Scene 145 — "It Should Not Have Touched Him"
The two remaining heads attacked together.
One from the left.
One from above.
The Traveler moved backward.
The first jaws snapped shut inches from his chest.
The second head struck immediately afterward.
He twisted.
Too slow.
The beast's teeth caught his arm.
The Traveler's body jerked violently.
The wolf lifted him from the ground.
His feet hung beneath him.
The elder sister reacted instantly.
She charged.
Her broken blade struck the creature's exposed side.
Once.
Again.
The wolf released a furious roar.
Its grip tightened around the Traveler's arm.
The elder sister struck again.
The creature turned toward her.
The Traveler's eyes narrowed.
"Move."
She didn't.
She drove her blade into the wounded flesh beneath its remaining left head.
The beast recoiled.
Its jaws opened.
The Traveler dropped.
He landed hard on one knee.
Blood ran from his arm.
The wolf immediately lunged again.
The elder sister stepped backward.
The Traveler rose between them.
The beast's jaws opened.
The Traveler raised his injured arm instinctively.
The wolf bit down again.
For one heartbeat—
nothing happened.
Then the Traveler's fingers twitched.
A tiny black spark appeared between them.
Gone.
Another appeared.
Larger.
The wolf suddenly stopped.
Its entire body stiffened.
The Traveler stared at his own hand.
Something black seeped between his fingers.
Not smoke.
Not ordinary fire.
A flame.
Small at first.
Wrong.
It didn't flicker with the wind.
It seemed to consume the light around it.
The elder sister froze.
The wolf released his arm.
The Traveler looked at the flame.
He didn't understand it.
Then—
more appeared.
Between his fingers.
Across his palm.
Along his wrist.
The black flame spread.
Not outward.
Deeper.
As though something beneath his skin had finally found a crack through which to breathe.
The wolf staggered backward.
Its remaining heads began snarling.
Then one of them screamed.
The sound changed halfway through.
The beast's body convulsed.
Darkness appeared beneath its fur.
A faint black glow moved through its veins.
The Traveler's breathing became uneven.
The flame was no longer only around his hand.
It had reached the wolf.
The creature thrashed violently.
Its claws tore enormous grooves through the earth.
The elder sister stepped back.
"What..."
She couldn't finish.
The wolf's body began collapsing inward.
No ordinary fire touched its fur.
Instead—
something inside it was disappearing.
Its muscles weakened.
Its roar became distorted.
The remaining heads twisted toward the Traveler.
Six eyes stared at him.
For one final moment—
the beast looked terrified.
The Traveler remained motionless.
Black fire crawled across his fingertips.
More than before.
Far more.
The wolf collapsed.
The enormous body struck the earth.
The black flame consumed what remained.
The sound faded.
Then—
silence.
The Traveler stood over the ruined creature.
The flame slowly withdrew into his fingers.
One spark.
Then another.
Then nothing.
His injured arm hung at his side.
His breathing was heavy.
The elder sister stared at him.
She had seen the monster tear through hunters.
She had watched it destroy buildings.
She had watched it survive weapons that should have killed it.
Yet what stood before her now was somehow more frightening.
The Traveler looked down at his hand.
His expression was not triumphant.
It was confused.
He whispered,
"...What was that?"
No answer came.
Only a thin trail of black ash drifting across the ground.
And beneath the ash—
the earth had been left completely empty.
As though something had not merely killed the monster.
It had erased what was inside it.