‘We should hurry now, though,’ Nikolai had said, ‘because it's just us two; but it's still pretty unlikely that we—’

Will run into a bolyui? Karlen couldn’t help thinking, half-laughing as remembered Nikolai’s last words. I really had to be taken then!? At THAT moment!? What kind of sick fucking joke is Fate playing!?

Managing to half-catch his breath, Karlen slowly—and painfully, as it was still hard to move—stood back up, hesitantly surveying his surroundings.

This isn’t Kavo. It’s like a faespot, isn’t it? So where’s the bolyui? Wouldn’t it have come out by now? Karlen wondered, taking labored breaths as he looked around.

And then his stomach sank.

Because there had been long, endless shadows between each of the obsidian towers.

And, now, those shadows were watching him.

They were curled up, elongated human shapes, each smiling with creepy, distorted faces. They watched him eagerly, as though he was a delicious morsel they aimed to devour.

You have got to be kidding me, Karlen thought, tearing up.

No sooner had that thought passed than the shadows began to melt. They formed dark, inky puddles around all of the towers—all except for the one next to Karlen, that is. Not that he could find it within himself to feel hopeful about that, though.

Finally, the puddles slowly started to snake toward him. He took a few painful steps back, but—

Karlen’s foot hit something.

Then his back.

And his blood ran cold.

At long last, he looked behind him to see that he’d—somehow—actually managed to move. And now he was trapped, as his back had run into a tower behind him.

Karlen didn’t miss the irony of this situation, either.

'Ṇ̸̉ow̵̫͖̐hĕ̸͈re..̵. t̵͚͗̎o r̶̤̖̍̈un̵͔̂̓.̵..̷̡͔͎̈́́ no̴̻͠ẅ̷̹́,' something said from behind him. And yet it sounded nothing like a voice—it was a horrible sound, distorted and overlaid by crackling noises alongside echoes of itself. But it still made intelligible words.

What could’ve made sounds like that, Karlen didn’t want to know. But it was behind him.

He didn’t want to look at it.

He really didn’t want to look at it.

But, Karlen hesitantly and slowly turned his head to see it, and a chill went down his spine.

What was in front of him was nothing like a human—he’d been right. What had once been shadows—turned into black, inky water—had slowly collected and twisted in on itself to coalesce into a ghastly creature.

The creature took the shape of an inky orb that seemed to warp the world around it. The very air and even ground underneath it seemed to curl into its being. But that wasn't all; it had countless strange appendages that almost seemed to be misshapen limbs. It even had something that resembled a face.

And what looked like a mouth was twisted into a grin.

‘H̶̩̓ẹ̴̇ll̶̹͋̊͜o̴̙͒,’ it said. Its smile was wider than any human’s could ever be.

Karlen couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. Every part of him was frozen in terror, too confused and shocked to run from this abomination.

From the bolyui.

It inched toward him—but then suddenly stopped. Its 'face' twisted and form flickered, each of its appendages flailing as it drifted backwards. Several eyes grew through its inky 'flesh', swirling around its body as though searching for something around them.

‘Ẉ̵̈́͒h̶̦͍̔͗a̴̬͂͘t?̴͚̃̅...̸̯̎̃ G̴̙̀Ĕ̷̫T O̸̲̚U̸̱͊̇̕T!!̸͇͛͂!!’ it shrieked.

Karlen suddenly remembered he could move.

DON’T YOU THINK I WOULD IF I COULD!?!? he thought.

But, a lump swelling in his throat, Karlen vowed to do everything he could to escape. For himself, but also for everyone else he knew. I won’t go down a mystery. I won’t disappear without a trace!

There were too many stories of people vanishing into the night—whether to bolyui or the khonitva, nobody knew. They couldn’t know. But Karlen wasn’t going to let that happen to himself. Not if he could avoid it. So he pulled together all the strength he had within him, forced himself to flip on his heel, and ran.

As hard as he tried to move, the fog still tugged at him. It swirled around his arms and legs, manifesting enough of a form to physically drag him back. NO—

Karlen squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head slightly—it was hard to do much else—before forcing his eyes open to focus ahead. He did his best to run as fast as he could, focusing on the feeling of his arms and legs as well as the shocks of impact that went through his body as his feet pounded into the ground. They were slower and weaker than usual.

But he was still moving. The bolyui was further back, and he could escape—

Then the bolyui appeared in front of him.

Its features were twisted into a seething grin.

Karlen shoved out his foot, slipping his heel over the uneven stone road to come to a stop. His pant legs scraped against the ground and he winced as the stones dug into his skin, but that wasn’t the real problem.

The problem was that he’d stopped right in front of the bolyui.

On the ground and unable to quickly get back up.

Unable to run.

The bolyui's features twisted into a sadistic grin. A twisted, warped sound—wavering and popping like thousands of firecrackers in the wind—flowed from it.

Although it sounded nothing like one, Karlen was certain the sound was a laugh.

Karlen's body wanted to freeze in fear again, but he couldn’t let himself. He slowly forced himself to lean on his hand—wincing at the feeling of the sharp stones of the road—and rose to his feet. Every movement hurt. The air itself felt sharp, as though it was full of tiny, invisible daggers that dug deeper and deeper into his skin the more he moved.

The bolyui looked more and more angry as Karlen somehow stood up, but it didn't stop him—instead, it watched him with a deadly look as though daring him to continue.

Once Karlen was on his feet, heart pounding and uncertain of how to escape, the bolyui's eyes and mouth flashed red.

