The searing pain in his arm was a beacon in the encroaching darkness. Kurogami gasped, his vision blurring as crimson stained the forest floor.
The bear's eyes, burning with a primal hunger, met his own, a chilling recognition passing between them. This was it. The end. He was going to die, just like everyone else he had ever cared for.
The desire for vengeance, a burning ember in the ashes of his past, ignited within him.
Hatred, a venomous serpent, coiled around his heart. The bear, sensing his weakness, took a cautious step back, its nostrils flaring, the air thick with the metallic tang of blood.
Confusion flickered in its eyes, as if it had heard something, a whisper on the wind that made it hesitate.
Kurogami, his body trembling, tried to push himself up, the ground slick with his own blood. The bear, with a low growl that rumbled deep within its chest, took another step closer.
Its jaws parted, revealing a terrifying array of teeth, each gleaming like a sliver of moonlight on a frozen lake. Death loomed, cold and inevitable.
Then, a shadow fell from the sky. A monstrous shape, black as night, crashed down upon the bear with the force of a thunderclap.
The beast roared in pain, its mighty frame thrown off balance. The forest, silent a moment before, erupted in a cacophony of snapping branches and the bear's desperate bellows.
Kurogami, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and disbelief, watched as the black entity enveloped the bear, silencing its roars with an unseen force.
The pain, a constant throb, threatened to pull him under. His vision narrowed, the world fading to a kaleidoscope of reds and blacks. He could feel the life draining from him, the warmth leaving his body.
In the distance, he heard the faintest sound, a rhythmic thumping, like a heartbeat. Then, silence.
The last thing he saw before the darkness consumed him were the bear's eyes, wide with a terror that mirrored his own. And then, there was nothing.