The enormous eye stared directly at Leo.
He couldn't move.
He couldn't breathe.
Something pressed against his mind with unbearable weight. The sensation grew stronger with every passing second, as though the very presence of that eye was crushing its way into his skull.
His vision blurred.
Warm blood trickled from the corners of his eyes.
Then another thin stream ran from his ears.
Leo tried to look away.
His body refused to obey.
The eye remained fixed on him.
Watching.
Judging.
Or perhaps simply observing.
He didn't know.
He only knew that he wanted to get away.
A sharp pain suddenly tore through his head.
Leo's eyes widened.
And then—
Everything went black.
"Leo!"
The voice reached him from somewhere far away.
His body jerked violently.
The memory shattered.
BOOM!
His head exploded.
Leo suddenly shot upright.
His lungs desperately dragged in air.
"Haah...!"
He clutched his head as his breathing came in short, uneven bursts. For several seconds, he couldn't understand what had happened.
The battlefield was gone.
The dead bodies were gone.
The enormous eye was gone.
There was no strange vibration shaking his skull.
No blood.
No voice.
Only the sound of his own ragged breathing.
Kieran, who had been leaning over him, immediately stepped back.
"What the heck was that?"
Leo barely registered the question.
His hand remained pressed against his head while he tried to steady himself. His heart hammered against his ribs, and the memory of that eye was still painfully fresh in his mind.
He slowly looked around.
Grass.
Trees.
A faint breeze moving through the leaves.
Nothing else.
Leo blinked.
Once.
Twice.
His breathing gradually began to settle.
He looked at Kieran.
"Where... are we?"
Kieran glanced around as though he was asking himself the same question.
"I guess we found it."
Leo frowned.
"Found what?"
Kieran didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked beyond Leo.
That was when Leo finally noticed the surroundings properly.
He slowly pushed himself to his feet.
His legs were slightly unsteady, but he managed to remain standing.
Then he looked ahead.
And stopped.
A vast green forest stretched before them.
Tall trees rose toward the sky, their branches forming a thick canopy that filtered the sunlight into soft golden patches across the grass. Wild plants grew freely between the trees, and small flowers dotted the ground wherever the sunlight reached.
The air felt different here.
Clean.
Cool.
Peaceful.
There was none of the dry, dead landscape surrounding the wolf camp.
No twisted trees.
No barren earth.
No lingering smell of smoke or blood.
Leo slowly turned his head.
The place looked almost untouched by the world outside.
He stared for a few seconds before quietly muttering,
"This place..."
The words faded from his mouth.
Kieran stood beside him, equally silent.
Neither seemed to know what to make of it.
They had spent so long searching for this place that Leo had imagined something completely different.
A ruin.
A temple.
Perhaps some ancient structure hidden beneath the earth.
He hadn't expected a forest that looked almost peaceful.
Almost alive.
Leo took another step forward.
The soft grass bent beneath his feet.
For the first time since they had entered the lake, his shoulders relaxed slightly.
Then—
A strange sound came from behind them.
A deep, low rumble.
Leo froze.
His expression immediately changed.
Slowly, he turned around.
The lake behind them was no longer still.
Its surface had begun to swirl.
At first, it was little more than a small circular current.
Then it grew.
The water began rotating faster, spreading outward in widening rings.
Kieran's ears immediately twitched.
"What is that?"
Leo stared at the centre of the lake.
Something was moving beneath the surface.
Something enormous.
The water suddenly bulged upward.
Leo took a cautious step back.
"Don't tell me it came here."
Kieran's eyes narrowed.
The lake erupted.
A gigantic pale body burst through the surface, sending water crashing in every direction.
Leo stumbled backwards as the creature continued rising.
Its enormous body emerged piece by piece, scales glistening beneath the sunlight. Water poured from its back in streams as its long neck rose higher and higher.
Then its head appeared.
Leo stared upward.
The creature was enormous.
Far larger than anything he had expected to find in an underground lake.
Kieran's expression hardened.
"Sea serpent."
Leo slowly turned his head towards him.
"What the fuck is a sea serpent doing in a lake?"
Kieran didn't even look at him.
"You think I know?"
The serpent rose a little higher.
Its enormous body towered above the water before gradually lowering back down. It didn't rush towards them.
It didn't open its jaws.
It didn't attack.
Instead, its enormous eyes moved between them.
Leo stood completely still.
Every instinct told him to be ready.
But the creature didn't seem interested in attacking.
It simply watched them.
Then its head turned.
The serpent began moving away.
Leo's eyes followed it.
"...What?"
The creature slipped through the water, its massive body creating a slow wave that reached the shore.
