Tadeo raised his right arm—the only one he still had intact—and pointed it forward. His open palm curved into the shape of a ferocious beast’s jaws.

  Behind him, Tobias lifted his left arm, mirroring his friend’s stance, though in his case the jaws formed by his hand faced upward.

  Together, their hands became the fangs of a wild and terrifying predator.

  Meanwhile, the Daimonas advanced toward them—slowly, but steadily closing the distance with every step. For the first time, through the swirling miasma, its dark silhouette revealed something new: a massive mouth lined with long, jagged teeth, beginning to open.

  The ground beneath the human and the semihuman began to crack. At first, thin fractures spread across the surface like a spiderweb, then deepened as the earth gave way under the overwhelming concentration of magical energy.

  Inside the miasma, the Daimonas took another step. Then another.

  Closer.

  Still not within reach—but approaching.

  “Let’s do it…” Tadeo whispered, his voice thin, as if the words themselves might snap under the strain.

  “I’m with you… brother,” Tobias replied, his tone steady and resolute.

  At the same time, they spoke the name of their spell.

  Their palms came together in a sharp clap—the unmistakable sound of a predator’s jaws snapping shut.

  The magic was released.

  —Earth Elemental Magic: Great Earth Wolf’s Bite

  Massive fissures tore open beneath the Daimonas. In less than a heartbeat, the earth erupted in a violent explosion, a brutal roar shaking Gignit and its surroundings.

  BOOOOOOOOOOOOM

  The deafening blast was only the beginning. An immense cloud of dust shot into the sky, hurling rocks and chunks of earth high into the air.

  Then, a second explosion detonated.

  BOOOOOOOOOOOOM

  This one was even stronger—so powerful it felt as though the land itself were being torn apart. The ground where the Daimonas stood began to rise, as if something beneath the surface were lifting entire sections of earth upward.

  “What’s happening?!” Mansot shouted, shielding his eyes from the storm of dust. “What did they do?!

  “Their combined attack,” Alexander replied. “They’re capable of unleashing an extremely powerful spell.”

  “And let’s hope it accomplishes what we need,” Hermán added, visibly more tense.

  Then the ground began to shake even more violently. Cracks spread in every direction as the fissures widened out of control.

  “EVERYONE, TAKE COVER!” Alexander shouted. “THIS WILL BE DEVASTATING!”

  All eyes turned toward the battlefield as enormous stone pillars—shaped like razor-sharp fangs—erupted from the earth around the Daimonas, whose foul existence stood at the center of it all.

  The stone fangs kept rising higher… until a colossal wolf’s head made entirely of rock burst from underground, forcing its way through the surface. It continued to rise until it towered at least twenty meters above the ground.

  ? ? ?

  Far away, on the other side of the village, the people fleeing for their lives turned at the sound of such thunderous destruction. A few seconds later, they saw it—an enormous wolf’s head rising above the rooftops.

  “What is that?!”

  “What’s happening?!”

  “Have they still not killed it?!”

  “Oh gods… please don’t abandon us!”

  Panic spread like wildfire. Having a Daimonas at the gates of your home was more than enough reason for true terror.

  Valentina, still leading the group, came to a stop. Her eyes locked onto the massive stone head as its jaws slowly began to close.

  “Tobias… Tadeo…” she murmured, holding her children close. “They used their combined spell… but that won’t be enough to defeat it. What are they planning?”

  “ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”

  Her eyes shut instinctively as that mournful roar assaulted her ears. But just before she closed them completely, she caught a glimpse—if only for an instant—of towering walls of earth rising in different parts of the battlefield.

  From where she stood, she could see everything over the rooftops.

  When she managed to steady herself, she snapped her head to the side so quickly it almost looked painful, fixing her gaze on Rachell.

  “Rachell!” she called to her eldest daughter, her right hand. “You guide them all! Take them to the portal area and go down. They’ll be much safer there than here in Gignit.”

  “But what are you going to do?” Rachell asked, even though she already knew the answer. “Mom, please—we need you. I can’t protect everyone on my own.”

  “I don’t need you to protect them. I need you to guide them,” Valentina replied firmly. “You’re my right hand. Everyone trusts you—that’s why they won’t be afraid if you’re the one giving the orders.”

