The rain had stopped, and sunlight pierced through the gaps in the clouds, casting its rays upon the ruins below.

The demon was gone, and the Enslaved Fiend had disappeared as well.

Countless cross-shaped gravestones stood solemnly atop the scorched earth of the ruins—a sight that seemed to tell Nicole they had finally escaped the echoes of the past and returned to reality.

However, what Nicole hadn’t anticipated was that over twenty ghouls had followed them, transforming from shadows of the past into tangible threats in the present.

The battle erupted instantly.

In his bear form, Shinya clashed with the ghouls, his thunderous roars mingling with the ghouls’ ear-piercing screeches, echoing across the ruins.

Nicole wasn’t idle either. Taking advantage of the moments when Shinya drew the ghouls’ attention, she pulled back her bowstring, each arrow striking its mark without fail.

Yet neither Shinya’s attacks nor Nicole’s ice arrows could completely kill these dark creatures.

Shinya was already wounded. The ghouls’ venom nullified the werewolf’s natural healing ability, causing his wounds to bleed profusely, leaving him struggling in battle.

With a powerful swipe of his claws, he tore a ghoul’s body in half, but the shattered remains didn’t stop moving. Even as the severed torso crawled along the ground, another ghoul stepped on its comrade’s body and leapt onto the bear’s back.

The giant bear reared up, attempting to shake off the ghoul clinging to its back, only to have another ghoul sink its teeth into his abdomen.

An ice arrow shot through the air, piercing the second ghoul’s throat. Frost spread from the wound, momentarily slowing its movements.

Shinya managed to throw off the ghoul on his back, but more enemies surrounded him, closing in relentlessly.

"Shinya! We can’t handle this many ghouls! We have to retreat!"

Nicole shouted as she realized she was down to her last ice arrow. She had no choice but to make the call.

But Shinya seemed to have lost himself in the bloodlust. He charged forward recklessly, completely oblivious to the blood he was losing and deaf to Nicole’s words.

Panic set in for Nicole. She fumbled in her bag and pulled out the magic scroll that Quigeta had given her. Stowing away her shortbow, she ran in Shinya’s direction.

She quickly tore the scroll open. "Shinya, fall back!!"

But Shinya didn’t heed her command. He stood his ground, unyielding.

It was too late.

A surge of powerful magic burst forth from the scroll. The biting chill spread rapidly with the cerulean frost, freezing everything in front of Nicole—including Shinya.

The spell from the scroll, "Ice Cascade," temporarily immobilized the ghouls, but it was only a fleeting reprieve.

Shinya was the first to break free from the icy prison. For a shapeshifter, transitioning from one form to another made it easy to escape most ordinary control magic.

The massive bear transformed into a sleek black panther.

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Shinya’s fury hadn’t diminished in the slightest. He let out a low growl at Nicole, a clear expression of his dissatisfaction.

"Calm down!" Nicole snapped, unafraid, landing a punch squarely on the panther's head. "Without holy magic, we can’t defeat them!"

The struck panther let out a yowl, ready to retort, but Nicole cut him off.

"Please, just listen to me this time," she pleaded, not meeting his gaze. Instead, she deftly retrieved a small slow-motion trap from her bag and set it in front of the frozen ghouls.

"I don’t want you to get hurt again. I don’t want to see you... die like that."

After setting the trap, Nicole turned her head to look at Shinya. Her bitter smile trembled as tears welled in her eyes.

Their eyes met, and in that moment, Shinya felt a deep pang of regret—not for his injuries, but for almost making the girl he cherished most cry.

"I’m sorry," he murmured.

As the mist cleared, an elegant elk materialized before Nicole.

She climbed onto the elk’s back, and it carried her swiftly away, galloping through the ruins.

They hadn’t gotten far before the ice encasing the ghouls began to melt.

Several ghouls were caught in the slow-motion trap, but others trampled over their immobilized kin, bypassing the trap and continuing the chase.

Shinya’s wounds, tainted with the venom of the ghouls, refused to heal. As they fled at full speed, his blood splattered across the ground, leaving a crimson trail.

Roughly eight ghouls followed the trail of blood, their frenzy intensifying with the scent of fresh prey.

The lead ghoul, now overcome with madness, picked up a broken spear from the ground and gripped it in its hand.

From atop the elk’s back, Nicole glanced behind and saw this, fear gripping her chest.

She had always thought that ghouls, with their low intelligence, couldn’t wield weapons.

Nicole drew her final ice arrow, summoning all her strength as she held her breath, aiming carefully at the hand of the ghoul holding the spear.

Unfortunately, the arrow missed its mark, striking the ghoul’s knee instead. It tumbled to the ground and was quickly enveloped in frost, immobilized for the moment.

Just as Nicole felt a brief moment of relief, another ghoul picked up the spear that had fallen to the ground and resumed the chase.

Shinya’s speed was beginning to falter. The gap between them and the pursuing ghouls grew smaller and smaller.

Nicole looked down at the elk, its body covered in wounds and bleeding profusely, guilt and regret welling up inside her.

We shouldn’t have come here… Then Shinya wouldn’t have gotten hurt like this…

But reality gave her no chance for regret. When Nicole turned her attention back to the ghouls, she saw the spear had already left the ghoul’s hand, hurtling straight toward her.

In that moment, it felt as if time had slowed. Nicole could almost see how the spear would pierce through her chest.

Just then, the elk suddenly surged forward, speeding up.

The falling spear missed Nicole, instead piercing through the elk’s hind leg.

With a pained cry, the elk stumbled and fell, sending Nicole tumbling from its back.

She rolled across the ground several times before sliding off the edge of a cliff.

As she fell, Nicole swiftly grabbed onto a tree root jutting out from a crevice in the cliff wall, leaving her suspended in midair. The top of the cliff was still far above her.

Wasting no time, Nicole pulled out her grappling gun and fired it at a sturdy-looking rock near the cliff’s edge.

The hook caught securely on the rock. Nicole tugged at the rope to test its strength—it seemed it could bear her weight. Determined, she began climbing up the rope.

From above came Shinya’s pained shout. "Run, Nicole!"

"Shinya!!" Nicole called out, gripping the rope tightly and climbing faster.

How could I run? How could I leave you behind to escape on my own?

She knew that if she ran now, she would spend the rest of her life drowning in regret.

She refused to run.

Beside her, a waterfall roared down the cliffside; beneath her, a raging river churned violently. The mist sprayed up, soaking her clothes and gathering as tiny droplets on her eyelashes.

Amid the thunderous roar of the water, she thought she heard a voice.

"What a lovely day, isn’t it? Little Nicole."

Sunlight broke through the clouds, forcing Nicole to squint against its brilliance. The water droplets refracted the light into a spectrum of colors, blurring her vision.

She looked up and saw a ghoul plummet past her, swallowed instantly by the surging rapids below.

"A lengthy journey lies ahead, tread carefully."

Nicole shook her head, ignoring the voice, focusing instead on climbing upward. But just as she was making progress, the rock anchoring her grappling hook cracked.

With nothing to support her weight, Nicole’s grip failed.

Her outstretched hand reached desperately for something—anything—but found nothing.

She fell, helpless, as the roaring waves below seemed to rise to meet her, bellowing like a ravenous beast.

"Because... shadows lurk all around you…"