Will of the Battlefield

The forest forgot how to breathe.

A wind that had once carried the scent of pine and frost vanished as though the world itself had drawn a silent breath and refused to release it again.

Every branch stood still beneath the grey heavens. Not a leaf stirred. Even the snow resting upon the white boughs seemed afraid to fall.

Evelyn finally saw something. Someone was walking toward them.

"It’s... there." She said and pointed. Everyone followed her finger.

Between the pale trunks emerged a man.

He was unnaturally tall, nearly seven feet, yet painfully thin.

His limbs looked too long, his shoulders too narrow, as though someone had stretched a human until the bones no longer fit beneath the skin.

His face was gaunt. Hollow cheeks. Long black hair hanging over emotionless eyes.

He wore no armor, no cloak and no shoes. Bare feet touched the snow without leaving footprints. He simply walked.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Conor frowned. "...Who is that?"

Max gave him a side eye look before mumbling to him. "There shouldn’t be anyone this deep inside White Forest."

The young new noble beside Thane slowly drew his Sindhium blade.

Garret didn’t answer, his face had lost every trace of laziness. Cold sweat rolled down his temples.

His breathing had become shallow, the students looked at the stranger.

Garret... he was looking at something else. His eyes weren’t fixed on the man, they were staring through him.

As though he could see another shape layered beneath the human skin.

And whatever he saw... Made one of Bentram’s finest warriors instinctively take half a step backward.

The stranger stopped nearly thirty paces away. His hollow eyes wandered across the group.

Slowly, patiently. Until they settled upon Evelyn.

The shy girl froze, her lips trembled.

Her daggers slipped into her hands almost unconsciously.

Then her face turned white not pale, as if every drop of blood had fled her body.

Her frightened whisper cut through the silence.

"...It’s..." She swallowed. "It’s a cursed beast."

Every student turned toward her.

"What?"

"A cursed beast?"

"That’s impossible! He is a human."

White Forest had no cursed beasts, never. Not once in recorded history, it’s under heavy management.

The tall man slowly tilted his head, his lips curved upward.

Not into a smile, into something that merely resembled one.

Then he spoke, bis voice sounded wrong.

Like dozens of whispers spoken together beneath deep water.

Each word seemed to arrive from different directions.

"So... One amongst thee... knoweth."

His black eyes rested upon Evelyn. "...Thou art one of them."

Conor looked towards the girl. His trembling voice muttered. "One of who?"

She remained frozen, unable to answer. Unable to even look at him.

The man sighed. The sound resembled mountains collapsing beneath the sea.

"’I sought mercy... I clad myself in human semblance... Lest thy youthful hearts perish from terror of my divulgence."

Its head slowly lifted. "But since mine disguise hath been unraveled... there remaineth no purpose in maintaining it."

Garret’s grip tightened around both axes.

"Everyone." His voice had become frighteningly low. "Don’t... Move."

The students stared at him in confusion.

"What?"

"What do you mean?"

Garret never answered. Because he was watching something impossible.

The man’s body was peeling apart. His outline blurred, like smoke being torn away by unseen winds.

His arms lengthened, the sky darkened. The sunlight disappeared behind gathering clouds.

The temperature dropped so violently that everyone’s breath became white.

For the students... The human figure shimmered strangely, impossible to focus upon.

For Garret... The disguise vanished completely.

Where a man had stood, something else emerged.

Something no human tongue was meant to describe.

Nearly ten feet tall.nIts lower body dissolved into rolling black mist that never touched the earth.

Its skin resembled a night sky given flesh. Not black but infinite.

Tiny stars glimmered beneath its surface, as though galaxies had been trapped inside its body.

Seven enormous fin-like horns arched backward from its head, each resembling jagged obsidian crescents.

Seven eyes opened across its face, not placed naturally.

Each stared independently, each blinked at different moments and carried an age older than kingdoms.

Long arms ended in elegant claws that seemed capable of slicing the air itself.

The creature did not walk, it drifted soundlessly and majestically. Like a nightmare remembered by the heavens.

Garret’s heartbeat thundered inside his ears. Seven fins. Seven!!

His mouth became dry. "...Impossible..."

A Seven-Finned Cursed Beast was a thing of legends.

Only legends spoke of such beings, even titled generals never expected to witness one.

The students couldn’t fully perceive that monstrous body.

To them, the air warped around the tall stranger, making his outline impossible to understand.

Only fragments appeared, a glimpse of an extra eye.

Something impossibly large behind him, shadows moving where shadows shouldn’t.

Enough to awaken instincts older than thought.

Enough to make every soul scream that death stood before them.

Its seven eyes wandered calmly across every face before finally stopping... on Thane, unblinking.

For a long while, it simply stared. As if observing something it had searched for over centuries.

Then every whisper united into one dreadful sentence. "I have traversed the silence of ages... for thee alone."

Its mist drifted forward. "I seek thee..." he stopped for a moment before uttering. "Seal Breaker!"

Thane felt his knees weaken, his fingers lost strength around the axe.

Seal... Breaker?

What seal?

He had never heard those words before.nThe creature glided another few steps.

No sound, no footprints. Only an unbearable pressure.

Garret wanted to move but his body refused. Every instinct begged him to flee. Yet he remained rooted in place.

Because if he ran... the children behind him would die.

The creature came closer and closer.

Without warning—Evelyn rushed forward. "No!"

Her twin daggers flashed into her hands.

She planted herself between Thane and the advancing horror.

Her entire body trembled, her face was drained of color.

Her hands shook so violently that the blades quivered.

Yet... she did not retreat.

"If..." Her hands trembled violently. "If you want him. You... You’ll have to go through me."

The creature paused, all seven eyes lowered toward the small girl.

For a heartbeat... no one breathed. The forest itself seemed to wait.

Garret’s heart nearly stopped. One attack, one careless movement and every one of them would perish.

The creature regarded Evelyn in silence. Then, in that same ancient whisper, it spoke.

"How delightful... the lamb shieldeth the mountain.

So frail... and yet thou standest. There lingereth courage... within dying stars."

Thane stared, his chest tightened.

The girl... The quiet girl who barely spoke since joining them had stepped before him without hesitation.

She was terrified, he could see it. Every shake, every uneven breath. She knew she would die. Yet she stood.

Something inside Thane snapped, his fear remained. But it no longer ruled him.

He stepped forward, one step.

Then another, his large hand gently pushed Evelyn behind him.

She looked up in surprise. Thane never looked away from the creature.

His own hands trembled, his breathing was uneven.

His voice nearly broke. "...Run."

No one moved. Thane spoke louder, still trembling. "Run!"

His grip tightened around the axe. "I’ll stop him."

Conor’s face turned pale. "Thane—"

"GO!" The shout echoed through the silent White Forest.

No laughter followed, no heroic confidence.

Only a frightened seventeen-year-old giant standing before something his mind could barely comprehend.

Behind him stood his friends. Ahead of him waited an existence older than history itself.

And above them all, the clouds swallowed the sun completely.