This episode contains violence, strong language, and themes that may be disturbing to some readers. Viewer discretion is advised.
"I have to run..."
"I must not look back, no matter what happens..."
That was all that remained in her mind.
The only thought that first flashed across her consciousness.
The only logical conclusion for a helpless human—one with such a tiny frame, possessing nothing but her own fragile life—to reach.
"How is this possible?"
"How can they… how can they be in this place too?!"
"Behemoth… Ziz…"
"They are…"
Even though she had only glanced back for a fleeting second—a mere fraction of a moment that should have been meaningless—something within her had already surged into motion. In the seconds that followed, without her even realizing it, her legs had carried her away, bolting as fast as humanly possible.
She knew. She knew all too well.
Somehow, her brain was functioning far faster than usual. In that one brief look, she had captured everything. It wasn't just a rough shape or a faint shadow; she had caught the minute details that should have been impossible to perceive in such a short window of time.
And that was exactly what fueled her desperate urge to flee. Because even though her body was now far from that spot, even as the distance grew with every passing heartbeat, those images did not fade.
She hadn't anticipated this. Not at all.
What she had seen went beyond mere shock. The word "surprised" felt too light, too shallow to describe the turmoil now raging within her. It was more than a startle—it was far deeper than simple fear.
"How can this be... how is this possible..."
"Has the word 'impossible' lost all meaning now?"
"Are my eyes truly not deceiving me anymore? Is this... real?"
"But why... why must those creatures be here too?!"
"Why?!"
She could feel it through her back—through every strained nerve—that those two colossal beings were still there. Silent. Motionless. Yet, within that very silence lay something far more terrifying than the sound of pursuing footsteps.
They were watching her.
It was a gaze that meant anyone caught beneath it would have no choice but to freeze in place, mouths agape without a sound, bodies trembling violently without the strength to shift even an inch.
Or... for those who dared to take a risk, as she did.
Running was the only way to avoid being hypnotized by the sheer, overwhelming terror radiating from that gaze.
The towering silhouettes of the two great beings still loomed heavily to her left and right, just as the shadow of the Leviathan continued its rampage ahead of her. Everything in her field of vision was reduced to a blur—a half-dimmed reality, swallowed whole by the overlapping shadows of the three sovereigns.
To her right loomed the silhouette of the Behemoth—she was certain, it could be none other than him.
Its head—that massive, distorted head—bore the likeness of an elephant, yet it was far removed from anything that could be called natural. Two colossal ears fanned out on either side, their span so incomprehensible that they seemed capable of sweeping across the very land, as if a single flap would be enough to flatten entire helpless islands into the sea.
From its face protruded trunks—not one, not two—but many, far too many to count.
Dozens, scores, perhaps hundreds of them. Those trunks entwined and coiled around one another, moving without pattern, writhing in the air like a swarm of restless vipers. They hissed without a sound she could truly hear, yet it was enough to make her very mind shudder.
Amidst those erratic movements, four tusks protruded outward, their length stretching far beyond the limits of imagination. Sharp, straight, and radiating a threat so tangible that she didn't need to test it to know—a single movement from the creature, and those tusks could skewer her body through without the slightest effort.
Its body… that frame was a fusion of elements that should never have been brought together.
Its limbs reminded her of a black rhinoceros, yet far vaster, more solid, and infinitely more terrifying. Three massive toes supported each limb, tipped with long, pitch-black claws that seemed powerful enough to tear through the earth itself—or anything else that dared to stand in its path.
Its hide was thick, coarse, and riddled with cracks like parched earth awaiting rain. From between those fissures flowed a glowing red light, pulsing slowly, resembling the molten lava lurking within the belly of a volcano, primed to erupt at any moment.
And then, its belly.
The creature's abdomen was bloated and massive, resembling that of a hippopotamus, yet infinitely more grotesque. Something was fundamentally wrong there. It was as if that part of its body wasn't merely flesh and bone, but... something else.
Her mind, without permission, began to conjure images she never wished to see.
"If this creature existed in the real world… surely it would be used as a vessel for pesugihan—the forbidden ritual for those thirsting for instant wealth."
