If that’s the case, he could only hope that his mate Haniel, her territory, and even this Rift wouldn’t disappear the moment he opened his eyes from this night’s dream.

Additionally, was this also her magic?

The image of Haniel trembling before the bear was still vivid in his mind. Yet since entering this Rift, she had been fighting like a skilled Hume warrior, growing stronger with each battle, with each passing hour.

Even those blessed with divine weapons couldn’t strengthen this quickly. Her once clumsy posture was becoming flawless like a well-honed weapon, her battle sense was sharpening, and the power behind each attack was gradually becoming more powerful.

What was curious was that as Haniel grew stronger, Regan also felt himself gaining more strength by her side.

It was as if some absolute power protecting her was also bestowing mercy upon her companion… would it be excessive to express it that way?

Regardless, despite the heat boiling inside his body, Regan was able to maintain consciousness and tear apart the creatures of the Rift.

Narrow, twisted paths.

Blood-soaked Regan and Haniel advanced along increasingly distorted winding paths deeper inside, defeating countless enemies that appeared before them.

Sometimes strange creatures that appeared to have merged with the terrain emerged, while other times they encountered beings that seemed even more intelligent than themselves. Yet all these creatures ultimately succumbed to the combined power of Haniel’s vitality and Regan’s strength.

Even during brief rest periods, they couldn’t sleep due to sharp, thorny sounds, and the bumpy, twisted paths made it impossible to lie down.

And when their once firm footsteps began to feel sticky.

After killing yet another group of Wanderers that had emerged, Haniel and Regan finally stepped into a large cavern.

“This place…”

After a series of passages barely wide enough for Regan to pass through, suddenly there was this large space.

A warm current flowed through the vast cavern, almost the size of a large stadium.

The first thing Haniel discovered upon stepping in was an uncountable number of corpses. Piles of bodies heaped like insects that had flown into a bonfire and burned to death.

“Ugh.”

“So many of them…”

Regan lifted his foot and slightly turned over a corpse lying on the ground.

It had barely decomposed. But it was difficult to assume that all these bodies had rushed here and died just minutes ago. This was inside a Rift where time and space were twisted at will.

No… were these truly “living” things? Regan narrowed his eyes, suspecting they might be mere flesh sculptures. As he scanned the piled corpses, he suddenly noticed something and called to Haniel.

“…Haniel, look at that.”

He pointed from the corpse right at his feet to the center of the cavern.

The numerous piles of corpses in the cavern were stacked in a conical shape. The center was piled high like a peak, and the bodies decreased in number and height toward the cave walls.

Haniel opened her eyes wide.

At the top of the corpse pile, illuminated by a beam of light penetrating through the cave.

There was something on top of the mountain of corpses.

No, not something… but “someone”!

“Ah…”

A m*an resembling a sigh escaped between Haniel’s lips.

On top of the numerous corpses lying face down, a figure leaning against a protruding branch.

It was a man so beautiful it made one doubt their eyes…

Could this be what a forest fairy or a dryad, a nymph—a tree itself that had gained life—would look like?

Soft and supple limbs, like moist grass momentarily caught on a branch.

The yellowish-green leather clothes he wore were tattered, but such trivial details were meaningless before that elegant beauty.

Haniel burst into admiration at the sight of that clean face, unmarred by any unpleasant mixing of species.

Glossy ash-gray hair framed his face. His half-open eyes were transparent like jewels despite being veiled by thick eyelashes, and above his leaf-like ears grew elongated horns reminiscent of insect antennae.

Beautiful. Too beautiful to be sitting on this throne of corpses…

“He appears to be an Elf.”

Regan muttered, chewing the inside of his mouth.

That’s not a hybrid but a 100% pure Elf.

‘Why would an Elf be in a place like this!’

Regan instinctively bared his teeth and growled at the sight of the Hume’s long-standing adversary.

Just hours ago, he had worried about Anaserph search parties “hunting” and stealing Haniel, and now they were discovering one of that race inside this Rift.

