A chilling silence suddenly fell over the sector where Vara stood, as if the cacophonous battlefield had abruptly lost its voice. The air, once searing with the heat of blood-steam and the friction of internal mana, plummeted to an unnaturally frozen stillness. A thin mist began to rise from the damp earth, but it was no water vapor; it was a physical manifestation of mana being forcibly siphoned from the surroundings.
Vara froze. The hair on the nape of her neck stood on end. Her sharp predatory instincts screamed, signaling a danger far greater than the two Level 5 Core Mana Demons she had just defeated. She snapped her head around, her amber eyes sweeping the mountain of corpses to her left.
There, atop a mound of flesh composed of fallen Warbeasts and Demons, a creature was crawling in a revolting manner. It was a Level 5 Core Mana Demon. However, this creature was not fighting; it was a parasite in the middle of a feast.