It wasn't leaving.
It was heading somewhere.
Leo watched as it passed them and moved toward the centre of the lake.
Something stood there.
A stone structure.
Leo narrowed his eyes.
He hadn't noticed it before.
The serpent approached the structure and slowly began winding its enormous body around it.
One coil.
Then another.
Until its pale body completely surrounded the stone.
Leo stared.
There was something strangely deliberate about the way it positioned itself.
Almost protective.
His eyes moved from the serpent to the statue.
Then stopped.
The shape was familiar.
Very familiar.
Leo took a slow step toward the water.
Kieran glanced at him.
"What is it?"
Leo didn't answer.
His attention was fixed on the stone figure.
A wolf.
A humanoid wolf carved from ancient stone.
The posture.
The features.
The markings.
Leo had seen them before.
His eyes slowly widened.
"Mobius..."
Kieran turned toward him.
Leo barely noticed.
His mind was already searching through everything he remembered.
The stories.
The carvings.
The records of the Golden Era.
And then his gaze returned to the serpent.
The creature was still wrapped around the statue.
Leo studied it more carefully.
The pale scales.
The enormous length of its body.
The shape of its head.
The distinctive horns running along its skull.
Something stirred in his memory.
A book.
One of the old historical records he'd seen back at the Library.
He remembered turning through its pages without much interest.
There had been an illustration.
A massive serpent beside Mobius.
At the time, Leo hadn't thought much of it.
But there had been a name beneath the drawing.
He searched his memory.
Slowly.
"Nythrakar..."
Kieran looked at him.
"What?"
Leo continued staring at the creature.
"Nythrakar."
The name felt strangely familiar now that he had seen the serpent with his own eyes.
He remembered the description.
A Titan.
An ancient creature said to have fought alongside Mobius during the Golden Era.
Not merely a beast that happened to live near the Wolf God.
A companion.
A creature that had stood beside him.
Leo's eyes moved from the statue to the serpent once again.
Everything suddenly fitted together.
The creature hadn't attacked them.
It had emerged from the lake and gone straight to Mobius's statue.
It had wrapped itself around it as though the statue belonged to it.
And the serpent itself matched the old description.
Leo slowly exhaled.
"The Titan who fought alongside Mobius..."
Kieran's expression changed.
"You think that's him?"
Leo didn't answer immediately.
He looked at the serpent again.
The enormous creature lifted its head slightly.
Its eyes turned towards Leo.
Their gazes met.
Leo's body instinctively became still.
Nythrakar stared at him.
There was something unsettling about those eyes.
Not rage.
Not hunger.
Recognition.
Or at least, something that felt dangerously close to it.
Leo swallowed.
After a moment, he quietly said,
"So it really is you."
Kieran stared at the creature.
"Nythrakar..."
The ancient Titan slowly lowered its head again.
It didn't attack.
It didn't move toward them.
It simply remained coiled around the statue of Mobius.
Leo looked at the two of them together.
The Wolf God.
And the Titan who had supposedly fought beside him.
They had come here following a children's song, chasing a legend that had survived for centuries.
Yet standing before that ancient statue, Leo was beginning to realise that the story had been connected to something real all along.
His eyes remained fixed on Nythrakar.
There was still so much he didn't understand.
But one thing had become clear.
They hadn't simply found the place where Mobius had once been.
They had found something that had been waiting here long before either of them ever entered the lake.
And somehow...
Nythrakar had allowed them to reach it.
Leo's gaze remained fixed on Nythrakar.
Then a dull pain suddenly pulsed through his head.
He winced and pressed a hand against his temple.
"...Tch."
For a brief moment, the image of that enormous eye flashed through his mind again.
Leo slowly looked up.
His eyes settled on Mobius's statue.
The ancient stone wolf remained completely still.
Leo stared at it for a few seconds.
Something about the statue suddenly felt different.
He couldn't explain why.
He simply couldn't shake the feeling that the eye he'd seen wasn't just a memory.
His hand slowly fell from his head.
"...What the hell did I see?"
The lake remained silent.
Nythrakar stayed coiled around the statue.
Then—
A sudden pressure filled the air.
Leo's eyes shifted sideways.
Kieran's aura erupted around him.
The wolf leader stepped forward, his expression cold as he manifested his spear and immediately pointed its tip directly at Leo.
Leo didn't flinch.
He didn't even look surprised.
Slowly, he turned his head toward Kieran.
Neither of them spoke.
Kieran tightened his grip around the spear.
Leo's eyes narrowed.
The two stood several steps apart, glaring at each other in silence.
Behind them, Nythrakar remained perfectly still.
Watching.