The sky above this sector of the Demon Realm didn't just burn red; it bled a deep, toxic crimson that choked the very light from the air.
BOOM.
Croc detonated over the crest of a massive, jagged hill like a kinetic missile. Her massive, scaled alligator-like tail thrashed madly mid-air, acting as a brutal counterweight to her momentum. As she cleared the ridge, the tip of her heavy tail slammed into a granite boulder, obliterating it into a shower of lethal shrapnel and dust that rained down into the ravine below.
She hit the dark, cracked earth hard, her rugged leather boots digging deep furrows into the burning soil. She was panting heavily, her chest heaving violently beneath her dirt-caked tank top. Croc was a fighter, a powerhouse beastkin of the reptile breed, but this realm was pushing her to her absolute limits. Dark blood oozed from multiple jagged lacerations across her toned, muscular arms and pants, and her short, messy black hair was completely scattered, plastered to her forehead with sweat and grit.
Yet, her grip never wavered.
Cradled securely against her chest, Isis lay entirely limp, caught in a deep, unnatural sleep. Her usually vibrant, lively green hair—typically an untamed mane of energy—slumped lazily over Croc's bicep, its extreme length trailing down to brush the dirt, whipped wildly by the slipstream of Croc's terrifying acceleration.
A chorus of demonic, overlapping howls shattered the stagnant air behind them.
Croc's sharp, predatory red eyes flicked backward. Barreling over the hill was an entire army of hellhounds—masses of charred flesh, exposed bone, and jaws dripping with literal liquid fire. They were giving hot, relentless chase, their claws tearing the landscape to pieces.
"Not today, you overgrown mutts," Croc growled through her rows of razor-sharp, serrated teeth.
Stomping her left foot down with enough force to crater the bedrock, she launched herself upward. She took two massive, high-speed leaps toward the bleeding red sky, using the vertical face of a stone pillar as a stepping stone.
Behind her, the lead hellhound lunged, its fiery maw snapping shut exactly where her tail had been a millisecond prior.
Croc hit the highest ledge for a third time, her muscular thighs flexing as she channeled every ounce of her beastkin stamina into her calves. The ground beneath her shattered as she executed one final, explosive leap. The sheer kinetic shockwave blew the approaching dust cloud to ribbons, launching her so high and fast into the crimson haze that she completely vanished from the hounds' sight, leaving nothing but a booming echo in the desolate canyon.
Croc laid Isis down onto the cold, jagged stone slab with agonizing care. The moment her hands left the girl's shoulders, Croc collapsed heavily onto the hard earth, her chest heaving as she sucked in the stale, sulfur-choked air of the cavern.
Lifting a trembling hand, she ran two fingers along her neck, wiping away a fresh streak of thick, dark liquid trickling from a jagged tear in her flesh. She held her hand out, staring silently at the blackish-red blood staining her fingertips. It didn't smell like her own.
Her predatory red eyes flicked toward the mouth of the cave. There, illuminated by the dim, pulsing crimson glow of the outside sky, lay the gargantuan carcass of a crocodile-like abomination. Its skull was completely caved in, its thick armored scales shattered into sharp fragments. It had been the undisputed apex predator of this sector, the original owner of this deep cavern—that was, until Croc had come tearing through the canyon with Isis in her arms, looking for a place to hide.
She turned her head back, her gaze lingering on Isis. The girl was still completely unconscious, her face locked in an unnaturally peaceful, quiet sleep. The contrast between her serene expression and the absolute horror surrounding them was sickening.
Croc buried her face in her calloused, blood-stained hands, a low growl of frustration vibrating in her throat. She knew. She was absolutely certain that if Isis were to wake up now... she wouldn't be the same anymore. The innocent, lively girl they knew would be gone.
As the silence of the cave pressed in, Croc's mind drifted, pondering the chaotic sequence of events that had violently hurled them into this nightmare. Unlike Dan and Lilly, who had simply passed out cold the moment they fell through the dimensional threshold, Croc and Isis had remained wide awake. They had been forced to experience every single terrifying second of their descent.
"I hate this," Croc muttered into her palms, her tail twitching irritably against the stone floor. "I just hope the contractor is alright..." She huffed tiredly, her serrated teeth grinding together.
