SEASON 2 — EPISODE 9: MOUTH OF THE WORLD-EATER
Cold Open — When Gods Look Down
The sky was wrong.
Over the Glacial Plains, storm clouds churned like boiling ink, folding in on themselves until they formed a perfect circle. Lightning crackled along its rim, illuminating the thing taking shape inside.
A maw. Colossal, jagged, and rimmed with teeth of stormlight, stretching so far across the horizon that mountain ranges were swallowed by its curve.
And then — eyes.
Two burning golden orbs opened in the darkness beyond the maw, their gaze sweeping the land. The air thickened, pressing down on everything alive. Hunters dropped where they stood, clutching their chests as if gravity itself had multiplied a hundredfold.
All except one.
Xavier stood on the frozen ridge, coat whipping in the gale, feeling that cosmic weight pressing into his bones. He tilted his head back, met the eyes, and smiled.
"So you finally noticed me," he murmured.
Act 1 — Shadow King Descends
Far below, the Frostwraith Citadel shuddered. A black fissure opened in its gates, and the Shadow King walked out.
Tall as a siege tower, his silhouette seemed to ripple, as though reality resisted containing him. Behind him, three of the remaining Servants stalked forward — one wreathed in crimson fire, another armored in glacial spines, the third a twisted hybrid of steel and sinew.
The air distorted in waves, colors dulling around him. Space itself seemed to bend.
HUD SCAN:
• Shadow King: Level ?? (Estimated >1000)
• Servants: Level 750–800
The Shadow King's voice was a slow, jagged drawl, every word like a knife across glass.
"Your speed. Your strength. Both wasted on prey. Let's see if you can run from a predator."
Hunters watching from a distance took involuntary steps back, the sheer malice in his tone cutting deeper than any blade.
Act 2 — Testing Apex Ascendant
Xavier moved first.
To the naked eye, he simply vanished. A half-second later, the head of the ice-armored Servant toppled from its shoulders, steaming from a single clean cut.
The battlefield blurred. Xavier's boots struck the snow and he was gone again, appearing behind the second Servant before its swing had even begun.
Permanent boosts triggered without conscious effort:
• Speed Multiplier: 50× base hunter velocity, spiking further under stress.
• Strength Multiplier: Output exceeding Level 1000-class titans.
The second Servant lunged, bringing down a molten greatsword the size of a galleon's mast. Xavier caught its weapon arm mid-swing, fingers locking like iron bands. The bone cracked. The entire arm exploded under the force of his grip, scattering molten shards across the snow.
A casual kick — if anything Xavier did could be called casual — sent the beast hurtling across the plains. It smashed through three mountains before the dust swallowed it.
Kai, watching from the ridge with the other Hunters, had no words.
Act 3 — Shadow King Joins
The Shadow King finally stepped forward.
One step — and he was in front of Xavier. No blur. No windup. Simply there, a blade of pure black mana already in motion.
Xavier's instincts screamed. He brought his own blade up just in time.
The collision cracked the earth, a shockwave rolling out in all directions. Entire sections of the citadel walls buckled. Clouds above tore open from the force of the impact.
And then the exchange began.
They traded over a hundred strikes in seconds, each blow ringing like a war drum. Sparks of black and gold burst between them, carving rifts in the air itself. Mountains in the distance split down the middle from the shockwaves alone.
Kai's voice trembled as he whispered to himself.
"He's keeping up… no… he's pushing him back."
Act 4 — Apex Overdrive
The third Servant, the steel-and-sinew hybrid, lunged at Xavier's back.
Without turning his head, Xavier flickered out of sight. He reappeared ten miles away in the same instant, a still-beating core clenched in his hand. The Servant's body crumbled behind him, lifeless.
The Shadow King halted mid-step, tilting his head.
"You're no longer bound to the Hunt's ceiling… you can grow forever."
Xavier's aura surged — gold lightning crackling outward, now streaked with thin, black threads. The air warped as though space itself was rejecting the power he carried.
Act 5 — The Warning
In a single motion, Xavier closed the gap again, blade arcing in a perfect golden sweep. The Shadow King was sent flying — smashing into the Frostwraith Citadel's central keep. The structure, once thought indestructible, folded in on itself with a groan of stone and ice.
Xavier started forward, ready to finish it —
And then the sky spoke.
A soundless voice filled every mind, every inch of space. It was less language and more inevitability, like gravity or the tide.
"You are seen."
Every Hunter dropped unconscious. Entire armies went limp where they stood.
Xavier staggered, one knee hitting the ice. The golden eyes in the clouds burned into him, the sheer force of their attention like being crushed beneath the weight of a planet.
By the time he stood, the Shadow King was gone. The two remaining Servants gone with him.
Aftermath — New Stats
HUD:
• LEVEL UP! 70 → 80
• NEW PASSIVE: Godslayer Velocity — Speed permanently outpaces any foe, regardless of their level.
• NEW PASSIVE: Colossus Force — Strikes scale infinitely with growth, surpassing Level 1000-class durability.
Kai approached slowly, as though Xavier might strike him by instinct.
"You're not even a hunter anymore, are you?"
Xavier's gaze stayed on the maw in the sky.
"…No. I'm the thing hunters send after gods."
Ending Cliffhanger
Far above, beyond the storm, the silhouette moved.
It wasn't just a mouth. The storm was its skin — the scale of continents. Whole mountain ranges curved across its back, seas churning along its form.
Its head alone could blot out the sun.
The eyes fixed on the continent, and the voice came again — this time, in words every living thing could understand.
"Run."