"And in exchange… it wouldn't ask for a mere sacrifice."
"It would demand thousands of human lives—swallowed alive, then imprisoned forever within that colossal, cavernous belly."
Meanwhile, the shadow to her left belonged unmistakably to Ziz—there was no possible way she could have misidentified him.
The creature's head towered high above, its form briefly reminiscent of an eagle, yet it was far more terrifying than anything she had ever known.
Atop its head, white feathers grew thick, lush, and long, cascading down until they veiled its entire neck. Those feathers shifted, creating the illusion of fine, silken human hair—they were far too alive, as if every single strand possessed a will of its own.
What truly made her breath hitch were the four eyes embedded within the creature's face.
Those eyes were never still.
Three of them were pitch-black, devoid of even a glimmer of reflected light, darting to and fro in an incomprehensible pattern—wild, restless, as if surveying every direction at once.
But the other eye… was a deep, saturated red. It did not move. It did not blink.
She didn't even need to turn around to know that the creature was staring directly at her back.
Perhaps it was watching with a menacing curiosity, observing how the tiny human before it ran—stumbling, slipping, and falling as the tremors beneath her small feet robbed her of any sense of balance.
As for the three wandering black eyes,
What were they truly seeing?
Were they all still fixed on her?
Or were some watching the Leviathan as it continued its rampage?
Or perhaps… the creature was merely waiting for a single, tiny opening to end her with one strike?
She didn't have a single clue.
The creature's beak seemed disproportionate to its colossal frame. Short. Small.
Even in her state of sheer panic, she momentarily thought that its size might be no larger than a single massive cruise ship—an absurd comparison that somehow felt logical in the presence of such a giant.
Yet, her instincts immediately recoiled, refusing to mistake its size for weakness.
She had already seen it.
Inside that beak, there was no empty void like that of an ordinary bird.
Hundreds of short, blunt teeth filled its interior, packed tightly in unnatural rows. And between those teeth—long, sharp thorns that rotated slowly like the gears of some gargantuan machine. Their movement was silent, yet she could vividly imagine what would happen if anything were to be caught within that grind.
The creature's body, at a fleeting glance, was reminiscent of a lion's form—yet it was merely a crude shadow of something far vaster, heavier, and infinitely more terrifying.
Its proportions were unnatural; muscles bulged beneath the outer layers of its frame, creating an impression of power that wasn't just immense, but suffocating.
Across its entire body grew something that initially appeared to be a thick mane.
However, the longer one stared, the clearer it became that these were no ordinary strands of hair.
Every fiber moved, pulsed, and sparked with tiny, chasing flickers of light. It was fire—hundreds, thousands, perhaps countless strands of living flame, entwining and hissing silently. A single tiny spark escaping that body would be enough to erase anything it touched from existence.
On either side of its body, two massive wings remained calmly folded.
From a distance, they appeared to be a lush collection of thick, soft black feathers. In a moment of sheer absurdity, she even thought those feathers might feel gentle—soft enough to lean against, quiet enough to offer an illusion of comfort amidst the chaos.
But they were not feathers.
Every "strand" forming those wings was a thin blade—razor-sharp edges packed tightly, overlapping in infinite numbers. It was agonizingly clear: anyone who dared to touch them would be rendered into tiny, insignificant fragments—scraps so trivial they wouldn't even be worthy of being called remains.
"That creature… so far, the only things I could consider 'normal' are its four limbs, resembling those of an ordinary bird with sharp, hooked black claws… and its long, coiled tail that never stops moving behind it… only those. The rest… is not."
"But… despite their ordinary appearance, we mustn't judge things by their cover, right?"
"I must keep running… don't stop… and whatever happens, do not look ba—"
BAAM!!
"Huh?"
A single, minuscule stomp—so slight it hardly deserved to be called a movement—from Behemoth's foot sent her tiny frame soaring.
It wasn't a gradual ascent; it was instantaneous, without warning or pause, so sudden that her consciousness couldn't even keep pace.
She never truly felt the moment her feet lost contact with the earth—she only knew that in one second she was still there, clinging to a fractured world, and in the next, everything beneath her had vanished. The space around her felt snatched away, replaced by a void that swallowed both direction and footing.
