Chapter 37: Run for it

The moment they stepped through, the atmosphere changed.

Eden stopped.

Lucy nearly walked into him.

"What now?"

Eden didn’t answer.

There was no dungeon.

No stone corridors.

No artificial walls.

No ceiling.

They were standing in a forest.

A jungle.

But calling it a jungle felt wrong.

The trees were enormous.

One trunk alone was wider than an entire building.

The bark was dark and ancient, covered in strange grooves and moss.

Branches stretched hundreds of meters overhead.

The canopy was so high that they couldn’t see where it ended.

Light barely reached the forest floor.

The air was thick.

Humid.

And strangely still.

Lucy slowly looked upward.

"I..."

She swallowed.

"I can’t even see the tops."

Sera stared too.

"This wasn’t in the Gate."

Eden looked behind them.

The doors remained open.

Beyond them was the ordinary dungeon.

Ahead was this impossible forest.

The contrast was almost absurd.

Lucy stepped closer to one of the trees.

She placed her palm against the bark.

"It’s warm."

Eden looked at her.

"Trees are usually warm."

"Not like this."

She pulled her hand away.

"It feels like there’s Essence inside."

Eden approached.

She was right.

He could feel it.

Not just Essence.

Something else.

Something familiar.

His eyes narrowed.

He breathed in slowly.

I’ve felt this before.

But where?

He couldn’t place it.

Again.

That same sensation.

Like a memory hidden behind a locked door.

Sera activated Sage’s Eye.

Her expression immediately changed.

"What?"

Lucy asked.

Sera didn’t answer.

She stared deeper into the forest.

"There are Essence threads everywhere."

"Creatures?"

"I don’t know."

She shook her head.

"They’re..."

She frowned.

"Strange."

Eden looked around.

"Any life signs?"

"Nothing."

Lucy lowered her voice.

"Then why does this place feel like it’s alive?"

Nobody answered.

They began walking.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Every step felt wrong.

The forest was enormous.

Yet there wasn’t a single bird.

No insects.

No small creatures moving through the brush.

Nothing.

Eden’s hand remained near his side.

Ready.

His instincts kept screaming at him.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

They continued for several minutes.

Then ten.

Then twenty.

Still nothing.

Eventually Lucy whispered,

"Do you think the whole place is empty too?"

Eden shook his head.

"No."

"Why?"

He looked into the trees.

"I don’t know."

Then he felt it.

A vibration.

Barely noticeable.

The ground trembled beneath his feet.

Eden stopped.

Lucy stopped too.

Sera’s head snapped upward.

"...Did you feel that?"

Another tremor.

Stronger.

Leaves began falling from the enormous branches above.

The ground shook again.

This time, the trees themselves moved.

Not from wind.

From something underneath them.

Eden’s eyes widened.

"Something’s coming."

A distant crack echoed through the jungle.

Then another.

And another.

Trees began snapping.

Something was moving through them.

Fast.

Far too fast.

Lucy took a step backward.

"What the hell is that?"

Eden stared into the distance.

At first, all he could see was darkness.

Then a silhouette emerged.

It was enormous.

Long.

Far too long.

It stretched through the forest like a living shadow.

Eden’s pupils contracted.

The silhouette moved between the colossal trees.

One tree fell.

Then another.

Then another.

Whatever was coming didn’t bother going around them.

It simply went through.

Sera’s Sage’s Eye flickered.

Her face went pale.

Lucy looked at her.

"What?"

Sera didn’t answer.

She couldn’t.

Eden stared at the approaching shape.

The familiar energy he had felt earlier suddenly became overwhelming.

His instincts finally recognized what his mind hadn’t.

Danger.

Not D-Rank.

Not C-Rank.

Not even remotely close.

The silhouette emerged farther from the darkness.

And Eden finally saw it.

A massive body.

Hundreds of meters long.

Covered in dark armor.

Dozens upon dozens of legs tearing through the earth.

Eden’s blood ran cold.

The jungle shook.

For several seconds, none of them moved.