  “But—”

  “No ‘buts,’ Rachell!” Valentina’s patience was starting to crack. “I have to help them. This Daimonas isn’t normal… I can feel it. With my help, we can do this—but I need to go back.”

  Rachell bit her lips and nodded.

  Valentina placed Christopher and Selestia in her arms, but her daughter was already holding her own children.

  “You, come here,” the leader of Gignit ordered the guards accompanying them—not out of fear, but because they were responsible for protecting everyone if something went wrong. The men obeyed immediately.

  “I want you to help Rachell. You will carry her children, and you will carry mine.”

  Two of the three guards picked up the children at once.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Valentina noticed another guard carrying an unconscious Mathias. Nearby stood Anita, and a little farther back, Lilian was running in tears.

  “You, come here as well.”

  The guard obeyed, and Lilian hurried over too.

  “You three will take care of the children. And you—both of you,” she added, pointing at Lilian and the remaining guard, “will assist Rachell with whatever she needs.”

  The guard nodded. Lilian lowered her head in silence and accepted.

  Suddenly, the thunderous sound of collapse echoed across the area. Everyone turned toward the battlefield again. The gigantic stone head was crumbling, and with it, a terrifying, macabre magical energy seemed to spread through the air.

  A nervous twitch ran through Valentina’s eye—the same sky-blue eye that once reflected calm daylight.

  “GO, NOW!” she shouted in near desperation. “Don’t waste time! This is going to get worse!”

  Without another word, Valentina turned her back on those fleeing Gignit. While they ran toward safety, she—drenched in sweat, her heart tight with urgency—rushed toward the battlefield to join the desperate fight.

  ? ? ?

  “RROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

  The Daimonas roared, trapped within what now truly resembled an enormous mouth. It stood inside the jaws of the colossal stone beast.

  “Very good, keep it up!” Alexander shouted, looking upward as new, jagged fangs formed inside the wolf’s mouth. “Don’t hold back!”

  “Crush it!” Mansot yelled. “Destroy it once and for all!”

  “With this, we should achieve the first objective,” Hermán murmured. “I hope it works.”

  “It will work. I know it,” Alexander said firmly.

  At that moment, Tobias and Tadeo were once again enveloped in the distinct aura of earth magic.

  “NOW!” they shouted in unison as they raised the hands shaped like jaws and thrust them toward the sky.

  The ground beneath the living, nauseating miasma that was the Daimonas trembled violently. The gigantic stone jaws began to close—slow, unstoppable, and driven by a single purpose:

  To crush that malignant being.

  “YEEEEEEES!”

  “KILL IT!”

  “DAMN DAIMONAS! YOU KILLED MY FATHER!”

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  “YOU’RE THE WORST SCUM IN EXISTENCE!”

  “YOU MUST BE ERADICATED!”

  The shouts blended with the thunderous crashes of massive rocks breaking off and slamming into the ground, burying themselves deep into the earth.

  “RROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.”

  Once again, that roar—closer to a dying scream—burst from the mephitic miasma, echoing through the air and punishing everyone’s ears. But roaring was no longer enough. Even the Daimonas—an utterly evil and macabre being—had to act if it wanted to survive.

  Two massive lanterns of intense red light shone from within the miasma: the Daimonas’s eyes. And now—if such a creature could feel fear—they moved frantically in every direction.

  It watched as its territory, the space it had occupied only moments ago, was being erased—devoured by an immense wall lined with countless stone fangs, hard and razor-sharp, closing in on it.

  “RRROOOAAAAAAAR…”

  It roared again as the first of those many fangs pierced through the suffocating, corrosive miasma surrounding it. Its enormous red eyes widened even further, as if that beast—aware of its fate—understood something terrible was about to happen.

  “Here it comes,” Alexander muttered, recognizing the same pattern from their previous battle. “Get ready! We’ll do the same thing we did the first time we fought the Daimonas!”

  The Daimonas’s eyes burned an even deeper red.

  “ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

  It unleashed one final, heart-rending scream.

  Then the miasma began to thicken… to liquefy. Viscous droplets fell to the ground, corroding it on contact.

