The roar of Glosum's Maw exploding shattered the silence of The Abyss Glosum with a detonation capable of rupturing eardrums. Thick black smoke billowed upward, rising like a lighthouse of death that summoned lost souls beneath a crimson sky—a sky that now bled a deeper, more suffocating shade, as if the cosmos itself were hemorrhaging.
"Isn't that the direction of Glosum's Maw?" shouted one of the fugitives from the corner of a dark alley, his eyes wide with sheer terror.
"What the hell happened over there?!" another chimed in, trembling as he watched the flames begin to consume the remnants of the structure from a distance.
"Waaaaa-oooooo... waaaaa-oooooo!"
The wail of sirens pierced the air, blaring in unison across every corner of the district. Lina, who had just set foot upon this cursed land, stared up at the sky in disbelief. A scorching wind battered her face, carrying the acrid stench of gunpowder and burning flesh.
"Damn it, Tiger... you really broke the rules of the game!" Lina hissed. Her hands clenched into fists, while her special, orange second-skin suit began to emit a faint, tip-pivoting glow amidst the chaos.
***
The shockwave of the blast rippled far into the distance, reaching a grand mansion that stood proud and arrogant—an alien, stark contrast to the decaying ruins surrounding it. The tremors forced the high-ranking elites of The Abyss Glosum to rise from their seats of power. Ten shadows—the ten most powerful individuals holding sway over the underworld—began to move. Their footsteps were heavy and laden with absolute authority as they headed toward a single focal point: the living hell forged by the clash between Black and Tiger.
***
Not far from there, Glosum's Maw had mutated into an open graveyard. The pungent odor of gunpowder clashed with the suffocating black smoke, forcing anyone still breathing to choke in a fit of painful coughing. Amidst the still-smoldering debris and the stiff corpses of executioners lying scattered with crushed bones, a tragic scene unfolded.
Black sat slumped helplessly on the scorched earth, his breath coming in ragged gasps as if his lungs had completely given up. Before him stood Tiger, standing erect like a grim reaper newly risen from the abyss. With a single, powerful kick from Tiger, Black was sent tumbling backward into the dirt.
As Tiger stepped forward, every inch of closing distance seemed to create a localized black hole, violently sucking away the remnants of Black's breath. Black frantically clawed at anything within his reach, his hands trembling violently. "Don't come any closer, you monster! Get away! Get away!" Black shrieked brokenly, fresh blood oozing from his mouth.
Tiger's boot pinned Black's chest, while Void Fang—the pitch-black, serrated blade—revolved relentlessly right before Black's throat. Its low, murderous hum sounded like the steady heartbeat of death, counting down its victim's final seconds.
"The rules of the game have changed, Black," Tiger whispered, his eyes as deep as a black ocean that left no room for mercy. "And in my vocabulary, there is no exit door for traitors like you. How exactly did you kill Dragon?"
Black's hand crept forward slowly, shaking uncontrollably as his fingers tried to reach for the flashbang attached to his tactical belt. Behind the shattered, unrecognizable visor of his Dominator V2 Helmet, his pale face suddenly flushed—a spark of mad hope ignited from the remnants of his fading courage. He smirked, believing he had found one last loophole to escape.
However, that hope was smothered before it could even draw breath.
Before his fingers could pull the pin of the flash grenade, the roar of Void Fang drew closer. The rotating, serrated black edge sliced right against the skin of his neck, delivering a stinging, freezing sensation. The margin was terrifyingly thin; any heartbeat too violent or an incorrect breath would allow the wheel of doom to sever his head in an instant.
The fleeting hope on Black's face withered, replaced by pure, unadulterated horror. Tiger wasn't merely waiting—he had already anticipated Black's every thought.
"Stop... I'll tell you everything, please!"
Black's voice broke, sinking lower and rasper than the position of his body, which was now kneeling in desperate supplication. Before the cold-blooded monster, his dignity had crumbled along with the ruins of Glosum's Maw.
Tiger still wore his black cowl, concealing his face beneath deep shadows. Yet, from within that darkness, his eyes flashed crimson—his predatory instincts had detected an anomaly. In a fraction of a second, the atmospheric pressure shifted drastically. Tiger snapped his neck around, glaring sharply toward the right, piercing through the lingering shroud of smoke.
Ten shadows emerged, carving through the fog, carrying a weight of authority so heavy that the air in the Abyss instantly turned rigid and froze. They moved not like mortal men, but like grim reapers demanding absolute submission.
Without warning, an invisible strike shot forward, tearing through gravity toward Tiger's position. The predator's instincts screamed; Tiger leaped high into the air, twisting his body with an absurd, logic-defying speed.
BOOM!
The ground where Tiger had stood just a moment ago erupted, throwing dust and debris in all directions. Amidst the ensuing chaos, Black tried to seize the opening. He scrambled, preparing to flee from the needle-eye of death. However, his steps froze instantly. The Ten Shadows had already encircled them, locking down every single inch of space in a formation far tighter and more lethal than any iron cage in the underworld.
Black stood paralyzed, realizing he had just escaped one grim reaper only to plunge straight into the embrace of ten other demons.
"Enough. A mere legend has forced our hand, drawing us out to this forbidden territory," a deep, booming voice echoed. It didn't originate from a single point, but sounded as though the very air itself was speaking.
One of the ten shadows stepped forward. His black cloak billowed gently despite the absence of any wind. Pinned to his chest was a silver badge shaped like a closed eye—the ultimate symbol of the Abyss Authority. His eyes were narrow and razor-sharp, underlined by dark, heavy bags.
"You have crossed the line. Glosum's Maw is no place for vigilante justice. Hand over Black, or you shall be buried beneath the very ruins you created."
Tiger landed soundlessly atop a slanted chunk of concrete. Void Fang mended relentlessly in his grip, its vibrations slicing through the surrounding dust. He did not flinch. Beneath his cowl, a faint smirk tugged at his lips—the smirk of a man who had absolutely nothing left to lose.
"Your rules only apply to those who fear death," Tiger countered, his voice cold, barely audible, yet piercingly sharp. "And me? I died the exact moment Dragon was betrayed."
Tiger glanced back at Black, who was shivering at the center of the encirclement. "He isn't going anywhere until I get my answers. So, which one of you wants to try and stop the grim reaper?"
The air grew progressively tighter. The gravitational pressure around the Ten Shadows began to glow with a dense, deep blue mana. The true battle was about to begin.
Behind the crowd that was beginning to swarm the forbidden area, Tiger caught sight of a signal. Someone was standing there, clad in a ragged cloak that looked strikingly similar to his own. However, the silhouette was far too small to belong to a grown man. The figure raised their hand slightly, displaying a symbol known only to those from the darkest chapters of Tiger's past.
The shadows now began to raise their weapons, locking down every remaining inch of Tiger's escape routes. The murderous atmosphere reached its absolute nadir; Tiger was trapped between choosing a suicidal gauntlet against ten of the strongest tyrants, or following the signal of that mysterious entity.
"Execute!" shouted one of the shadows, a figure possessing a handsome face laced with a deadly charm.
The trigger had been pulled. Tiger knew that even a single second of delay meant death. However, a predator never dies an ordinary death.
"Have you ever seen a predator run from its prey, even when they hunt in a pack?" Tiger took his stance.