Arayn stood at the corner of the burning street, his eyes scanning the devastation spread before him. The ground was littered with burning bodies, and the rubble of destroyed houses.

Something felt off. His gaze locked onto the giant skeleton standing amidst the carnage. It towered over standing houses, its body radiating an immense energy. Arayn’s brows furrowed as unease crept over him. Something about it didn’t sit right.

Reaching into his cloak, he pulled out the Soul Gathering Scroll. The enchanted parchment was an artifact capable of revealing the form of souls. Unfurling it, Arayn let the scroll’s magic take hold.

Souls—countless, restless souls—drifted through the air like wisps of light. They flowed toward the distant mansion. But Arayn’s sharp gaze caught an anomaly. Some of the souls veered off course, pulled toward the skeletal behemoth. He watched as the creature absorbed them, its bones glowing faintly with each stolen soul. The aura surrounding it thickened.

His thoughts sharpened. "The more it feeds, the stronger it becomes. If this continues, it’ll overwhelm anything in its path. No wonder it feels so different from the others."

The skeletal monster turned, as if sensing his scrutiny. Its hollow eyes burned with a malevolent light.

Arayn darted forward, his hand cutting through the smoky air as he muttered the incantation. Dark tendrils manifested around his arm, extending toward the giant skeleton like spears. [Soul Rend] penetrated the beast’s armor and ribcage. The armor cracked and splintered under the impact, fragments scattering across the battlefield.

But even as Arayn prepared to follow up, the skeleton’s broken ribs began to reform. The cracks sealed themselves, the shards drawing back together as if time had rewound. A crimson glow radiated from its core located inside its ribcage—the same glow he’d seen when it absorbed the souls of the fallen.

Arayn’s eyes narrowed as he watched the bones knit themselves whole. "So that’s it," he thought, his mind racing. Each stolen soul wasn’t just bolstering the creature’s strength—it was reinforcing its very existence, protecting it from attacks meant to injure souls.

The skeleton lurched toward him, and Arayn stepped back, shifting his weight to dodge the swing of its massive sword. He moved fluidly, striking again with [Soul Rend], the black tendrils hitting harder this time, shattering a shoulder bone and toppling the creature’s arm.

The skeleton's core flared brighter. As if on command, the skeleton’s arm reattached itself, the broken fragments snapping back into place.

Arayn sidestepped another slash, his boots grinding against the blood-soaked ground. His breaths steadied, his sharp mind already analyzing. He couldn’t keep wasting mana on a frontal assault.

A plan was already forming, but first, he needed to survive the next strike.

Arayn ducked under another massive sword swing, the blade cutting through the air with a deafening whoosh. He felt the gust of wind as it passed, the force nearly knocking him off balance. His feet slid across the cracked earth, but he caught himself and rolled away just in time.

His eyes darted over the skeleton. The thing had incredible defense, but its offense wasn’t that good. It relyed on brute force only.

"I can wear it down. It doesn’t have a way to counter my agility. I can outlast it... if I can keep up the pressure."

Arayn called upon [Cursed Fangs]. Dark energy coursed through his body as he sent a volley of fangs toward the skeleton. Each strike exploded on contact, sending shards of bone scattering in all directions. But as soon as the explosion faded, the skeleton began to regenerate, its bones knitting together with eerie speed, its core glowing brighter.

The skeleton retaliated with a powerful swing, its sword crashing down where Arayn had just been. He evaded the blow and struck again with another [Cursed Fang].

Every blow he landed chipped away at the creature’s defenses, but it was slow progress. The skeleton’s regenerative abilities made every effort feel like a futile attempt to carve through stone.

Arayn’s breath quickened, but he maintained his calm demeanor. "I think those were enough to deceive the beast."

He knew the real challenge wasn’t just in breaking through its bones—it was in reaching its core. The aura around the beast thickened around the core like an impenetrable shield, and no matter how hard he tried, his attacks couldn’t breach it. However, those only applied to normal attacks. He had an idea to penetrate the aura.

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The ground trembled as the skeleton raised a hand, and a soul clone materialized beside it—a form made of solidified mana. The clone’s movements mirrored the original's.

Arayn’s eyes flicked between the two threats. The clone struck first, its ethereal sword slashing through the air. Arayn sidestepped, but the clone pressed. Arayn’s agility outpaced its strikes, weaving around the spectral blade with ease.

In the same breath, the real skeleton swung its massive sword. The blow came down like a crashing storm, the earth shaking with the force. Arayn’s instincts kicked in, and he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the sharp edge that cleaved through the air where he had been standing.

A few scattered stones grazed his side, leaving shallow cuts, but he barely noticed the pain. His focus remained sharp, his body already moving to avoid another slash from the clone.

