In the woods, Ethan walked between the trees with a confused expression.
As the progenitor of blood, sensing blood was normally effortless for him. Every living body carried a clear presence he could follow like a trail. That was why he had come out here alone.
Ash had said those things had possessed his friends and taken the book, so tracking them through their blood should have been simple.
But he couldn't sense anything properly.
Only faint, distorted traces.
"Is it because those things twist bodies?" Ethan thought. "Do they corrupt the body so badly that even the blood inside turns into something… disgusting?"
He remembered the things he had seen in the movies — how possessed humans warped into grotesque shapes, flesh stretching, bones bending, faces turning into something inhuman.
Ethan shuddered slightly.
"Fuck… that blood must taste disgusting."
Leaves rustled somewhere deeper in the woods, the sound growing heavier with each passing second. Branches bent and snapped as something large forced its way through the trees, moving straight toward Ethan's position.
He stopped walking and listened.
The rhythm of the movement was wrong. Too heavy for a person, too aggressive for a normal animal.
"Hm. One of those things?" he murmured.
The bushes ahead suddenly burst apart.
A massive shape lunged out of the darkness, claws flashing toward his head. Ethan shifted his body just enough for the strike to miss, leaning back while the claws cut through the space where his face had been a moment earlier.
The creature landed with a heavy thud and turned toward him.
Ethan finally got a clear look at it.
It was a bear.
But something about it was deeply wrong.
Its thick black fur was soaked with blood that dripped steadily from torn patches of flesh. The muscles underneath bulged in unnatural ways, as if something inside the body had forced them to grow beyond their limits.
And above its shoulders—
There were two heads.
One was a normal bear head, snarling with rows of yellow teeth. The second one grew beside it at an unnatural angle, its jaw twisted slightly as if it had been stitched onto the body by something careless.
Both heads roared at the same time.
Ethan watched it carefully as the creature began circling him.
"So the demons can twist animals too," he said thoughtfully. "Possessing humans apparently wasn't enough."
The bear charged again, its enormous body crashing through the undergrowth. One set of claws swung toward Ethan's chest while the second head snapped at his shoulder.
He stepped aside smoothly, letting the claws tear through empty air while the snapping jaws missed him by inches.
Before he could speak again, the forest above him erupted with noise.
Wings.
Hundreds of them.
Ethan glanced upward.
The sky above the trees had filled with dark shapes. Crows and ravens circled in a tight swarm, their movements sharp and unnatural as they gathered directly above him.
A few began diving.
Their claws reached toward his face.
Ethan exhaled slowly while watching the swarm form.
"Interesting," Ethan said while watching the swarm tighten above the trees.
"This suddenly feels like an entirely different genre."
He let out a slow breath.
"But you picked the wrong opponent."
Blood gathered at his feet.
At first it crept through the leaves like thin streams, but soon it surged outward in a spreading wave, dark liquid rolling across the forest floor as if answering his call. The blood lifted from the ground and twisted upward, forming shapes that beat their wings in unison.
Bats.
Dozens of them rose around Ethan, circling him in a tightening spiral.
Above the forest, the moon slowly emerged from behind the clouds.
Its pale glow shifted.
The light deepened.
The moon turned red.
A blood moon hung over the trees.
The crimson light fell across Ethan's body, staining the forest shadows. Beneath his dark clothes, faint red lines spread like veins awakening under his skin. He tilted his head slightly as his mouth opened and his fangs extended.
"You're dealing with me," he said quietly.
His eyes ignited with a deep red glow.
The bats shot upward.
They tore into the swarm of crows circling above him, ripping through the possessed birds in a violent collision of wings and claws. Feathers scattered through the air as the flock was shredded apart.
Behind him, the two-headed bear roared and charged.
The massive creature rushed forward, both mouths open while its claws cut through the air toward his body.
Ethan didn't retreat.
He waited.
At the last second his body pivoted, his leg whipping through the air in a full one-hundred-eighty-degree arc before crashing straight into one of the bear's heads.
The impact landed with a brutal crack.
For a split second the massive body froze in place, then the entire bear collapsed into a violent spray of blood and torn flesh. Meat and bone scattered across the ground as the force of the kick shredded the twisted body apart.
Ethan landed lightly on his feet and tugged his coat back into place.
"This thing might be dangerous for normal people," he said calmly, brushing a drop of dirt off his sleeve, "but not me."
Then he noticed something.
The scattered flesh on the ground began to move.
Small pieces twitched and slid across the leaves, slowly dragging themselves toward one point as if something invisible was pulling them together.
"No," he said flatly. "Do you think I'll give you a chance to regenerate?"
He raised one hand.
The blood across the ground lifted instantly, rising into the air and gathering into a dense floating sphere above the forest floor. Dark liquid spiraled together, compressing into a heavy mass.
Ethan clenched his fingers.
The sphere shot upward into the sky like a cannonball.
It tore through the branches above and vanished into the night with such force that a shockwave rippled through the trees, leaves shaking violently as the forest echoed with the blast.
Ethan lowered his hand.
"Now go haunt space."
*****
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