Hmm... hah.
Waking up felt like a physical struggle against gravity itself.
Every fibre of my being pleaded for more sleep, an insistent protest against the coming day.
Sera was the sole reason for this crushing exhaustion.
Something had changed in her last night; she had been driven by a hunger that seemed decades in the making.
Had she been harboring secret frustrations? Or was this simply a sudden, overwhelming wave of longing?
Whatever the cause, hours of intimacy had left me utterly hollow.
Ignoring the dull ache radiating through my muscles, I forced myself out of bed.
The transition from the warmth of the sheets to the cold air was a bitter necessity.
A sharp dizziness struck with the very first step, though it began to recede as I moved toward the bathroom.
It was a stark reminder that my body had been denied the recovery it so desperately needed.
The first splash of cold water was a shock to the system.
The stinging chill forced my muscles to activate, jolting me into a state of forced alertness.
Preparation was swift.
I secured a fresh set of gloves into my storage bracelet and conducted a final gear check.
Before departing, I leaned over the bed, pressing my lips against Sera's cheek while whispering a quiet farewell.
With everything in place, I stepped out of the palace, a weary scowl fixed on my face as I began the journey alone.
...
An hour slipped by unnoticed.
The passage of time became a blur until I found myself deep within the suffocating embrace of the Mist Layer.
The first nightmare to emerge from the haze was a serpent with piercing purple eyes.
Its head was unnervingly massive, encased in bony protrusions that looked like natural armour.
The mouth was a jagged landscape of serrated teeth—a living saw that made me wonder how its own tongue survived.
Before I could even settle into a stance, a thick, toxic green fog engulfed me.
The pain was absolute.
It wasn't just a burn; it was the visceral, sickening sound of skin being grilled.
The acidic mist began to peel the flesh directly from my frame.
Agony clouded my mind, shattering my focus until I could barely hold a coherent thought.
Only the low hiss of the serpent kept my instincts sharp.
Suddenly, something tore through the fog with terrifying velocity.
I lunged aside at the very last microsecond, dodging the lethal strike.
Recovering my balance proved difficult, and only then did I realise why.
My left arm was gone.
The sheer speed of the attack and the surgical precision of those teeth had bypassed my nerves for a heartbeat.
Then, the crushing reality of the pain arrived.
Am I going to die?
A dark wave of defeat threatened to pull me under, but I fought back with a surge of violent refusal.
Die? To hell with that. I hadn't tasted enough of what life had to offer yet.
I would survive, and I would feast on the flesh of this wretched creature.
I forced the wound to constrict, stemming the flow of blood through sheer willpower.
My survival now rested entirely on my vampiric heritage.
Regeneration was an agonising crawl, but I held my ground.
The scorched skin began to knit itself back together with unnatural speed.
Breaking into a sprint, I lunged out of the acidic cloud.
The snake tried desperately to keep me trapped, but its movements were rhythmic and predictable.
It would lead with a swift, snapping bite, followed immediately by a massive tail sweep.
The tail wasn't meant to kill, only to knock the prey back into the toxic mist.
Using my spears, I neutralised the strategy.
Every time the tail swung, it risked a deep, bloody gash from my blades.
Eventually, the serpent allowed me to escape the fog, convinced I would collapse from the sheer trauma of my injuries.
It was a fatal miscalculation.
Within seconds, my skin was whole again.
New tissue and cartilage began to weave themselves back into the shape of a functional limb.
A mocking smile spread across my face as I looked at the now-visible panic in the creature's eyes.
It began to attack recklessly, desperate to end the fight before I fully recovered.
But I was no longer the distracted man who had entered the mist.
I dodged with minimal effort, conserving every drop of energy for the counter-strike.
Realising the tides had turned, the snake attempted to retreat.
But the environment offered no escape; a mountain wall stood at its back, and I stood at its front.
It lunged one last time, a desperate bid to trade its life for a wound.
I gave it exactly what it wanted—and more.
The final struggle was violent and brief.
Lungs burning and muscles screaming in protest, I finally felt the beast go still.
Dragging an eight-meter carcass while utterly exhausted was its own form of torture.
Yet, I persisted, inching forward until I finally reached the safety of the teleportation circle.