As the two enemies closed in, Arayn’s lips parted. His voice rang out in the ancient demon tongue.

"Kharz'othan, ar'dun var fral'khan ush'mar."

A swirling aura of crimson energy began to form above his head, gathering around the shape of the fang. It spun faster and faster, the energy intensifying as it built momentum.

With his attack charged, Arayn continued his evasive maneuvers, ducking under the clone's swings, sidestepping the skeleton’s deadly blade.

Arayn’s gaze locked onto the spinning fang above him, its swirling aura pulsing with dark energy, crackling as if eager to be unleashed. "That's good enough." With a wave of his hand, he commanded it forward.

The cursed fang shot through the air like a bolt of darkness, leaving a faint trail of swirling power. The soul clone lunged to intercept it, but the fang passed straight through its mana-formed body without resistance.

The fang surged onward, striking the giant skeleton. The impact collided with the thick aura surrounding the core, creating a blinding flash as the energies clashed. For a moment, it seemed the aura would hold—the swirling barrier trembled, bending but not breaking.

Then the fang drilled through, its spinning force ripping apart the protective aura. It struck the core with a resounding crack, the sound echoing across the battlefield. The core, an orb of malevolent energy, shattered into shards, each fragment glowing briefly before fading into nothingness.

The skeleton froze mid-motion. Its glowing eyes dimmed, and its massive frame crumbled, collapsing into a pile of bones.

Arayn’s eyes narrowed as he spotted the panther darting through the chaos. The creature's eyes fixed on a fleeing townsfolk. Without hesitation, Arayn pursued the panther.

The panther weaved effortlessly through the wreckage of the town, its lithe form slipping around overturned carts and smoldering debris.

Arayn followed the trail it left—a flicker of movement here, a streak of claw marks gouged into the walls there. His path was anything but smooth. A burning beam collapsed ahead, forcing him to dive beneath it, the heat searing his skin. Frightened townsfolk darted across his path, some crying out in terror, but he maneuvered through them like a beast.

Ahead, a group of guards blocked the panther’s path. For a moment, hope flickered in their eyes as they raised their weapons. It was gone in an instant. The panther turned into a blur, and they crumpled before they could even strike. The beast didn’t slow, its glowing eyes now locked on its prey once more.

The panther caught its prey, its claws pinning the man beneath it. The man screamed, "Help!" But the sound was cut short as the beast leaned in.

Arayn finally arrived. He raised his hand and unleashed a cursed fang. The projectile sliced through the air, but the panther leaped, landing vertically on a nearby wall.

It turned to face him, a low growl rumbling in its throat, its eyes locked onto his. Arayn smirked, readying himself for the beast's charge. But instead of attacking, the panther’s growl faded, and its head snapped to the left. Its ears twitched, its body tensing as if sensing something more important.

“What now?” Arayn muttered.

The creature turned its attention to the left road at the crossroads, its body coiling like a spring before bolting down the path, leaving its first prey discarded.

Arayn hesitated for a moment, then followed, his curiosity piqued. What could have distracted it so completely? He kept his pace while observing the ruins of the town as he followed the panther.

Ahead, he slowed as his eyes fell on a boy kneeling in the dirt. The child held a brush, carefully painting a flower vase that miraculously remained intact amidst the destruction. Flames licked at the remains of a burning house behind the vase, but the boy seemed oblivious, lost in his work.

Arayn’s lips curved into a rare smirk. He recognized the boy. "Still painting, even now?" he muttered to himself, amused by the boy’s strange priorities in the midst of chaos.

The panther’s growl deepened as it leaped toward the boy, claws outstretched and ready to strike. Arayn’s gaze sharpened, irritation flashing in his eyes. He activated [Demonic Step], his body vanishing in a blur as he surged forward. Mid-leap, he released his [Demonic Aura], a suffocating wave of power that slammed into the panther mid-air, halting its movement.

Now directly above the beast, Arayn stretched out his hand. The panther began to shimmer, its body fading as it turned ethereal to evade the attack. Arayn’s fingers curled as [Soul Rend] erupted from his palm, surging downward. The tendrils latched onto the panther's ethereal form, tearing into its very essence.

A piercing screech echoed through the street as the panther’s soul-bound body shuddered, forced back into its physical form. The beast hit the ground. Its chest rose once, then stilled completely.

Arayn landed softly, his aura dissipating as he stood over the now-dead panther. This was the last of the five demonic beasts.

Satisfied, he turned his attention back to the boy. Without a word, he walked over to a patch of rubble and sat down behind him, leaning against a broken wall. The boy hadn’t even noticed the battle, his brush still moving over the canvas.

Arayn smirked faintly, watching in silence. He crossed his arms and waited, curious to see the painting finished amidst the aftermath of chaos.