We vanished.

  Literally. As if someone had ripped us from that pce—air, sound, and weightless bodies all gone in a blink. No pain. Not even light.

  Then… we fell.

  The ground was hard. Wet. A dull thud as someone hit the earth. A sharp inhale. Shuffling.

  I was the first to rise. Drew in a breath through clenched teeth. It smelled like dirt. Not fresh, forest earth—but rot. Like compost. Like dead leaves that had long since stopped being leaves.

  "Everyone… okay?" I muttered, turning my head.

  Darkness surrounded us. Not total—but the light wasn’t natural. It came from above, a strange milky glow suspended in the air like mist.

  "What is this pce…?" Saya whispered, pushing herself upright. Her hands trembled.

  Daren was already standing. Viko cursed under his breath, brushing off his pants.

  Leo sat quietly, staring into the trees.

  And I... looked behind us.

  Trees. Too thick. Too close together. Their canopies formed a ceiling so dense, no light could pierce through.

  No paths. No markers. No minimap.

  My HUD flickered. Glitched. Vanished. Then blinked back to life—hesitant, as if unsure whether it was allowed to function here.

  I didn’t like that.

  "Anyone recognize this pce?" Daren asked. "Because I’ve got nothing."

  "Maybe it’s a hidden location?" Viko suggested. "Secret boss area or something? That note must’ve triggered it. Could be part of an event."

  "Then why isn’t there any system prompt?" Saya murmured. "There’s always a message in situations like this."

  Exactly.

  The system was silent.

  Leo rose slowly. He didn’t look at anyone. His eyes stayed fixed on something between the trees.

  "There’s something there…" he whispered.

  We froze.

  I turned. At first, I saw nothing—just bckness and tree trunks.

  Then… movement. Not one. Several.

  They emerged from the forest like shadows. No growling. No hissing. Just… walking.

  One of them had a humanoid shape. But something was wrong. Limbs too long. Head set too low. No face.

  Viko moved first. Of course he did.

  "I got this!"

  He charged, sshing with his sword before any of us could stop him.

  And then the monster moved.

  It didn’t dodge. It didn’t block. It simply reached sideways—and struck.

  When its arm hit Viko, his body folded like cloth. Bones snapped. His sword flew from his hand. He was thrown several meters and smmed into a tree with a dull, final thud.

  "VIKO!" Saya screamed.

  She ran. Daren followed.

  I clenched my jaw.

  Viko didn’t get up.

  He y motionless, his head twisted at an unnatural angle, eyes bnk. Blood oozed from beneath his back—dark and thick, soaking into the soil. His chest rose—no. It didn’t. He wasn’t breathing. His fingers curled at nothing, as if reaching for something that wasn’t there.

  Too te.

  Viko was dead.

  The creature turned to Saya. Its faceless head rotated slowly in her direction.

  And I knew this was only the beginning.

  Saya reached his body with panic in her eyes. She dropped to her knees beside him, as if she could still help. As if she could somehow put him back together.

  "No... no, no, no!" she whispered. "He… he still had HP! The system… he had—"

  She stopped.

  Her eyes widened even more.

  The monster was right above her.

  It didn’t charge. It didn’t leap. It just… appeared. Standing over her, close enough that she could feel the chill of its shadow.

  Saya looked up. She raised her hands, trying to cast a spell.

  "[Fme—]"

  The strike came before she could finish the word.

  The bde of the creature’s limb sliced through her shoulder, chest, and hip in one fluid motion. Her body split in two with the sound of tearing fabric and snapping bones. A spray of warm blood hit Daren.

  He froze. Then screamed. Not words—just raw, brutal terror.

  The monster was already reaching for him.

  Daren wasn’t stupid. He was support, but he knew the rules. Runes fshed. [Barrier]. [Fortify]. [Evasion].

  He didn’t even get a chance to move his foot.

  The creature’s limb impaled him like a spear. His body arched around it like a puppet on a spike. Blood burst from his mouth and the gaping wound in his back. The monster shook him once—twice—then discarded him like a broken toy.

  Daren nded with a wet thud. His body hit the ground like a sack of meat. His chest was torn open with a wound that shouldn’t exist. His heart twitched. Once. Maybe twice. Then, silence.

  His eyes remained wide open, staring at a sky that wasn’t his—gray, heavy, foreign. One hand trembled once, as if trying to hold on to something. A memory. Pain. Life. And then… it dropped.

  Leo didn’t move. Frozen in pce.

  "Leo, GET UP!" I screamed, rushing toward him. "RUN!"

  The monsters—two, then four, then six, eight—emerged from the darkness, one after another. Sometimes they crept along the sides, sometimes they strolled directly into view, unhurried, as if they knew they didn’t need to rush. Their footsteps were soft, but the earth whispered beneath them. More and more stepped into the clearing.

  I grabbed his arm. He was ice-cold. Trembling all over.

  I pulled him to his feet and ran.

  Behind us—shuffling. Footsteps. And that sound... that disgusting, wet sound of flesh dragging across the ground. Like something crawling slowly on purpose. Like it wanted us to hear every inch of its presence. One of the creatures darted between trees, sometimes appearing just beside us before vanishing again. Another circled zily, tighter and tighter, like a predator toying with its prey.

  It wasn’t haste.

  It was the hunt.

  For sport.

  They knew we had no chance.

  And that made their movements cruelly, disturbingly… curious.

  I yanked him along, but after a few steps—I stopped. So did Leo.

  There was no point in running. They were everywhere. In front of us. Behind. To the sides.

  We were surrounded.

  They wanted us to see them. To see every single one of their faces—though none of them had eyes.

  Leo trembled. His arms hung limp at his sides, his breath shallow and broken. Like his body wanted to give up before his mind caught up.

