Ren gave a sharp nod, his heart pounding faster with every step. There was no doubt—they were getting close to the source of the Gate. That pulsing, malevolent glow... it had to be coming from the monsters' nest, the very heart of this nightmare. He swallowed thickly, his throat dry as dust. He was afraid. Terrified. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to turn back, to run as far and as fast as he could. But there was no running.

  "Let’s get closer. Slowly," he whispered.

  Kazik wiped sweat from his brow and raised his rifle, ready for whatever came next. Blood from his wounded arm dripped onto the dirt, but he ignored it. They moved, crouching low, every step careful, using fallen logs for cover. With each meter, the glow grew brighter, the stench thicker—rot and decay, mixed with something sharp and metallic, like ozone. Ren felt bile rise in his throat, the hair on his neck standing on end.

  They reached the edge of the clearing, ducking behind a clump of withered bushes. From here, they had a clear view of the Gate's core—and the sight stole their breath with a mix of horror and revulsion.

  At the center of a scorched field yawned a massive pit, a crater from which a sickly green light emanated. All around its rim y dozens—no, hundreds—of white shapes. Ren squinted, trying to make sense of them. When he did, a chill ran down his spine: bones. Piles upon piles of bones and skulls. Some were unmistakably human—he saw teeth, femurs—but most were rger, twisted, too monstrous to belong to anything human. Likely the remains of beasts, maybe ones that had fought each other for dominance.

  Ren's stomach turned. They were standing on a graveyard of monsters and men, the victims of this cursed Gate. He looked at Kazik, who was pale as a sheet, breathing through his mouth to avoid gagging.

  "See anything... else?" Kazik forced the words out, trying to keep it together.

  Ren scanned the crater, avoiding the bone piles. Deep within the pit, something moved—flesh shifting, pulsing like the heartbeat of the world itself. Then he saw it clearly: the walls of the crater were coated in a glowing, organic growth, like swollen roots or exposed veins. And in the center, resting at the bottom... something massive.

  Kazik saw it too. His voice trembled.

  "It’s... moving..."

  In the flickering light, the silhouette took shape. A grotesque creature, fused with its surroundings, seated in the pit like a queen in her hive. Around it y clusters of eggs or cocoons, their translucent membranes glistening. It looked like a horrific blend of a bloated sow and a monstrous insect: a grotesque body armored in chitin, a swollen abdomen anchored to the ground. Its front rose above the nest—several pairs of grasping limbs clung to the earth, and higher still, long, cwed arms y limp at its sides. The head—if it could be called that—was an elongated maw, open like a grotesque flower, lined with twitching tendrils or teeth.

  The entire monstrosity quivered slightly, as if it were breathing—or dreaming.

  Ren swallowed hard. It was a living nightmare, something torn straight from a horror movie. The stench rolling from the pit—rot ced with something sweet and moldy—hinted at countless corpses decomposing in its depths.

  "This... this is the source," he whispered. He couldn’t look away. "The boss of this hellhole..."

  Kazik was silent, staring in mute horror. Eventually, he hissed between clenched teeth:

  "How... how are we supposed to kill that? It’s huge..."

  Ren had no answer. He didn’t even know if it could be killed with normal weapons. Maybe grenades or bombs—things they didn’t have. They had a single rifle, a handful of rounds, a knife, and a crowbar. It was like sending ants to fight an elephant.

  But they had to try. If they didn’t, their deaths—and the deaths of so many others—would mean nothing. The Gate would remain, ready to open again and unleash more horror on the world.

  "We have to find weak spots," Ren said, forcing himself to think through the fear. "The head, eyes... anything."

  "If it even has eyes," Kazik muttered bleakly. Panic crept into his voice, barely held back. He’d seen too many people die already—he didn’t want this to be their end, too. "Maybe... maybe the eggs? Or cut it off from the roots?"

  Ren considered it. If those were eggs, destroying them might be key. But to do that, they’d have to get dangerously close. Right next to the sleeping beast. It was suicide if it woke up. Then again, maybe it would take time to fully rouse. Maybe they could strike first.

  "Kazik..." Ren met his friend's eyes. Inside them, he saw both terror and a flicker of hope—hope that Ren had a pn. Ren felt the weight of it settle on his shoulders. He drew a shaky breath. "I’ve got three mags. You shoot from cover, keep it distracted if it wakes up. Aim for anything that looks vulnerable. I’ll try to fnk it."

  "What? Are you insane?" Kazik’s eyes went wide. "You want to approach that thing?!"

  "If I can get behind it... maybe I can cut those... I don’t know, those root-things?" Ren pointed at the glowing tendrils anchoring the beast to the earth. He wasn’t sure himself. But anything was better than just standing there, waiting to die. "Maybe it’s like a queen. If we cut it off from its nest, it might weaken."

  Kazik looked like he wanted to argue more, but finally just nodded. They had no better pn. He pressed his lips into a thin line, then reached out with his good arm and gripped Ren’s forearm tightly.

  "Good luck... brother."

  Ren’s throat tightened. He nodded wordlessly. That grip—strong, despite Kazik’s wounds—was all the encouragement he needed. They both knew they might not get another chance to speak.

  They split up.

  Kazik remained hidden at the edge of the clearing, kneeling behind the bushes, rifle braced on a fallen trunk. Ren circled wide to the right, slipping behind piles of bones and shattered trees. He moved as quietly as possible, the cracked earth crunching underfoot, every step a gamble. More than once, he stepped on a shard of chitin or a bone fragment, each sound like cannon fire in the dead silence.

  He finally crouched behind the jagged skeleton of something massive—dinosaur-like in size. Just ten meters from the crater’s edge. The monster loomed above, its body pulsing in the sickly glow. The stench was overwhelming. Ren gagged, covering his mouth with a shaking hand to keep from vomiting. His eyes stung from the acrid fumes.

  He gnced left. In the dim light, Kazik was in position, watching him. Their eyes met. Ren raised a hand slightly—that was all it took. They couldn’t risk talking.

  A long second passed. Ren held his breath.

  Then came the gunshot.

  The rifle's crack shattered the silence, echoing across the clearing. The bullet struck the monster’s chest with a metallic cng, bouncing off its chitin. It did no damage—but it served its purpose.

  The creature twitched. Its entire mass recoiled, like a serpent startled from sleep. A deep, guttural rumble emerged from the pit, shaking the earth beneath them. Veins along the crater walls burst as the beast began tearing itself free from its monstrous cradle.

  Kazik fired again, aiming higher this time—toward what might have been the head. A shot struck the creature’s maw. It let out a screeching roar of fury. Its limbs clutched the edge of the pit, crushing stone as it heaved upward, inch by monstrous inch, revealing a swollen, slime-covered abdomen.

  Ren forced himself to stay focused. The pn was simple: while the monster focused on Kazik, he’d fnk and cut its connection to the nest. He reached for the combat knife at his belt—sharp and sturdy. In his other hand, he gripped his bloodstained crowbar.

  "Just get close... Just don’t get crushed..." he repeated in his mind.

  And then he moved.