Chapter 927: Chapter 928: Gravewing When he finally came to, they were moving. The first thing he saw was the great canopy of the Evil Forest and its towering trees. Sunlight occasionally pierced through the leaves, brushing against his eyes in soft, fractured beams. Damon immediately noticed he was on a stretcher. Without much thought, he sat up, the stretcher rocking unevenly over the hilly forest terrain. He wondered how he had not fallen off with how many slopes and dips they had crossed. The forest flora seemed more sparse here, and some parts of the ground were rocky, broken by patches of exposed stone. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂 His action of sitting up caught Renata’s attention. She had been right next to his stretcher as four knights carried him. Damon glanced at her when she smiled. "Ohhh, you’re awake. That’s good... can you move?" Her words sounded normal enough, but what Damon could not quite place was why she was whispering instead of speaking normally. He paused, glancing around his surroundings. He did not feel any odd sense of danger other than the usual oppressive presence the Evil Forest gave off. Damon was smart enough not to speak until he had ascertained everything. What conditions would cause Renata to whisper? She smiled again, shaking her head slowly. "Its nothing big. There isn’t a horror nearby. We just decided it would be better to keep our voices down while we move..." Damon remained slightly suspicious. Nevertheless, it was of no major consequence. He was healed up, and the pain in his heart was gone... for now. He had no complaints since he did not die. ’Ha ha ha... hehe... heh... hehe hehe haha. Damn, deathless. You thought you could kill me with a ticking time bomb in my heart?’ He laughed inwardly at his survival, relieved he had not been exposed as a demon... or partial demon. Everything was still normal — as normal as things could be inside the Evil Forest. A small grumble escaped his stomach. The sound echoed through the silent forest, causing several people nearby to flinch slightly while ducking their heads as if expecting something terrible to happen. Damon narrowed his eyes with suspicion. "Wait a minute... something ain’t right." From the front, Seras waved her hand, urging everyone to keep moving. Wendy, who had moved back toward him, shook her head. "Anyone ever told you how paranoid you are?" she whispered. "Yes... a lot actually. Apparently it’s delusional paranoia." He crossed his arms before stepping off the stretcher and placing both feet on the ground. "So we are dealing with something. I reckon it’s a horror that forces us to whisper, right? Well, I get it. These types of creatures are simple. As long as you follow their rules, you’d be fine... in fact, it’s advised not to engage." This was his experience speaking, and he wanted Wendy to hear it. The copper skinned young woman rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her voluptuous chest. "Yeah right. That’s why you engaged the previous one. I don’t really care if you die, but if I don’t have my children back before you do... you better not dream of a peaceful afterlife." Damon gritted his teeth and quickly covered her mouth. "Shush—shush... we agreed to keep what happened between us quiet. And it’s not my fault... I tried my best. Stop making things difficult for me. Besides, it was a one time thing. You caught me at a bad time..." Wendy pushed his arm away, glaring at him. "You better keep your word or else... the world will know what happened in your room that night." "You can’t just blackmail me..." Damon muttered. "I just did." she replied calmly. Frustrated, Damon kicked a rock half buried in the soil. The first thing he felt was the ground tremble slightly but the rock did not budge. What followed was a sharp, throbbing pain in his foot. Everyone paused, turning toward him. Damon shrugged, hopping slightly while holding his foot. "What?" For a moment, nothing happened. Silence. Then Seras let out a slow breath of relief. She walked up to him, grabbed his ear, and tugged. "Stop making noise." She released him and walked back to the front, waving for them to move again. The expedition force resumed marching. Then... The sand beneath their feet began to shift. It rose and fell in slow, steady rhythms. The next instant, the trees began to tremble, and the hills around this part of the forest started shedding hardened rocks that tumbled down their slopes. Heavy sounds rumbled, growing louder, almost as if the earth itself was breathing beneath their feet. Seras froze. No one moved. Faces went pale, everyone except Damon, who was still trying to grasp what was happening. In that moment, he felt his scalp tingle intensely as dread washed over him. The trees began to rise. The ground cracked and caved in as dust surged into the air. People stumbled, losing their footing. Then a distant hill shifted slightly, sand cascading down its surface as a golden light appeared... Except the light blinked. It closed. Then opened again. It was at that moment Damon realized it was a colossal eye looking at them. Gazing into it, he felt as if he had experienced the passage of time itself, dragged into an ancient past that did not belong to mortals. The eye closed. Then the hills around them began to move. "Run!" Seras screamed, her composure shattering as she ushered them toward a hill surrounded by blooming flowers. "Hurry! We need to reach the displacement flowers!" The creature raised its head from the earth, clouds of dust and sand billowing outward. Rocks fell like rain. Trees across kilometers were uprooted as a massive crater formed beneath its rising body. Something like a small mountain lifted into the sky — though that was only how it seemed. In reality, it was terrifyingly fast. Its breath alone created violent gusts of wind that sent trees, rocks, and debris flying with a casual exhale. It gazed down before fully rising, its attention settling on Seras, the most powerful among them. And when she saw its scales... its wings... its vast, ancient body— Seras froze. Her lips trembled as she whispered the name of the dragon. "Rexagon... the Gravewing."