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The Red Zone wasn't a place for ordinary people to survive. It's land—uninhabitable. It's water—poisonous. A place where nothing thrives, and nothing rests.

A volatile borderland pressed against the Great Wall.

A place where silence has no home. Where even in the stillest moments, something lurks—always—hidden in the shadows, waiting.

The air vibrates with distant growls, the heavy scrape of claws against scorched earth, the faint echo of something moving just beyond sight.

But what truly gave the Red Zone its name was the deep, unnatural crimson hue that stained the sky, seeping into everything.

It wasn't just the reflection of the distant fires that never truly died; it was something else, something unnatural.

It was as if the land itself was bleeding, carrying remnants of all the horror passed through its land.

And while human soldiers were the only ones who chose to guard the Red Zone, even they preferred the safety of their bases stationed just outside its borders.

Yet two figures moved through the calamity, their black robes billowing in the thick, restless wind. Each step brought them closer to the ruin ahead, where the stench of death seemed to be thickest, coating their tongues like rusted metal.

"Are you sure about this?" June whispered shakily, her voice barely above a breath beneath the hood of her robe. "We can turn back. We have time—"

"Enough."

Her companion's voice was low and firm, cutting through the air like a blade. Val halted abruptly, and the terrified woman behind her stumbled into her back.

"I made the rules clear before we entered the Red Zone. You told me you understood; was that a lie?" The warning was sharp, edged with something unspoken. "Every time you open your mouth, you risk exposing us."

"I'm sorry," June whispers, her eyes burning with unshed tears beneath the hood of her robe. "I-I just think… maybe we're in over our heads…"

"Tell me the rules," Val interrupts, eyes narrowed. She knew she was being harsh on the girl, but Val had made it clear that in the Red Zone, there will be no mercy.

June's eyes meet Val, wide and uncertain. But something about the unshakeable look in Val's eyes strengthened something in June, reminded her why they had even taken this risk.

"Do not speak. Kill whatever moves, and…" June gulps. Val had been extremely clear on the last rule. "Never speak our real names."

A slow nod. "Good." Val's voice was quieter now, satisfied that June remembered their rules.

They pressed on.

Though her steps never faltered, Val understood June's fear. She felt it, too. It lived beneath her skin, coiling in her gut like a sickness. But she walked with false confidence—her posture rigid, her stride too steady, too measured as she forced herself forward, daring not to hesitate.

There was no turning back now.

They had agreed to this.

And yet—

As they emerged into the clearing, both women froze. Their breath caught in their throats; the air thick with a new, more suffocating kind of dread.

For a brief moment, Val wanted to disappear. To run. To escape.

But she couldn't move.

Val was frozen, her carefully constructed mask of control shattering at her feet.

So much… death.

Both women tilted their heads back, their gazes crawling up the towering mountain of bodies. Higher and higher, until their necks ached at the sheer scale of the horror that threatened to crush the breath from their lungs.

At the centre of the clearing, a figure sat atop a mountain of the dead—human and monster alike, their bodies twisted, broken, and their flesh ripped and scattered like offerings beneath her.

The grotesque heap of limbs and lifeless eyes stretched below her like a throne of carnage, their silence drowned only by the slow, wet sound of teeth sinking into raw flesh.

Blood dripped from her lips, dark and viscous, trailing down her chin in sluggish rivers.

Her hands—stained red up to the wrists—trembled slightly as she tore another piece free, muscle and bone crunching between her teeth.

The remnants of her feast slid down her fingers, splattering onto the corpses below.

And she did not stop.

Not even to acknowledge them.

They noticed her white hair, hanging in long, damp strands, soaked in a mix of black and crimson blood that painted the ground. It clung to her skin, matted with the filth of slaughter, and corrupted by violence.

Around her, the darkness pulsed, alive with something unseen—something watching. The air had held no warmth, only a chill that seeped into bone and whispered of things worse than death.

She didn't speak. She didn't move beyond the slow, deliberate act of feeding. She was stillness and ruin, an omen draped in blood, and the world around her seemed to hold its breath, waiting for whatever nightmare would come next.

