Silence fell like a lid.
The fog thickened, swallowing the weak light and turning the trees into black ribs. Moss clung to the air. Even the insects had gone quiet—no background chorus to disguise the sound of breathing. Kael's own inhalation felt obscene, loud in his ears. He forced himself to breathe small, measured breaths, watching the blade at his side hum with Zaida's pulse.
Something moved the ground—so slight he almost missed it: a tremor underfoot, like a distant animal shifting its weight. Then another. The trees bent, not with wind but as if listening, leaning their branches inward to eavesdrop on the world beneath them. A whisper rode the mist and at first Kael took it for his imagination.
"Kael…" the fog sighed, and his name slapped him harder than a shout. Not his voice—close, wrong, layered with other tones. He turned, heart stuttering.
Zaida's head tilted. Her stitched smile was gone. "They learn by sound," she said, quiet as the grave. "By panic. By the music of fear."
The whisper repeated, this time looping his own cadence, mocking him in an echo. It was mimicking him. Kael's skin crawled. He tested it—cleared his throat, a tiny sound—and the mist shivered like an answering throat.
"That means—" he started. The thought finished itself in his mind: the predator wasn't tracking scent or sight. It hunted noise. Emotion. The more a person flinched, the more obvious they were in the fog.
Zaida's fingers brushed his wrist. Her voice slid into his head, soft and urgent. "Don't breathe loud. Breathe through your teeth. Do not move like fear."
He swallowed and forced his lungs to obey, each breath a practiced whisper. Every step was measured, a thief's slow foot on boards. The forest tightened around them, listening.
A tremor crawled up his spine as a soft chime echoed in his palm. The system's interface blinked, flickering as if unsure whether to speak:
[Evacuation Recommended]
[Threat level reassessed: Class-2 anomaly detected.]
[Local extraction unavailable. Recalculating…]
[Update complete.]
[New Objective: Survive encounter.]
Zaida turned her head slightly. "It's aware of us now."
A shadow detached itself from the deeper black and unfolded into form.
It rose like a monolith: a half-human silhouette stretched grotesquely tall, six twisted limbs folding and unfolding like a nightmare's prayer. Its carapace was coal-black, segmented like old armor fused to flesh, veins of molten light running through the gaps—hot blood beneath stone. Where a face should have been, the thing wore a dozen mouths, each trying to speak and failing; each mouth had its own broken eye. The head never stopped shifting, as if trapped souls fought for purchase in that pulp of flesh, their faces flickering across its skin.
It moved with a cruelty that was almost polite—slow, deliberate steps that shook the air rather than the ground. When it turned its mass toward them, the fog seemed to pull back, giving the predator its own private theater. A dozen small echoes—voices—spooled from its throat, imitating the hiss of a branch, the murmur of Kael's own earlier laugh, the soft whimper he had not let himself make.
Then came the sharper chime. The system stamped its warning across his vision:
[Warning: Level 2 Predator. Name: The Hollow Maw]
[Mission Update: Survive encounter. Extraction unavailable.]
Kael's grip tightened on the sword made of bone and steel. The weapon thrummed against his palm as if answering the warning.
Zaida's whisper was a blade the next moment. "It listens through the mist. It will wear you thin. Don't let it learn your heart."
The Hollow Maw exhaled—or something in its throats did—and the sound was a chorus of every lost thing the forest had eaten. Kael tasted copper on his tongue. The predator let the whispering hang there, patient and hungry, and then it stepped forward.
It's weightless gait slicing the air with every shift.Kael could feel its attention on him—not sight, not smell, but something colder, like being listened to by the dark itself.
He forced himself to still his breath again.Too late.
The thing tilted its head, six limbs arching out like a spider stretching. It heard the tremor in his chest, the pulse beneath his ribs.Then it moved—blindingly fast.
Kael barely ducked as a claw tore through the mist, cutting a clean groove into the tree beside him. Bark hissed and dissolved, melting as if the strike carried venom.He staggered back, swinging his sword on instinct. The steel-and-bone blade screamed against the air, catching a glancing hit on one of the beast's limbs. Sparks flared green instead of orange.
The Hollow Maw paused—almost curious. Then it shrieked.Not sound, but vibration. It hit Kael's bones like a tuning fork. His ears popped. He clutched the sword tighter, forcing his focus through the panic gnawing at the edges of his mind.
He realized something: it only reacted after he moved or made noise.The whispers, the mimicry—it was baiting him. Studying. Every sound was data.
"I see...," he muttered to himself. "So it's blind, but not deaf."
Zaida darted forward without command, her movements fluid, inhumanly graceful. Her body twisted midair as her arm detached and flung itself like a spear at the demon's torso. The hand struck, bursting into green flame. The Hollow Maw staggered for the first time, shrieking as its molten veins pulsed erratically.
Kael took the chance—lunging. His sword sank halfway into one of its shoulders before the creature reacted. The molten veins flared red-hot. Kael kicked himself back just as a lash of black ichor erupted from the wound, sizzling through the grass.
Then the forest floor cracked. The tremor wasn't from the creature—it was under him. He felt the pull in his ankles first. The ground was breathing.
"Not now…" Kael muttered. He jumped sideways, barely avoiding a section of earth that collapsed into a sucking pit. The fog rippled with energy; cursed quicksand, alive and hungry. The Hollow Maw didn't care—it used the terrain, stepping over it like a shadow. Kael landed on his side, rolling, dirt in his teeth. The system flickered in his vision again:
[Environmental Hazard Detected: Corrupted Quicksand][Stability falling: 12%]
He spat out blood. "Thanks for the heads-up—little late, though."