  And me… I was calcuting. Angles. Gaps. Anything. Something.

  Nothing came.

  Only silence.

  Only the awareness that time was running out.

  Then—

  A message appeared before me. Clear. Bright. The only stable thing in this nightmare.

  [ALERT: Special css detected – Endbringer’s Scribe] Emergency protocol for red zones avaible: one-time teleportation to a safe zone. Would you like to teleport? [YES] [NO]

  I looked at Leo. He was shaking. Pale. Barely able to stand.

  "Teleport him," I said.

  [WARNING: Alternate target selected.] [Are you sure you want to proceed? This decision is irreversible.] [Confirm selection: YES / NO]

  I looked at Leo again. Still trembling. Still barely there.

  "YES," I growled through clenched teeth. "Don’t make me say it again."

  [Target selected: LEO. Initiating transfer… 3… 2… 1…]

  Leo saw the message. Only for a moment—but it was enough.

  [User transfer: LEO – Destination: Safe Zone – Initiating teleportation…]

  His eyes widened in sudden realization. His mouth opened in silent protest, before the voice inside could catch up.

  "NO!" he screamed. "DON’T LEAVE ME!"

  He grabbed my sleeve. Desperately. With everything he had.

  "Live," I said. "For all of us. Don’t screw it up."

  Before Leo could respond, the light engulfed him. The system didn’t wait for his approval.

  Teleportation initiated.

  The monsters paused. Just a few steps away. As if surprised. As if something had broken their cruel rhythm. Their eyeless heads turned toward Leo. I could feel the shift—as if they didn’t understand what just happened.

  But it was too te.

  Leo vanished.

  I let out a heavy breath. Quiet. Almost silent.

  "I’m such a fucking idiot…" I muttered. "Sacrificing myself for a kid I haven’t even known for a full day."

  Around me, the monsters began to move. Slowly. Steadily. Tightening their circle, ready for the feast.

  I stared straight into their emptiness. Into their faceless voids. And pulled out the Legacy Tome.

  Its pages fred with light. This wasn’t magic. It was fury. Each one lit up, revealing names and fragments—echoes of the final moments of those who died near me. Viko’s strike. Saya’s fire. Daren’s barrier. Every one of their abilities had been recorded the moment they fell—as if the system... remembered. As if a war chronicler wrote only of the fallen.

  "Fucking Saya…" I growled, stepping forward. "This is your fault. That damn note. ‘A discovery,’ you said. Idiot."

  I vanished and reappeared behind one of the creatures. Shadow cloaked my body, and time itself seemed to hold its breath. Viko’s strike—fast, brutal, aimed at the weak point. My bde pierced its gut, dark, tar-like blood spraying across my face.

  The creature colpsed, limbs twisted, as if it didn’t understand its body had stopped functioning. But before I could breathe, another was already behind it—its cws slicing the air just inches from my throat.

  "Should’ve stayed solo. Like always. Like I pnned."

  I crouched, tensed, and vanished into the shadows again, leaping past two monsters. Their cws missed me by millimeters. I reappeared behind one, Viko’s strike again—this time to the neck. The head twisted sideways, and the body fell.

  A fsh—another cw. I raised my hand just in time. Daren’s shield formed midair, glowing faintly with runes, but it didn’t hold completely. The impact shattered part of it, and the cw ripped into my side.

  I screamed, staggering. Blood already pouring down my hip, warm and sticky. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

  I roared through the pain.

  "You all—I shouted, sshing wildly, —thought this was a GAME?! XP, levels, quests?! What’s that worth NOW?!"

  I raised my hand—and felt a heat that wasn’t mine. It was hers. Saya’s magic. Raw, furious fme.

  Fire erupted from my palm, writhing like the tongue of a raging beast. It wasn’t a spell. It was vengeance. A scream of grief and rage. The fire swept out wide, engulfing two creatures. Their bodies ignited instantly, convulsing in silent agony.

  One of them, still burning, lunged at me in a final frenzy. Its teeth sank into my arm. Blood exploded from the wound like a geyser. I roared, flinging it off me—but the fmes were already devouring it.

  "You died in MINUTES!" I shouted, spitting blood. "You didn’t even FIGHT RIGHT! You didn’t even LIVE right..."

  I dropped to one knee. Then forced myself up again.

  The monsters charged. Cws. Teeth. Limbs—everything at once. Daren’s shield shattered.

  "And me…" I groaned as a cw tore through my thigh, "…I got pulled in all over again."

  Another ssh—deep, violent. My side ripped open like the world itself wanted to end me. Blood ran down my neck, hot and sticky. The world spun—trees, monsters, screams—all blurred into a red kaleidoscope.

  "I had a css… that could’ve become anything…" The words barely escaped my throat. "I could’ve been a legend…"

  I dropped to my knees. My breath came in ragged gasps, thick with the taste of metal.

  "And instead... I saved a kid. Because that’s who I am, huh? Because of course I did. Because I can’t help but reach out when someone’s drowning."

  The monsters didn’t wait.

  One drove a cw into my chest—like pnting a victory fg. My scream tore from my throat, no longer anger—just exhaustion. Another tore through my arm. I didn’t even try to block. My body no longer felt like mine. Something was leaving. Something important. Like I was peeling away from myself.

  I staggered—but before I fell, I looked into the darkness. Took one st breath. And smiled—bloody, defiant.

  "If you don’t survive this, Leo… if this all goes to waste… I’ll come back from the dead and kill you myself. Got that, kid?"

  The final blow pierced my heart. I felt it break bone. Felt my heartbeat slow. Then stop.

  My body colpsed to its knees. Then forward. Face-first into the dirt. With weight. With finality.

  The tome fell beside me. Its pages flipped in the wind—searching for the end of the story.

  It stopped. Shuddered.

  And vanished.