The Jungle of Screams greeted them with a silence that felt anything but empty.
Mist clung low to the ground, drifting lazily between twisted roots and jagged stones, while the dense canopy above swallowed most of the light, leaving only fractured rays filtering through in uneven patches. The air itself felt thick—heavy with the lingering presence of death and something far older that refused to fade.
Jin stepped forward without hesitation.
The hem of his dark mantle brushed lightly against the ground as he moved, the shifting shadows around him flowing in quiet response, as if the forest itself acknowledged his presence.
Behind him, two figures followed.
Igris walked in silence, his armored steps measured and steady, each movement carrying the weight of discipline honed beyond the limits of time. The faint violet glow within his helm remained unwavering, fixed forward with absolute focus.
Beside him, Beru moved with far less restraint.
Though he kept pace, there was a barely contained energy in the way his form shifted—subtle, restless, like a predator holding itself back from lunging at the first sign of prey. His gaze swept across the forest again and again, sharp, searching.
"…There are many," Beru muttered, his voice low but edged with anticipation.
Jin didn't slow. "I know."
There was no need to expand further. The forest spoke clearly enough to those who knew how to listen.
Faint disturbances echoed from deeper within—branches shifting where there was no wind, the distant scrape of claws against stone, and, occasionally, the low, guttural exhale of something large enough to claim territory as its own.
They moved faster.
Jin's figure blurred at the edges as his presence seemed to slip between shadows, each step carrying him farther than it should have, the distance folding subtly under his control.
Igris followed without a single wasted motion, while Beru moved in sharp bursts, vanishing and reappearing between trees with predatory precision.
It didn't take long. The forest began to thin. The mist grew lighter, replaced by an open stretch of uneven terrain where the ground sloped upward into a natural rise—a crude hill formed by time and erosion.
And there—
they stopped.
Spread across the area ahead was a nest.
Drakes.
Some circled lazily in the air, their massive wings cutting through the sky with slow, deliberate beats. Others lingered on the ground, their bodies coiled or stretched across the uneven terrain, scales darkened by dirt and time. A few lay motionless, their breaths deep and heavy, lost in a restless slumber.
The air was thick with heat.
At the center of it all, atop the elevated rise, one figure stood apart.
Larger. Far larger.
Its body stretched across the crest of the hill like a natural disaster given form, its scales darker than the others—almost black, yet threaded with faint, molten lines that pulsed dimly beneath the surface, as though something within it refused to stay dormant.
Its breathing was slow. Heavy.
Each exhale carried a faint distortion in the air, like heat warping space itself.
Even at rest, its presence pressed outward, subtle yet undeniable, weighing against everything within its domain.
Beru's movement stilled. "…That one," he said, his voice quieter now, though the excitement hadn't faded—only sharpened.
Igris said nothing. But his gaze had already fixed onto the same target.
Jin remained still for a moment, the faint violet glow beneath his hood settling upon the elevated figure.
Then—
a small, almost imperceptible smile touched the corner of his lips.
"Found it." His voice was calm. As if the outcome had already been decided.
The shadows at his feet shifted slightly in response.
And the forest—
seemed to hold its breath.
Jin didn't move immediately.
His gaze remained fixed on the elevated drake, but his awareness extended far beyond a single target. The surrounding area unfolded within his perception in layers—movement, heat, breathing patterns, even the subtle shifts of intent among the creatures scattered across the field.
The drakes occupying the air maintained loose rotation patterns, circling at varying heights as if establishing a perimeter, while those on the ground were spread across the lower terrain in irregular clusters. Some rested, others remained half-alert, their bodies still but their senses far from dormant.
"…Drakes," Jin murmured, his voice low beneath the hood.
Creatures born from remnants of the dragon lineage—though calling them true descendants would have been an overstatement.
Modern drakes had long since lost what was once known as the dragon factor. What remained were beings that had adapted, reshaped by time and survival rather than legacy. Their bodies had changed accordingly, trading the overwhelming power of their ancestors for stability within a shifting ecosystem.
That was why most of them—
were manageable. Dangerous, certainly. But predictable.
