The combination of the Dragon Ash energy and the siphoned strength of the entire Howler pack had culminated in a catastrophic detonation. The resulting explosion didn’t just illuminate the night; it consumed the very fabric of the theme park in a blinding, white-hot dome of light.

As the shockwave of pure energy washed through the survivors, they felt a violent, static prickling sensation dancing across every inch of their skin. On the rooftop of the water ride building, the Howlers had to dig their feet into the structural beams, bracing themselves as the building groaned and partially crumbled beneath the sheer atmospheric pressure. For a moment, time itself seemed to suspend in the brilliance of the blast.

“Am I... actually alive?” Innu gasped, his voice a mere whisper as the light finally receded. He looked up, squinting at a night sky that was now impossibly, uncannily clear. Not a single cloud remained in sight; every particle of moisture and smoke had been physically scoured away by the force of Gary’s final strike.

Nearby, the others were slowly forcing their eyes open, coughing through the settling dust as they picked themselves up from the debris.

“Is everyone okay? Sound off!” Marie shouted, her voice strained. She still had Kai’s limp form draped over her shoulder, his breathing shallow but steady. One by one, the Howlers checked in; miraculously, despite the structural collapse of the building, no one had sustained life-threatening injuries.

“Look... what’s happening to them?” Austin asked, pointing a trembling finger toward the ground below.

The Howlers gathered at the edge of the roof, staring down at the remaining Glutton Werewolves. The mindless creatures were convulsing on the ground, their bodies shaking with a rhythmic, violent tremor. A thick, oily red mist began to seep out from their pores, swirling around them in a localized vortex, a miniature version of the aura Unzoku had projected during the peak of his power.

“It isn’t all of them,” Kai noted, his eyes scanning the carnage with a strategist’s precision. “Look at the ones in the center. It seems that red mist is only reacting to the ones who were heavily injured or near death.”

“This doesn’t feel like a retreat,” Austin said, his hand moving toward his weapon. “Should we get ready to fight again? And where is Gary? Does he need our help down there?”

“I think... I think he actually did it,” Xin said, her gaze fixed on the center of the massive crater.

In the heart of the blast zone, Gary remained in his towering Dragon Ash Lycan form. He stood amidst the scorched earth, the heat still radiating off his blackened fur in visible waves. He was staring down at the gruesome remnants of the progenitor. Unzoku’s body had been utterly decimated; only a jagged cross-section of his upper chest and his head remained. What was most unsettling, however, was the mangled nest of blackened flesh that had sprouted from the obliterated wound, it looked as if the body had frantically tried to regenerate even as it was being vaporized, but the cellular process had finally reached its limit.

[1 minute has elapsed]

[1/5 Transformations remaining]

Gary felt the golden light flickering along his limbs, the power receding like a low tide. He could feel himself shrinking, his muscles losing their draconic density as his body grew weaker by the second. Gritting his teeth against the sudden onset of total exhaustion, he tightened his grip on the warhammer and forced himself to take a step toward the remains.

“I need to make sure,” he rasped, his voice a guttural growl. “I need to make sure not a single cell of his body is left to rot on this earth.”

However, as Gary took another agonizing step, the last of his energy evaporated. He fought to remain standing, but as his vision began to swim, he saw something that froze the blood in his veins.

The red mist suddenly intensified, blanketing what was left of Unzoku’s torso. It didn’t just swirl; it began to spiral inward, forming a dark, sinking crimson circle beneath the remains. It was a phenomenon Gary had never encountered in all his battles, a void of red energy that seemed to be pulling Unzoku into the earth itself.

Suddenly, a cacophony of whispers erupted inside Gary’s head, ghostly screams of unadulterated pain and ancient, forgotten languages. Before he could raise the hammer to strike, Unzoku’s remains sank into the red void and vanished entirely from the physical plane.

The whispers ceased instantly. The screams were gone. The red circles had claimed not just Unzoku, but every heavily injured Glutton in the vicinity as well. As for the Gluttons who had managed to survive the blast, a secondary change was occurring; the monstrous distortions of their bodies were melting away, and they were reverting back into their human selves, unconscious and broken.

“What... what just happened?” Gary whispered to the empty air. “Is he dead? I can’t feel his presence anymore, but that power at the end... what was that?”

Questions swirled in his mind, faster than he could process them. He had never been entirely sure if Unzoku was truly human, or even a traditional werewolf like them. Maybe this was simply how a creature of that ancient, corrupted being finally perished. Or, more disturbingly, Gary thought back to the cryptic conversations he’d heard about the source of Unzoku’s power.

The progenitor’s ability to control the pack hadn’t truly belonged to him. It made Gary wonder: had the entity that originally granted Unzoku his power just intervened to save him? And if so, was that being even more terrifyingly powerful than Unzoku himself? 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Is he really gone?” Gary wondered, his mind spinning. “And if he is, where did that void take him?”

With that final, lingering doubt echoing in his consciousness, Gary’s body finally gave out. He couldn’t keep his eyes open for a second longer. As he collapsed toward the scorched ground, his body twisting back into its human form, he saw the blurred shapes of the Howlers, his family, running toward him.

****

****

For updates on MWS and future works, follow me on my social media below.

Instagram: jksmanga

P.a.t.r.e.o.n: jksmanga

When news drops about My Vampire System, My Werewolf System, or any other series, you’ll hear it there first. Feel free to reach out, if I’m not too busy, I tend to reply.