Liam's eyes sharpened as another group of Gravecoils lunged at him.

This time, six at once.

They came from different heights, their bodies cutting through branches and vines with violent force. Liam stayed still until the final moment, crouched on a branch with his dagger lowered at his side. The closest one opened its jaws, saliva stretching between jagged teeth. Another aimed for his legs. A third moved behind him, blocking retreat.

Liam exhaled once.

Then he vanished in a burst of flame.

Not completely—just fast enough that the demons struck empty air.

He appeared above the first, stepping onto the back of its head with enough force to drive its jaw downward. His dagger plunged under the base of its skull, flame erupting into the wound. He kicked off before the body dropped, twisted between the next two, cut one under the neck, and used a palm burst to shove himself toward the third.

A fourth nearly clipped his side.

Liam let the force of its passing wind carry him a fraction backward, then drove his dagger into its soft spot as it overshot him. The fifth and sixth came together, jaws opening from opposite sides. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

He didn't dodge away.

He dropped.

The two Gravecoils crashed into each other above him, their skulls striking with a brutal crack. Liam fired a burst downward, slowing his fall just enough to rise between them again, and with one clean motion, dragged the flaming blade across both exposed throats before gravity took him.

Two more bodies fell.

Then three.

Then silence began to creep in.

Not full silence.

The swamp still stirred. Broken branches still dropped into the water below. The bodies of dead Gravecoils continued to slide from the trees, hitting the murky surface with heavy splashes.

But the living ones…

They had stopped, and Liam noticed it immediately.

He landed in a crouch on a thick side branch, one hand braced lightly against the bark, his dagger held low and ready. His breath remained steady, his body relaxed despite the violence that had just unfolded around him. Torn leaves drifted through the air. Thin lines of blood marked his clothe where branches had cut him during the fall, but none of the wounds mattered.

His eyes moved slowly through the surrounding trees.

The Gravecoils were still there.

He could feel them.

Dozens of them.

Some were coiled around trunks. Others hung between branches, their red eyes glowing from the shadows. A few had their heads raised, mouths slightly open, tongues flicking through the damp air.

But none attacked.

Liam stayed crouched, silent.

'Why did they stop?'

The answer came before the thought had fully settled.

His senses flared.

Below.

Deep within the swamp.

The stronger presence he had felt earlier began to move.

It shifted beneath the water with a pressure that made the surface ripple outward in slow, unnatural waves. The Myst around the swamp distorted further, thickening like the air before a storm. The lesser Gravecoils did not flee, but their bodies tightened, their heads lowering slightly, as if responding to something greater than instinct.

Liam's gaze dropped toward the black-green water below.

'So that's it,' he thought. 'Whatever is down there… it's their master.'

He paused, his mind working through the connection.

'This reminds me of the Malgath controlling those Skivoks,' he recalled, his thoughts drifting briefly back to his first-year assessment in Vlardia. 'If it's the same case here, then that thing isn't just a standard Feral-class anymore.'

His eyes sharpened further.

'It's evolved.'

The pressure beneath the water pulsed again, stronger this time.

'At least Titanborne level… maybe Horror-class,' he continued inwardly. 'Advanced Horror… if it's pushed that far.'

Regardless of its exact classification, one thing was certain, the Gravecoils hadn't been acting on their own.

They were being controlled.

Whatever waited beneath the swamp had been directing them, using the lesser demons to test him, pressure him, herd him, and measure his reactions.

For a moment, Liam considered moving.

The pause in the attacks was an opportunity. He could use the gap to gain distance, move across the trees, and leave the immediate area before the thing beneath the swamp fully surfaced. It was the practical decision. The efficient one.

Yet he didn't move.

Liam's eyes narrowed as he felt something was wrong.

It wasn't the presence itself, nor was it the control.

It was something else.

The swamp had gone too still and the Gravecoils had stopped too completely now.

And the stronger presence below was not rising from where he had first sensed it.

It was spreading.

Liam's grip on the dagger tightened slightly.

'Why do I suddenly feel... three?'

Before that could full settle, the swamp exploded.

A massive Gravecoil launched out of the water directly beneath him, its body tearing through the surface with enough force to send black water and rotting vegetation flying in every direction. Its maw opened wide, larger than any of the others, the inside lined with rows of jagged teeth that curved inward like hooks.

It was already close.

Too close.

Liam's eyes sharpened as a burst of flame detonated from beneath his feet. The branch he had been crouching on cracked apart from the force as he launched himself sideways. The giant jaws snapped shut a heartbeat later, crushing the entire section of the tree where he had been. Wood shattered like bone. The impact sent a shock through the surrounding branches.

Liam twisted midair, his body cutting through the spray of swamp water.

Then his senses screamed again.

Behind him.

Another attack.

He turned his head just enough to see a second massive Gravecoil head ripping through the trees from his rear, jaws open, horns carving through branches as it aimed to take him while he was still in motion.

Liam didn't have footing.

He didn't have time to land.

So he made his own angle.

He released a burst of flame from his left palm, forcing his body downward, then another from his right foot to twist away at the last possible instant. The second head missed by a narrow margin, its teeth snapping shut close enough for the wind of the bite to pull at his torn clothing.

Before he could stabilize, a third presence surged toward him.

No.

Not presence, an attack.

From above-left.

Another massive head burst through the canopy with terrifying speed, descending like a falling tower of armored flesh and teeth. Its maw opened, shadow swallowing the space around Liam as it came down to finish what the first two had missed.

Liam's expression remained cold, but his eyes moved fast.

He drove his flaming dagger into the side of a nearby trunk as he passed it, using the embedded blade as an anchor. His shoulder pulled hard from the sudden strain, but he held firm for half a breath, enough to wrench his body sideways. The third head crashed past him, its lower jaw scraping against the trunk and tearing a deep scar through the bark.

The force ripped Liam's dagger free.

He flipped backward through the air, released one final short burst from beneath his boots, and landed on a higher branch several meters away.

The branch bent under his weight but held.

For the first time since arriving in Nalim, Liam allowed himself a full breath.

His eyes swept across the swamp, his mind already working.

Three attacks.

He had sensed one strong presence beneath the swamp, not three.

He was certain of that.

His senses were sharp enough to distinguish numbers, directions, and density of Myst. If three separate creatures of that level had been hidden below, he would have felt them.

But he hadn't, which meant there had been only one.

Then the water below began to rise again.

Slowly and heavily.

The massive body emerged from the swamp like something ancient being dragged out of a nightmare. Dark water cascaded down its armored scales in thick sheets. Its body was far larger than the Gravecoils that had attacked before, easily dwarfing them in both length and mass. The scales covering it were thicker, layered like blackened plates, with sharp thorns protruding along the ridges of its body. Every movement made those jagged growths scrape against one another with a harsh, grinding sound.

Then the heads rose.

Three massive, serpentine, and monstrous heads

The two outer heads each bore two curved horns, dark and sharp, jutting from their skulls like natural weapons. The middle head rose higher than the others, larger and more dominant, crowned with three horns that curved backward like the points of a twisted crown.

All three sets of eyes burned red through the mist and shadow.

All three mouths opened slightly, releasing a low, rattling hiss that made the surrounding swamp tremble.

Liam stared at the creature in silence, the flames along his dagger flickering against the damp air.

His senses hadn't been wrong at all.

There had only been one presence.

One demon.

One massive Gravecoil with three heads.