Everything Elia said was just a single word.
"Understood."
The word came out slowly, with a coldness like that of an old gravestone. There was no hesitation in his voice, but in his eyes there was a heavy seriousness, the rigidity of a man beginning to clearly grasp the scale of the disaster approaching them.
He remained standing in silence, his gaze fixed into the void as if trying to pierce through walls.
In his mind, the image began forming piece by piece.
Caravans.
Caravans carrying cages filled with humans.
Slaves.
Men and women driven like cattle… perhaps worse than that.
But this was not the most dangerous part.
The most dangerous part was the man.
The man Animo had spoken about.
A man who managed to kill four armed men with ease.
Not just kill them… but did so as if it were nothing more than simple entertainment.
That alone was enough to make Elia's mind work at full speed.
Because it could only mean one thing.
They were not just a slave caravan.
But a force capable of fighting.
A force that might see this weak settlement as just a small stop… or perhaps merely a new resource.
New slaves.
Elia remained silent, then began calculating.
Distance.
Speed of the caravans.
Dangers of the forest.
If they encountered beasts… or were forced to stop.
Perhaps…
One day.
Or at best…
Two days.
Only two days before those caravans would arrive here.
Two days before this small town turned into something else.
Into a cage.
Into a slaughterhouse.
Or into ashes.
Elia exhaled slowly, then pressed his fingers against his forehead as if trying to crush a heavy headache inside his skull.
And said in a low but sharp voice,
"This… is a damn headache."
Then he raised his gaze to Animo, who was sitting near the door, and added coldly, "You're lucky you repaired the gate."
He paused for a moment, then smiled a smile devoid of any warmth.
"If you hadn't… they would have broken through everything easily."
But his voice grew harsher afterward.
"The problem, my friend… isn't the gate."
He took a step forward, then looked directly into Animo's eyes.
"The problem is that you…"
He paused briefly.
"…don't understand anything about fighting."
Silence fell for a moment.
Then he continued, "Except for the few I selected myself."
It wasn't arrogance.
It was simply a military fact.
Most of the town's inhabitants were not soldiers.
They were farmers and mere survivors trying to stay alive.
An army?
No.
They didn't have an army.
They had a crowd of frightened people.
And that was not enough to stop an armed slave caravan.
But Elia wasn't focusing on that problem.
He was looking at a bigger one.
He murmured in a low voice, as if speaking to himself,
"But damn it… that man."
His expression tightened slightly.
"The man you spoke of… troubles me."
"If he's as you describe… then he is strong."
His eyes paused for a moment.
"And perhaps…"
A faint, dark smile appeared.
"…he is just like me."
If that were the case…
Then most tricks would be useless.
Ordinary men fall to traps.
To arrows.
To ambushes.
But men who have gone beyond that threshold…
Whose bodies have become instruments of war…
They do not die easily.
"Anything you use against him… will most likely be ineffective."
"Except for a few things, of course."
But the real question was not that.
There was another question.
More dangerous.
Elia slowly raised his gaze, as if the thought itself was heavy.
"The problem…"
"…what if he isn't the only one?"
A heavy silence fell.
"What if there is another like him…"
His words paused briefly.
"Or… what if the rest are like him?"
At that moment, real concern appeared in his eyes.
Because if that were true…
Then the battle would not be a battle.
It would be a massacre.
"In that case…"
Elia sighed.
"…we won't be able to survive."
He remained silent for a moment, then waved his hand in irritation.
"So… I'll try to think of something useful."
Then he looked at Animo with a sharp gaze.
"As for you…"
"…get lost."
He said it with complete coldness.
"Go and prepare the guards at the gate."
"And you'd better arm them with arrows."
He paused briefly before adding, "The arrows I taught you to make."
They were not ordinary arrows.
They were primitive… but effective.
Arrows with barbed heads.
They entered the body easily, but tore flesh when pulled out.
Animo left without another word.
And as soon as he closed the door behind him…
Silence fell.
A heavy silence.
Elia sat down slowly.
And that was the moment he finally allowed his mind to acknowledge the truth.
This was a complicated problem.
With his current strength…
And his few soldiers…
Any major loss would be their end.
There was no reserve.
