"Hahahaha… The masked boy was right!"
The suited man's body slowly straightened itself, still gripping its own head, which was now roaring with laughter. Blood dripped from its neck, but unlike a corpse, the flesh around the wound began to… move. To fuse. To grow a new connection in a way that was both illogical—and disgusting.
A few villagers began to scream hysterically. A mother hugged her child tightly while praying, others fell to their knees, mumbling incoherently. Meanwhile, the head still held in the man's hand… continued to laugh.
"Look at you now… staring at me like a ghost from hell," it said with a tone of satisfaction. "And yet, I am the one to whom you give offerings. I am the one you call God."
It pressed the head against its neck. Flesh and bone fused, knitting together like creeping vines. In an instant, it was whole again—standing tall with a cynical smile that was even more vile than before.
"You believed I could make your land fertile? Hah!" he said, laughing, the sound creating an echo that vibrated through the stone walls. "In fact, I was the one who cursed it. I made your fields fail. I ensured you remained hungry… remained desperate… so that you would come crawling to me, begging for a miracle, and then surrender your children in exchange."
He swept his gaze across the entire room. That cold, arrogant stare pierced every villager.
"And you did it," he continued, his voice lowering but filled with pressure. "For years. You surrendered your own families to be sacrificed. To be skinned, sliced, and made into our meals."
His soft laugh echoed again.
"But now? Now everything has become so annoying! Ever since that Daniel Jan video went viral… the Eaters have had trouble finding prey from the outside. The cities are becoming aware of our existence. They hunt us. And you… you started sacrificing your own scrawny children! Diseased! Unfit to be eaten!"
His tone shifted into a frustrated snarl. "Did you think I would forever spoon-feed you miracles when you gave me nothing but rotten flesh and stale fear?"
Rio stared at him sharply, his breath coming in ragged bursts, a mixture of disgust and rage churning inside him. Lisa gritted her teeth. Dany was already poised beside them, his eyes scanning the surroundings, anticipating the slightest movement.
With a motion that made the hair on their necks stand up, the suited man lifted his severed head and pressed it back onto his bloody neck. In an instant, flesh and skin fused back together without the slightest trace of a scar.
And then…
A clap.
A single clap from the man on the stage echoed coldly.
The sound was ordinary—not energetic, not grand—yet its effect was like splitting reality itself. Instantly, nearly half the villagers in the hall screamed hysterically… before their voices changed.
Not human screams.
But feral snarls.
Bodies began to convulse, as if struck by an electric current. Pale skin stretched unnaturally, eyes burned red, fangs jutted from behind bloody lips. Fingernails twisted into claws, and from their throats, a bloodthirsty hiss echoed.
"Eaters…" Dany whispered, taking a reflexive step back, his eyes wide. "They were in disguise… all this time, they were living side-by-side with the humans in this village…"
Lisa clenched her fists tightly. "They… didn't just infiltrate. They formed an entire ecosystem." Her voice was flat, but her eyes were wide, a rare sight.
Panic exploded. The villagers who were still human scrambled desperately, screaming, shoving, and trampling each other, not knowing where to run. Cries of "Eaters! Eaters!!" echoed in the stuffy air, thick with the smell of blood and fear.
One Eater leaped from the upper balcony, pouncing on an old man and biting his neck. Blood sprayed like a jet of hot steam. A mother clutching her child slipped and fell into a pool of blood—another Eater rushed them from behind.
"Lisa!" Dany shouted, throwing his spare short sword.
Lisa caught it without blinking, then leaped down, clashing swords with the first Eater that targeted her.
On the stage, Rio remained frozen.
Not out of fear.
But because his gaze was locked on a single figure: the suited man who now stood tall, his head fully reattached without a scar—as if time itself had reversed his wounds.
Dany followed him onto the stage, breathing heavily, his face pale.
"Rio…" he said, his voice low but sharp. "That's him."
Rio didn't answer. But from his eyes, Dany knew he understood.
"A Domifirt," Dany confirmed. "I've heard Kakek Henry talk about them… full body regeneration, absurd power, manipulative. That's him. No doubt about it."
From below, Lisa shouted a command, her voice still sharp amidst the chaos. "Rio! Dany! We have to fall back! Remember what Kakek said—if we meet a Domifirt, we—"
"—run," Dany mumbled, almost inaudibly.
But his gaze didn't waver from the chaos below. The human villagers were still trying to escape, but there were too many Eaters. Bodies were strewn everywhere. Children were screaming. A man shouted, begging for mercy—only to get a claw to the throat.
"I…" Dany mumbled, his face full of conflict. "If we run now… everyone here dies. But if we fight him… we might not go home."
Lisa looked up at the stage, blood trickling from her temple, her breath ragged. "A Domifirt is not an enemy we can defeat right now, Dany! Look around you!"
But Rio only whispered softly… almost inaudibly. "We might not be able to win. But that doesn't mean I can let this happen right in front of my eyes."
The stained-glass window that had previously reflected the moon was now smeared with blood. The grand hall had become a slaughterhouse. The red light from the ritual candles made the Domifirt's face look like a demon from an old legend.
The Domifirt stood unshakable in the midst of the chaos, like the conductor of a hellish symphony leading an orchestra of death.
Blood dripped from his fingertips.
From the stage, he looked at Rio.
And smiled.
A smile that didn't offer victory—but a challenge.
Then, slowly… he raised one hand, and pointed directly at them.
Instantly, a dozen Eaters who had just finished their "dinner" turned in unison. Their eyes glowed red, their fangs dripped with blood. They hissed… then began to crawl rapidly toward the stage, like hungry wolves catching the scent of fresh meat.
Dany gritted his teeth, his wild eyes weighing the possibility of fighting or fleeing. "Dammit… we're out of time."
Lisa looked up, the blood on her temple starting to dry, but her black eyes remained sharp. "If we stay here… we die. If we run, we might not even make it."
Rio didn't answer.
His hand slowly moved to the hilt of the sword on his back.
His gaze never shifted from the Domifirt.
Then, in a voice that was nearly a whisper… but clear enough for Dany and Lisa to hear amidst the chaos, he said:
"I'm not running anymore."
And in an instant—he disappeared.
The wolf mask shot through the air.
The air itself was torn apart by an impossible speed, now hurtling toward the Domifirt.