The distortion remained at the edge of the troll village, twisting the shape of the world around it.
Stone pathways no longer lined up properly.
Walls looked bent even when they stood straight.
Some of the younger trolls stumbled while running because distances no longer matched what their eyes were seeing.
The entire upper level of Grimestone had grown tense.
Troll warriors moved quickly through the village, guiding the wounded, elders, and children into the lower tunnels beneath the settlement.
Massive stone doors were pulled shut behind them while miners and guards reinforced the underground passages with support beams and chained locks.
Above ground, only fighters remained.
Grisha stood near the center platform overlooking the outer district with Humbaba beside her.
Neither of them looked away from the anomaly ahead.
The thing was larger than before.
Not by much.
But enough to notice.
The unstable shape shifted constantly, almost unable to settle into one form.
One moment it looked thin and stretched, the next thick and crowded with overlapping silhouettes that disappeared before the mind could fully understand them.
Humbaba rested the flat of his sword against his shoulder.
“It changed.”
Grisha nodded slowly.
“It’s becoming more stable.”
The distortion pulsed.
A low vibration spread through the village floor.
Nearby buildings groaned as if pressure had suddenly been forced against them from all directions.
Then one of the stone towers near the eastern side folded inward.
Not shattered.
Folded.
Like space itself had grabbed it and crushed it together.
Several trolls cursed under their breath while moving farther back.
Humbaba narrowed his eyes.
“That thing wasn’t doing this before.”
“No,” Grisha answered quietly.
“Before, it felt incomplete.”
Her gaze stayed fixed ahead.
“This time it remembers more of itself.”
The distortion moved again.
Not forward.
Outward.
Small fractures flickered around it, tiny cracks in the air itself.
Some vanished immediately while others lingered long enough to distort the light around them.
Humbaba saw movement inside one of the fractures and immediately tightened his grip around his sword.
“There’s more.”
“I think there always was,” Grisha replied.
The realization settled heavily between them.
The anomaly that attacked the ogre settlement had not been whole.
Neither was this one.
Fragments.
Pieces trying to return to each other.
The distortion ahead reacted violently as another fracture opened somewhere behind it.
Its unstable body thickened for a moment before settling again.
Grisha noticed immediately.
“It’s merging.”
Humbaba clicked his tongue. Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
“That explains why it feels stronger.”
The ground beneath them trembled again.
This time the distortion surged forward.
Humbaba disappeared from his spot almost instantly.
The stone beneath his feet exploded apart as he lunged across the village with monstrous speed, his blade cutting through the warped space ahead.
The strike landed cleanly.
The distortion split open.
For a moment, the unstable shape tore apart into fragments of twisting black and pale grey.
But it did not die.
The pieces dragged themselves back together unnaturally, reforming into the same unstable mass.
Humbaba landed several meters away and immediately rushed forward again before it could stabilize.
His second strike came heavier.
The nameless sword carved downward with enough force to split the stone beneath the anomaly apart.
The impact sent debris across the outer district while nearby trolls shielded their faces from the blast.
The distortion shrieked.
Not with sound.
With pressure.
Several nearby warriors staggered as the air around them became heavier for a brief moment.
Then the anomaly retreated.
Not fleeing but rather creating distance.
Humbaba noticed it immediately.
“It’s learning.”
Grisha’s expression darkened slightly.
That was the dangerous part.
Not just its strength.
Its ability to adapt.
The fractures around the village flickered again.
Each time one appeared, the anomaly reacted.
Growing denser.
More complete.
Humbaba exhaled slowly through his nose.
“If these things fully combine…”
He didn’t finish the sentence.
He didn’t need to.
Grisha already understood.
At its current state, the distortion could still be resisted.
Fighters like Humbaba and Grakthar could force it back through sheer strength and abnormal weapons.
But if it continued gathering fragments of itself—that balance would disappear.
The anomaly suddenly lashed outward.
A wave of warped space ripped across the outer buildings, tearing stone from the ground and twisting entire structures sideways.
Troll warriors barely avoided being crushed as debris collapsed around them.
Humbaba stepped forward again.
This time he drove his blade directly into the distortion itself.
The unstable mass convulsed violently.
And for the briefest moment, he saw shapes inside it.
Multiple forms, Overlapping faces, Hands.
Fragments of bodies twisting together unnaturally before disappearing back into the distortion.
Humbaba’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you supposed to be…” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
The anomaly reacted violently to the strike and pulled backward again, almost as if avoiding further damage.
Grisha noticed that too.
“It fears being destroyed.”
“That means it can be destroyed,” Humbaba replied.
“Maybe.”
That answer irritated him more than he expected.
The distortion pulsed again.
Then suddenly— space cracked open behind it.
A second fracture appeared larger than the others.
And something inside it moved.
Not clearly, but just enough to be noticed.
The anomaly ahead immediately reacted, almost instinctively trying to move toward the fracture.
Grisha stepped forward for the first time.
“We cannot let it reach that.”
Humbaba did not ask questions.
He attacked immediately.
His body crossed the distance in a single burst of speed before his sword crashed against the anomaly again, forcing it sideways and away from the fracture.
The impact shattered several nearby stone pillars.
The distortion retaliated instantly.
Warped pressure exploded outward from its body, throwing Humbaba backward through part of a stone wall before he stabilized himself mid-slide.
Several trolls stared in shock.
Very few things in existence could force Humbaba backward, such as the chieftain of the ogre tribe.
Dust rolled across the village.
The anomaly began twitching violently again as the nearby fracture flickered unstable behind it.
Grisha finally understood what she was looking at.
The distortion was incomplete because it was separated.
Every fragment it recovered strengthened it.
And if all the fragments ever became whole, she could no longer imagine something capable of stopping it.
A heavy silence settled across the battlefield for several seconds.
Then Grisha spoke quietly.
“Humbaba.”
He looked toward her.
“We may not be fighting a creature.”
The ogre swordsman frowned slightly.
“What else would it be?”
Grisha watched the fractures carefully before answering.
“Something older than creatures.”
The distortion pulsed again.
And this time— it felt angry.
Far from the village, deep within the forest paths leading toward the coast, Kaizer and the others continued their journey completely unaware of what was unfolding behind them.
Meanwhile, Rujark pushed through the forest at full speed.
Branches shattered behind him as he leapt between massive trees, barely slowing as he crossed rivers and rocky terrain.
His breathing remained steady, but his eyes were sharp with urgency.
The image of the distortion twisting through Grimestone remained stuck in his mind.
Humbaba’s words echoed clearly in his ears.
“Get to the settlement.
Now.”
And so Rujark ran faster