[Realm: Álfheimr]
[Location: Heart Kingdom]
[Outskirts]
The forest had changed completely since the two of them arrived.
What had once been a stretch of woodland was now little more than their private battlefield. Trees had been split apart, their trunks scarred by earlier impacts, while broken branches and torn earth littered the ground around the wide crater where Shuten-dōji and Echidna had first landed.
For several seconds, there was only silence.
Then the earth behind Echidna began to move; Shuten-dōji's eyes shifted past her. A low rumble rolled through the forest, then another and another.
The sound quickly became too numerous to count. Branches snapped as heavy bodies pushed through undergrowth. The ground trembled beneath approaching footsteps; Echidna stood completely still. While behind her, shapes began emerging from between the trees.
Dozens of Deseruit Beasts.
