Withered Bone [Wasteland]

[Dual Powerhouses + Mutant Creatures]

Lost Lamb × Seductive Bone Demon

[1]

From the age of twenty, An He dreamed the same dream every night.

In the dream, a figure stood rotting away, pus oozing from decayed flesh until nothing remained but a withered skeleton amid swirling mists.

She believed it was her own postmortem form, yet the withered bones whispered her name in a low voice: “An He, come here… come here…”

The nightmare persisted night after night for three years, tormenting An He to the brink of madness. Frequent blackouts accompanied the dreams, until on her birthday, she fell into a deep, unending sleep.

She awoke next in an unsealed coffin, prying her eyes open in the pit of earth. The world had utterly transformed.

The sky hung dark and oppressive, miasmic fog blanketing everything, while in the distance, towering Iron Walls brutally divided the land into two realms.

The city guardians said that beyond the Iron Walls prowled man-eating beasts and Mutant Creatures—twisted remnants of all things once familiar. No human survivors remained.

Yet An He clearly saw a mysterious woman standing in the fog, gazing at her, beckoning her closer.

The call from endless darkness grew ever clearer. Was the one locked in eternal slumber truly among the dead?

[2]

In the forsaken wilderness, Withered Bone had lain upon the bluestone slabs for many years. Vines twisted around her leg bones, climbed her spine, and bloomed a vivid red flower within the hollow cavity of her left chest.

One day, she finally awaited a woman.

The woman’s fingertips brushed her cheekbones, traced the jade-like cervical vertebrae, caressed the cracked and mottled ribs.

At last, that hand slipped into her ribcage and severed her sole spark of life.

—”Either love me, or kill me.”