Content Warning: Explicit Violence, Profanity, Blood, Death.

A Rainbane came out of nowhere, furious in the darkness. It had bulging eyes, a serpentine tongue, flaming hair, claws like blades, and a monstrous body resembling a chimera.

Without thinking, Leonard stepped between the mutant and Vin, raising his weapon and aiming directly.

“Vin, don’t move!” he shouted.

“You’re insane! I can handle that bastard! Hide!”

“I’m not leaving you, Vin. If we make it to Eridanus… if we find Vincent… maybe he and the other humans will understand and help you. Just trust them!”

“You’re so naïve to believe crap like that,” Vin thought.

The mutant’s tongue shot toward him, spines emerging like daggers. Leonard fired. The bullets hit, but the tongue kept advancing. 

The human knew how to defend himself —he had killed mutants before, but this one was incredibly fast. Vin lunged toward Leonard, held him tightly, and turned to take the blow with his back. It was a brutal lash that tore through flesh. The spines shredded his skin like burning blades.

Leonard’s scream shattered the forest silence.

“Vin!”

Vin’s body collapsed over him, gasping. His head rested against Leonard’s chest, breathing with difficulty. The thorned tongue was still extended, cruelly piercing his flesh. 

Leonard, enraged, grabbed it with his left hand while aiming with the other. He fired mercilessly. The Rainbane fell in a burst of blood.

And then… another appeared.

Taller than any creature before. A monster over three meters tall, with an ogre-like body, one eye oozing pus, two sharp horns, and teeth like razors.

“A HUMAN!” it roared. “I haven’t seen one in five years! I want your blood! I want to be like you!”

Leonard stepped back, aiming his weapon with trembling hands. This one dwarfed the last.

“Leo...” Vin whispered from the ground.

Leonard blinked.

“Leo?”

The skull-faced mutant sat up with effort, bleeding.

“Don’t waste bullets on that. I’ll handle it. If he kills you... I won’t forgive myself.”

At that moment, Leonard saw it. Vin’s left eye socket was glowing. A ruby eye emerged from the shadow. It was beautiful... and terrifying.

Vin stepped out of the bus stop and slowly walked into the rain, stopping in front of the monster. With a brutal punch, he sent it flying several meters.

But they weren’t alone.

Dozens of Rainbanes emerged: winged creatures shaped like burned angels; deformed beasts; indescribable figures. Leonard fired at them, one after another. The bullets ran out. He reloaded. He fell. He struck. He never stopped.

Vin fought too, but never stopped watching his human. He felt like he wouldn’t be able to save him, and it broke him. When the ogre charged him again, Vin was thrown to the ground, dazed.

Leonard panted, surrounded by more than twenty Rainbanes. There was no escape, but he kept fighting. When the bullets ran out, he threw punches at every mutant that tried to get close. 

Then it happened.

In the darkness of that hell and the pouring rain, enormous, black, demonic wings burst from Vin’s back. It was a stabbing pain again and again. A terrifying transformation —both majestic and horrific.

“No way...” Leonard whispered, heart pounding.

Vin raised his left arm; his torn coat revealed his hand of fire and tentacles. With a roar, he launched himself into the air and crashed into the army of mutants. He flew among them like a vengeful shadow, destroying them one by one. The ogre was the first to fall, his body reduced to ashes. The slaughter was violent: dismembered bodies, blood everywhere.

For nearly an hour, under the rain, Vin massacred most of the creatures. And Leonard, witnessing that scene —as if watching one of those horror films he’d seen at eighteen— didn’t look away for even a second.