Jin's gaze shifted slightly, tracing the movement of one of the airborne drakes before returning to the one resting atop the rise.
"…However."
This one didn't fit. Even at a glance, the difference was unmistakable. It wasn't just size.
The others, despite their variations, shared a certain uniformity in presence—a dulled edge, as though something essential had already faded from them long ago.
The one above—
was different.
The faint glow beneath its scales pulsed at irregular intervals, subtle yet persistent, like a heartbeat that refused to fully die out. The heat radiating from its body wasn't merely physical; it carried a density that pressed outward, distorting the air in a way that felt… wrong.
A mutation.
Or perhaps—
a partial return.
"…An ancient strain," Jin concluded quietly.
Rare. And significantly more valuable.
Drakes that retained traces of the dragon factor were no longer considered part of the common population scattered across the continent. They existed on an entirely different scale—both in terms of threat and worth. Specimens like this were not only difficult to encounter, but even more difficult to eliminate without considerable losses.
Which explained the mission.
A faint shift in the shadows followed his thought.
Opportunity.
Beru leaned forward slightly, his gaze locked onto the elevated drake with sharpened intensity.
"…It feels stronger than the others."
There was no hesitation in his voice this time.
Only certainty.
Igris remained silent, but his stance had already adjusted, ever so slightly lowering his center of gravity, ready to move at a moment's notice.
Jin's lips curved just a fraction.
"Yes."
His voice was calm.
"But not by much."
The words didn't carry arrogance. Only assessment.
To him, the difference had already been accounted for.
His gaze lingered on the drake for one last second before shifting across the rest of the nest, mapping out positions, angles, and timing with quiet precision.
Jin's gaze remained on the drake nest for one quiet moment longer, as though giving the entire field a final measure before the slaughter began.
Then he spoke.
"Arise."
The shadows beneath his feet spread soundlessly across the uneven ground, flowing outward in dark waves before erupting upward all at once. From that darkness, armored figures emerged in rows—silent, disciplined, and immediate in their obedience. Shadow knights stepped forth one after another, their forms cloaked in blackened armor veined with dim violet light, until an entire formation had taken shape behind Igris.
Most of them carried bows.
Not crude hunting weapons, but long, heavy war bows formed from shadow itself, each one dark and sleek, its surface faintly pulsing with the same monarchic power that bound them to their liege.
The moment they fully emerged, the knights moved as one.
They advanced into position with flawless precision, spreading into a clean formation across the rise behind Jin. No voices were exchanged, no signals needed. Bows were raised in unison, their aim tilting toward the drakes overhead and the clustered bodies below.
At the same time, layers of magic circles began to unfold in the air around Jin.
One after another, violet-rimmed sigils opened above him, beside him, and across the space overlooking the nest, their intricate patterns spinning slowly as water mana gathered within them. The moisture in the air thickened almost instantly, drawn together by his will until each circle gleamed with a cold, liquid brilliance.
From within those circles, countless arrow-shaped constructs began to form, their surfaces translucent at first before compressing into sharp, high-density projectiles that shimmered with a deadly edge.
Then, Jin slowly brought his hands together in front of him.
A deep violet radiance kindled between his palms.
He drew both hands apart with measured control, and the light stretched with them, extending into the shape of a bow formed entirely from shadow and condensed mana. Dark-violet aura crackled faintly along its curve, the space between his hands humming as a single arrow took form against the string, long and sharp, its tip burning with compressed water mana wrapped in shadow.
Around him, the suspended magic circles continued to multiply.
Behind him, the shadow archers held their draw.
Below, the drakes still had not fully understood what was descending upon them.
Some remained asleep. Others shifted restlessly, stirred by the subtle distortion gathering overhead. A few of the airborne drakes began to turn, their instincts brushing against the first edge of danger, but most were too slow, dulled by the false security of numbers and territory.
Only the largest drake reacted immediately.
Its eyes snapped open atop the elevated rise.
A low, heat-laden breath escaped its jaws as its head lifted, the molten lines beneath its dark scales pulsing brighter for an instant. Even before the first arrow was released, it had already sensed the hostility bearing down upon its nest, and its gaze turned sharply toward the source.
