The creature looked up slowly, meeting his gaze, hollow eyes burning with a dreadful hunger.

"Oh…oh, God…" he stammered, voice trembling. "What…what are you?"

The creature tilted its head, lips pulling back into a gruesome semblance of a grin, revealing blackened teeth.

"Life…" it rasped, its voice like dry leaves scratching over bone. "You…humans…cling to it so tightly."

He felt bile rise in his throat, the stench emanating from the creature overpowering. "Stay back!" he screamed, backing away, hands raised in a feeble attempt at defense.

The creature let out a low, rattling laugh, and then spoke in a slow, mocking whisper. "Why run, little one? Don’t you want to join her?"

He shook his head frantically. "No… I… I didn’t see anything…I won’t tell anyone. Please…"

The creature inhaled deeply, savoring his terror. "Fear…so rich. But it won’t save you." Its voice dropped, chilling and soft. "Come closer…let me taste it."

He stumbled back, his legs giving way as he collapsed to the ground. "Please! I’ll do anything… Just let me go!" he begged, his voice breaking.

The creature took a step toward him, its skeletal feet crunching over dead leaves, until it loomed just above him. The last thing he saw was its grinning skull face descending toward him, whispering:

"Shhh… It’s only pain."

In a sudden, brutal movements, the creature's bony at. Swung down, it's fingers razor-sharp and impossibly quick. The man barely had time to scream as it sliced through him with ease, cleaving him clean in half. A spray of blood erupted, painting the forest floor in red, droplets arching through the air like twisted fountain.

His body slumped, falling in two grotesy halves, the group beneath him soakiyup the fresh blood with sickening speed. The creature looked down at the remains, expressionless but satisfied, as it leaned in and whispered to the cooling corpse, almost tenderly.

"Life is fleeting... And so deliciously fragile."

The fog thickened, swallowing the scenes in silence once more, as if the night itself had been holding it's breath, savoring the terror and bloodshed in the darkness of the willow forest.

The figure in the darkness tilted its head, a twisted grin spreading across its face as it studied the creature before it. "Ah, still toying with fragile little souls, are we?"

The creature snorted, eyes glinting. "Took you long enough to get here."

The figure shrugged, an air of dark amusement lacing its voice. "The owner and I had…a disagreement."

The creature’s lip curled. "So, you haven't taken over yet? Typical. Humans…so fragile, their souls like thin glass."

Just then, a soft, ghostly light cut through the murk as Caelum's moth fluttered closer, its wings casting an eerie glow over the blood-streaked ground. Valen’s shadow-creature emerged, stretching and twisting like ink bleeding into water, its form dark and heavy as it faced the creature.

"Leave something behind, will you?" the figure said, voice barely a whisper but filled with menace. "I want them to know we were here. I want to see how they’ll react…knowing they were hunted."

The creature chuckled, its voice low and full of disdain. "Humans…such pitiful, fragile beings. They break so easily."

The moth drifted closer, its light flickering across the shadows like a twisted beacon, while Valen's creature stood silent and watchful, eyes glinting with cruel amusement. The figure's grin widened as it watched the scene unfold, a glint of sadistic delight in its gaze.

"Let them shatter," it whispered, almost to itself. "Let them realize how hopeless they are in the face of something they can never understand…or escape."

Caelum's connection to his moth allowed him to see the grisly scene before him. Through his companions eyes he beheld the grotesque state of the humans ravaged by the creature a massacre display of limbs twisted and drained, left as a hollow remnants of like. The sight struck him with horror, his breath catching as the terror sank in. 

Valen's shadow, however, had vanished into the night, as dark whisper leaving only silence. Then, caelum's moth let out a piercing scream, it's delicate form jolted as through struck by an unseen force. The moth flicked, reeling in pain just as a sudden shockwave swept through the air. 

Xyril arrived in a whirlwind of energy, his presence marked by a shockwave that collided with the creature, forcing it back as they clashed. His eyes narrowed, recognizing the twisted form before him.

“A wendigo…” Xyril muttered with grim certainty, his voice laced with old memories and contempt.

The wendigo’s twisted mouth spread into a hideous grin, and in a grotesque transformation, its form shifted, morphing into that of a gaunt human with pale, almost translucent skin. “Long time no see… old friend.”

Xyril’s fists clenched, his gaze sharpening. “If you’re here, then that means—” He stopped abruptly, his senses flaring as he scanned the area.

Suddenly, a tremendous force split through the air, a shockwave so powerful that it sheared half of the willow forest in one sweeping blow. Trees toppled and shattered, and the earth trembled beneath them. From the destruction, the emperor emerged, his gaze steely, carrying a sword like no other—a legendary blade that radiated a profound, otherworldly energy.

The emperor’s sword, Eldarion, was forged from the rare, otherworldly metal Celestium. Its blade gleamed like liquid starlight, and intricate, ancient runes traced along its length, emitting a soft, ethereal glow that pulsed with each of his heartbeats. The blade seemed to hold the essence of a thousand fallen stars, its edges sharp enough to cut through even the fabric of reality itself. The hilt was embedded with a dark opal stone, rumored to be a shard from the Celestial Realm, which allowed the emperor to channel vast cosmic energies with each strike.

The emperor regarded the wendigo with icy disdain, his voice a chilling whisper. “That bastard is here.”

An eerie laugh echoed through the shattered forest, disembodied and mocking, as though a child’s voice was woven into the darkness itself. It rang out with a playful malice, sending a chill through the air. “Not today, Your Majesty,” the voice taunted, the laughter rippling like distant thunder.

“Everything has a reason,” the voice continued, taunting, as it drifted between shadows. “Remember that… my beloved Emperor!”