The silhouette in the distance continued advancing.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

The enormous trees trembled around it.

Branches snapped.

Leaves rained down from hundreds of meters above.

And with every step—or whatever passed for a step—the earth beneath Eden’s feet shook.

Lucy swallowed.

"...It’s enormous."

Eden didn’t answer.

He was too busy staring.

The creature was still too far away to see clearly, but its sheer size was enough to make his instincts scream.

A long, armored body emerged from the darkness.

It was a centipede.

At least, that was the closest word Eden’s mind could find.

Its body stretched for hundreds of meters, perhaps even longer. It was wide enough that several buildings could have been placed side by side across its back.

Layer after layer of black scales covered its enormous body.

They overlapped like pieces of armor.

Each scale was thick enough to resemble a wall.

Hundreds of legs tore through the ground beneath it, digging enormous grooves into the earth as the creature advanced.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

Its head rose above the forest.

And growing from the top of that head was a humanoid torso.

A massive upper body made entirely from the same black armored scales.

Two enormous arms hung beside it.

Its head was vaguely humanoid.

But nothing about its proportions was.

It was a nightmare given physical form.

Sera’s Sage’s Eye activated instinctively.

Her eyes widened.

"Eden."

He already knew.

"I know."

The pressure coming from the creature was suffocating.

Not simply because of its size.

Because of its Essence.

It was everywhere.

Heavy.

Dense.

Oppressive.

Lucy slowly stepped backward.

"That’s..."

Sera swallowed.

"B-Rank."

Eden shook his head.

"At least."

Sera looked at him.

"You think higher?"

"Definitely."

He stared at the monster.

"That pressure alone is enough to put it above any ordinary B-Rank Boss Monster."

Lucy looked between them.

"So..."

"At least B+..."

"Although A-Rank is much more likely."

Lucy took a step backward.

"...that means we’re running, right?"

Eden nodded.

"Immediately."

No argument.

No bravado.

No attempt to test their limits.

They knew exactly what would happen if they fought.

They would die.

Maybe not immediately.

Maybe they could hurt it.

Maybe they could even slow it down.

But there was no world in which the three of them defeated that thing.

"Run!"

Eden turned.

The three of them sprinted.

It didn’t take long for the creature to notice.

Its enormous head suddenly turned.

The movement alone sent a wave of displaced air through the forest.

Then its body moved.

Fast.

Far too fast for it’s enormous size.

Lucy looked over her shoulder.

Her eyes widened.

"You’re kidding!"

The centipede was coming after them.

And it was gaining.

Trees exploded beneath its body.

Massive trunks were ripped from the ground and thrown aside.

Some were simply crushed beneath its armored body.

Others were shattered by the humanoid upper body as it tore through the forest.

The sound was deafening.

Another enormous tree collapsed behind them.

Lucy pushed herself harder.

"How is it so fast?!"

"It’s several Ranks above us, and you thought it would be slower?!"

Eden shouted back.

Sera was running beside them.

Her expression was unusually tense.

"Lucy has a point!"

"Even for it’s Rank, I’ve never seen a creature this large move like that!"

Another tree exploded behind them.

Lucy glanced backward again.

The monster was getting closer.

Much closer.

Eden’s mind raced.

’This isn’t going to work.’

He could feel it.

Even at their current pace, they wouldn’t reach the doors in time.

And if the monster caught all three of them together—

They were finished.

Eden looked ahead.

The ancient doors were still visible through the trees.

Not far.

But not close either.

He made a decision.

"Keep running!"

Lucy looked at him.

"What?"

"Don’t stop!"

Eden slowed.

Lucy immediately understood something was wrong.

"Eden?"

"Just go!"

He turned around.

Red Essence erupted around his arm.

[Devour]

The crimson mass slammed into one of the enormous pillar-like trees.

The trunk disappeared beneath it.

Eden twisted his arm.

The entire tree collapsed.

The falling trunk crashed across the path.

The centipede didn’t even slow down.

It smashed through it.

Eden’s eyes narrowed.

"Shit."