Toward Jin.
But, the faint glow beneath the hood did not waver. He drew the bowstring back.
Behind him, hundreds of shadow archers mirrored the same motion with perfect synchronization, while the magic circles ringing the sky trembled at the edge of release.
Then Jin spoke, his voice calm and absolute.
"Fire."
The field erupted. A storm of arrows descended all at once.
Shadow arrows tore through the air in dark streams, while the projectiles born from Jin's magic circles fell beside them like a rain of sharpened water, dense enough to punch through scale and bone alike. Jin's own arrow flew at the center of it all, cutting through the sky in a streak of violet light that split the air with overwhelming force.
The drake nest exploded into chaos.
Those still on the ground had little time to react before the first wave struck them. Bodies jerked and convulsed beneath the impact as arrows pierced wings, necks, shoulders, and exposed joints. Several drakes collapsed before they could even rise, while others let out guttural cries as they staggered across the uneven terrain, blood and dark ichor splashing across the stone.
The airborne drakes suffered even more.
The sky that had once belonged to them turned hostile in an instant. Wings were shredded mid-flight, muscles torn open by the relentless rain, and one after another, the drakes began to fall. Some spiraled downward in panicked descent before crashing into the ground below, while others dropped outright, their bodies slamming into the slope with enough force to shake loose dirt and rock.
The largest drake surged to its feet with a furious roar.
It stood higher than the rest by a clear margin, its full frame finally visible atop the rise as it spread its wings and bared rows of jagged teeth. The heat rolling from its body intensified, and the molten veins beneath its scales glowed brighter now, no longer hidden beneath the stillness of sleep. Unlike the others, it had avoided the worst of the opening barrage, twisting away at the critical moment with instincts sharpened far beyond an ordinary drake's.
Its eyes locked onto Jin with immediate killing intent.
Jin lowered the bow slightly, the fading remains of violet mana dispersing from his fingers like smoke, while his gaze moved across the collapsing nest with calm satisfaction.
Then he spoke once more.
"Arise."
The shadows cast by the fallen drakes, the broken terrain, and the dying bodies themselves all began to move.
Darkness spread rapidly across the battlefield before rising upward in violent surges, and from those surges came a second wave of summons.
Beru, bursting from behind with savage momentum, his wings unfurling as he launched into the air without hesitation, a shrill, eager cry ripping from his throat as he flew straight toward the surviving drakes above. His presence alone was enough to shatter what little order remained in the sky.
Then Hannibal rose.
The ground trembled beneath the force of its emergence as the massive beast climbed out from Jin's shadow like a calamity being given flesh. Its towering, lupine frame was clad in black chitin and layered armor, while a blazing mane of gold-crimson fire spilled across its shoulders and back, casting violent light over the ruined slope. Heat rolled from its body in waves as it lifted its head and released a low, resonant growl that seemed to shake the air itself.
It did not remain grounded for long.
With explosive force, Hannibal launched itself upward, its body cutting through the air in a savage arc toward a wounded drake attempting to regain altitude. Its jaws closed around the creature's throat in a spray of blood, and both bodies came crashing down a heartbeat later, slamming into the earth with enough force to tear open the ground beneath them.
That was only the beginning.
All across the field, more shadows answered their monarch's call.
Death knights emerged in disciplined ranks, some armed with swords and shields, others bearing massive bows built for overwhelming penetrative force. Heavier variants followed behind them in darker armor, carrying halberds and greatblades meant for crushing whatever survived the first assault.
Dullahans rode out in smaller number, headless and grim, their presence colder and more oppressive than the rest as they advanced toward the stronger drakes still struggling to recover.
Skeletal cavalry burst from the spreading shadows soon after, their undead mounts surging forward in relentless silence. They swept across the lower ground at terrifying speed, cutting down injured drakes before they could rise and trampling through the disordered remains of the nest without slowing in the slightest.
Further back, robed figures took shape among the darkness.
Skeleton mages stood with staves raised, their hollow eye sockets lit by pale, unnatural light as they began gathering mana.