No support.
No army behind them.
There was only this small town and a group of people who had barely learned to carry weapons.
Elia raised his head slightly.
Then his eyes stopped at a dark corner of the room.
There was a jar.
A large clay jar.
Inside it…
Something was moving slowly.
Elia stood and approached it.
When he looked inside, twisted black worms appeared, tangled over one another.
A mass of writhing, wet flesh.
He reached in and grabbed some with difficulty.
They were slimy.
Cold.
And moving in his hand as if trying to escape.
Elia smiled faintly.
"Perhaps you have a better use…"
He raised the worms slightly.
"…you parasites."
These worms were a true curse.
Strange parasites that had appeared years ago.
Every plant that tried to grow near corpses…
Died.
Not just died.
But was devoured.
These worms fed on decomposing bodies.
But if they found no body…
They ate the soil itself.
That was why the townspeople had not seen a single plant for years.
Until they thought the land here…
Was dead.
But the truth was worse.
The land was not dead.
It was…
Eaten.
Elia looked at the worms in his hand as he spoke calmly,
"You live off bodies…"
"…and feed on them, and if you find none… you eat the earth itself."
He moved closer to the jar.
"But… if you find nothing at all."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Then what will you do, I wonder?"
The worms were now stiff inside the jar.
Still.
As if…
Dead.
But Elia had seen them before.
He knew.
This wasn't death.
This was…
A trick.
A parasite's trick.
A creature that waits.
"Let's see."
Then he moved toward another corner of the room.
There…
There was a corpse.
The corpse of a six-eyed wolf-dog.
A beast that had approached the town days ago.
And Elia had kept its body instead of burning it.
He approached it.
Then threw the worms onto the corpse.
For a few moments…
Nothing happened.
Then suddenly…
The worms began to move.
Their bodies turned into something more viscous.
More moist.
And slowly…
They began to sink into the wolf's flesh.
Boring in.
Crawling.
Slipping through.
As if they were planting themselves inside the corpse.
Elia raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Wow…"
Then he smiled with faint mockery.
"…what a wonder."
He stepped closer as he watched.
The body began to move slightly.
Small tremors.
Not life.
But…
An imitation of life.
"Weren't you dead a moment ago?"
He let out a light laugh.
But his eyes were observing carefully.
One of these parasites…
Does nothing.
Ten…
Might move a small body.
But when the number reaches hundreds…
They can barely control a large body.
Which means their usefulness in combat…
Is very limited.
At least…
For now.
Elia picked up a black herb from the table.
Then threw it near the corpse.
And in the next moment…
The worms withdrew.
Quickly.
As if something pulled them.
And they all returned to the jar.
As if nothing had happened.
Elia looked at the herb.
Then at the jar.
And smiled.
"A very simple method of control."
He lifted the jar slightly.
"Well."
"…I suppose I'll keep you."
His eyes paused for a moment.
"…until I find a way."
A way for only one thing.
Something that had begun forming slowly in his mind.
How to defeat those soldiers.
Then he finally sighed.
"And I only hope…"
His words paused.
"…that they are not many."
Meanwhile…
In another place in the town…
There was a room.
A room deep within the structure, far from the noise, far from the eyes… far even from the light itself.
It had no window.
No crack in the wall.
Not even a small hole to let a thread of light pass through.
It was a room born to be a prison for darkness.
A dense… heavy darkness… as if it were a tangible substance that could be touched.
Any normal human left in such a place for only hours…
Their mind would begin to erode.
Days in complete darkness do not pass… they decompose.
Time itself loses its shape.
Thoughts begin to multiply like a plague, then turn into whispers, then into screams inside the head.
And madness… becomes only a matter of time.
Yet despite that…
Selena was there.
Sitting in the heart of the darkness.
Her knees drawn to her chest, her back pressed against the cold stone wall.
At first, she could see nothing.
But after a long time…
So long that it was impossible to measure…
Her eyes began to barely adapt to the darkness.
Vague shadows.
Unclear outlines of the ground.
And a faint mass of a distant wall.
But it didn't last.
Suddenly…
A point of light appeared.
Very small.
A flame.
It was barely larger than a lentil.