Regan glanced at Haniel, who seemed half-entranced by the Elf man’s face, and felt his mood twisting further.

Could he have flowed in from the Elven kingdom of Anaserph, which borders this Nightmare Forest?

But… even with such speculation, he couldn’t be 100% certain how the Rift operated.

Just as someone, some place, or conversation never seen before can appear in a person’s dream, events inside a Rift often unfolded in ways that couldn’t be predicted by logical thinking.

‘Speculating about the process is meaningless right now. Whatever the cause, that thing that appears to be a pure Elf… is extremely dangerous.’

“Hey, Regan.”

Haniel placed her hand on Regan’s back.

“I think the Rift core is inside that corpse.”

“What? Is that true?”

When Regan asked in surprise, she nodded.

An Elf man’s face… has a truly destructive beauty. A different charm from the Hume Regan, and even considering it was a corpse, it was a beauty one could stare at for hours without getting tired!

But surprisingly, the reason Haniel had been observing it for so long wasn’t simply because she was mesmerized, but for another reason.

It was the golden light milestone that had guided her and Regan to this cavern.

That light, which indicated the location of the ‘Rift core,’ was coming from that Elf man’s corpse.

“The Rift core must be inside that corpse. Otherwise…”

Haniel slightly narrowed her brow.

“Is something bothering you?”

“No, actually… it’s certain that the core is either inside that corpse or the corpse itself is the Rift core, but there’s something that doesn’t quite add up.”

At those words, Regan looked back at the Elf man’s corpse.

What didn’t add up? To Regan’s eyes, apart from the fact that unlike the previous hybrids, it appeared unmixed with other species and was an Elf corpse, it didn’t seem much different from the other bodies lying around here.

There was a reason why Haniel, who possessed vision that Regan lacked, said so.

That golden light indicating the Rift core. The light was definitely coming from that corpse, but strangely, it appeared hazy, as if covered by some kind of veil.

Haniel wanted to get closer to see, but hesitated slightly before stepping onto the pile of corpses.

But at that moment.

Flash!

“!”

At the top of the corpse pile, the Elf, who was thought to be dead, fully opened his half-closed eyes.

Haniel swallowed her breath.

“Gasp! Regan, that corpse… no, that man, he opened his eyes!”

“What? That can’t be…!”

Regan bared his teeth.

As he said, it shouldn’t be possible. Regan’s sensitive ears and senses were telling him that none of the corpses here were alive.

But Regan, who had half-doubted that Haniel might have mistaken movement caused by the decomposition process, opened his eyes wide as he saw the Elf man stirring at the top.

“…It’s true. He is alive.”

Had he misheard? The probability was very low, but… it couldn’t be explained otherwise.

Regan’s ears were clearly telling him that besides himself and his mate Haniel, another heartbeat was pulsing in this quiet cave.

A heartbeat. It was a bit different from the Elves he had encountered before, and somehow strangely slow, but its heart was definitely beating.

That is, it was alive.

Rustle… rustle.

The Elf man gently raised his body that had been draped over the branch and immediately turned his head toward Haniel.

And then…

“Ah…”

He smiled at her…

Haniel blinked her eyes.

Why… why me… why me?

But as the breathtakingly handsome man smiled at her, she had no choice but to smile back…

“Hehe. Heh…”

“What are you doing?”

“Huh? Ah, that’s not… I mean… you know, you can’t spit in a smiling face…”

Fearing that the consequences of her actions might result in punishment from Regan’s massive muscles crushing her, Haniel struggled to lower the corners of her mouth that had risen.

The reason she feared this punishment was not only for her outer body but also because her insides would be crushed by the enormous flesh intruding from outside.

Ahem, hmm! After clearing her throat, Haniel deliberately crossed her arms and asked with a seemingly resolute expression.

“So, so then. What should we do now?”

“We must kill it,” Regan answered in a chilling voice.

“What?”