Beside them appeared a single Lich, its withered form draped in ancient robes, a dense and frigid pressure radiating from its body the moment it emerged. Its presence alone was enough to mark it as something far above lesser undead, yet even that existence remained perfectly still beneath Jin's command.
And near the rear of the formation, a far larger silhouette rose from the shadows.
Tusk stepped forth with the slow, unhurried weight of something that had never needed haste to inspire fear.
Even among the undead legion, his presence stood apart immediately. His massive frame towered over many of the others, broad and imposing, his skin a deep, unnatural red that seemed even darker beneath the shroud of shadow mana wrapped around him. Faint markings stretched across his face and arms, glowing dimly through the gloom, while a ragged hooded cloak hung from his shoulders in heavy folds.
A pale mask covered most of his face, exposing only his lower jaw and the burning light in his eyes, and around his neck rested a grisly necklace of skulls that shifted softly as he moved. In one hand, he carried his staff, long and severe in shape, its presence alone enough to warp the mana in the surrounding air.
He was not alone.
Behind him, more figures emerged in disciplined succession—shadow high orcs, large-bodied and thickly built, their darkened armor and brutal weapons making them stand apart from the skeletal undead around them.
Some carried massive axes, others crude but heavy blades, and a few bore staves of their own, their hulking frames radiating the same oppressive mana that marked their origin. Unlike the silent precision of Igris's knights, the force surrounding Tusk felt heavier, rougher, and far more primal, like a tribe of war shamans and executioners dragged back from a battlefield that had never truly cooled.
"My liege," he said, his deep voice carrying the rough, resonant weight of a being that had once looked down on entire armies, "grant me the honor of crushing them."
Jin could not help the faint curve that touched the corner of his lips beneath the hood.
For a brief instant, his thoughts slipped elsewhere.
Back to the moment he had managed to pull Tusk into his shadow army.
At the time, the timing had been almost annoyingly poor. Tusk had been powerful, absurdly so, and yet the opportunities to properly unleash that strength had been scarce afterward, one situation after another ending before the high orc shaman could truly display what he was capable of.
Hehe.
Now that he thought about it, finally bringing Tusk out here only to hold him back again would have been a complete waste.
How could he possibly miss a chance like this?
Jin's gaze remained on the battlefield for a brief moment longer, the faint curve still lingering at the corner of his lips beneath the hood.
Then he spoke, his tone calm and casual in a way that felt almost out of place amid the chaos unfolding below.
"Go on, then."
That was all. It was enough. The moment the order was given, the pressure in the field shifted again.
Tusk planted the end of his staff against the ground, and the surrounding mana responded at once. Dense waves of magic rolled outward from him in heavy pulses, not wild or unstable, but controlled with the confidence of a being who had long since grown accustomed to commanding overwhelming power.
Around him, the high orcs that had risen alongside him moved in perfect accordance with that flow. The shamans raised their staves, dark mana gathering at their tips in thick spirals, while the warriors tightened their grip on axes and blades large enough to split apart lesser monsters in a single strike.
Above them, the surviving drakes had barely regained any order.
Beru was already among them.
His figure tore through the air like a streak of black-violet violence, closing the distance in an instant before raking one drake open from throat to chest. The creature let out a ragged shriek and began to fall, but Beru had already twisted away, his wings snapping sharply as he turned toward another target. Wherever he moved, the sky became disordered again, drakes breaking formation and colliding with each other in panicked attempts to avoid him.
Hannibal gave them even less room to breathe.
The massive beast struck in bursts, never lingering in the air longer than necessary. It launched itself upward with explosive force, tearing into wounded drakes at the peak of its arc before dragging them back down in violent crashes that shook the slope below. Each landing sent dirt and shattered stone in all directions, and each renewed leap came with the same savage precision, as though the creature had already chosen exactly which bodies would break next.
The drakes on the ground were faring no better.
The first barrage had already crippled much of the nest, and the moment the second wave of shadows arrived, whatever remained of their resistance began to collapse under sheer pressure. Death knights advanced through the field in disciplined ranks, their swords and halberds cutting into disoriented drakes before the creatures could properly rise.