Their current situation wasn't just bad; it was fundamentally and severely different from whatever Dan and Lilly were facing. Closed-eyes panic didn't compare to what they had witnessed.
Croc could still vividly remember the massive, ethereal hand that had erupted from the void to grab them. She remembered the sheer, overwhelming density of the magic—a suffocating, dark gravity that actively threatened to tear her very soul straight out of her physical body. But most of all, she remembered his face. His stone-cold, unboving expression. His sinister, calculated smile. His long, pale outstretched hand.
And those chilling words that still echoed like a death knell in her mind:
"Come to me, Isis, the Anthreon of Time, and I'll unlock your memories... oh, forgotten one."
The memory shifted vividly to the demon's stronghold. It was a massive, ancient castle that possessed no roof, entirely exposed to the bleeding red sky. There were no living creatures roaming its corridors, no visible energy signatures humming through the walls, yet the sheer, hollow void of the place had troubled Croc down to her very bones.
The man standing before them at the top of the grand dais was undoubtedly, terrifyingly strong—likely the supreme ruler of this entire godforsaken realm.
His hair was a vibrant, messy red, contrasting sharply with the thick, pale blindfold wrapped tightly across his face like the wrappings of a mummy. Intricate, heavy earrings shaped like crescent moons dangled from either ear, catching the eerie crimson light. A rich, blood-red robe sloped carelessly down his left shoulder, completely revealing the dense, hyper-defined muscles and chiseled abs of his torso. He had walked slowly, deliberately down the stone stairs, his pale hand outstretched toward Isis.
He had completely ignored Croc, treating her existence as nothing more than a stray speck of dust.
"Come to me, Anthreon of Time," the man had said, his deep, resonant voice echoing directly inside their minds without his lips moving a single millimeter. "Your place was always here. You cannot be betrayed by the world a second time. Take my hand, and I will unlock your memories."
The sheer weight of the man's terrifying presence had momentarily stunned Croc, freezing her reptile instincts as her body desperately tried to adapt to the sudden spike in atmospheric pressure. Isis had been trembling violently behind her, her long green hair shifting and thrashing around her small frame like a defensive, living shield.
Breaking through the paralyzing shock, Croc had forced her legs to move. She got up from her knees, her heavy alligator tail slicing through the air as she deliberately stepped directly in front of the terrified, shivering girl, baring her sharp fangs.
"I don't know who the hell you are," Croc had growled, her red eyes burning with a wild, protective fury, "but you're not laying a single hand on her."
The red-haired man had paused on the steps, his blindfolded face turning slightly toward her, his hand still extended in mid-air.
"Why is a mere mortal interfering when gods are speaking?" he said simply.
CRASH.
The words weren't a shout, but the moment they left his mind, an invisible, multi-ton weight slammed down onto Croc's back.
She was instantaneously flattened against the ground, the overwhelming gravity crushing her chest into the dirt. The pressure kept increasing exponentially, the sound of her own bones creaking under the strain echoing in her ears. She barred her teeth, spraying blood onto the soil as she desperately tried to push herself up, but she couldn't move a single muscle.
The man resumed his descent, walking slowly toward Isis. Curiously, despite his bare feet stepping onto the soft, red soil of the courtyard, each step made a distinct, sharp clacking sound, like heavy boots on polished marble.
"St-stay ba-back! I'm warning you!" Isis had stammered, her voice cracking with pure terror as she scrambled backward against the ruined stone wall. The deep black sclera of her eyes glistened with unshed tears, her brilliant green hair thrashing frantically around her like a wild animal warning the predator not to get any closer.
The man stopped in his tracks just a few paces away, his blindfolded gaze fixed tightly on the weeping girl.
"You're definitely weaker," he muttered, his tone dropping into a cold, analytical cadence. "Of course... being trapped inside a divine seal for tens of thousands of years would weaken anyone."
He took another slow, rhythmic step closer to her, completely unbothered by her thrashing hair.
"I'm sure you want to remember too. Your true past. The real reason why you were imprisoned... and the very people who took your life away from you. There is a fractured seal deep inside your head, and I can break that seal for you."
He closed the final bit of distance, standing directly over the trembling green-haired girl, his long shadow completely enveloping her.
