—Astraeus Territory, Aster Kingdom—
Deep within a forest barely touched by light, a black-haired Hybrid ran without any clear direction.
His breathing came out ragged, heavy and uneven. His feet repeatedly stumbled over roots twisting out from the ground—like dead hands trying to seize him and keep him from escaping. Wet leaves lashed against his face while sharp branches mercilessly tore at his skin.
But he did not dare stop. He knew… stopping meant death.
Behind him, the sound of footsteps continued to echo through the forest. Slow. Steady.
Not hurried in the slightest. They were not the footsteps of someone chasing prey, but rather of someone casually walking… because they already knew their prey could never truly escape.
"Where are you trying to run?" the voice finally called out from nearby.
The young man's body froze instantly. His breath caught in his throat. He had not even realized when the footsteps had stopped—or when the distance between them had vanished entirely.
With stiff movements, he slowly turned around.
There… stood Larcenous.
A wide smile stretched across his face, yet it felt unnatural—like the permanent grin of a clown doll. Behind it, his eyes remained empty and cold.
"N-No… please… let me go…" the young man's voice broke as he trembled, barely sounding human anymore. He lowered his head, his shoulders shaking violently. "I'm begging you…"
His eyes were wet. Not only from fear—but from the tiny shred of hope he still clung to in desperation. And that was precisely what made him look the most pitiful.
"Hehehe…" Larcenous chuckled softly. The laughter was light, almost like someone finding a small amusement in the middle of boredom.
"Of course," he replied casually, even sounding friendly. He stepped slightly to the side, opening the path before him as though he truly intended to let him go. "Go ahead."
The black-haired young man froze for a moment, unable to believe what he had just heard.
A chance. Was it really… a chance?
But instinct overtook his thoughts before he could think further. Without daring to confirm it, without daring to look back, he immediately turned and ran again—faster, messier, and far more desperate than before.
His breathing became more erratic. His chest felt like it was burning. The world around him seemed to narrow into a single purpose—
Survive.
He did not dare look back. Did not dare imagine whether that figure was still standing there… or already right behind him.
Meanwhile, a few steps away, Larcenous simply stood still. The smile on his face never faded.
The hand hidden behind his back slowly moved, and from between his fingers, black miasma began to gather.
At first, it was thin like smoke, but it gradually thickened, pulsing faintly as though it possessed a heartbeat of its own.
Slowly, its shape began to form. Lengthening, then curving.
Until finally—a serpent emerged from the darkness. Its body was slender yet dense, as if its entire existence had been forged from condensed hatred.
Its eyes slowly opened, glowing with a dim yellow light from within the miasma itself—alive, yet not truly alive.
Larcenous slightly raised his hand, weighing it for a brief moment… before casually tossing it forward without the slightest trace of urgency. Like someone who had already known how this game would end.
"But… that was a lie," Larcenous murmured softly, almost like a whisper to himself.
The miasma serpent shot forward—far too fast for the eye to follow. Silent. Without warning.
In an instant—
"Mmmppph!!" The young man's body was violently halted. His feet lifted off the ground as the black coils wrapped around him from behind, winding across his chest, neck, and tightly sealing his mouth shut.
He struggled. But it was useless.
The miasma did not merely restrain him—it pressed inward, crawling deeper, locking every movement like living chains slowly invading his flesh and bones.
Every breath he tried to take was strangled before it could even form. And for the first time since he started running—he realized.
He had never truly been given a chance.
He tried to scream, but no sound escaped. Only the trembling of terror trapped in his throat.
Larcenous slowly walked closer, his steps light yet strangely unsettling—there was something fractured in their rhythm, as though he was no longer truly moving in sync with the world around him.
He enjoyed the moment. Enjoyed the way the body before him trembled, the way those strangled breaths struggled to survive beneath the tightening coils of miasma.
He stopped right in front of the young man's face, staring at him for a long moment.
"Oh…" Larcenous murmured softly, tilting his head slightly as though he had just remembered something utterly insignificant in the middle of all this. "I forgot… you already lost it."
His smile slowly widened, yet remained empty—there was no warmth in it, no meaning, only the imitation of a human expression.