'T̶a̴k̶e̷ ̷y̸o̷u̴.̵.̷.̶ ̴f̶i̵r̷s̵t̴,' it said.

"MOVE!" another voice shouted. Behind him.

He didn't have to be told twice.

Acting on pure reflex, Karlen threw himself to the side, kicking off of his leg to dodge and practically hurtling himself to the ground. Pain flared through his shoulder as it scraped against the hard rock, but that wasn't what he noticed most.

What he noticed most was the WHOOSH—THUNK! sound of something flying through the air, then hitting something behind him.

Heart fluttering, Karlen once again forced himself to frantically stand up, cradling his wounded shoulder as it throbbed in pain. But he ignored it, quickly turning to look over his shoulder and at the bolyui. He didn’t notice how effortlessly he was able to move now.

Instead, all he could see was the wooden spear sticking out of the bolyui's inky torso.

It was making a strangled, choking noise that crackled and warped just like its voice. Finally, the shadows forming the bolyui’s body slowly collapsed in on itself, vanishing.

Karlen stared at the place it’d once been in shock.

The spear fell from the empty air, thunking as the tip hit the ground, then clattering as both ends bounced from the ground. When it came to a stop, the spear laid across the ground lifelessly, the world was silent.

All except for the sound of footsteps behind him.

Too shocked to feel anything but numb, Karlen quickly glanced back to see who—or what—was there.

At first, it was a shadowy figure cloaked in green and black. But that image almost immediately flic̷k̴e̵r̷ed, shifting instead to the shape of a Glavni man in nondescript clothing and a balaclava over his mouth.

A...nother human? Karlen wondered, in too much shock and pain to think too deeply into it. What mattered most, though, was that it was a Glavni man—from Glavnran like him. So the bolyui hadn't somehow whisked him somewhere else.

The plain-looking man simply lifted his hand. Something flew through the air and, before Karlen could turn to see what it was, the spear flew over his shoulder and straight into the man's hand.

X̸̬̀—or "John Doe"—caught the spear as though he'd done this exact gesture thousands of times. The entire time he'd been walking, he'd been moving toward Karlen, visibly tense and scanning the area in a defensive position.

Please don’t tell me he’s after me, too, Karlen prayed.

“H-how did you—” he started, but X̴ interrupted him.

“Stay alert,” he said sharply. “It’s still alive.”

Karlen tensed, eyes widening as he quickly looked around again. X—the John Doe of the hour—spoke as he did.

“It’s hiding to recover,” he said. “It’ll come back at any moment.”

X's voice sounded off, but not in the same way as the bolyui's. Regardless—it wasn't the time to focus on something like that. Instead, Karlen watched as the black rocks underfoot were slowly overwritten by forestry—plants, grasses, and even thin trees were starting to sprout.

All in a radius around X.

Finally, Karlen tore his eyes from the forestry to level his eyes on the man who—presumably—was growing it all. Nature didn't seem to fit the bolyui's aesthetic, and X did use a wooden spear. So it had to be X's work, right?

“Wh-what do I need to do?” Karlen asked him.

X barely spared him a glance. His eyes were so cold that, if he hadn’t just saved Karlen from the bolyui, Karlen might’ve wondered if he was about to kill him.

Instead, X simply turned his head away, turning his attention to the outside of their forest circle.

“Stay out of my way,” X said curtly.

Noted, Karlen thought, swallowing as he forced himself to tear his eyes from X. He wasn't going to complain about not having to deal with the bolyui himself, but X disturbed him.

Karlen hadn't forgotten about how X's form flickered when he first saw him. He couldn't be sure whether or not that was the nature of the bolyui's domain, but that didn't make Karlen feel any better about it.

Such little was known about bolyui that nobody knew what exactly they were capable of. And yet, somehow, X had the confidence to practically strut about this bolyui's domain as though he owned the place?

That scared him.

Still unsure of who he should be more cautious of—the bolyui or X himself—Karlen looked back to X.

X was standing still, shoulders tense, head lowered, and eyes closed as if he was just trying to sense something around him. Strands of his hair dangled before X's eyes, but Karlen was more focused on what X was doing.

Magic. That makes sense. So he's able to fight the bolyui's control over its own domain, then? Is that why it's not hard to move here or anything like that? Karlen wondered, glancing down at his feet and the grass underneath. Then, he looked back to X, who was still standing motionlessly with his eyes closed. But, then, why is he—

Suddenly, X’s eyes flew open and he spun on his heel to face—nothing.

Except, it wasn’t “nothing” anymore.

Just before X had opened his eyes, there had been nothing there—no movement, no signs of incoming action—nothing. But, in the moment he'd flipped on his heel, the shadows from the towers had once again jolted forward, jerking to form an orb just outside of their circle.

As X faced it, more shadows twirled in on that space, coalescing into the inky black bolyui from before. At the same time, their greenery expanded forward, forming a dome of spikes and branches around the inky creature.

The moment the bolyui's eyes flashed red with awareness, the plants of that dome shot up like a net, wrapping around the bolyui and digging its thorns into the shadowy creature before dragging it to the ground.

The bolyui's eyes shot wide, but it didn't seem to fight its newfound cage. Instead, its form flickered—almost fading, then reappearing, and back again—as X drew his arm back.

A horrifying S̶̝̈H̴͍̆Ŗ̶̛I̵͉̓E̵͈͗K̵͉͠ reverberated through the air as X skewered the bolyui on his spear.