Beyond The System
Chapter 174: Snap

“It—it transformed back?” Thea gasped.

I don’t think it transformed. Not like I do, anyway. You noticed it, right? Luna asked.

“Its energy disappeared.”

I stood stunned. Just like Griffith had said after Elric’s attack. The creature had died, or something close. And then… reset?

“Do these things transform into something else on the island?” I asked aloud, not really expecting an answer.

Thea shook her head and walked over to the now-docile slime. She picked it up, holding it carefully. “Don’t know, but it’s much better like this, right?”

It vibrated gently in her arms, but did nothing else.

I stepped closer, placing my hand on it, feeling the soft oscillations beneath my palm. “Yeah. Less threatening, anyway.”

She set it down and took a deep breath. “Want to find that pillar thing and then head back? I feel like any more time spent here is going to wipe us.”

“Sure. I think we’re close anyway,” I agreed.

We walked out past the crumbling structure, following the same invisible trail of energy as before. The pressure followed too, but it didn’t grow stronger. Maybe we were adapting. Or too tired to notice. Hard to say.

How you doing, Wyrem? I asked, checking he wasn’t disintegrating under the strain.

Fine. Thanks. Just focus out there.

More stone outcroppings started to appear. Half-buried pillars, bricks, even a lopsided archway that led nowhere.

“There’s a lot more of them now,” I said, gesturing to what looked like the corner of collapsed wall of something similar to the house we’d just left.

Thea followed my gaze, nodding toward a rotten wooden structure that could’ve once been anything. “Maybe it was the living area of the place you saw.”

“Bridge of Caedia,” I offered.

But really, I thought she was probably right. As we neared the center, more ruins emerged. Collapsed rooftops standing on their own, walls swallowed by vines, entire homes erased by time.

“I wonder what kind of people lived here,” Thea said, lowering her voice like she didn’t want to disturb the silence.

I shrugged. “Don’t know. Your ancestors, I guess.”

We stepped over a chunk of stone, maybe once a gateway, and nearly tripped over something small and fuzzy. It looked like a fox, orange-furred with four legs. It blinked up at us.

I tensed, readying for an attack.

But it just scampered off, soundless.

Thea watched it go, eyes glittering. “If they all looked like that, I wouldn’t mind. I wonder, is that even a different creature? Or…”

“Could be the slime pretending to be something else.”

Though… pretending didn’t feel quite right to me.

More creatures showed up as we walked. A tiny lizard with six legs. A strange bird that didn’t flap, just hopped tree to tree. They all felt familiar, but slightly wrong. Alien, but just barely.

Thea brushed her hand along her neck, frowned at the sweat, then without a single hint of shame, reached over and wiped it on my shirt like I was her personal towel.

I blinked at her utterly unapologetic stare.

Then her smile, which made me want to forget everything around us. The blush on her cheeks from our mutual exhaustion, only making her more radiant.

She was glowing.

So obviously, I retaliated with the vengeance of a thousand suns, yanking off my shirt and aggressively rubbing it against her face. With plenty of hugs, of course. I had too much affection to give.

“Stooop!” she shrieked, half-laughing, half-screaming, trying to wriggle away from my care, but we were both too tired for her to make an effective escape. “I give up! I’m sorry—I’m—”

I chased her down a few steps to where she froze, nearly toppling us both over.

“Thea? W—”

Her hand clamped over my mouth before I could finish. The other lifted, pointing.

It was a Dragon Vein. Same color and size as the last. But at its base, something lay coiled in silence.

What’s wrong? Luna asked. The energy’s gathering in a big ball there.

That’s not a ball, I told her. That’s a monster.

It was enormous. Even in stillness, its slow, steady breathing shimmered across its body, onyx scales catching faint glimmers of light, giving it the sheen of oil. It blended into the darkness so well, it could barely be distinguished from shadow.

The body stretched long and serpentine, curling possessively around the Dragon Vein as if it had always belonged there. Reptilian-looking. Short, muscular limbs were tucked beneath it at either end, barely visible beneath its bulk.

I eased one step back. Thea mirrored me without a word.

I tried reaching out with my Spiritual Sense to track our surroundings, but here? It was like forcing it through concrete. Like my awareness hit a wall. It didn't even stretch further than my eyes.

Another step.