The Hollow Maw turned toward the sound of his voice. Mist hissed against its armor. It lunged again, faster, closer. Kael barely had time to raise his sword. The impact sent him flying, the blade shattering part of its lower jaw.
For a heartbeat, he thought he'd done it—until the mouths began to knit back together.
Kael exhaled, grounding himself. "So that's how it is, huh?"
He closed his eyes. Let the fog swallow the world. He forced every muscle to stillness, counting the rhythm of his heartbeat.One. Two. Three.
When he moved, it was deliberate—a feint of sound. He flicked a rock into the mist. The Hollow Maw turned instantly, slashing at the echo. That was his opening.
Kael dashed low and silent, his sword dragging faint sparks along the wet ground. He came up behind it, the weapon pulsing in sync with his heartbeat. When the light on the blade reached its peak, he drove it into the creature's spine.
The Hollow Maw convulsed. Its scream tore the mist apart. Black ichor poured like molten tar, splattering the soil in smoking trails.
Zaida reattached her arm mid-motion and followed his lead, clawing through its chest and ripping out something that looked like a pulsing organ—half heart, half void.
The thing's body collapsed inward, consumed by its own rot. The forest exhaled, the tremors fading into stillness.
Kael stood over it, panting. His sword dripped with thick black liquid that steamed where it hit the dirt.
[Hostile neutralized: Level 2 Predator — The Hollow Maw]
[Status: Irregular spawn; data logged for Academy review]
[Reward pending…]
[XP +1200]
[New ability unlocked: Adaptive Resonance – temporarily syncs user's heartbeat with spirit pet's frequency for enhanced precision]
[REMINDER; Trial progress: 1/5 Class F demons eliminated]
Kael wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "So it learns through sound…" he muttered. "But now I've learned back."
Zaida looked up at him, eyes glowing faintly. "You're bleeding."
He gave a short, dry laugh. "Wouldn't be the first time."
The mist began to shift again—not retreating, but rearranging. Kael looked around, pulse tightening. There was still movement out there.Something else watching.
The system pinged once more, this time softer, almost apologetic:
[Notice: Additional entities detected nearby. Recommend relocation. Shelter advised.]
Kael sheathed his sword, the bone edge still warm. "Shelter, huh? Sounds like a plan."
Zaida stepped closer, eyes narrowing into the fog. "Then let's move before the mist learns our names again."
They vanished into the trees—shadows moving through shadows—unaware that the forest floor behind them was already cracking open again, something else crawling through.
The forest seemed to breathe around them, mist curling like smoke over the uneven ground. Kael's chest heaved as he guided Zaida through the thick underbrush. Every shadow felt like teeth gnashing.
Finally, they stumbled upon a ruin, half-buried by roots and moss. The walls were carved with symbols Kael didn't recognize—runes of long-dead Spirit Masters, judging, recording, warning. He pushed open the cracked stone doorway, the sound sharp in the quiet.
Inside, the air was cooler, carrying the scent of earth and decay. He leaned against the wall and pressed a hand to his side, grimacing. The sword cut deeper than he realized. Zaida's stitched fingers hovered near the wound, tilting her head as though weighing his pain.
"Patch yourself up?" she asked quietly.
Kael shook his head, ripping a strip of his shirt to bind the wound. He worked methodically, silent except for ragged breaths. Zaida perched on a stone ledge nearby, studying him with that unnervingly precise gaze.
Once the blood slowed, she spoke again. "Master… your world before this—what was it like?"
He paused, fingers tightening on the cloth. "Wait dont you..." He trailed off his brows creasing in confusion. I thought she knew me, she's been yapping about my past deaths about a day ago, now this? He raised a brow, Uh, I see, my zombie waifu's got a rotting brain. Wait do zombies have brains? Either way, she's nuts. "My world was...Bitter. Lonely. I… I died once before. Not here, somewhere else. Uh—Earth. And I failed at everything I touched. People I cared about… gone. Everything meaningless."
Zaida's head tilted, and her stitched smile softened, almost childlike. "You never feared death."
Kael's eyes flicked to her, dark and unreadable. "Doesn't matter. If fear runs the show, you die before you even fight." He shoved his hands into his lap. "I never got a second chance before. I hope I get it here though."
The room fell silent, only the distant creak of wood and drip of water. Zaida shifted closer, voice softer than usual. "Then you fight to live, even when the world doesn't care?"
Kael let out a bitter laugh. "Exactly that."
The shadows in the corner of the ruin flickered oddly. Zaida's gaze snapped there first, ears tilting forward. A faint glow shone from behind a cracked stone wall. She moved toward it without hesitation, nails clicking against the stone.
Kael followed, sword in hand. The glow pulsed faintly, irregularly, like a heartbeat. Behind the fractured wall lay a relic—the Cursed Heart Shard. Its surface shimmered, dark crimson veins flickering with light that seemed alive.
A chime echoed in his vision:
[Warning: Forbidden Item Detected. Containment impossible.][Do you wish to absorb or seal?]
Zaida's stitched lips parted. "It calls to me… Master." Her voice was unnervingly soft, almost hypnotic.
Kael stepped closer, heart hammering. His reflection shimmered on the shard's surface—then it grinned at him before he could. The smile was not his own.
His fingers hesitated above the shard. A cold thrill ran up his arm. He felt… watched. Tested. Like the object knew every secret buried in his soul.
He took a shallow breath, voice low: "Zaida… whatever happens, stay close."
She cocked her head, tilting it with that eerie precision. "Always, Master."
The shard pulsed again, the red veins flickering brighter, as if eager for his touch. Kael's reflection remained grinning, mocking, and alive.
And then the stone around them trembled. Something stirred in the ruin's depths.
Kael's grip on his sword tightened.