Val's hand shot out and snatched June's arm. The two women had come in search of a killer. A creature whose existence defied nature. Born from human experimentation and evil. An enemy responsible for their half-broken world—not this.

They took one step backward. Only one. The Nightwalker tilted her head, a slow and deliberate movement meant to imply only one thing; she noticed them.

"My, my, what do we have here?" the Nightwalker drawled. Her words low, amused, chilling. "A rare catch… squirming in my domain."

June's breath catches on a sob, her limbs trembling so violently, her legs threatened to give out beneath her.

She wanted to run. She wanted to leave. This wasn't the plan; this couldn't be what they were searching for—right? They wanted an Assassin, someone who couldn't be traced back to them, someone powerful.

But not this… Not evil.

Val's shoulders went rigid, her features drawn tight—her. A warrior who fought countless battles, wielding power most could only dream of; and yet, fear coiled in her gut, sliding like an oily snake around her throat.

But unlike June, she can't show it. She knew the Nightwalker would seize the smallest crack in her resolve, twisting fear into a weapon.

Val swallowed, a poor attempt to force the tremor from her voice as she says, "Y-You lead us here."

It wasn't a question, Val knew. She should have known sooner. Should have suspected sooner. Their journey until now had been too easy.

This was the Red Zone.

A place brimming with monsters. They scale the Great Wall, dragging themselves over its heights, their twisted forms spilling into the Red Zone first. And when they do, the Royals respond in fire—blasting them apart before they can reach deeper into the broken world beyond.

But no matter how many bodies fall, no matter how many times the sky is set ablaze, the Red Zone never empties. It's a battlefield, a wasteland, a warning.

A place that's never truly quiet.

Val should have known better.

The severed limb slipped from the Nightwalker's grasp, landing with a wet splat atop the mound of bodies before tumbling down the gruesome heap.

"Val." The name rolls off the Nightwalker’s tongue, stretching each letter of the word as she turns to them, a chilling smirk lifting at the corner of her lips. "Is that the name you have chosen for this quest of yours?"

A chill crept down Val's spine as realisation struck; this Nightwalker knows her. Knows her true identity. The weight of it pressed against her chest, stealing her breath. Only one word escaped her lips, thick with fear and urgency.

"Run!"

June didn't need to be told twice. The two women spun on their heels, their movements a blur of speed as they tried to race out of the clearing only to once again come to a stop.

Monsters loomed at the edges of the clearing, their pale, towering forms half the size of a fully grown tree, shifting unnaturally in the shadows.

Their elongated limbs—thin, spidery things—clung to the trees and the ground with a sickening grace, their clawed fingers flexing, twitching, as if eager to close around them.

Their heads tilted at unsettling angles, bones creaking with the movement, as if they were studying their prey with inhuman curiosity.

And then there were their smiles—too wide, too deep—carved into their faces in grotesque, permanent grins that curled all the way to their ears. A mockery of something human.

But their eyes… Their eyes were the worst.

Glowing an unnatural gold, gleaming with something wrong, something beyond comprehension.

They pulsed in the dark, sharp and hungry, staring with an intelligence that sent a primal warning through the air.

Their veins, thick and black, bulged beneath their translucent skin, twisting like corruption spreading from within.

They didn't move.

Not yet.

But they were waiting.

"Don't worry." The woman behind them chuckled. "They won't step inside as long as I'm here."

Those words should have reassured them, but they had the opposite effect. Mindless monsters of destruction and death, creatures born on the other side of the Great Wall—they fear this woman. This evil. This abomination.

Val almost considered risking a chance with the monsters salivating for their blood.

Tears spilled down June's face. She was going to die, she knew.

There were too many of them, too large. She wasn't a fighter like Val…

yet she insisted on coming. She was a fool.

She thought coming to the worst place on Earth would make her stronger, but she only felt helpless. And so terribly afraid.

Val swallowed the ball of anxiety heavy in her throat and turned back to the evil sitting on a throne of corpses.

