A cold wind blew from the depths of the canyon.

Daniel and Drael were both flying above it, Daniel pushing himself to his absolute limit, wanting to leave this place as fast as possible.

He didn't know why, but that ominous feeling in his chest was growing stronger and stronger with every passing second. He knew something terrible could appear at any moment.

He didn't want to take any risks. Even if it meant burning through all his mana, he wanted to get out of this canyon as soon as possible.

But only a few seconds later, the sound came.

At first, it was like glass cracking.

Then, like a mountain splitting.

And finally, like the roar of the earth itself.

The cliffs shook. The ground beneath them cracked open, and green light burst out from the fissures.

A fierce wind rose, carrying the smell of burnt soil and rust. From within the darkness, something emerged.

A hand. Just a single skeletal hand, no, more like a monstrous hand.

A gigantic skeletal hand with bones as thick as towers, leaking green vapor and deathly mist from every joint.

The canyon split apart as the enormous hand rose, seemingly covering both the sky and the earth, bigger than anything they'd ever seen.

When it moved, it sounded as if the world itself was breaking apart.

Its fingers slowly unfolded, and its shadow fell across the entire sky.

"This… this is impossible…" Drael whispered, eyes wide.

Just the sight of that enormous hand made him feel the very presence of death itself.

A wave of helplessness and terror took over his heart, he felt that escape was impossible, that both of them were going to die here.

"Run." Daniel said flatly, not even glancing back. He knew that even the smallest mistake could be fatal.

He increased his mana output, even prepared to burn his life force for more speed. For him, life force was never much of a problem anyway.

But suddenly, he felt his body grow heavier. Looking down, he realized, the ground was pulling him back. Gravity had returned.

Except this time, it wasn't some artificial energy field, it was the pure manifestation of the monster's existence.

Just its presence alone was enough to drag the heavens down to the earth.

Daniel frowned and activated the Law of Death with all his power, but it was already too late.

Both of them plummeted.

The wind screamed in their ears, the sound of collapsing mountains echoing all around.

Then, the colossal hand descended. Its shadow covered the entire sky. The moonlight vanished.

"DANIEL!" Drael screamed, truly terrified.

Under that massive hand, he felt smaller than an ant, worthless, insignificant.

But before impact, Daniel raised his hand. Sword aura exploded from his body, shining in silver and black.

His eyes glowed faintly, there was no fear in them, no hesitation.

Sword aura burst outward, releasing a wave of compressed energy that tore through the air with a sound like fabric ripping.

In less than a second, a blade of deathly light extended from the ground to the sky, and collided with the giant hand.

Silence for a heartbeat. Then came light, explosion, and the sound of collapse.

The bones cracked apart, green light spilling from within, and shattered like a mountain of molten glass.

The death mist spread with crushing pressure, the shockwave smashing through the nearby cliffs and hurling boulders into the air.

The hand disintegrated with a scream of agony.

"How…?" Drael's mind went blank, his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

That enormous hand capable of covering the sky and earth, was destroyed? Just like that?

Was it that weak?

No… it wasn't weak.

It was the human standing in front of him who was too strong.

But before they could even take a breath of relief, a roar louder than anything natural shook the entire canyon. The very air trembled.

Drael covered his ears, but the sound wasn't in his ears, it tore through his mind.

A voice that didn't just shake the air, it shook the soul.

The ground quaked again, the cracks widened, and from the depths of darkness, green light surged upward like blood through the veins of the earth.

Rocks crumbled one after another.

"The ground, it's splitting in half!" Drael shouted.

Daniel looked down… and froze.

Amid the mist and green light, something massive was visible, rounded, curved, with two glowing hollows.

A skull.

A monster's skull.

Large enough to fill the entire canyon.

Green light leaked from its cracks, and as it breathed, winds with crushing force swept through the entire canyon.

Another roar, this time short and sharp, like the sound of bone breaking.

The ground shook again. Drael felt his very thoughts vibrating, his memories, his sense of time.

The monster's cry wasn't just sound, it was a wave of nothingness, crushing their existence beneath it.

For the first time, they both felt what it meant to face despair itself.

"Damn it… not yet." Daniel bit his lip, forcing himself to stay focused. He knew he couldn't fight that thing, not without his skills.

In this situation, escape was the only option.

A real man adapts, and takes revenge later.

It was time for a strategic retreat.

He spread his hands and fused the energies of death and moonlight.

This time, the very law of gravity began to crack, the white and black lights twisted together and tore open space.

Fortunately, the gravitational pull this time wasn't as strong as before, it could be broken.

With a burst of mana, the gravity shattered again.

"Go up!" Daniel shouted, grabbing Drael by the arm.

Drael could fly on his own, but his speed wasn't even a hundredth of Daniel's. That's why from the beginning, Daniel had decided to carry him.

He didn't want to waste even a second, he wanted to use every ounce of power to escape this canyon.

Both of them shot upward at incredible speed, climbing higher and higher, toward the edge of the canyon's sky.

But it still wasn't over.

From beneath them, the ground broke apart again.

Through the dust and green light, another hand emerged.

Bigger. Thicker. Faster.

Daniel barely managed to turn his head to see it, a hand rising upward, its fingers closing fast.

Before he could even react, everything went dark.

The enormous hand closed.

The moonlight disappeared.

And in a silent instant, both of them were swallowed by darkness.

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