The looming mountains shadowed the village even after they’d arrived at it. As burned remnants of buildings and destroyed homes stood ahead of them, no one spoke. They stood upon the road, gazing past the burned remains of a village.

  Mouse stepped forward first, searching for any sign of life. But as none came forward, he ventured closer. Footsteps behind him followed, and the distinct light steps with deep impressions of Taiga followed behind him closely. Mouse turned to face him, seeing the drained and crushed expression on him that made Mouse’s heart hurt. He didn’t feel for humans the way Taiga did.

  No one took shock to the sight, and one by one, they neared the ruins of the village. Mouse climbed over a broken wall of the first house, peering in for any survivors. His ears told him there were none, and though he and Taiga knew the odds, it stopped neither of them from making sure.

  “We’ll fan out. There’s another village to the southeast. I’ll head there.” Field pointed out towards the mountains before moving on.

  Ku and Telania walked slowly, checking within each home they passed as they headed north. Mimi stayed with them, keeping the horses close to her as she followed a path into the heart of the village.

  Taiga jogged ahead of Mouse, looking through the shattered window. Mouse followed him. The arm of a woman stuck out from beneath a chunk of collapsed roof. He pulled Taiga back, ripping him away from the scene with force if he had to.

  “The grass feels nothing here.” The words tumbled from Taiga like a forbidden whisper.

  “We can still check.” Mouse said, only to comfort Taiga.

  His friend nodded, sucking in a deep breath. He pushed past Mouse, and checked in another fallen building. Mouse did not pursue him, and instead looked to the charred pillars that once kept the house standing.

  He grazed his fingers over the cracked grains, where they turned to ash and fire before succumbing under its own weight. Brick and stone crumbled under dense impact, some split and damaged from more than a small fall.

  At another house, a father lay curled with a young girl in his arms. They were untouched, aside from their eternal sleep. The people here were not devoured by demons. Yet the damage to the homes was wrought by an unnatural force.

  Every house and ruin he inspected yielded the same result; dead bodies, some looking as if they’d collapsed under the destruction of whatever swept through while others looked like they’d laid down to sleep.

  For hours he and Taiga searched in what felt like an unending silence. Loss hung heavy in the air as broken hope fell over them in a gentle mist. It enveloped around them, keeping the magnitude of destruction at bay within the clouds.

  The echoes of a voice hit Mouse before the words. He jerked around, spotting Ku and Telania running at them at full speed. When Telania yelled this time, he heard the words.

  “Run!”

  Mouse hopped down from the rock pile he’d been standing on, and whipped around, searching for Taiga. Several houses ahead and to the west, he knelt down over a body. Mouse darted to him, weaving between fallen brick and debris.

  “Taiga, Telania and Ku.” Once he had his attention, he pointed out to where the two ran towards them.

  As their figures emerged further from a sweeping mist, shadows tailed after them. Mouse pulled himself up to the roof of a once-awning. The appearance of three large black shadows clawed after the mercenaries.

  “Demons! Taiga, they’re not small fry.” He hopped down, and drew his sword. Taiga led forward, stopping in what was once likely the marketplace of the village.

  “Just run!” Ku yelled at them, waving his arms around. “There’s more coming.”

  “What?” Beyond the mercenaries and three demons, Mouse could make out anything further from the mist. “There’s nowhere we can run to, we can take three.”

  Taiga unsheathed his sword beside him. As Ku and Telania sprinted past, a demon, over two meters in length, scurried after them. Mouse waited for Ku to clear him before pivoting around and slashing across the top of its furred head.

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  The demon squealed in surprise, reeling back and scrambling to check itself. Blue blood dripped from one eye, and its talons gingerly checked the damage. Mouse readied himself, stepping one foot back and the other one solidly beneath him, stable in his stance.

  The demon clicked continuously, almost hissing with its fangs bared. A long, thin tongue arched away from him. Talons clacked against cobblestone and gravel, digging in where it could before lifting to take another step. It circled him, and Mouse side-stepped in the opposing direction.

  “You want to take all three? Are you serious?” Ku’s voice peeked, breaking a bit at the end.

  Behind Mouse, a yelping cry made him turn. Taiga’s sword crushing deeply into another demon’s paw. The demon was a different sort than the one Mouse fought; resembling closer to that of a large dog. Each click it made screeched into the next.

