Butcher returned to the van slower than he left it.
Beer half-spilled.Face pale.
No words.
Just sat down.Lit a cigarette with shaking hands.Didn't speak.
Deadpool raised an eyebrow. "What, the forest didn't wipe back?"
Butcher didn't respond.
No jokes. No grunts. No sarcasm.
Just silence.
Alex turned, worried. "You saw him?"
Butcher looked at him—just once—and then looked away.
It was enough.
Alex swallowed hard, the system interface pulsing faintly in the corner of his vision.
[System: Anomaly detected… Attempting recalibration…]
And then—
It happened.
The fire sputtered.
Not out—just wrong.
The light bent in unnatural angles, shadows snapping like broken glass across the clearing.
Then came a sound — no, a voice.
Not loud.
Not human.
A voice like stone eroding beneath time.
Like something speaking through death.
"Thou stray too deep into what was never thine."
"Ye breathe under cursed sky, on soil not meant for thy kind."
"In time, thy limbs shall rot, and silence shall claim thee—before thou even scream."
Everyone froze.
Even Kimiko's grip loosened around her blade.
Frenchie looked around, whispering, "C'est pas possible…"
Deadpool stood slowly, every ounce of his comedic timing stripped.
"…Okay. Nope. Author, I take it back. This ain't cinema. This is 'Call a priest and change my pants' territory."
Alex's system blinked, then screeched with an error code across his vision.
[STATUS EFFECT: FEAR (100%)]
Thou art marked by Ancient Dread.-90% to all Stats. Duration: Unknown.System Integrity: Compromised.Skill Access: Denied.Thy strength is naught beneath the veil of He Who Watches.
His knees gave out.
He gasped for breath, hands gripping the van door as if gravity itself sought to crush him.
"Guys—" he choked out, "It's in the system. He's in the system. I can't—I can't move—"
Deadpool caught him before he collapsed."Okay, buddy. Deep breaths. Ignore the sentient Shakespearean cryptid. We're good. We're cool. We're so not cool."
Alex looked up at the others, his face pale, almost translucent.
"I can't fight him. I can't even stand."
Then—
The voice returned. Lower. Direct. Personal.
"Thou, cursed by the Glimmering Forge…""No stone nor light shall spare thee. Thy false strength shall sunder.""I am bound by blade… yet break not. And thou—"
"—Shalt not break me."
The van shook.
The shadows snapped inward, the trees creaked not from wind, but pressure.
Then it all… vanished.
The voice.
The weight.
The watching.
Gone.
The fire crackled again, normal.Too normal.
The woods were quiet again.
But not calm.
Alex looked at his flickering system window — now dim, cracked, glitching at the corners.
[System Malfunction: Core Integrity 27%]Artifact Source: Confirmed.Location: Bound to Host — "The Shrouded One."