  And finally—after several seconds of unbearable tension—the miasma exploded outward. Everything that composed it was hurled in all directions.

  Although the massive jaws of the stone wolf had fully closed, a large portion of the Daimonas managed to escape. That corrupt mass now threatened to spread outward.

  “EVERYONE!” Alexander shouted in desperation. “GET TOBIAS AND TADEO OUT OF THERE AND PROTECT GIGNIT FROM THE MIASMA!”

  —Arboreal Magic: Capture Liana

  Tobias and Tadeo, utterly exhausted, were about to be swallowed by the sea of liquid miasma surging toward them—but ONE and TWO saved them in time using arboreal magic.

  The four of them took shelter behind multiple magical defensive walls rising all across the battlefield.

  —Earth Elemental Magic: Great Earth Wall

  The walls rose rapidly, forming a barrier meant to protect Gignit’s infrastructure.

  Much of the liquid miasma splashed onto the ground, dissolving it and ruining it completely. But another portion retained enough force to surge toward the village.

  That was when the magical defenses came into play.

  “Hold the line!” Alexander shouted just as the miasma slammed against the defensive walls.

  ONE and TWO had to leap behind a wall when a portion of that putrid liquid veered toward them. It was only a drop the size of a fist—but when it struck the ground, the reason for their reaction became clear.

  The drop carved out a steaming, foul-smelling, nauseating crater as large as a small house.

  The walls melted with terrifying ease, as if cotton candy had been dropped into water. The only way to counter it was to keep reinforcing them again and again with defensive magic.

  “Reinforce the magical walls!” Alexander ordered, grinding his teeth in rage at having to face such an abominable existence. “Just a little longer and the miasma will burn itself out!”

  —Earth Elemental Magic: Great Earth Wall

  As soon as the first walls were consumed, new ones were already rising to replace those that fell.

  The clash didn’t last long, but its consequences were obvious once the miasma finally dispersed.

  “That was too close…” Tobias muttered, letting out a long breath.

  “You’ve fought that thing before… Is it over? Or is it just beginning?” Tadeo asked, uncertainty heavy in his eyes as he waited for a hopeful answer.

  Tobias’s next sigh shattered that hope.

  “That’s right,” he said gravely. “This is only—truly only—the beginning. We’re still far from exterminating it for good. So far… it’s just been playing with us.”

  “This is the first time I’ve seen a Daimonas,” Tadeo admitted. “I knew they were terrifying, disgusting beings… but I never imagined they’d be this resilient.”

  “They’re far worse than you think.”

  In another sector, Alexander moved between the defensive walls, his gaze fixed on the enormous stone head that was still dissolving under the effects of the miasma—a substance that didn’t merely melt matter, but seemed to corrupt the very fabric of the world.

  “Hermán, from here on out, the real fight begins,” Alexander said, releasing a tight breath, like a man forcing himself into absolute focus. “Don’t leave my side.”

  “As if I would,” Hermán replied, walking beside him. “Do you think I’d let my best friend face this abomination alone?”

  “This filth…” Alexander’s eyes locked onto the place where the wolf’s head had completely disintegrated. “This filth killed our people… It came to Gignit to threaten us…”

  A heavy silence fell before he spoke again.

  “We cannot allow a Daimonas to keep living. We will not betray Kosmos. We’ll kill it—no matter the cost.”

  More fighters gathered behind Alexander—sweaty, wounded, trembling… yet still determined to stand and fight.

  “Lord Alexander,” Tadeo called, struggling to catch his breath. He was completely drained. “We did what you asked.”

  “The Daimonas expelled its miasma,” Tobias added. “Just like when we were returning from Nopal. Now we can hurt it more.”

  “But it’ll be far more dangerous too,” ONE warned, his expression deadly serious. “Now it’ll truly try to devour us, no matter what…”

  “Let it try…” Hermán rested his right hand on the hilt of his katana.

  Suddenly, small rocks began to tremble. At first it was barely noticeable, but the vibrations quickly intensified. Several large stones that had somehow remained upright began to sink slowly into the ground.

  In that area—where only a puddle of indescribable contamination remained—a magical aura more repulsive than anything they had felt before began to rise. Darker than darkness magic itself, that diabolical energy intensified at an absurd rate.

