what the actual hell?

The Wendigo lunged.

The smell hit first—rot, decay, death—like something had crawled out of a mass grave and decided to wear the stench as perfume. It moved with an unnatural speed, a blur of bones and stretched, dead flesh, its elongated fingers reaching—

Kikidori shoved Haruna aside, barely dodging as the creature's claws sliced the air where his chest had been.

"Fuck, it's fast!" Haruna hissed, rolling to her feet, her fangs bared.

The Wendigo's black, hollow eyes locked onto her.

Then—it laughed.

That wet, distorted, broken sound scraped against the night air, sending an icy pulse through Kikidori's spine.

Haruna grimaced. "God, that laugh makes my soul itch."

Coraline, still perched on a nearby rock, flattened her ears. "I TOLD YOU SOMETHING BIG WAS OUT HERE. I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS."

The Wendigo charged again, the ground beneath its twisted limbs cracking with every unnatural step.

Kikidori moved fast, intercepting it before it could reach Haruna again. His hand shot out—grabbing the thing by the throat.

A mistake.

The moment his fingers made contact with its clammy, rotting skin, a sharp, piercing cold spread through him—burning like frostbite from the inside out.

Kikidori growled, forcing himself to hold on, but the cold seeped deeper, twisting into his veins.

The Wendigo's grin widened.

Then—

Something moved behind him.

Something big.

Kikidori barely had time to process it before he slammed into something massive and solid.

He tensed, expecting the worst. Another monster? A bigger Wendigo? A fucking werewolf army?!

Slowly… he turned.

Please be a big wolf. Please be a big fucking wolf.

Nope.

It was a goddamn unicorn.

Silence.

Haruna, still mid-battle stance, froze.

Coraline, who had been ready to bolt, blinked.

Kikidori just… stared.

The unicorn—pure white, massive, glowing faintly under the moonlight—stared back. Its spiraled horn gleamed, shimmering with an otherworldly glow.

Kikidori blinked. "What."

Haruna's mouth opened and closed. "I—" She gestured wildly at the hellish deer corpse monster behind them, then at the literal fairytale creature in front of them. "HOW THE FUCK ARE THESE TWO THINGS IN THE SAME PLACE?!"

Coraline, her fur still bristling, muttered, "Welcome to Mythic Ground, idiots."

Oh. Right.

They lived in the one place in the world where every single myth, legend, and folklore creature existed.

That meant everything was possible.

Even this.

The unicorn's massive, glowing eyes locked onto the Wendigo. And then… it moved.

With terrifying speed, the unicorn charged—its horn lowering like a blade.

The Wendigo, for the first time, flinched.

Then—

The ground shook.

Something else was coming. Something worse.

And suddenly… a unicorn wasn't the weirdest thing in the forest anymore.

The End of Chapter 12.