The mountain had become quiet again.
Too quiet.
The Blood Moon was gone.
The dead were gone.
The black bird was gone.
Only the elder sister remained.
And the unconscious Traveler.
She knelt beside him for several seconds, staring at his face.
Her brother was dead.
Her younger sister was dead.
Everyone she had come here with was gone.
And somehow—
this stranger was still breathing.
She wiped the dirt from his face.
"Who are you?"
No answer.
She carefully pulled his hood back into place.
Then she noticed something.
A mark.
Just beneath his collarbone.
She frowned.
It hadn't been there before.
She moved the fabric aside.
A strange symbol rested against his skin.
Dark.
Almost black.
Its shape was impossible to understand.
It looked as though several thin lines had been burned into the skin and connected themselves into a pattern.
But there was no wound.
No blood.
No scar.
Just the mark.
The elder sister touched it.
The moment her finger made contact—
the mark pulsed.
Once.
Thump.
She pulled her hand away.
The Traveler didn't move.
She stared at the symbol.
"What are you?"
The mark slowly faded.
Then returned.
Barely visible.
She didn't know what it meant.
She didn't know where it came from.
She didn't know that it belonged to something far older than this world.
An Abyssal Mark.
To her—
it was simply another mystery attached to the stranger she had found.
She placed her hand beneath his shoulder.
He was heavier than before.
But she couldn't leave him.
Not here.
Not alone.
Not after everything that had happened.
She looked toward the mountain.
Her home was still several hours away.
There was no one left to help her.
No brother.
No younger sister.
No hunters.
Only her.
And him.
She slowly pulled the Traveler upright.
His head fell against her shoulder.
She struggled to stand.
"You're coming with me."
The Traveler remained unconscious.
She began walking.
Each step hurt.
Her injured body protested.
But she kept moving.
Behind them, the battlefield remained silent.
Yet beneath the soil—
something moved.
The elder sister didn't notice.
A tiny black thread slipped through the earth.
It reached the place where the Traveler had fallen.
Then stopped.
As if it had recognized him.
The elder sister continued toward the distant settlement.
She never saw it.
But the mark beneath the Traveler's clothes pulsed once more.
And somewhere far beyond the world—
something answered.
Thump.
The elder sister stopped walking.
She looked down at him.
His eyes remained closed.
"Did you..."
Nothing.
She continued.
Unaware that she had just carried something into her home that the Blood Moon itself had failed to kill.