  “Please, all of you—be ready,” Alexander said, clenching his fists. “Don’t lower your guard. Don’t turn your backs. Watch out for each other… This is where the true battle begins.”

  “Let’s defend Gignit…”

  Once again, the familiar aura of reinforcement magic wrapped around him as he cast a spell upon himself.

  —Reinforcement Magic: Strengthening.

  His muscles swelled again, and his power rose noticeably.

  The others followed his example. They were more than ready to fight the Daimonas.

  “Here it comes…” Alexander murmured.

  At that very instant, the ground seemed to explode, sending dust and rocks flying into the sky.

  —RRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

  That roar was worse than all the previous ones. It sounded different—more agonized, more mournful, yet at the same time more malevolent and hateful. The sheer intensity of evil radiating from the being—still hidden within the dust—made everyone feel as though their legs might give out beneath them.

  Two enormous red eyes burned within the cloud, and step by step it sounded as if multiple limbs were striking the ground in uneven rhythms. It was like an entire mob marching at once.

  The cool night wind, thick with tension, dragged the dust away. Finally—after everything they had done to disperse the miasma—they could behold the horrifying, disturbing figure of the Daimonas.

  “It’s still just as horrible as when we fought it before,” Mansot muttered. Jhon nodded, his face twisted in open disgust.

  “In fact, I think it’s even worse now,” Tobias added, baring his sharp fangs. “And when we destroy it, it won’t even look like it did before.”

  “You feel it too, don’t you?” Hermán asked, his expression carved in absolute seriousness. “Its aura… it’s darker than before. Much darker.”

  “Yeah… I feel it too,” Alexander said quietly. “My skin crawls just looking at it… I swear my own body is begging me to run.”

  The guards and everyone capable of fighting stood ready, waiting for the signal to begin the final assault.

  Their hearts pounded like war drums. Their throats were dry. Sweat streamed endlessly down their skin.

  The fur on the ears and tails of the beastmen and semihumans stood on end.

  The elves, attuned to magic, felt waves of nausea just from sensing that corrupted energy.

  The humans felt an icy chill creep up from their feet, crawling along their spines and stealing the warmth from their breath.

  The Daimonas did not even need to move. Its mere presence was enough to instill absolute terror.

  And its form… unnatural, grotesque, repulsive… There were not enough curses in the world to truly describe it.

  Its body was a mass of corrupted flesh that released a suffocating stench—not just foul, but thick with defiled, festering evil.

  It stood on three pairs of lower limbs, each ending in far too many twisted toes tipped with short claws. Every leg looked more deformed than the last.

  Its skin shifted between dark green and the blackened tone of rotting decay, as if it existed in a constant state of putrefaction.

  “It’s disgusting…” Tadeo muttered. “You really fought this thing before without losing your sanity?”

  His gaze lingered on folds of stained flesh hanging from the sides of the Daimonas.

  —RRROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAR

  It roared again, thrashing its eight arms. Some were thin and almost skeletal, while others were grotesquely swollen, making it hard to understand how they could even move.

  Each hand—bearing far too many fingers—ended in long, dark, serrated claws, more than capable of tearing open any opponent.

  It took a heavy step forward. With the movement, several deformed, sagging growths along its torso swayed in a sickening manner.

  Then, across its bloated abdomen—riddled with oozing openings—a long vertical line slowly split open.

  It looked like a grotesque seam… and when it parted, it revealed a massive inner maw lined with endless, jagged fangs slick with dark fluids, waiting to devour them.

  “That’s the part you need to be extremely careful of,” Alexander warned.

  From inside that nauseating mouth, a long tongue slid out—covered in smaller fangs and writhing extensions of its own—before dropping heavily to the ground.

  And what made the sight even harder to endure wasn’t just the teeth or the movement… but the unmistakable suggestion of what had already been consumed, hinted at within that shifting mass of corrupted flesh.

  The Daimonas exhaled a sound like the breath of a predator stalking its prey. Its enormous blood-red eyes burned intensely as they fixed on what it considered food.

