Erik's team and the White Calvary followed him through the forest, their boots pressing into damp earth as they made their way toward the monster.
"So," Aron said, his voice laced with suspicion, "care to tell me how you know exactly where the monster is?"
"I cut it open and placed a mana marble inside," Erik replied flatly.
Aron stopped in his tracks. Even the White Calvary troops, disciplined as they were, let out soft murmurs of disbelief.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Erik," Aron said, irritation flashing across his face.
Erik didn't bother responding. He kept walking, eyes forward.
Aron looked to Old Man Val for confirmation.
"Yep. He did it," Val said, as if talking about something completely ordinary.
Erik glanced back for a moment, unsure whether Aron's silence meant he was more frustrated… or impressed. His expression gave nothing away.
"You know," Aron muttered, falling into step beside him, "every time I hear something about you, it sounds like you're just gambling with your life. I wonder how long that luck's gonna hold."
Erik exhaled through his nose, kept walking. It wasn't the first time someone had said something like that to him—especially Aron. It wouldn't be the last.
But something else had been gnawing at him ever since the White Calvary arrived. They were an elite, noble-backed Gold Rank guild. The fact that they'd mobilized fifty men to hunt a single Karken… didn't sit right.
Erik wasn't one for dancing around questions.
"So," he said, glancing over, "I still can't wrap my head around it. The White Calvary—fifty men—to kill a single Karken? What aren't we being told?"
Aron gave him a look filled with something between pity and frustration. "So you really don't know, huh?"
"Don't know what?"
"That Karken you're chasing…" Aron paused, his voice dropping. "It killed twenty-eight hunters in a single day."
Erik stopped walking. His stomach twisted. He turned toward Val—who had gone pale.
"Ian's team?" Val asked, his voice low.
Aron didn't answer. He didn't need to.
Erik's chest felt tight. Ian Vector's guild had twenty members—experienced ones. For all of them to be gone…
"We're here under orders from the Vykie family," Aron added.
That changed everything.
Erik turned to him sharply. "You understand what this means, right? That thing's absorbed the mana from twenty-eight people. It's evolving. It might be stronger than anything we've seen on these lands."
"Yeah," Aron said, as if it were obvious. "That's why we're here."
He gestured to the force behind him. "The way I see it, the bigger it is, the easier it is to hit. It'll be a punching bag for all fifty of us."
The soldiers around him chuckled confidently, but Erik didn't join them.
They didn't get it. The more mana a Karken consumed, the more it mutated. This wasn't just a strong monster—they were heading into something unknown. Something that could no longer be classified by what they'd seen before.
Erik glanced at Elsa and Eri. Both of them looked uneasy. Good. At least they understood the danger.
He stopped. The terrain around them shifted—tall stone formations rose from the ground, their jagged faces forming narrow pathways and sharp turns.
They'd reached the Grand Canyons.
Erik could sense it—deep within the rocky maze. The Karken was there, waiting.
The Grand Canyon. One of the known entry points into the Valley of Death. A network of towering stone walls and narrow paths that earned its name for good reason. It wasn't hard to navigate—but if something went wrong, there was only one way out: the way they came.
Erik turned back to the group.
"It's right ahead of us," he said.
He pointed into the canyon's heart.
"The Karken… that bastard's in there."
"Loki!" Aron called out.
One of the sorcerers from the White Calvary stepped forward. He brought both hands together as if to clap, then opened them slowly.
A pigeon—no, a spirit—burst from his palms and flew into the canyon in the direction Erik had indicated.
Loki closed his eyes. The air grew still as he focused.
Seconds passed.
Then, he opened his eyes. "It was attacked. It's definitely the Karken."
Aron dismounted. "Finally. We've found the bastard. Get ready, boys—it's gonna be one hell of a party."
"Yeah!" his men shouted in unison, their excitement rising.
But something felt… off.
"Wait," Erik said. "Aron, something's not right."
Aron turned, brow raised. "What? You chickening out now?"
Erik didn't react to the jab. "You know how good I am at sensing auras. If your sorcerer's right, and the Karken's in that direction, I should at least be able to sense it. But I feel nothing. Worse, where your sorcerer sensed the monster and where I feel it is—completely different."
Aron's face hardened.
"So what? You want us to turn around? Report back to the guild and say, 'Sorry, the monster might have moved'?"
"I'm saying this feels like a trap," Erik said firmly.
"A trap?" Aron laughed, a bitter edge in his voice. "Erik, what the fuck are you talking about? You know damn well those things don't think."
"What if this one does?" Erik pressed. "What if it's mutated to the point where it can? What if it lured us here, into a canyon with one way in and no way out, waiting to ambush us?"
Aron's smirk faded.
"Look," Erik continued, "when Loki's spirit was attacked, the mana marble I planted didn't move an inch. That means whatever attacked the spirit wasn't near the Karken. Something's off. If we charge in blind, we're all gonna die."
A heavy silence fell. Tension buzzed like static between the two men, thick enough to choke on.
Then Aron said, "Get ready for battle!"
Erik's voice rose. "Did you even listen to a single word I said?"
Aron looked at him from behind the steel of his helmet. "Whatever it's planning—if it is planning anything—it's still just a monster. And we're fifty trained warriors. We all go at it at once, it won't matter what tricks it's got."
He turned to walk back to his horse.
"Thanks for the intel," he said over his shoulder. "You can come with us or wait here and see how it goes. Up to you."
Erik clenched his jaw, trying to stay calm. He turned to his group—Elsa, Eri, and Old Man Val.
"What do you guys think?" he asked.
Val shrugged. "Got nothing to lose."
"Same," Eri said, already tightening her bowstring.
"If you're fighting, I'm with you," Elsa added. "Besides, we've got a better chance with the Calvary. Right?"
Erik looked at them—his team. They weren't backing down. He exhaled slowly.
"Alright then," he said. "Just remember—always keep your guard up. Always."
They nodded.
Erik turned back toward Aron.
"We'll join you."
Aron laughed, triumphant. "Let's go get that bastard."