they locked onto their targets. Mortars groaned as they anchored themselves, their reinforced bases sinking into the earth with a heavy, mechanical clunk.

Just like that, the cue came.

A split-second hum. A flicker of golden light.

The carven roared. Fire met ice in a deafening clash as the air thick with shrapnel and steam.

Tang-Ji didn't stop. She surged ahead, the jade shears slicing forward. The gravity beneath her twisted, compressed, and then released. She shot skyward, cutting through the mist like scissors through silk. For an instant, she hung in the air, a spectre above the cave. Below, the monsters churned, a tide of bodies swallowing the ground whole.

Esmeray's eyes flickered with something—concern? Annoyance? He recovered quickly, lips curling in mild amusement.

"All yours, dude," Tang-Ji called, her voice threading through the chaos.

Decker grinned behind his mask, catching the words mid-air like an invitation.

"Everyone stand back unless you wanna die," he said, almost casually as he curled his upper body, arms clamping onto his shoulders with his head tucked in like a turtle retreating into its shell.

In that heartbeat, he took a gulp of air before his body shifted.

The blue light in his armour dimmed, draining away like ink vanishing in water. Heavy metal plates groaned as they split apart, iron blooming from his frame like an organism tearing itself free from a cocoon. Spikes unfurled along his back, jagged and brutal, protruding like the dorsal plates of something ancient, something unstopped by time or reason.

"Level 1 deployment. Amplification technique—Litost Path: Red."

Red slithered across his form like veins of molten ore, threading through his armour in pulsing lines, flickering, alive. His presence expanded, pressing down on the rocky ground with a weight that was no longer human.

And then the wires came. The scarlet wires extended from his body, invisible at first, until their presence was made known by the slow collapse of every enemy within range. The moment their health dipped below the threshold—

They will all cease.

No scream. No collapse. Just an absence. Life, erased by the cold logic of "The Litost Path." The mechanical giant rumbled as the form of multiple shadowy beasts suddenly dissolved into tiny rainbow shards.

Scarlet tendrils lashed outward, connecting to every beast in the horde, wrapping around them in a silent, inescapable contract. Even Ji-Soon hesitated, eyes narrowing at the sight.

"The hell is that?" he muttered.

Emiko, who was beside Ji-Soon, scoffed at the sight, her arms tucked close as she hovered between two smaller rocks—poor cover, but that was all she had. "If he had this in his back pocket the whole time, why not use it from the start? Wasting our time." She sounded almost bored, but the way her fingers curled against the stone told another story.

Junyo turned to her. "Look at his health bar," he murmured, motioning over his shoulder to Decker.

Waving her hand, Emiko opened up her UI as Junyo instructed. And there it was—fluctuating, an erratic rhythm of greens, losing and gaining.

"He's draining the life force of everything around him to attack," he explained. "Including himself."

"That's crazy," Ji-Soon replied, staring at Decker in shock.

"Enemies, allies—it doesn't matter. The form puts everything inside an execution zone. If their health drops below thirty-five per cent, they're erased. Just gone," he continued. "It's strong, but Decker's slow as hell like this. If he can't end the fight fast, it's over."

The red giant continued to drag his form, a metal colossus wading into the horde. The red tendrils pulsed, growing brighter. Then—spikes erupted from his back, launched outward with the force of a railgun, tearing through the mass of creatures. The black mist recoiled, bodies shredding apart, but still, the enemy pressed forward, endless.

And above them all, Tang-Ji landed.

Esmeray's gaze flicked up to meet her, the smallest trace of irritation crossing his features before smoothing into something unreadable.

"Oh, it's you again," he mused. "Let me guess. More paper tricks?"

His eyes drifted downward—there, at her feet, talismans fluttered in the air, weightless, scattered like fallen petals.

Esmeray chuckled, slow and knowing. "Annoying. But I already know your tricks. I won't fall for them this time. You should already understand the predicament you're in. It's impossible for you to deny fate itself."

Tang-Ji rolled her shoulders, one hand resting lazily on her hip. "Damn, you talk too much."

His smirk twitched.

She flicked a hand dismissively. "We're here killing each other, and you're still out here doing your dramatic villain monologuing. Who's even listening at this point?"

Esmeray's brow twitched. Just slightly.

Tang-Ji grinned. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You're starting to sound like someone's senile grandpa at a family meeting."

The gourmet reaper exhaled through his nose. Then, without another word, he raised his hand.

The battlefield shifted.

"Level 7 deployment," he intoned. "Rush technique: First Course—Tears in the Snow."

The atmosphere thickened. The air beneath them grew cold, a creeping frost spreading outward in delicate, fractal patterns. But it wasn't ice. Not truly.

Tiny droplets—dark, glistening—streaked across the rocky terrain, sinking into the earth like sorrow made manifest. Bitter. Rich. Like balsamic vinegar against white truffle risotto.

As if in reponse to fresh preys the tendrils came.

Dark, serpentine, slithering from the frost-laced ground. They curled around anything they touched, binding, suffocating.