Then, she hurtled upward with a speed that tore through the air, piercing a vortex of debris still dancing wildly in the murky sky.
Her body collided with several of them—bouncing right, left, in every uncontrollable direction—creating short, sharp impacts that felt like a succession of jolts along her spine and shoulders.
As her body continued its ascent, she struck thin clouds that appeared so soft, like a bed of cotton that should have welcomed her with ease.
Yet, as she breached the first layer, it wasn't softness she felt—it was friction. The surface of the clouds shattered around her, split by the force of her own momentum. The higher she soared, the denser and more abrasive the texture became.
Her skin began to tear.
Sections of her already fragile skin split open once more, sliced by invisible pressure, leaving red trails that were instantly snatched away by the rushing wind. At certain points, the wounds gaped wider, and fine fragments of her skin peeled away, detaching and vanishing into the current that carried her upward—to God knows where.
"It hurts... it hurts so much..."
"I... I... I can't breathe... my chest hurts..."
"I can't... my chest is so tight... I can't... I can't..."
"Please... help me... help me... God... anyone... I... I don't want to die... I don't want to die..."
"I still... I still have to become a writer... I still have to be a good daughter... I sti—"
Just as the last sliver of air finally forced its way into her lungs,
Just as that final, shuddering gasp became the last sound she would ever hear,
Just as her eyes were about to seal shut and the darkness prepared to swallow her whole,
Just as the image of her mother's face—and her own, smiling with joy as they finally held her published book—flickered one last time in her mind,
And... just as, for the first time, a tear fell—only a single drop at first, followed by a few more plunging into the void below—before she finally lost consciousness,
Something happened.
The air that was once choked with chaos—debris spinning wildly without direction, shards of stone colliding in mid-air, dust swirling into thick, suffocating mists—while erratic bursts of white fire roared and Leviathan's shield showed no sign of fading... now...
It was gone. Vanished, as if it had never existed at all.
In the next second, as that impossible silence still hung in the air, the three creatures—Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz—realized the same thing at almost the exact same moment.
A tiny human body was plummeting from the heights, falling with terrifying speed, uncontrolled and utterly defenseless.
Without a single heartbeat of hesitation, the three of them moved as one.
Leviathan propelled its massive, serpentine body forward; Behemoth charged with heavy, thundering strides; while Ziz had already launched into a rapid aerial dive.
They jostled and shoved one another, hissing in a frantic race—not out of a desire to see who could claim the prize, but because that tiny body was already brittle, so fragile it was on the verge of vanishing entirely.
In that tense fraction of a second, they all reached out almost simultaneously, yet the slimmest of margins remained—and it was Ziz who reached her first.
With a swift yet controlled movement, Ziz caught the tiny frame just moments before it struck the earth, letting her fall gently onto its back.
The flames that had previously roared around Ziz's body no longer seemed threatening; they turned calm, as if possessing the awareness not to cause harm. These flickering strands of fire moved to envelop the human body, adjusting their temperature to a soothing warmth—enough to protect, but no longer to burn.
With a cautiousness that stood in stark contrast to its massive, terrifying form, Ziz began to descend. The creature lowered the tiny human onto the ground, and the three of them—Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz—formed a silent circle around her, waiting for the small human to open her eyes.
However, the tiny human did not open her eyes.
Her body remained still, showing almost no signs of life other than a very faint, shallow rise and fall of her chest.
The three creatures—Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz—slowly turned their gaze toward the same spot. No words were exchanged between them, but the tension that arose was no ordinary silence.
They grew restless as second after second passed, and the small frame showed no change.
Until finally…
A brilliant white light erupted between them, and a voice that made them instantly bow their heads echoed through the air...
"The three of you must take responsibility for this..."
"Did I not warn you from the very beginning?"
"Do not act recklessly… do not frighten her… and yet, look at what has happened now..."
"I do not care what your reasons were. If my beloved daughter does not regain consciousness by the time you bring her to the Fields of Judgment… then from that moment on, I will not allow any of you to touch even a single hair on her head."