The woods felt like they were shrinking, the tall pines pressing in on us as Kael took another step forward. His eyes weren't on me.
They were locked onto Liora with the cold, predatory focus of a man who had already decided a life was worth less than a secret.
I scrambled to my feet, my muscles screaming in protest. Every burn from the Entropic mana felt like a hot iron being pressed into my skin, but I forced myself to stand between them. I spread my arms wide, shielding the trembling girl behind me.
"Hey! Back off!" I barked, my voice cracking.
"What the hell are you doing? She's just an innocent child. Don't be so heartless!"
He didn't even slow down. His boots crunched on the dry needles with a rhythmic, terrifying steadiness.
"Hey, stop! Don't come any closer!" I yelled, my hand drifting toward the hilt of the sword I could barely lift.
Kael finally halted, but the air around him felt heavy, like the pressure before a lightning strike. He looked at me, his face a mask of absolute indifference.
"Move... Leo," he said. The way he said my name is a request.
"Why should I?" I spat, my heart thumping against my bruised ribs.
"Do you think you can just order me around to do your dirty work? I knew you were cold, Kael, but I never thought you'd be this evil. You're crossing a line."
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly, a flicker of something—disappointment, maybe—crossing his features.
"Are you going to be this pathetic?" he asked quietly. "Are you going to protect your own enemy? Or are you going to step aside and let me finish what needs to be done?"
"HUH!?" I shouted, the sheer absurdity of it making my head spin.
"What in the hell are you talking about? What do you mean 'enemy'? Not everyone you see is a target, okay? Just... just calm down for a second. Look, you shouldn't worry about what she heard. She's just a kid, she—"
"She is not a child you can afford to pity," Kael interrupted, his voice cutting through mine like a blade.
"Truth is a disease, It festers. What she heard tonight will be whispered tomorrow and shouted the day after. The truth cannot be hidden for long; to solve the problem, you must erase the witness who carries it."
He took another half-step, his shadow stretching over me.
"Don't depend too much on anything in this world," he continued, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper.
"Even your own shadow leaves you when you walk into the darkness. You've gone through all this effort, bled this much, just to protect Alisa... and yet you're sheltering the very thing that will eventually hunt her down."
He gestured vaguely toward Liora, who was sobbing silently into the hem of her cloak.
"Life should be teaching you to be as selfish as everyone else by now. The girl you're protecting is nothing more than a hatchling snake. She may look small and harmless now, but she was born from the Church. She is bred to hate people like Alisa. You can't prove me wrong, Leo. Beneath that fear, she is a child of the Inquisition."
I wanted to scream. I wanted to prove him wrong. But the "Gamer" part of my brain—the part that knew the lore of DOOM of the Eternal Rose—stayed silent. He was right. In the game, the Church wasn't a sanctuary; it was a factory for zealots. Liora wasn't just a villager; she carried the mark of the clergy.
Silence fell over the clearing, thick and suffocating. I felt my resolve waver. I turned my head slowly, looking down at Liora. My expression must have gone cold, because the moment our eyes met, she shivered.
"Is... is that true?" I asked, my voice sounding distant even to myself.
Liora's face went white. She began to shake violently, her hands hovering in the air as if trying to push away an invisible executioner.
"N-N-No! That wasn't... that's not true at all!" she stammered, her voice high and panicked.
"I swear I wasn't going to tell anyone! Please... please don't kill me just for that!"
Seeing her like that—a tiny girl terrified for her life—shattered the cold logic Kael had tried to plant in my head. I felt a wave of self-loathing wash over me.
What was I doing? I was a guy who played games to escape a cruel world, not to become a part of it. I wasn't going to start murdering kids just because it was "optimal."
I knelt down in the mud, ignoring the agony in my knees, and reached out to grab her small, cold hands.
"It's okay, Liora. Don't be scared," I whispered, forcing the darkness out of my voice. "We won't do anything. I promise."
I looked her in the eye and held out my pinky finger, a gesture so human and out-of-place in this world that it almost felt like magic. "Pinky promise."
Liora blinked, her tears pausing on her cheeks. She looked at my finger, then at my face, searching for a lie. Slowly, she reached out and hooked her tiny finger around mine.