The Greatbow variants moved only when needed, stepping into position before firing arrows large enough to punch clean through scale and wing alike. Heavier variants followed behind them with crushing inevitability, finishing what the first line had broken.
The Dullahans entered the battlefield without hesitation.
Wherever a drake still managed to rise snarling from the mud or lash out in frantic desperation, a Dullahan met it with cold efficiency, severing limbs, breaking necks, or driving its weapon through exposed gaps in the creature's scales with precise brutality. Their movements lacked the regal polish of Igris, but the result was no less lethal.
Across the lower terrain, skeletal cavalry swept through the broken formation of the nest in relentless silence. Undead mounts surged over rock, bone, and blood without slowing, while the riders cut down any drake that had survived the initial rain of arrows only to crash back to earth wounded and disoriented. One by one, the fallen were finished before they could even gather enough strength to stand again.
Further back, the support line completed the process with ruthless efficiency.
Skeleton mages raised their staves and released concentrated volleys of magic toward the pockets of movement still struggling to regroup, while the lone Lich stood amid them like a dark pillar of ancient malice, its very presence deepening the density of mana across the field.
The entire nest was being erased so quickly that it barely resembled a battle anymore.
It was closer to a collapse. Even the largest drake seemed to realize that.
From atop the rise, the mutated drake released a furious roar that rolled across the field with enough force to shake the nearby trees. Heat poured from its body in turbulent waves as it spread its wings wide, molten lines beneath its scales glowing brighter with every second.
Its head lowered. Its gaze locked onto Jin. Then it moved.
The mutated drake launched itself from the rise in a violent burst, wings beating hard enough to tear loose dirt and stone as it charged straight through the battlefield. It did not waste time trying to save what remained of the nest. It had already understood, on some instinctive level, that the only path left was to kill the source.
Straight, toward the monarch.
Yet, Jin did not move.
He simply watched as the creature tore across the shrinking distance, its jaws spreading wider, heat gathering deep within its throat in a half-formed breath that had not fully matured but still carried enough destructive force to char the air around it.
Before it could release it, Igris moved first.
His figure blurred forward in a single, decisive step, dark armor cutting through the battlefield with perfect control. In the next instant, his blade met the drake's descending path in a clean upward arc, the impact forcing the mutated creature off course and splitting open a long wound across its chest. The drake roared and twisted midair, but the shift in its momentum created the opening the others needed.
Then, Beru struck from above.
With savage delight, he crashed onto the drake's back and drove his claws through one of its wings, tearing through membrane and flesh before ripping himself free again. The beast convulsed in pain, its balance shattering at once, and that single moment of instability was all Hannibal needed.
The flame-maned beast launched upward from below like a calamity unchained and slammed into the mutated drake's underside with enough force to send both creatures crashing down onto the slope. The impact ruptured the ground beneath them, scattering rock and dust in a violent ring, and before the drake could recover, the rest of the shadow army was already upon it.
The beast tried to rise. It managed only halfway.
Its claws gouged deep into the earth, molten veins burning bright across its body as it forced a final surge of strength through its frame, but the moment it lifted its head, Igris stepped in again.
This time, there was no wasted motion at all.
His blade fell in a single, merciless strike across the drake's neck, and the rest of the body collapsed a heartbeat later with a heavy, dying convulsion that sent one last shudder through the slope before it finally stilled.
For a few moments after that, the only sounds left were the fading echoes of movement across the battlefield and the low hiss of cooling blood against broken stone.
The surviving drakes, if any could still be called that, did not last much longer.
Jin stood where he had been from the beginning, his mantle stirring faintly in the disturbed air as his gaze moved across the remains of the nest.
The mission, for all practical purposes, had ended almost as soon as it had begun.
He let out a quiet breath, clearly amused, then said, "Now this is what you call a speedrun~"
There was no triumph in his voice, only satisfaction, as though the entire extermination had merely confirmed something he already knew.
Around him, the shadow army remained poised amidst the wreckage, awaiting the next command in unwavering silence.
Jin's gaze swept slowly across the battlefield in front of him.
