Rollin stepped outside, holding Lulu tightly in his arms.
The cold pierced his bones mercilessly—sharp like knives—but he didn't care.
He stopped beside the fallen door and slowly leaned his head forward.
And then…
He saw something that froze him in place.
What the hell… is that?
Three soldiers were fighting ahead—one of them was that guard who had seemed suspiciously kind.
And their opponent…
Was a Monolith.
The creature was terrifyingly massive.
Its body was covered in coarse red fur, rippling violently with every movement. It had two enormous arms, each ending in six fingers—every finger tipped with a claw. Short, but horrifyingly sharp, clearly made for tearing rather than cutting.
Its head… was the worst part.
It resembled the skull of a deer, but stripped of skin and fur—exposed flesh and bone.
Four eyes were scattered irregularly across its face, staring in different directions without blinking.
Its mouth split open far wider than should have been possible, revealing twin jaws lined with serrated fangs that ground against each other greedily with every roar.
Even the sound alone made the air tremble.
Rollin unconsciously tightened his grip around Lulu.
This wasn't a monster from bedtime stories meant to scare children.
This was real.
Something that existed to kill.
And from the blood staining the snow beneath it…
It was painfully clear that this battle had been anything but clean.
Rollin forced himself to take in the entire battlefield this time.
What he saw was… hell laid bare on earth.
Corpses were scattered everywhere—mangled, torn apart, as if a blind, merciless force had toyed with them.
Eight guards had fallen, some so badly destroyed their features were unrecognizable: severed limbs, crushed armor, helmets split open like eggshells.
Seven soldiers lay sprawled across the snow, their bodies twisted at unnatural angles—some headless, others torn open as if something had ripped their hearts out with bare hands.
And two guards… there was barely anything left of them at all. Just blood-soaked scraps of armor and remains that could hardly be called bodies.
As for the three prisoners…
Their deaths were far worse.
Their chains were still attached to severed legs, their faces frozen in expressions of pure terror—mouths open in screams that were never finished.
The white snow had turned a deep crimson, mixed with torn flesh and blood, releasing a suffocating metallic stench.
Rollin felt his chest tighten.
It was horrifying… yes.
But it wasn't new.
Scenes like this were far too familiar.
They were etched into his memory from where he came from—the Kennel—where corpses were just numbers, and blood was nothing more than a constant backdrop.
And before he could finish that thought—
It happened.
He saw the Monolith pounce on one of the remaining three soldiers.
This wasn't a fight.
It was a slaughter.
The beast grabbed the soldier with one hand, lifting him off the ground like a weightless rag doll as his legs flailed helplessly in the air.
The soldier screamed—a sharp, desperate cry—before the Monolith's claws closed around his chest.
The sound of tearing flesh was sickening.
Rip—
The body split in two.
Blood sprayed into the air like rain, and the entrails fell onto the snow with a wet, heavy sound.
The scream cut off instantly, as if someone had snuffed out a flame with their hand.
Rollin watched as the head finally dropped, the wide-open eyes rolling across the ground—still staring… as if they hadn't yet understood they were dead.
The Monolith let out a deep roar that shook the air, then tossed half the corpse aside without a second glance, as if it were nothing but trash.
The two remaining soldiers stumbled back in terror.
As for Rollin…
He pulled Lulu even closer.
And in that moment, one horrifying truth became clear:
This monster
did not kill out of hunger.
Nor out of rage.
It killed… because it could.
Rollin lowered his voice until it was barely a whisper, yet his tone was firm—leaving no room for argument.
"Lulu… close your eyes. Don't open them until I tell you to, okay?"
Lulu nodded rapidly, then buried her face deep into his chest, clinging to him as if the rest of the world no longer existed outside his arms.
On the other side of the clearing—
The kind-looking guard charged forward.
His body exploded into motion, twin swords flashing as they carved intersecting arcs through the air.
The blades collided directly with the Monolith's claws.
White sparks burst forth.
A massive metallic crash.
The ground trembled beneath them. The beast staggered half a step back, while the guard's boots slid across the blood-soaked snow.
He did not retreat.
At the same instant—
The other soldier leapt.
His body glowed with a faint aura—enhancement magic, dense and focused.
He raised his sword with everything he had left and brought it down like lightning upon the Monolith's shoulder.
Thud—!
The shoulder tore open.
Red fur scattered, flesh split beneath the blade, and a muffled roar of pain erupted.
For a fleeting moment…
It seemed as though the balance had tipped in humanity's favor.
But—
The price
was unbearable.
Terrifyingly so.
The instant the sword lodged into the beast's shoulder,
the Monolith turned.
Not slowly.
Not in blind rage.
But with terrifying precision.
It completely ignored the kind-looking guard—as if his existence no longer mattered.
Its twisted jaws opened impossibly wide.
Two jaws.
Two rows of fangs.
A grinding sound like bones being crushed before it even happened.
There was no prolonged scream.
No chance to escape.
Only—
Removal.
The beast lunged forward, and in a single instant, the enhanced soldier's head vanished between its jaws.
The body froze mid-motion, standing upright for one heartbeat… then collapsed headlessly, like a statue with its foundation cut away.
Blood splashed across the snow, drawing dark red streaks that spread like the fingers of death.
The kind-looking guard froze in place.
And Rollin—
Felt his heart sink straight into his chest.
He pulled Lulu closer, instinctively covering her head with his hand.
This was no longer a battle.
This was a clear declaration:
One mistake… meant death.
Rollin turned sharply, driven by a strange sensation prickling at the back of his head.
There—
They weren't corpses.
Two prisoners were still alive.
The first was the heavily scarred, muscular man—his body covered in wounds, his eyes burning with brutality and survival. The gaze of someone who had lived in hell long enough to learn how to endure it.
The second was a middle-aged man, slightly hunched, breathing heavily, clutching his side with a trembling hand—but his eyes were sharp… watching everything with the caution of a wounded wolf.
Neither of them spoke.
The silence between them weighed heavier than screams.
Rollin turned his gaze back toward the battlefield.
And then—
The kind-looking guard moved.
His feet dug into the snow as his body shot forward like an arrow.
The air grew hot, and his swords ignited with a glowing blue flame—fire that didn't burn… it cut.
He traced intersecting paths of blue light with his blades, unleashing a relentless barrage upon the Monolith.
Each strike slammed into fur, claws, and bone, accompanied by the beast's roars and thunderous impacts.
Blue sparks.
Dark red blood.
Snow exploding into the air like dust.
The Monolith staggered back a step… then another.
Not from fear—
but because it was being forced to.
The beast roared and raised its massive arms, attempting to crush the guard in a single blow.
But the guard slid beneath the strike, spun around with fluid grace, severed a claw with one sword, and carved through the beast's thigh with the other—leaving behind a scorched blue wound that hissed with steam.
For the first time since the battle began—
The monster looked like it was truly in pain.
Rollin stood frozen, his breath trapped in his chest.
This guard…
Wasn't "kind."
He was another monster.
Just one that fought on humanity's side.
And the battle…
Was far from over.