"Right," she whispered, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
I stood up and looked at Kael. He was standing there, his hand still on the hilt of his sword, looking profoundly disappointed. He didn't speak, but his silence said enough: You're a fool, and your mercy will be your undoing.
But before he could say another word, the air changed.
The mana flow didn't just ripple—it tore. A wave of nauseating, heavy pressure slammed into the clearing, making the horses whinny in terror.
The ground began to vibrate, and the shadows from the trees seemed to crawl toward the center of the wreckage.
I turned toward the remains of the wagon.
The Bell-Ringer and the Weaver weren't dead.
Their bodies, broken and charred by Kael's silver light and my Entropic rot, were twitching. They were pulling toward each other like magnets. Limbs snapped and reformed at unnatural angles.
The porcelain mask of the driver and the violet essence of the woman were melting together, forming a grotesque, towering heap of flesh and spirit.
Two faces began to emerge from the mass—one smiling and masked, the other weeping and violet.
The body wasn't complete yet; it was a mess of exposed muscle, silver bells, and twitching spider-legs, growing larger with every second as it sucked the life out of the surrounding grass.
"You've got to be kidding me,"
I muttered, my heart sinking.
"They're merging?"
Kael drew his sword fully this time, his eyes losing their coldness and replacing it with sharp, lethal focus. The "World Event" wasn't over. It had just entered its second phase.
"Leo," Kael said, not looking back. "If you want to keep your 'pinky promise,' get the girl and run. This isn't a fight for a peasant with a leaking mana core."
I looked at the monster, then at Liora, then at my own mangled hands.
Honestly, running sounded like a great idea. But as the creature let out a roar that sounded like a thousand bells cracking at once, I knew my Entropic mana was the only thing that could keep its regeneration in check.
"Anyway," I said, gripping the heavy sword again.
"I'm already in the darkness, right? Might as well see where it leads."
The fused monstrosity roared, the sound vibrating in my teeth. Honestly, looking at it made my skin crawl. In the original storyline of DOOM of the Eternal Rose , this exact amalgamation only occurred during the late-game "Blood Moon" event. It is known as a "Grief Weaver"—a creature born when physical trauma merges with deep psychological despair.
Usually, a full-geared raid party is required to even scratch its armor.
I gripped my heavy sword, preparing to push the Entropic mana out again, but Kael stepped right in front of me. He lowered his blade just an inch.
"Drop it, Leo," he commanded, his voice surprisingly calm.
"If you use that rot again, it will actually kill you. I mean it. Your core is cracking to pieces."
"I can fight," I argued, coughing up a splash of dark blood onto the frost.
Kael shook his head, keeping his eyes locked on the twisting mass of flesh.
"Aren't you planning to save Alisa? Then do it. My purpose with you is only because it is my job to do so. There is no point joining into this fight, Leo."
He shoved me backward, right into Liora. The monster shrieked, the sheer pressure making the trees bend.
"Just do me a favor," Kael said quietly, glancing over his shoulder. The coldness in his eyes vanished for just a fraction of a second.
"Just be sure to save her, okay? Now go!"
I grabbed Liora's hand without hesitation. We ran.
I dragged Liora through the thick mud, forcing myself to sprint. Whatsoever happened next, Kael chose this stand.
Behind us, the clearing exploded into pure, blinding violence. Kael struck first.
He did not hold back. A massive arc of silver light erupted from his sword, illuminating the dark woods like a sudden sunrise. He moved with flawless, terrifying precision, dodging a barrage of rusted silver bells that the creature fired like shrapnel.
The Grief Weaver swung its massive, twisted limbs, crushing boulders and tearing ancient pines completely out of the dirt.
Kael simply danced through the destruction. He parried a heavy strike from the spider-like leg, the impact sending shockwaves that vibrated through my boots as we fled.
"Is that all the hatred you possess?" Kael taunted, his voice echoing loudly over the chaos.
He launched himself high into the air, his sword glowing with absolute intensity. He brought the blade down,
severing the violet face of the Weaver in a single, brutal motion.
Black ichor sprayed across the clearing. Eventually, the monster let out a sound of pure agony, stumbling backward into the wreckage.
Kael landed smoothly in the dirt, his stance perfect, ---