"Your name." A faint, raspy chuckle escaped his throat.
"Khehehe… so now you're just a nameless Hybrid, huh?" he continued, his voice light, almost as if he were making casual conversation.
The black-haired young man twisted within the bindings. His eyes widened, not only from fear—but because something deeper was beginning to surface.
Loss.
Not merely of life.
But of existence itself.
"In that case…" Larcenous raised the black stake in his hand, and instantly, the dark aura around him thickened, pressing against the air until it felt unbearably heavy. "Die… without ever being called again."
The movement happened within a single breath.
Brutal.
The body was split apart before it could even react. The next strike came without pause—not because it was necessary, but because he wanted it.
Again.
And again.
Each swing destroyed more than the last, until the body no longer retained any shape recognizable as human.
Flesh and blood did not even have the chance to fall apart properly—everything was shattered, torn away, forced to lose all meaning as a "body."
"Kyhahahaha… die!" Larcenous's laughter burst out, louder this time, more unhinged.
He did not stop.
"Die! Die! Die—!" he screamed, repeating the word over and over, as though his tongue had become trapped on a single meaning it could no longer let go.
His laughter twisted into an unstable echo—like something broken, spinning aimlessly within his own mind.
But then—
He suddenly stopped. As though something inside him had been severed.
Silence fell over the forest once more.
The remains of the shattered body did not move… then slowly began to change. There was no blood pooling across the ground, no flesh left behind.
Everything melted into a black residue that seeped into the soil, vanishing without a trace.
Larcenous stared at it. His brows furrowed slightly.
"…No soul?" he muttered softly, and this time it was not mockery—but faint, genuine confusion.
The ground beneath it began to dry out. The life within the soil seemed to be forcibly drained away, leaving behind a barren, lifeless surface.
And for a moment, even Larcenous fell silent.
His gaze remained fixed on the ground that had swallowed every last remnant, yet something in his expression shifted.
The atmosphere around him changed—not anger, but a subtle disturbance, like someone realizing there was something wrong in a game that should have been simple.
"Bastard…" he muttered under his breath.
He looked at the barren earth with disgust, as though the mere existence of that Dummy was enough to ruin his mood.
"Annoying." His hand slowly clenched, faint dark veins surfacing beneath his skin.
"So… it was only his Dummy," he continued, his voice lower now, colder. He let out a rough breath—not from exhaustion, but irritation.
This was not merely a failed kill. It was about being played with.
"Boa." He called out without turning around. His voice was not loud, yet it was enough to make something behind him respond.
From the shadows between the trees, something slowly began to move. Almost soundlessly.
Yet its presence could be felt immediately—massive, heavy, oppressive—as though the forest itself had to make way for it to pass.
A gigantic serpent emerged from the darkness. Its long body slid between the trees like a calm yet unstoppable current of living flesh.
Its scales were smooth, colored in dark olive green mixed with earthy brown, resembling old leaves dampened by the night dew.
The faint light filtering through the gaps in the leaves reflected across its scales in a dim sheen, like metal that had long since lost its life.
At times, the color briefly shifted into a dull gold before sinking back into darkness once more.
The patterns along its back were indistinct, little more than gradients of shadow blending seamlessly into its body, making it nearly invisible whenever it stayed still.
The sides of its body were slightly lighter, while its underside carried a pale grayish cream color—a soft contrast that only made its existence feel even more pronounced.
It looked… deadly.
Larcenous finally glanced toward it, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Find him," he ordered shortly. His voice was low, yet carried an authority that could not be ignored.
"Dummy or the real one… it doesn't matter." His lips slowly curled upward, and a flicker of madness surfaced in his eyes. "If it's just a fake—swallow it whole. Destroy it without leaving a trace."
The serpent did not respond. But its massive body began to move, gliding deeper into the forest with a silence utterly unnatural for something of its size.
Every movement felt certain—like death already knowing exactly where it needed to go.
Within moments, its figure vanished among the trees.
Meanwhile, Larcenous remained standing where he was.
Then—
He smiled again, wider this time. As though everything that had happened was not an annoyance… but something that had finally begun to entertain him.
"This game…" he murmured softly, almost like a whisper to himself, "is finally starting to get interesting."