The nest had been reduced to ruin so thoroughly that it no longer resembled a place where living creatures had once gathered.
For a moment, he simply stood there, taking it all in. Then the corner of his lips lifted beneath the hood.
"Woww," he said, the amusement in his voice no longer hidden in the slightest. "What a buffet~"
Beru immediately turned toward him, visibly perking up at the sound of that tone alone.
"As expected of My Liege!" he said with shameless enthusiasm. "A truly magnificent harvest!"
Jin let out a quiet laugh.
His gaze lowered again toward the countless drake corpses scattered across the field, and the violet glow beneath his hood flickered with something far more pleased now. For a necromancer—more specifically, for the Shadow Monarch—this kind of scene was difficult to describe as anything other than deeply satisfying.
A battlefield after victory wasn't the end.
To him, it was just a place to fill his 'inventory'.
His shadow spread soundlessly from beneath his feet, slipping over the broken ground and around the fallen drakes like dark water.
Then Jin spoke again.
"Arise."
The response was immediate.
Shadows burst upward from the corpses one after another, darkness wrapping around broken flesh, shattered wings, and lifeless bone as if reclaiming them all at once. The slope trembled under the sudden surge of mana, and across the ruined nest, the fallen drakes began to rise.
One.
Then several more.
Then dozens.
The first to stand were the lesser drakes scattered across the lower ground, their bodies now cloaked in blackened shadow, their eyes burning with dim violet light. Their wounds no longer bled. Torn wings twitched once, then spread again beneath the reshaping influence of shadow mana, darker and more fearsome than before.
More drakes rose from the wreckage around them, answering their monarch's call without resistance.
Then the largest corpse moved.
The mutated drake lying near the shattered rise began to tremble as shadow gathered around it in far greater quantity than the others, pouring over its massive body in thick waves. The molten lines that had once glowed beneath its scales dimmed for a brief instant before reigniting in a darker hue, like embers smothered and reborn inside the abyss.
Its enormous body slowly rose from the ground.
Torn wings unfolded with a heavy sweep, scattering dust and fragments of stone, while its head lifted until those newly awakened eyes settled upon Jin. The pressure it gave off was different now. It was no longer the unstable hostility of a half-awakened beast clinging to the remnants of an ancient strain, but something heavier, deeper, and far more complete beneath the dominion of shadow.
Beru stared at it for a second, then clicked his mandibles in obvious approval.
Even Igris, though silent as always, remained fixed on the drake for a fraction longer than before.
Jin tilted his head slightly as he looked up at the newly risen creature.
"Hmm."
The drake stood there, towering over the others, black shadow curling faintly from its body while the dim violet glow in its eyes remained locked on him with absolute loyalty.
Jin placed one hand on his hip. Then he smiled.
"You know," he said lightly, as though this were the most natural thing in the world to be thinking about right now, "you kind of reminded me Epyon Gundam."
There was a short pause.
Beru turned toward him at once.
"Epyon?" he repeated, sounding deeply intrigued for no reason other than the fact that Jin had said it.
Jin gave a small nod, clearly pleased with himself.
"Yeah. Strong, looks cool, and definitely has the face of something expensive."
Beru immediately accepted this logic without question.
"As expected of My Liege! It is a magnificent name!"
Jin chuckled under his breath before lifting his gaze back to the drake.
"All right, then. From now on, your name is Epyon."
The mutated shadow drake lowered its head almost at once, as if acknowledging the name the moment it was given. The movement was heavy and deliberate, yet strangely smooth, and the rest of the newly risen drakes seemed to grow even stiller around it, naturally recognizing the difference in rank.
Jin watched that for a moment, visibly satisfied.
Beru nodded along eagerly, while somewhere off to the side, Hannibal released a low growl that may or may not have been mild disapproval at the attention being given to the new arrival.
Jin ignored that completely.
Instead, his gaze moved across the growing number of shadow drakes now standing before him, and the satisfaction in his expression deepened ever so slightly. What had started as a simple extermination mission had turned into something much more profitable than expected, and that alone made the whole trip feel worth it.
Honestly, for a mission that was supposed to be troublesome, this had gone pretty well.