"I promise you, I am not your enemy," he said, his telepathic voice suddenly softening into a smooth, soothing purr that made Croc's skin crawl from across the courtyard. "Just give me your hand... and it will all be over." He took that final step, closing the distance until he was entirely too close for comfort—and then it happened in a violent, instantaneous flash.
Isis's vibrant green hair snapped through the air like a hyper-velocity whip. The kinetic displacement was so immense that it hit him with the force of an exploding meteor. BOOM! The resulting concussive shockwave ripped outward in a perfect circle, completely shattering the remains of the roofless, run-down castle, sending multi-ton stone blocks and ancient pillars tearing into the red sky like shrapnel.
"I-I wa-warned you!" Isis stuttered, her voice shaking but laced with a sudden, desperate defiance. She scrambled backward, her eyes wide. "Who would actually take your hand in this situation?! Do I look stupid?!"
Before the dust from the castle's collapse could even settle, the demon violently shattered the pile of debris he was buried under. He didn't even lift a finger; a pulse of pure, crimson telekinetic pressure simply vaporized the surrounding stone into fine powder.
But as he looked up, the sky vanished.
Isis's long green hair had expanded exponentially, swelling until the thick, braided locks were the size of colossal elephants. With a deafening, rhythmic roar, her hair descended in a relentless, blinding barrage of strikes. THUD! THUD! THUD! The titanic impacts completely flattened the rugged terrain, pulverizing the crimson soil into a massive, hollowed-out crater and burying the demon beneath a continuous storm of raw, crushing weight.
"Stop!" Isis yelled frantically, pulling at her own scalp. "That's overkill! You didn't need to go that far!"
As if listening to its master, the massive appendages retreated instantly, snapping back to their normal, trailing length in a fraction of a second.
Croc got up slowly with a ragged groan, her joints popping as the suffocating gravity weight around her was finally lifted. She wiped a fresh streak of dark blood running from her nose with the back of her hand, her red eyes locking onto the crater.
In a split second, her reptile reflexes screamed.
The demon was suddenly back, materializing out of thin air without a sound—right in the exact spot Isis had been standing a moment prior. Anticipating the drop, Croc moved with terrifying beastkin speed. With one quick, powerful shove, she pulled Isis entirely out of the danger zone. In the same fluid motion, Croc pivoted on her heel, her massive, scaled alligator tail executing a brutal, whipping arc aimed straight at the demon's skull.
CLANG!
The heavy tail struck a translucent, crimson barrier that rippled violently upon impact, sparks of raw magical friction showering the floor.
"Isis, run!" Croc ordered firmly, her fangs bared as she strained against the barrier.
Without waiting for a response, Croc gripped Isis by the waist and tossed her far away into the distance, completely clearing her from the immediate blast zone. She turned her full, undivided fury back to the red-haired demon.
The demon, however, kept his blindfolded face turned toward the retreating green-haired girl, completely dismissing the beastkin in front of him.
It was a mistake he would immediately regret.
Channelling every ounce of her dense, reptilian muscle mass, Croc drove her fist straight forward. SHATTER! The sheer physical force of her punch shattered his absolute barrier like cheap, brittle glass. Her calloused fist kept going, connecting flush across the demon's forehead with a catastrophic impact.
CRACK-BOOM!
The force of the strike sounded like a rolling thunderstorm to Isis, who was already hundreds of meters away. The supreme ruler of the realm was driven straight onto his knees, his face slamming into the dirt as the kinetic backdraft cratered the soil beneath him.
Isis obeyed Croc's command instantly. In a realm like this, hesitation or disobedience would prove fatal.
As she flew through the air from Croc's throw, her long green hair split into eight sharp, segmented tendrils. Strands woven tight as iron, her hair shaped itself into massive spider legs that stabbed into the dark, hard earth the moment she touched down. Moving with quick, precise, and blisteringly fast movements, the arachnid appendages propelled her across the desolate, bleeding landscape, darting through the skeletal black trees like a phantom.
Where are we? The terrified question rattled through Isis's mind as she flew through the desolate woods, a green blur slicing through the weeping, sulfurous fog.
