---
Nightfall was fast approaching, and Kamigan leapt from tree to tree with strength and speed far beyond human capability.
Worry gnawed at his heart; once night fully descended, the entire forest would swarm with Moonbane Howlers—beasts over twenty times stronger than an average human.
As if confirming his fears, a low growl rumbled from below. Kamigan looked down—and there it was—a Moonbane Howler, launching itself upward with terrifying force, claws outstretched, aiming straight for him.
Midair, Kamigan twisted just in time. The howler's claws grazed his torso, tearing through his leather armor and leaving five deep gashes across it. Landing lightly on the branch of a large tree, Kamigan didn't pause; he immediately leapt toward another.
Behind him, the howler latched onto a trunk with its claws, its silver eyes locked onto Kamigan. It crouched, summoning power into its limbs, and then sprang forward at blinding speed.
Still midair, Kamigan had no way to dodge. Thinking fast, he planted his rusty iron sword against the trunk and used it as a foothold to propel himself away.
The moment he launched off, the howler's claws slashed at the sword, shattering it into five jagged pieces. Kamigan landed hard on a branch—but his footing slipped. He crashed against the trunk, bouncing off, and began plummeting from a deadly height.
Desperately, Kamigan yanked a small stone dagger from the rucksack at his waist and stabbed it into the tree's trunk, arresting his fall.
But no respite came.
The howler, in a burst of feral cunning, severed a branch and hurled it straight at him. Kamigan barely dodged, leaping off the trunk.
At that very instant, the howler itself launched at him, ramming him with its shoulder. The impact sent Kamigan hurtling towards the ground.
Blood filled his mouth as he hit the earth. Struggling to sit up, a sharp pain tore through him—his arm had been dislocated from the shoulder.
He looked up.
There it stood.
The Moonbane Howler loomed over him, silver eyes gleaming with murderous hunger.
Above its head, Kamigan noticed the faint glimmer of a number: 15.
Blood dripping from his lips, Kamigan grinned.
"Ahh... fuck," he muttered.
The beast seized him in its monstrous claws and pried open its maw, revealing rows of silver, razor-sharp teeth.
It roared—hot, foul breath blasting Kamigan's face, sticky drool splattering in every direction.
In that instant, Kamigan saw a single, desperate chance for survival.
As the howler drew him closer to its mouth, Kamigan thrust his hand forward, driving the stone dagger deep into the beast's throat. Blood exploded outward, drenching Kamigan's face.
The howler dropped him immediately, gagging, its mouth filling with blood.
---
But the beast was not dead.
It tilted its head to the night sky, ready to unleash a deafening roar—
—only to let out a ghastly, bone-chilling shriek instead.
Kamigan covered his ears, the shriek reduced to muffled screams inside his skull.
He watched the howler writhe in agony, blood still gushing from its torn throat.
Yet an eerie thought gnawed at Kamigan:
Amidst the quiet night, the shrieking beast was the only sound.
And Kamigan... was sitting right beside it.
Unease gripped him, an intangible dread he couldn't explain.
---
"What's going on...? I should be jubilant—I survived. But why... why do I feel so uneasy? It's like I'm forgetting something... Something important. Wait—where is—"
---
His thoughts were interrupted by loud, rhythmic thuds, growing closer with every second.
And then Kamigan realized.
Realized why the unease gnawed at him.
Under the night sky, in the dead silence of the forest, the ghastly cries of the Moonbane Howler had summoned it—
The abomination even the howlers feared—
The King of the Forest.
It approached.
Each thundering step made the colossal trees bend and part, as if cowering before a great storm.
The heavy thuds grew louder, heavier.
And just as Kamigan glanced back at the howler—
The wind fell silent.
The trees froze.
The thuds stopped.
And then—
Chaos descended.
A flash of silver—
—a blade sliced down through the howler, cleaving it from skull to ground, splitting its body clean in two. The impact shattered the earth where Kamigan had stood moments before.
Another blade swept across in a wide arc, felling the trees with horrifying ease.
Kamigan, caught in its path, was severed in half—the sheer force launching his mangled body high above the treetops.
His legs vanished somewhere into the thick canopy.
Suspended in the night air, Kamigan, barely clinging to life, finally laid eyes on the monster that haunted the forest.
It was a horror ripped from a child's worst nightmare.
Its body was armored with a black carapace. Its head resembled that of a praying mantis, but its gaping maw was packed with jagged, crimson-tinted fangs.
From its chest protruded two human-like arms—but where forearms should have been, two massive scythe-like blades gleamed with a silver sheen.
From its back jutted a row of massive black spikes, running along its twisted spine. Its abdomen bent backward grotesquely, supporting six spider-like legs—three on each side.
It was no mere beast.
It was terror incarnate.
Kamigan, face twisted in a mixture of excitement and hatred, grinned.
---
"What a monster... Just wait for me. Even if it takes a thousand years... or a thousand lifetimes... I swear, I'll pay you back for what you did to me."
---
And then—Kamigan plummeted toward the earth.
Upon impact, his body burst into a thousand pieces, flesh and blood splattering across the broken forest floor.
In the final moments before darkness claimed him, a voice—cold, mechanical—echoed from the void.
---
[Condition has been met. Initiating ability: "CHRONO EXILE.]