Giant mouths surrounded the town like a living cage.

They pulsed slowly, opening and closing as thick red liquid dripped from their lips and slid down the walls like glowing blood. The light they gave off painted the entire square in a sickly crimson hue, turning familiar faces into warped silhouettes. Every breath tasted metallic, heavy, as if the air itself had been chewed and spat back out.

Adventurers reacted first.

Spells flared. Fireballs, wind blades, shards of ice, arcs of lightning slammed into the walls from every direction. For a heartbeat, it looked like resistance was possible.

Then the mouths laughed.

They opened wider and swallowed the attacks whole. Flames vanished between rows of teeth. Lightning crawled across tongues and was absorbed. Blades met enamel-hard fangs and were stopped cold, sparks flying as steel screeched against something far stronger than stone.

A few desperate adventurers tried brute force, charging the walls with weapons raised. The teeth sprouted outward in response, snapping shut inches from their faces, forcing them to stumble back in terror.

Above it all, Gluttony watched.

The demon’s stomach-mouth yawned open, stretching obscenely wide as if savoring the scene below. His voice rolled down from the wall, echoing inside every skull at once.

"All right," he said lazily. "How about a little compromise?"

The murmuring mouths quieted, waiting.

"As long as you feed me the adventurers and guards," Gluttony continued, his tone almost playful, "I will let everyone else go."

The words fell like a dropped knife.

For a moment, no one moved.

Then panic erupted.

"Don’t listen to him!"

"It’s a lie!"

"He’s trying to trick us!"

Guards shouted over one another, trying to keep formation, trying to keep people calm. But fear spreads faster than commands.

Someone shoved a guard from behind.

The guard spun instinctively, fist flying, and his punch connected hard with the man’s face. Blood sprayed. The man collapsed, clutching his broken nose, screaming that he had been attacked.

That was all it took.

People recoiled from the guards. Others pressed closer to them, shouting accusations. Hands glowed as skills activated unintentionally, mana flaring as panic overrode discipline.

Weapons rose, not toward the walls, but toward each other.

The demon’s laughter rippled through the mouths.

Steel flashed.

A sharp voice cut through the chaos.

"STOP!"

Kaeya landed between the guards and the civilians, her sword raised but angled downward, light blades manifesting around her in a defensive ring. Her presence alone forced people to hesitate.

"This is exactly what it wants," she shouted, her voice steady despite the madness around her. "It wants you to turn on each other. It wants despair."

She pointed her sword toward Gluttony above.

"Do you really believe it will let you go after you sacrifice the only people who can protect you?" Kaeya demanded. "Once the guards and adventurers are gone, what stops it from eating the rest of you at its leisure?"

Her words struck home.

The glowing skills flickered and dimmed. Weapons lowered, though trembling hands still gripped them tightly. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"We already cornered it once," Kaeya continued, forcing confidence into her tone. "It’s desperate now. That’s why it’s bargaining. All we have to do is corner it again."

For a brief moment, hope returned.

Then the entire arena sighed.

The sound came from the walls themselves.

The mouths curled into mocking smiles.

"As expected," Gluttony said, boredom seeping into his voice. "That was dull."

The mouths shifted, reshaping.

"But I still want entertainment," the demon went on. "So let’s make it simple."

One of the mouths stretched open far wider than the others. Its teeth peeled back, revealing a tunnel of darkness beyond, deep and soundless.

"Just one of you," Gluttony whispered, and his voice slid directly into everyone’s ears. "One person goes inside."

The square went silent.

"As long as that person survives for one hour," Gluttony continued, "I will release half of you."

A murmur rippled through the crowd.

"How do we trust you?" Kaeya demanded, stepping forward.

"You don’t," Gluttony replied cheerfully. "You don’t have a choice."

The darkness beyond the wall shifted, and above it, a small opening appeared. Sunlight poured through, a clean golden beam cutting through the red gloom. It illuminated a narrow path leading outside the arena.

Gasps filled the square.

People stared at the light as if it were salvation itself.

"There," Gluttony said softly. "Your way out. Half of you. Alive. All you need is one volunteer."

Kaeya’s jaw tightened.

She took a breath and stepped toward the open mouth.

"If you don’t release them after an hour," she said loudly, "or if you don’t show my body, then no one will ever believe another word you say."

She turned back, intending to say more.

Tyler was gone.

Her eyes widened.

A ripple passed through the crowd as people realized someone was already moving.

A figure leapt into the open mouth.

"Tyler!" Kaeya shouted.

For a fraction of a second, she saw him clearly, silhouetted against the darkness, turning just enough to look back.

"The people here need you," Tyler said, his voice calm, carried by mana rather than air. "Let me face whatever is in there."

Then he jumped.

The mouth snapped shut. It vanished

And the hole above also vanished, along with The sunlight.

The walls sealed completely, leaving only red glow and horrified silence behind.

Kaeya stared at the spot where he had disappeared, her knuckles white around her sword.

Gluttony yawned, stretching atop the wall as if settling in to watch a show.

"I was expecting the girl with the sword," the demon said lazily. "But this works too."

The mouths began to hum again, low and pleased.

"Let’s see," Gluttony murmured, "how long hope lasts when it’s sealed in the dark."

Below, the people stood frozen, clinging to the fragile promise Tyler had bought with his own body.

Gluttony’s grotesque form began to melt into the wall itself, his body dissolving as if swallowed by his own creation. The countless mouths along the stone shuddered, their teeth grinding softly as the demon’s presence seeped away.

"I will teach him," Gluttony’s voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once, warped and layered, "that hope and despair are separated by only a single step."

Then he was gone.

The stomach-mouth vanished last, sealing shut with a wet, final sound. The walls stopped shifting, though the mouths embedded within them remained alive—breathing, blinking, drooling faint red light into the square.

Kaeya stood frozen for several seconds, her sword still raised, her gaze locked on the place where Tyler had disappeared. Only when the oppressive pressure in the air eased did she finally lower her weapon.

She turned slowly, scanning the walls.

The mouths were still there, watching, but Gluttony himself was no longer controlling them directly. The city was quiet in an unnatural way, like a beast holding its breath.

Kaeya exhaled, the tension draining from her shoulders in a single, shaky breath.

"At least," she said quietly, more to herself than anyone else, "we have an hour."

Around her, the townspeople remained silent, clutching that single hour like a lifeline —fragile, terrifying, and painfully uncertain.