The flame trembled slightly, then began to grow slowly, very slowly… until it became the size of a finger.
Its light was weak.
So weak that the room was not illuminated… rather, the darkness only became less dense.
But Selena tensed immediately.
Her breathing rose slightly.
And she whispered to herself in a faint voice, "Alright…"
Then she took a deep breath.
"…haa…"
She closed her eyes for a moment.
"…I'll begin."
She opened her eyes slowly.
Her body was completely covered in a shiny layer of animal oils.
Oils she had learned herself how to extract.
How to boil fat.
How to separate it.
And how to turn it into a substance that sticks to the skin.
Its smell was heavy… rancid… like an old slaughterhouse.
But she didn't care.
She extended her hand toward the flame.
Her hand…
Was trembling.
A slight tremor at first.
Then it became more obvious.
Not only fear…
But because her whole body knew what would happen in a few moments.
She brought the flame closer.
Closer…
Until the fire touched the tips of her fingers.
Her hand jerked back suddenly.
Her breathing stopped.
She stared at the fire for a long moment.
She could turn back.
She could extinguish the flame now.
She could…
Live another day without this madness.
But after a moment…
She clenched her teeth hard.
And whispered to herself in a low, angry voice, "…damn it."
Then she tore through her hesitation in one motion.
She moved her hand quickly…
And pressed the flame against her body.
In the next moment…
She ignited.
The fire caught the oil as if it had been waiting for it.
A small flame at first…
Then it spread at a terrifying speed.
It devoured her shoulder.
Then her chest.
Then her back.
And in just a few seconds…
Her entire body became a human flame.
The pain…
Was not ordinary pain.
It was something beyond the mind's ability to comprehend.
At first, the skin burned.
She felt it shrink… crack… peel.
Then…
It disappeared.
And after the skin…
The flesh began.
The flesh itself began to burn.
To char.
To erode slowly under the flames.
Even her clothes…
Lasted only moments.
They ignited quickly, then turned into ash that crumbled and fell to the ground.
As for her hair…
It burned almost instantly.
Vanished.
And nothing remained on her head but burned skin… and blackened flesh.
She continued burning.
And the pain became something indescribable.
Then finally…
The sound came out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A scream that tore through the throat.
A scream that came from the depths of a body burning alive.
The scream echoed against the walls of the room.
Then faded.
Because there was no one to hear it.
No one outside.
No guards.
No townspeople.
No savior.
No one.
In this place…
Selena was alone.
Completely alone.
"Damn it…!"
she screamed, trembling.
"Damn it… damn it… damn it!"
Her body began to shake violently.
Her knees nearly gave out.
But she clenched her teeth until she felt they might break.
Then she began repeating the words like madness,
"I have to live…!"
A gasp.
"I have to live…!"
Tears evaporated before they could fall.
"I have to live…!"
The words came out of her mouth like a spell.
As if she were trying to convince the world itself not to kill her.
The fire continued to devour her body.
The flesh cracked.
The fat began to melt.
The smell of burning meat filled the room.
Yet despite that…
Despite everything…
She did not lose consciousness.
Any normal person would have died from the very first moment.
Or at least…
Fainted from the intensity of the pain.
But Selena…
Forced herself to stay conscious.
Forced her mind not to go out.
She felt everything.
Every cell.
Every piece of flesh.
Every part of her body as it burned.
Feeling.
Falling apart.
Evaporating.
Before her eyes.
The darkness in the room…
Was now lit.
But not because of the small flame.
But because of her body.
Her body that had become the only source of light.
Flames dancing over blackened flesh.
And shadows writhing on the walls.
But she had to endure.
She had to hold on.
Until the fire died on its own.
But fire…
Does not get full.
Fire does not show mercy.
Fire eats…
And keeps eating.
And Selena had only one thing left.
A prayer.
A simple one.
A miserable one.
It came from her burned lips,
"…just."
A broken gasp.
"…don't let me die."
But in the end…
The flames began to weaken.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
The oils were gone.
The flesh had nothing left to burn.
And the light…
Began to fade.
And as the light disappeared…
The darkness returned.
The heavy darkness.
The ancient one.
That had been waiting patiently.
And in the end…
It swallowed the light completely.