The illusion shattered all at once. One after another, the survivors jolted awake inside the narrow stone crevice. Some screamed, while others scrambled backward until their shoulders slammed into the cold rock wall. One woman doubled over, vomiting onto the frozen dirt as memories of the false town dissolved into fragments. It hadn't been real. None of it. There had been no shelter, no reunion, and no safety—only the eye monster feeding on their minds while its tendril slowly drained Leon's blood.
Leon opened his eyes without a sound. His entire body felt hollow, not merely exhausted, but emptied, as though every ounce of strength had been scraped out of his muscles. His hand instinctively pressed against his stomach. It was warm and sticky. Blood still soaked his torn white shirt, although the wound itself had already begun knitting together beneath the lingering green energy. Barely.
He lowered himself beside the eye monster's twitching corpse and rested a palm against its gelatinous surface. The Universal Vessel stirred, and the remaining scraps of Origin hidden within the corpse flowed directly into him. Unlike Qi, it didn't strengthen his cultivation; instead, it replenished the vitality he had burned through using Linked Energy Manipulation, replacing the fuel he had sacrificed to force a mortal body beyond its limits. Color slowly returned to his pale face—only a little. It was enough to remain conscious, but not enough to fight again.
Leon withdrew his hand. "We move."
Several survivors stared blankly. One finally pointed toward the mangled eye. "But... it's dead."
Leon nodded once. "One is."
Silence fell.
"The crab never came." The realization spread through the cave like ice water. The two monsters hadn't hunted together, which meant the other one was still alive.
Leon leaned against the wall before his legs gave out completely. "I'm finished." His breathing remained steady, but every movement carried visible effort. "I can't fight again. I can't even walk. Carry me."
There wasn't a moment of hesitation. "Got it." Davis crouched beside him immediately.
Leon shifted his gaze toward everyone else. "Anyone coming with us helps carry me."
Nobody answered. Some looked away, while others stared at the ground. One middle-aged man finally snapped. "You're asking us to slow ourselves down!"
"Yes." The answer came so quickly the man almost forgot his next sentence.
"If you don't want to..." Leon shrugged weakly. "Leave. No hard feelings."
Another survivor frowned. "We should stay together."
"No." Leon crouched with difficulty and traced several lines into the dirt using a loose stone. He drew one thick line. "One group." Then he scratched ten thinner lines spreading away from the same point. "Separate."
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He tapped the single thick line. "One trail." Then the many smaller ones. "Many trails. The monster catches one. The others live."
The cave became completely silent. One woman stared at the crude drawing. "So you're sending people to die?"
Leon looked at her without anger. "No. They were already going to die. I'm giving them a chance."
Nobody argued after that because, deep down, they knew he was right. The survivors began making their choices. Most immediately selected different directions, each hoping fortune would smile upon them instead of someone else.
Three people remained inside the cave. One wrapped both arms around his knees, whispering, "It doesn't know we're here," while a second nodded desperately, adding, "This cave saved us once. Maybe it'll save us again." The third simply curled into the darkest corner he could find, too terrified to move another step.
Leon didn't try to persuade them; survival belonged to whoever made the correct decision, and he had already offered them one. Only two people remained beside him: Davis and Miller.
Miller scratched the back of his head before letting out a long sigh. "...Damn it. I'll help."
Leon slowly raised one arm and pointed toward a distant line of broken cliffs barely visible through the crimson snowfall. "Go that way."
Davis frowned. "Why?"
"Pretend you chose it."
"...What?"
"I'll explain later." His voice had already become quieter. "I can't stay awake anymore."
His eyelids grew heavy. The little Origin he had absorbed had only delayed the inevitable, and the moment he stopped actively circulating energy, overwhelming exhaustion flooded his body. Darkness swallowed him.
Davis adjusted Leon across his shoulders before rising to his feet. "...Seriously?" He glanced down at the unconscious young man. "You killed that thing... ...and you're this light?"
Miller moved beside him, taking some of Leon's weight whenever the uneven ground became difficult. The two quietly left the cave, disappearing into the endless crimson wilderness. For several minutes, neither of them spoke. Only the crunch of frozen red snow echoed beneath their boots.
Eventually, Miller broke the silence. "I don't get it."
Davis kept walking. "What?"
"Why do you trust him this much? You didn't even question him. He pointed somewhere and you just... followed."
Davis smiled faintly. "You never worked with Leon."
"No. I didn't."
"There were impossible deadlines. He finished them. Projects everyone thought would miss release—he somehow delivered." Miller listened quietly as Davis chuckled to himself. "There was one project... They gave us a month. He finished his part in two days."
"...You're kidding."
"I wish I was." Davis shifted Leon's weight again. "At first everyone thought he got lucky. Then it happened again. And again. And again." He looked ahead toward the distant cliffs. "Enough times... You stop asking whether Leon knows what he's doing. You just assume he does. Besides....didn't he just kill a beast in front of us while using straight out magic? He seems to know stuff we don't. We will get an explanation when he wakes up."
Miller looked toward Leon's unconscious face. He still wasn't entirely convinced, but his feet never stopped moving.
Back at the cave... The scraping began. A slow, heavy, metallic grinding echoed between the rocks. Inside the darkness, the three remaining survivors froze. One clasped his hands together and began whispering frantic prayers, another covered his own mouth to suppress his breathing, but the third broke first. He screamed.
The crab burst through the entrance. Stone exploded inward. The screams lasted only seconds. Dark blood slowly seeped from the shattered entrance, staining the crimson snow an even deeper shade of red.
The armored creature finished feeding before turning toward the fallen eye monster. It lowered its massive head. With a wet crunch, the shell surrounding the giant eye collapsed beneath its jaws. It devoured the remains, and along with it... fragments. An imprint. The one responsible; the one who had stolen its companion.
The crab slowly lifted its head. Several trails led away from the cave. It lowered itself toward the ground. One by one, it began following them—patiently, relentlessly. The hunt had only just begun.