The nightmares stopped.

Not because Leonard had found peace. But because he had become the nightmare.

The creatures no longer startled him. Their grotesque forms, their horrific screeches—none of it unnerved him anymore. Fear had been stripped from him, replaced with cold, calculated efficiency. He knew how they moved, how they hunted, how they died.

He killed them like it was second nature now. He ripped through their flesh without hesitation. He consumed without questioning. And the more he ate, the more he changed.

His muscles had tightened into something inhumanly refined, his movements more fluid, more instinctual. His scars had vanished. His skin looked younger, tauter, like his body was reversing the damage years had inflicted upon it. He should have questioned it.

But he didn’t.

He had stopped caring.

Then he met it.

The creature stood at the edge of the chasm, watching him. It was massive, towering over anything he had faced before. Its body pulsed with dark energy, a grotesque mixture of exposed sinew and metallic plating, its eyes glowing like burning coals.

It didn't move like the others. It was calm. Calculated.

Leonard flexed his fingers around the hilt of his blade. "Come on then, big guy."

The creature moved.

Leonard barely had time to react before a shockwave ripped through the air, sending him flying backward. His body slammed into a jagged rock formation, the impact shattering bone. He gasped, blood splattering from his mouth.

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For the first time in a while, Leonard felt pain.

The monster didn’t give him time to recover. It was already on him, slamming him into the ground with inhuman force. The jagged rocks beneath him cracked under the sheer power.

Leonard coughed, trying to push himself up, but the creature’s massive claws tore through his abdomen. His vision blurred.

The world seemed to tilt, a cacophony of whispers growing louder in his mind, urging him to surrender—to become something else entirely.

He was losing.

No. Not like this.

Not yet.

Leonard reached blindly, grabbing a handful of the bioluminescent herbs he had scavenged earlier. With one final, desperate move, he shoved them into his mouth, biting down hard.

Power surged through him.

The pain dulled. His vision sharpened. His body began stitching itself back together before his own eyes.

The monster paused, as if sensing the change.

Leonard exhaled slowly, pushing himself up. The hunt wasn’t over.

His grip on his blade tightened, his eyes burning with new fire. "Alright," he muttered, cracking his neck. "Let's see what you're really made of."

The beast roared.

Leonard charged.

The battle that followed was unlike any before. It wasn’t just survival anymore—it was war. The terrain shattered under their strikes, the sky itself seemed to pulse with each collision. And in that moment, Leonard knew: this was just the eve.