The world had teeth now.
Elias stood before a structure that hadn't been there yesterday or maybe it had always been there, lurking behind layers of fog and memory. A mansion, or what remained of one. Its walls were burnt black, yet still standing, as if fire had only scorched the surface, not the soul.
At its entrance, a door painted crimson. Unfaded. Untouched. Wrong.
A Red Door.
Elias exhaled, breath like smoke in the cold.
System Notice: Red-Tier Zone Detected. Proceed with caution.
He ignored the warning. His sanity was cracked already; what was one more fracture?
He pushed the door open.
Inside, the air burned.
Not with heat, but with malice like the house resented being entered. The floors were ash-covered, scorched wood crunching underfoot. The smell was part smoke, part rot, part...copper.
Blood.
He moved carefully, each step measured. The shadows here had shape. They followed him too precisely.
And then
"Stop!"
A voice. Real. Sharp. Panicked.
He spun, reflexes firing.
A figure emerged from the darkness: a woman, no older than thirty, hair matted with soot, eyes wild.
She held a rusted crowbar like a sword. "You step on it you die. Do not move another inch."
Elias froze. "I'm not your enemy."
She didn't lower the weapon. "No one sane comes in through the Red Door. You're either infected or suicidal."
He slowly raised his hands. "Sometimes both."
Her name was Mara Quinn, a survivalist from a collapsed outpost northeast of the black River. She'd been trapped in the mansion for two days, hiding from something she only called:
"The Burned Choir."
"It's not like your White-tier ghosts," she explained, eyes flitting to the mirror hanging sideways on the wall. "This one doesn't whisper. It sings. Loud. Wrong. And when you hear it sing, something inside you catches fire."
She turned to Elias, her tone flat. "You've never bled from your ears before, have you?"
He didn't answer.
They heard it soon after. A humming, distant at first.
Then music.
But not human music.
It rose like a choir of children gargling hot tar melodies backwards, notes decaying as they left phantom mouths. The sound made the walls sweat soot.
Then came the cracks.
The wallpaper blistered.
The floor trembled.
The entity was near.
ENTITY CLASSIFICATION: RED-6 Name: The Burned Choir
Type: Soundbound Revenant
Class: Red-Tier / Level 6
Host Origin: Mass grave of orphanage fire victims
Nature: Collective Haunt – multiple spirits merged into one volatile entity
Manifestation: Crawling, semi-molten childlike shapes fused together at limbs and mouths, all singing different distorted hymns.
Abilities:
Infernal Chorus: Song causes hallucinations, disorientation, and involuntary motor response.
Combustive Echo: Soundwaves combust internal blood vessels when exposed to too long.
Memory Lure: Mimics voices of the dead, often of people the target feels guilty for.
The Burned Choir dragged itself down the ceiling, upside down, its heads twitching like dolls with broken necks. Elias saw melted faces, charred lips still moving.
And he heard Liam's voice among them.
Singing.
"Don't listen," Mara shouted, slamming her palms against her ears. "It gets into your head!"
Elias clenched his jaw, vision doubling. His hands trembled. The choir's song drilled into his mind like a red-hot wire.
But deep inside the noise, something awakened. A cold pulse beneath his ribs.
Echo Affinity System Initiated…
Analyzing Mental Instability...
Core Trait Detected: REGRET
A screen flickered behind Elias's eyes—neither real nor unreal.
ECHO AFFINITY INTERFACE: Elias Varn
Alignment: Fractured Human / Echo-Touched
Core Echo: Guilt-Bound
Tier Access: White (cleared) / Red (unlocked)
Stability Rating: 67%
Mental Contamination: 12% (Red-tier Threshold: 50%)
SKILLS UNLOCKED:
Reflected Pulse (Passive)
Ghostly entities that mimic trauma have decreased control over Elias's mind.
Glass Nerve (Active – Tier I)
Purges auditory hallucinations for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.
Resonant Bind (Locked)
—Requires defeating a Red-tier entity using mirror-based resistance.
"Glass Nerve," Elias growled.
His mirror pendant flared cold against his chest, and the music cut.
The Choir shrieked in response, stumbling mid-song.
"Now!" he yelled. "Hit it!"
Mara lunged with the crowbar, swinging it into the thing's center mass. The crowbar sank too deep, like she'd struck meat still burning.
The Choir convulsed then exploded into red ash, fragments of molten shadow scattering like torn music sheets in the air.
It was over. For now.
They collapsed beside each other, panting, smoke still rising from the ruined ceiling.
Elias glanced at Mara. "How long do Red ones usually stay dead?"
She smirked. "You think that was a full death?"
Red-Tier Entity Neutralized: The Burned Choir
Affinity Skill Gained: Resonant Bind (I)
You may now bind Red-tier fragments to reflective tools for limited control.
Echo Mark Evolved — The mirror pendant now contains one vocal echo.
[Fragment: Burned Choir – Verse One]
Elias felt it sink into him, not relief, not victory, but a growing knot of certainty.
Whatever rules this world followed, they weren't designed to keep him sane.
They were meant to test what parts of him could be sacrificed.
And how many monsters he was willing to absorb… just to reach the Gray.
END OF CHAPTER 3