It didn’t stir. Its breathing remained steady, indifferent. It should've calmed me, but something else chilled me more than any snarl or roar. Even the strange animals we’d seen earlier were gone. The woods had gone silent.

Luna, you’ve got poison ready, right? Just in case.

She curled tighter around my arm. Of course. But Peter, that thing... I wasn’t even sure it was alive. There’s so much—

I know, I cut in, acknowledging the warning.

I’m ready when you need me.

This was it. The reason no one came back. I felt it in my bones.

Each backward step sent my heart racing faster.

The wild, condensed and chaotic World Force was being siphoned off the Dragon Vein. A full quarter of the stream drained away, diverted toward the creature, thinning out before bouncing to its next target.

Even with my Voidseed, absorbing that much energy was a fantasy at best.

Another step.

It wasn’t asleep. That's why I was so scared.

It was cultivating.

It didn’t react earlier when you two were playing around. Pick up the pace, Peter! Wyrem’s voice was sharp.

Just as I reached for Thea to bolt, the energy stream shifted, its rhythm aligning back with the larger flow.

Then, one claw flexed.

Thea squeezed my hand tightly.

We hadn’t triggered it. There was no noise, no mistake. No snap of a twig under us.

Just bad luck.

Its eyes opened.

Not wide or sudden. Just a slow, methodical scan of its domain. Like it had finished a task and now sought the next.

It had finished, and now, if anything like us, it needed to convert its new power.

The great body stirred. Scales rasped across soil with a dry scrape, and it locked its gaze on us—the two trespassers in its home.

I felt my skin prickle under that stare. It wasn't predatory. It didn't even seem curious. Just... dismissive. Like we weren’t even worth emotion.

Its jaw cracked open slightly, not wide, but a slow exhale, baring slender, blade-like teeth in its yawning.

It blinked once, then its nostrils flared.

I didn’t wait another second. “Run.”

I released Thea’s hand, letting her sprint ahead. I didn't know how much control she had , but I would be ready to catch her if she stumbled.

It’s chasing, Luna warned.

I glanced back, seeing interest gleamed now in those ancient eyes.

It slithered low, tail carving a dragging path through the earth. Its limbs tensed, claws sinking deep into the soil, using them to launch, flicking forward with a jolt of terrifying speed.

I turned back, ignoring the fire in my legs, forcing myself to ride the surge of pressure lightning as I ran. Ahead, I could still see Thea bolting ahead.

She was faster than I remembered.

But the thing behind me? Plenty fast too.

I pushed harder, causing the burning to increase. My feet barely made contact with the ground anymore, just enough for each stride to vault me forward again. The air thinned around me, and my lungs strained for every breath.

Peter, it's close. You have to get away now, Luna warned, urgency in her voice.

But still I waited, waited until Thea was out of sight. Far enough ahead that I wouldn’t have to worry.

When she finally vanished past the treeline, I let it go. A burst of Ice Force exploded out from me, spreading wide. Frost tore across the forest floor, roots, stones, with even fallen leaves freezing solid in an instant.

Behind me, the sound of something massive losing traction.

Sliding.

I jumped.

SNAP!

Its jaws snapped shut where I'd been a breath before.

Midair, I looked down.

It stared up at me, calm.

Now curious.

Its head tilted slightly, tracking me as I fell, but it didn’t chase my arc.

It only watched me, with eyes locked on, even as I slipped from its view.

I landed hard, softened by my skill only enough to prevent injury, then launched again, not seeing the creature anywhere.

Luna, can you see anything?

No, as soon as you jumped, my sense couldn’t spread far enough. I don’t see it anywhere.

As I landed again, that idea worried me more.

It had, no question, tried to eat me. So why stop now?

With another draining leap, I finally caught sight of the shoreline. When I landed, I saw Thea scanning the trees.

She spotted me and the relief on her face hit like a wave. But her voice still held tight worry.

“Where is it?”

“I don’t know,” I said, pulling her with me toward the beach. “It stopped chasing once we got away.”

Elric appeared, running to meet us just as she asked, “Why?”

I wanted to say it lost interest. That we got lucky.

But I remembered the eerie calm in its gaze.

I could only hope that it was because we weren’t worth it, but just considering the snap of the jaws, the lack of previous survivors, I doubted it.