The environment was an active assault on the senses. She pushed her hair-legs to their absolute limits, leaping over rushing chasms of bubbling, incandescent lava that hissed and spat glowing orange liquid onto her black dress. From the dark recesses of the hollow, skeletal trees, grotesque, snapping jaws lined with rows of rusted teeth popped out of nowhere, lunging to snatch her out of the air. She dodged them by a hair's breadth, the foul, hot breath of the hidden monsters singeing her skin.
"What is this place? Where is Dan? I'm scared..." she muttered, her voice cracking as a stray tear cut a clean line through the soot on her cheek.
She turned a sharp corner, pushing past a dense thicket of ironwood branches—and froze. Her eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing horror.
She ran face-first straight into the massive, pale palm of the red-haired demon.
He hadn't chased her. He had simply folded space to exist exactly where she was going. The moment his cold skin made contact with her forehead, a sickening, localized vibration rippled through her brain. It was as if he had instantly found the master switch to her soul and flipped it off. Her massive, iron-braided green hair went completely limp, crashing to the dirt like dead vines. The bleeding red sky spun violently, and her vision frayed into a dark, blurry fog.
"I promise you, you'll be grateful by the time you regain your memories," the demon's telepathic voice rang directly into the fading recesses of her mind, smooth and unbothered.
"Pl-please... stop," she pleaded softly, her strength evaporating. "I don't... want this."
With the absolute last vestige of her consciousness, she gathered what little energy she had left and threw a soft, desperate punch at his chest. Her small fist landed against his red robe like a ball of cotton. Her hand slid off uselessly. Her head fell back, her eyes rolling into darkness as she went completely unconscious, suspended in his grip.
BOOM.
The distant treeline exploded into a shower of splinters and black soil. Croc emerged from the depths of the Demon Realm like a localized calamity, a walking avatar of pure, unadulterated vengeance.
She was entirely smeared in blood—a gruesome cocktail of her own reptilian crimson and the foul, black ichor of the monsters she had slaughtered to get back here. Her jaw was unhinged, her razor-sharp teeth bared in a terrifying snarl. A low, vibrating growl shook her ribs as her predatory red eyes locked onto the scene ahead.
Miles across the desolate plain, the demon stood entirely still, holding the unconscious Isis by her face with one casual hand. The green-haired girl hung completely limp, like a broken doll.
Croc took a deep, agonizing breath, the sulfurous air searing her fractured lungs. Her massive, scaled alligator tail began a slow, heavy, rhythmic thrashing against the earth, pulverizing the bedrock into dust with every swing. Her short black hair began to rise and hover wildly, charged by a sudden, catastrophic spike in her internal energy. Every single muscle fiber in her toned arms and legs tensed until they threatened to tear.
"You're really sturdy, aren't you?" the demon said."I can't believe you defeated my pets with such ease.
This time, his lips actually moved. A cold, arrogant sneer cut across his blindfolded face as he tilted his head toward the raging beastkin. "But you are far too late. By the time she wakes up, the innocent girl you came here with will be gone forever."
Croc didn't scream. She didn't shout. She simply grounded her boots into the burning soil and let out a guttural, sub-bass incantation that rattled the foundations of the valley.
"Stagmañû."
The response from the cosmos was instantaneous and terrifying. A massive, sweeping wave of absolute, freezing azure energy erupted from her core, expanding outwards for miles. In a microsecond, a large portion of the bleeding red sky turned a deep, unnatural sapphire blue. The bubbling lava lakes instantly froze into jagged, smoking glass. The skeletal trees, the dark earth, and the demon himself were suddenly coated in a heavy, glowing blue aura that locked the ambient gravity of the area down to zero.
The demon's sneer vanished. He looked down at his own pale hand in mild surprise.
Isis was gone.
In a localized distortion of space-time, the green-haired girl had been forcibly re-summoned across the miles, now resting securely back in Croc's muscular arms.
Croc looked up at the frozen demon, a wicked, terrifying smile splitting her blood-stained face as her red eyes burned with absolute malice.
"Have fun fighting the creatures I just summoned," she growled.
She snapped her fingers. From the frozen, sapphire-blue earth around the demon, the ground began to rupture as massive, multi-eyed abyssal behemoths began to tear their way into reality. And before the first monster could even roar, Croc dissolved into a thick, swirling cloud of blue mist, vanishing from the sector entirely with Isis in tow.