"W-What do you want?" she whispered, holding onto June's arm and pulling her closer. She needed the comfort, the reassurance she wasn't alone. That no matter how afraid June appeared, she was still a friend. A dear one.

The Nightwalker turned to them, her elbows resting on her knees as blood dripped down her fingers. She tilted her head, with a smile on her lips. "You've come all this way… Trekked the deadliest parts of our half-broken world, to ask little ol' me what I want?"

The Nightwalker chuckled, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "I'm honoured you care so deeply for my wellbeing."

Val's lips curled into a sneer, her skin burning at the mockery in the woman's voice. She has never felt so insulted—so small. And yet, here she is, handing this woman exactly what she wants: fear, ripe for the taking.

Val let her hands drop from June's arm and straightened her spine. She knew the creature saw right through her—she didn't care. Let it. This would be her armour. She was a warrior, after all. And she would not die here, afraid.

"I'd like to offer…"

"No, no." The Nightwalker's voice cut through Val's words like a knife, her mismatched eyes sliding to June. "This is her quest, her wish… June will speak."

Val tensed. How long had she been watching them? Listening? She couldn't have known any of that. She and June had rarely spoken on their journey once they entered the Red Zone.

June whimpered, retreating a single, trembling step. It was small, almost imperceptible—but not to the monsters behind her. They snarled; a guttural, unnatural sound rolling from their chests. When June flinched, she nearly stumbled back into their waiting mouths.

Val moved instantly, pulling her close. June trembled against her, and Val turned her glare on the Nightwalker.

"Do not play games with us, Nightwalker," Val snapped. "You know why we're here."

The Nightwalker's smirk faltered, her smile melting into something colder. She tilted her head, gaze flicking between them.

"She will speak," she said, her tone bored, as if they were nothing more than entertainment. "Or you both die. Choose."

Val's grip tightened around June. "Why are you doing this?" Val whispered.

The Nightwalker gave a slow, deliberate blink, then grinned.

"Why?" she echoed. "Call it boredom."

Boredom?

She lived at the heart of ruin and death—and she was bored? Did she not realise how many had fallen to keep creatures like her at bay? How many soldiers, families, entire cities had been lost?

June let out a ragged breath. "I-I…" Tears streak down her face. "Please… p-please… kill the District 1 King."

The Nightwalker barely looked surprised as her bloodied lips pull up into a smirk. "Ahh, so she can speak. Coherently, too." She turned her attention back to Val, tilting her head. "But what do I get in return?"

Val gritted her teeth; she could feel the Nightwalker's gaze pulling her apart, peeling back her edges, enjoying the frustration she stirred.

"You seem to already have something in mind," Val sneered, glaring up at her.

The Nightwalker's face remained blank. Bored, even. Then, she lifted one elegant finger—and pointed directly at Val.

"Your power," the Nightwalker murmured, and the words sent a chill slithering down Val's spine. "I want it."

"What?" Val's breath caught.

"I hear you can summon Death." The Nightwalker's smile was almost playful, but her eyes were anything but.

She shouldn't know that.

That secret was buried; it was known only to her family and one other. And he would never tell, not unless he wanted to anger the Gods.

Val clenched her jaw. "What about it?"

"I want to fight him." The Nightwalker's gaze darkens, voice rich with amusement.

Impossible.

Not only would the Nightwalker die, but it was forbidden. Val could only use that power once in her lifetime, and by decree of the Gods themselves, she must only use it in the most extreme case. She would not waste it on this creature's twisted game.

But she couldn't tell the Nightwalker that.

Instead, she narrowed her eyes and seethed, "It will kill you!"

The Nightwalker's smile widened. Slowly, her eyes bled to gold, the glow warping her face. Cold tendrils of dread slid down Val’s spine as she pulled June closer.

The women stood frozen, trapped in something dark and inescapable.

Never have they felt so exposed.

The transformation was swift. Black ink crawled over the Nightwalker's arms, ancient markings coiling over her skin like living shadows. Her ears sharpened to points, her teeth glinting razor-sharp.

And as she smiled, her voice dropped to a whisper.

"Precisely."