  “Better to take care of these here.” Taiga pulled his sword back out, grunting with the force. “Before more close in.”

  Telania clicked her tongue before steadying herself between Mouse and Taiga, “it’s not these little ones I’m worried about.”

  Little? These demons were normal sized. The ones that attacked Winolin were minor, holding power only in their numbers. But these were full-sized, grown through the chaos they fed from.

  The demon lunged at him, which Mouse whirled around. He sent his boot hard into its stomach, sending it back and clicking in ragged breaths. He took the moment, running at it and shoving the point of his sword across its back.

  He had no time to think about what Telania meant. In the flesh of the demon split by his metal tip, ruffles of spines sprung out of it. A spine nicked him. The burning of its acid stripped his arm of its strength.

  He caught his sword with his right arm before it fell, swinging it in front of him and fending off the demon as it flicked its tongue at him. He knocked the tongue away, but it recoiled and whipped at him. It flicked his left arm again, and any remaining strength melted from it. A burning split sizzled through him.

  Mouse swatted the tongue away, but his reaction slowed, and the tongue managed to strike his right shoulder. The burn bled through his tunic in an instant. His strength drained at a single touch.

  The sword dropped out of his hand. He tried pulling his fingers to him, but they refused any response. The demon cocked its head at him, clicking, its eyes flitting from arm to arm as they dangled.

  “You piece of shit,” his voice strained as more of his energy evaporated from him, replaced by acid.

  The tongue whipped at him again, first his left leg, then his right. When Mouse dropped to his knees, the demon watched him a moment before approaching. It was cautious, in a way that annoyed Mouse. But the anger was fleeting, much like the breaths he could barely keep in him.

  “Mouse!” Taiga’s voice called to him from behind, followed by thuds and clicks of another demon.

  Before him, the demon came closer, its head lowered to be on par with Mouse’s. Every movement it made sent a series of clicks with an underlay of deeper, more throatal beats.

  “Don’t click at me, it’s annoying.” Mouse spat. Even as he tried, no strength pooled into him. And it knew.

  It stopped a dozen centimeters from his face, raising its lips and revealing a smile of knives. The stench of rotting flesh plumed over his face. He forced down a gag, The knives open, its pink tongue slithering around them.

  Do something. Anything.

  Move.

  Mouse slammed his head down over the demon’s. He pulled back, then bashed his head down again with every remaining fiber of strength. Any semblance of pain was banished from his mind. Before it could recoil, he needed to finish it off. The demon growled, but he did not hold back.

  Again, he reeled back, then pounded his head into the demon’s until it caved beneath the pressure. It struggled to get its feet beneath it, its remaining eye dazed and unfocused. He leveled his head, before bringing it down again.

  When the last whimper escaped the demon and it collapsed to the ground, he let up. His head throbbed more with each pulse and breath. His ears rang, and when Taiga’s hand slid into his shoulder, relief flooded him.

  “--re you — …g.”

  Mouse studied Taiga’s lips, not that it helped. The ringing died down as his eyes refocused. “What?”

  “Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”

  Taiga leaned down in front of him, his fingers moist when they touched his forehead. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Getting there.” Mouse clenched his fists, stronger with each flex.

  “You,” Telania looked at them, mouth slacked, “I’m sorry, did you just smash it to death? With your head?”

  Mouse glanced from Telania to the demon laying dead behind her with Ku and Mimi. His own demon lay in a bloody pool, reds and blues mixed into purple. He nodded. Taiga pressed a wadded cloth to Mouse’s head, dabbing at it gingerly.

  “Do you hear that?” Taiga looked away, rising.

  He struggled to his feet, biting through any remaining pain and weakness in his legs. He looked in the same direction as Taiga, but made nothing out beyond the mist. A breeze drew past them, and Taiga’s eyes fluttered for a moment. Then, at full attention, Taiga grabbed his sword from a slain demon’s body.

  “What is it?” Ku asked, nervously, stepping over the demon and holding a cloth to his bleeding arm.

  “Can’t you hear it?” Taiga whispered. Ku and Telania shook their heads. Mouse listened. Once the breeze calmed, the subtle sound of crying carried through the mist.