Damian paused abruptly at the unexpected whaling voice nearby. Listening in, the pained yelling continued:

"HELP! SOMEBODY, PLEASE! HELP ME!"

At the grating call, Damian followed the sound in urgency. Veering away from the dirt path, he eventually uncovered the silhouette of a singular man. However, as much as he wanted to approach the man, Damian chose to slow his pace to stop.

Something…was off.

"PLEASE, ANYBODY. HELP ME PLEASE, IT HURTS!"

'Why is he the only one out here?'

Squinting his eyes, Damian quietly took another step toward the man. The shadowed figure periodically howled in agony as Damian silently approached in caution.

One step. Two steps. Three steps. Damian carefully strode through the grass, getting closer to the still man.

Near his sixth step, however, Damian immediately halted his movements with wide eyes.

Breaking his concentration, the startling return of an all-too-familiar whispering acquaintance had finally made its appearance after many months of silence.

~"Don't move."~

At the muted demand of the mysterious whisper, Damian reflexively paused—panicked at the foreboding remark.

Simultaneously, he felt a hand swiftly grab his arm, dragging him away from the screeching man.

Overloaded with information, he attempted to jerk away in shock. Swiftly turning to the source, he spotted Yulie dragging him away with a severe expression.

'She looks…scared?'

Caught off by her fearful countenance, Damian wordlessly followed.

Eventually, the two returned to the training grounds where he spotted Aricin and Mika worriedly awaiting their arrival.

Now with everyone present, Damian darted toward Yulie:

"What the hell is going on? You saw that guy right? Did you guys hear that scream?"

On edge, Damian wished to confirm that everything he had witnessed was truly real.

"We need to leave, now. That…that was no man." Yulie briefly spoke in a strained tone.

Swiftly, they followed behind Yulie as they prepared to leave. Nevertheless, on their way out, the screams of the man quickly grew louder, signifying his pursuit.

Closer than before, the silhouette of a man was approaching them, continuously crying out in pain. Turning back, Damian noticed Yulie gazing at the man, growing visibly pale.

"There's…there's too many of them…" Yulie muttered in dire resignation.

Confused Damian strained his eyes to find what she was glaring at. Only then, did he uncover an unearthly change in the man's figure.

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The man had twisted in half. Pieces of him began to contort and shapeshift in twisted smooth motions behind the blurriness of a palpable haze—it reminded Damian of the contortion of a hand puppet's shadow performing in front of a spotlight.

Only the man was still screaming, desperately calling out for help.

Witnessing its transformation, Damian watched as it shifted from a man to that of the shadow of a bizarre four-legged gangling creature.

But this wasn't all, from every direction that same exact scream kept repeating over itself, staggering into a nauseating white noise. First, it was a few, then a few dozen, then what could only be imagined as a swarm of hundreds of identical human-like screams all slowly surrounding them.

As the four of them fell into a state of dread, Yulie was the first to break away from her trance.

"We need to leave!" Yulie hurriedly cried.

On reflex, they all immediately shot into a sprint, following the Imprinted.

Off the beaten path, they raced through a field of grass as they passed by distant buildings.

"Where are we going!" Damian breathlessly clamored.

"Away from those things! They're already getting closer!" Yulie shouted back.

Spotting something from beyond the fog, Yulie's eyes lit up.

As they ran, Damian noticed the faint shadow of a large entrance within the walls coming up in their direction.

Only Damian wasn't sure they were gonna make it. The constant awful screeching surrounding them was getting closer faster than they were going to reach the walls.

In the chaos of it all, a blaring siren began to chime across the land, announcing the arrival of a truly dreadful disaster.

Under a cacophony of hideous bellows, the outpost was thrown into a state of hysterical disquietude.

Damian struggled desperately to keep his aching mind from collapsing due to the excessive noise. Although cruel, Damian briefly considered using his companions as bait, but he wasn't exactly confident that committing such a sin in front of the most powerful Imprinted in the outpost was exactly a great idea nor did he really wish to see his mundane companions torn to pieces by a ravenous horde of unknown creatures.

As they got closer to the safety of the walls, the horde of whaling beasts only seemed to be encroaching on them at an even quicker pace, closing any sort of gap for escape.

'Almost there! We're almost there! We can make it! C'mon!'

Desperately racing to the safety of the inner walls, Damian gradually managed to catch quite a few glimpses of the mysterious contorting creatures. The creatures bore an eerie resemblance to near-human-sized insects covered in strained pale flesh. Disgusted, Damian forced himself to not look at them too closely, but he couldn't take his eyes away from them. Everywhere he looked, there were swarms of the horrid creatures.

There were so many of them that they were even falling and tripping onto each other due to their sheer numbers.

At the moment of arrival, they frantically searched for a room within the large hallways within the walls. As the beasts crawled along every space of the floors, walls, and ceiling, they dove for the first room they spotted, a mere breath away from getting consumed by the all-encompassing swarm

With everyone inside, Yulie slammed the door shut. Immediately, an incredible force collided against the door, nearly breaking through at the moment of impact. The four of them pressed against the door using every bit of strength they had, praying that it wouldn't break under the ferocious pressure. Keeping the dreadful hive from barely swallowing them whole, Damian scanned his surroundings for any chance of escape.

Upon closer inspection, he widened his eyes at the unexpected encounter. It was the old empty library, still cramped with a table and bookshelves.

At the realization, Damian had already begun to lose any hope of escaping from the dreadful swarm. There was absolutely nothing in the small space. The only option he could think of was using the table and shelves for extra reinforcement. It would only be a matter of time before they were consumed.

Mika and Aricin moved to the furniture, attempting to maneuver it to the front of the incredibly cramped space. In a race against time, they struggled to find a place to set up the extra reinforcement, throwing the situation into a disheartening and hopeless realization of their circumstances.

In the seconds that passed, Damian felt the door straining noisily.

'No, this can't be it! There has to be a way out of this!'

Damian scanned the room repeatedly for any minute detail he may have missed, calling back to the numerous times he'd stayed in the old library.

'Why did it have to be this room?! There's nothing here! Absolutely nothing except for that irritating…scratching.'

Damian's expression hardened in an instant. His eyes immediately gravitated toward a certain small web of cracks engraved into the back wall.

'That…there's no way…right?'