By the time the company reached the heart of the Reaper Forest, they were all tired, battered, and, frankly, sick of fighting all day.

For the past day, they had been killing everything that moved, giant centipedes, dead, shadow wolves, massacred, weird flesh-eating plants that screamed when cut (those were particularly disturbing), absolutely dead, and even some mutated deer that tried to gore them with antlers made of bone spikes.

On the bright side, all of it was valuable. The mercenaries and retired soldiers harvested pelts, fangs, venom sacs, and whatever wasn't cursed or actively trying to bite them, tossing it all into the cargo wagons for resale once they reached the north.

Darin wiped his forehead, glancing at the wagons. They stank.

"I swear, if I have to smell another rotting bug carcass, I'm gonna lose it."

"You already did," Vincent said, smirking as he slapped Darin's shoulder. "Like, five monsters ago."

"That was different. That was rage."

"Yeah, sure. Anyway, look ahead. We finally made it to the center."

They had reached the center of the Reaper Forest, and something felt… wrong.

The trees here weren't just massive, they were twisted, their bark cracked and pulsating as if something inside them was alive. The air itself was too thick, pressing against their skin like an invisible weight. The ground beneath them felt hollow, like something beneath the surface was waiting.

And in the very center of the clearing stood…

Something.

Something no one could describe.

It wasn't a tree. It wasn't a rock. It wasn't a ruin. It was just there, a jagged mass covered in a shifting, pulsating material. It looked solid one second, then fluid the next. The light around it bent strangely, distorting the edges of reality.

Looking at it for too long made Darin's head hurt.

The entire company froze, their instincts screaming at them.

Even steve who's already shivering in nervousness was extra nervous at this moment.

Then—

The first to move was the cool old scout.

The badass one. The silent one. The one with the fedora that, against all logic, actually made him look cool.

He walked forward, his movements slow and deliberate.

No fear. No hesitation. Just calm efficiency.

Then, with a single motion—

Slash.

His sword cut through the thing, slicing straight across its surface.

Silence.

The old fedora scout frowned.

"Hmm," he muttered. "This thing's weird."

This content was first released on MV_LEMPYR.

Darin blinked. "That's it? That's your reaction?"

The old scout shrugged. "Didn't cut right. Didn't cut wrong either. Just… weird."

Even the Sorceress, usually unreadable, narrowed her eyes at the thing. She raised a hand—

Then stopped.

"I don't know what this is," she admitted.

Everyone went still.

Even the cultists, who never shut up, went silent.

Darin stared at her. "Wait. You? You don't know?"

The Sorceress never admitted to not knowing things.

This was bad.

Then—

Then a familiar voice in Darin's head. "I do know what this is."

Darin groaned internally. Of course.

"You could've said something sooner," he muttered.

"I was waiting for you to embarrass yourself first," the Overlord said, amusement clear in his tone.

Darin gritted his teeth. "Fine. What the hell is this thing?"

"It's not from this world," the Overlord said.

Darin stiffened. "Not from this world? Like an outsider?"

"Exactly," the Overlord replied. "It's a remnant. A failed manifestation of something that tried to enter this reality but got stuck between dimensions."

Darin swallowed. "And if we mess with it?"

"Oh, then it finishes forming, and you all die horribly."

Darin took a step back. "Okay, fantastic. How do we stop that from happening?"

The Overlord snorted. "Simple."

"Smash the ground around it. Hard. Force reality to stabilize."

Darin blinked. "That's it? Just hit the ground?"

"With everything you have," the Overlord said. Then, with absolute certainty, he added—

"But not you. They are stronger than you, Darin. You'll only waste time with your flimsy strength."

Darin's eye twitched.

"Alright. Fine." He turned to the entire company and took a deep breath.

"EVERYONE! DESTROY THE GROUND!"

For a split second, the mercenaries, retired soldiers, witches, wizards, cultists, and the cool old man all just stared at him.

Then, without hesitation—

They obeyed.

It started with the mages.

Flames roared as fireballs crashed into the ground. Ice magic froze and shattered the earth. Arcane explosions sent shards of stone flying in every direction.

The warriors followed immediately.

Swords and axes hacked through the soil like paper. Hammers crushed boulders into dust. Spears pierced the earth, sending cracks splitting outward like lightning.

Even the cultists joined in, chanting something disturbing as their magic caused the ground to twist and warp, sinking into itself.

And then—

Darin saw Vincent and Alvin.

The two were hacking the ground apart like maniacs, moving so fast their swords blurred.

"THIRTY-NINE!" Vincent yelled.

"FORTY-TWO!" Alvin shot back.

They were competing.

They were having a contest over who could destroy the ground faster.

Darin stared in disbelief. "Are you two serious?!"

"FORTY-SIX!"

"FIFTY-ONE!"

Darin sighed. "They're serious."

The cool old scout, meanwhile, simply nodded in approval and sliced through the ground effortlessly, his blade moving like a whisper of wind.

In just seconds, it looked like a massive pit had formed around the entity.

The devastation was immense.

Hundreds—thousands, of people were attacking at once.

Darin had never seen the full strength of the company before.

The sheer power behind them was insane.

The ground collapsed, unable to withstand the onslaught.

And then—

The thing disappeared.

Like it had never been there at all.

The air settled. The pressure lifted. The twisted shadows vanished.

Silence fell.

The Sorceress lowered her hands, observing the now empty space where the entity had been. "It's gone."

Vincent wiped his forehead. "Well, that was easy."

Darin whispered back to the Overlord. "Did that do it?"

The Overlord laughed. "Oh, it's definitely not dead. But you just kicked it so far out of alignment with reality that it won't be able to re-form for another few centuries. So, good enough."

Darin let out a deep sigh.

"Next time," he muttered, "just tell me before we almost die, okay?"

The Overlord chuckled. "No promises, Darin. No promises."