  Anyone would assume a living creature’s eyes should be on its head… but that was not the case here. The Daimonas’ eyes were embedded in its massive, grotesque shoulders, surrounded by dozens of smaller eyes that moved without rest.

  That abomination born from the deepest evil had no head… or at least, not at first glance. Where a neck and skull should have joined, there was only a huge, swollen mouth covered in lumps and tumors, now clenched tightly shut.

  “That’s where it’ll bring out its head…” Hermán murmured, tightening his grip on the hilt of his katana.

  “Yeah… and that’s when everything truly begins…”

  The mouth opened.

  And from within, slowly, serpent-like, what looked like a human head began to emerge… horribly deformed.

  More than a head, it was a disfigured skull drenched in blood and strange fluids, attached to the main body by an impossibly long spinal column that twisted like a living serpent.

  That head defied all logic: it was upside down, with its chin pointing toward the sky and the top of the skull facing the ground. From its mouth—filled with broken, crooked teeth—another completely red eye protruded, parasites crawling across the sclera.

  From the empty eye sockets sprouted long tongues that stretched and writhed, tasting the air.

  That was a Daimonas. An aberrant being that perhaps wouldn’t be welcomed even in hell.

  The Daimonas observed them all while its many tongues and mouths seemed to savor them from afar, as if it could already taste each of them without ever touching them.

  “EVERYONE, GET READY!” Alexander ordered. As the leader, he stood at the front of the group, filling them with courage. “THIS IS A DAIMONAS! THIS IS OUR ENEMY! AND WE MUST KILL IT!”

  “THAT THING WANTS TO DEVOUR OUR CHILDREN AND DESTROY OUR CITY!” Alexander took one last breath. “AND FOR THAT… IT HAS NO RIGHT TO KEEP LIVING!”

  The Daimonas seemed to sense the resolve of its prey. The moment it heard their shouts, the monster began preparing to attack.

  It braced itself on its longest limbs—the ones that looked almost skeletal—planting them firmly into the ground and pushing itself upright so it could advance more easily.

  “Damn it, it’s coming!”

  “Shit!”

  “Do we really have to fight that thing?!”

  “DO NOT FEAR!” Alexander shouted, unsheathing his double-edged sword and raising it high above his head. “I WILL STAND WITH YOU! MOVE FORWARD WITH ME… AND LET’S DESTROY THIS DAMN DAIMONAS!”

  They watched Alexander’s back grow smaller as he moved away from them, even while his figure drew closer to the enemy.

  The Lord, the chief, the leader of Gignit stood at the front, ready to be the one who struck the first blow… and probably the last to retreat.

  I will always go with you… my best friend, Hermán thought as his smile faded, turning into a firm, serious expression.

  He unsheathed his katana and charged after his best friend… and his leader.

  The others watched as those known as the Ten Strongest advanced. They were afraid, yes… but they advanced anyway.

  Among them was Jhon as well, who was not part of the ten, yet whose courage placed him in the same league.

  “I’LL FIGHT WITH YOU TOO!”

  From behind them came a powerful shout, and everyone immediately knew who it belonged to.

  —Light Magic: Light Arrows.

  Light magic manifested once more, and dozens of luminous arrows shot through the air at incredible speed, slamming into the Daimonas’ body.

  —RRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

  A roar of pain burst from all its mouths, louder than before. That magical attack had truly hurt it—so much that three of its six legs buckled, dropping it to its knees.

  “VALENTINA!” Alexander shouted when he saw his wife attacking the Daimonas. “YOU SHOULD BE LEADING OUR PEOPLE!”

  “SHUT UP!” Valentina snapped back, visibly furious. “I AM THE OTHER LEADER OF GIGNIT! AND I WILL NEVER RUN FROM AN ENEMY THAT WANTS TO DESTROY MY TOWN AND MURDER MY PEOPLE!”

  The beautiful elf’s eyes burned with uncontrollable fury; a vein throbbed fiercely on her forehead.

  “ESPECIALLY NOT WHEN IT’S A DAMN DAIMONAS!”

  She inhaled sharply, filling her lungs, and gave the final order:

  “SO TURN AROUND… AND ATTACK, DAMN IT!”

  Kosmos are only going to grow bigger, darker, and more meaningful from here.