At Capital City.
The capital was no longer a city~ it was a graveyard.
The flames devoured everything.
A lone soldier ran through the shattered streets, his breath ragged, boots splashing through pools of blood and ash. The sky above had turned a sickening orange, choked by smoke, while the screams of the dying echoed like ghosts refusing to fade.
"Grandma… please… be safe…" he muttered, gripping his sword so tightly his knuckles turned pale.
A thunderous crash split the air.
A building beside him groaned—then collapsed, Stone and timber rained down. The soldier barely dove forward in time, the debris scraping his back as dust swallowed the street whole. He coughed, forcing himself up, ignoring the burning pain in his lungs.
But it was not enough to stop him.
He kept running~ faster as his desperation took over his fear.
Finally, ~ he reached his sweet home or what was left out of it.
The soldier slowed… then stopped. His legs trembled.
".... No....", A faint cracking voice came through his throat. It was painful.
Where his house once stood… there was only ruin. Splintered wood, crushed stone, fire crawling hungrily through what remained. His legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees, eyes wide, unable to breathe—not from smoke, but from something far heavier.
A deep, wet sound echoed behind him.
He turned and in those moments his world shattered.
A colossal serpent loomed over the ruins, its body coiling through the streets like a living nightmare. Its scales glistened with soot and blood, each movement crushing what little remained of the capital.
Its head lowered.
Its mouth… opened.
The soldier's breath hitched.
Inside that gaping darkness—
"G… grandma…?"
Her face~ Twisted. Lifeless. Embedded within the flesh of the creature like it had been absorbed… claimed. Her half body was inside, and her other half was nowhere to found.
The soldier's eyes trembled as he saw it.
An old woman—frail, unmoving—caught between its monstrous jaws.
The smell of the corpses spread and spread, and the moment serpent let out a low, vibrating hiss.
The soldier screamed.
It was painful. Terrific. Horrible. Disgusting.
----------------------
At the Eldoria forest.
"Oi… snap out of it."
The memory shattered.
The soldier—Stok—blinked, his glowing eyes returning to the present. The fire was gone. The screams were gone. Only the forest remained, eerily quiet.
"I can see it."
Stok's voice cut through the tension like a blade. His eyes glowed faintly, an eerie light flickering within them. The air around him felt heavy, distorted—as if time itself bent under his gaze.
"Ten seconds ahead… its position… its movement… I can see it all."
Draves eyes narrowed. " Good then, we will move on."
He turned sharply. "Eren, Oryn, Lisa, Kira, Riya—you stay here. Protect the gate. If more beasts come, we can't afford to lose the town."
Kira stepped forward immediately. "Wait, I—"
"No...", Draves' voice was absolute.
Kira clenched his teeth and before he could argue~
"Enough", Riya's voice cut through—calm, firm, leaving no space for argument. She didn't even look at him, but her presence alone silenced him.
A few tense seconds passed.
Then—
Draves turned, and without another word, began walking.
Kira followed.Riya followed.Stok followed.
--------------------------------------
The forest swallowed them.
At first, there was only the sound of footsteps… and the distant whisper of wind through leaves.
Then Stok slowed down. "…Something's wrong."
Draves shifted his gaze towards him, looking into his glowing eyes. "What is it?", He ask in curiosity.
"The future… it's shifting."
The air felt… tighter.
The trees—tall, unmoving—suddenly didn't feel so still anymore. It was subtle at first. A branch slightly closer. A shadow slightly deeper. The path behind them… narrower than before.
"…We're being surrounded," Stok whispered.
A low creak echoed through the forest. it was not wood.
Something heavier and then~
A massive shape moved.
From between the trees, something colossal slid into view—a tail. Thick as a tower, scales grinding against bark as it coiled silently through the forest floor, crushing everything beneath it without effort.
"No way", Kira said in a low voice.
Slowly… painfully… Stok lifted his gaze.
Higher....
Higher....
Until he saw it~
A gigantic serpent, towering above the forest itself, its body wrapped around the trees like they were nothing more than grass. Its eyes—cold, ancient, and filled with something far worse than hunger—locked onto them.
It wasn't hunting. It was waiting for his prey.
To get the taste of a flesh which he felt sixteen years ago he waited, observing and now he had it.
The air turned heavy.
No one moved and the same thoughts spread into their minds because deep down they felt it...
They hadn't walked into the forest.
They had walked into its jaws.
They had walk into the future created by Beast of corruption himself.
They had walk into the Gaze of the Devourer.... Before the fight even begin.