Darkness had never felt this heavy.
The deeper Squad Umbra pushed into the Vale of Mourn—a ravaged basin swallowed by fog and forgotten prayers—the more they sensed something watching. Not from the shadows. But from beneath them.
Kaizen walked at the front, Ayaka close beside him, her gaze flicking left and right like a hawk sensing storms. Behind them, Veyra, Yurei, and the rest moved with their weapons half-drawn, tension crackling like dry leaves.
Each step into the Vale brought whispers. Not voices, exactly. More like memories bleeding into the world, ancient thoughts desperate to escape their tombs.
Kaizen stopped suddenly. The ground pulsed beneath his boots—once. Twice. Like a heartbeat.
Yurei stepped beside him. "...You feel that?"
Kaizen nodded. "Something's alive down there. And it's not Bist."
Veyra moved closer, her voice sharp. "We locate the Whispering Core, record its status, and extract. No unnecessary battles. No deviation. We move as one."
They pressed forward.
Then came the singing.
Not loud. Not clear. But haunting.
A voice—sweet, sorrowful, wrong—rose from the mist. It wasn't human, and yet it used their words like a puppet uses limbs.
Ayaka froze, her breath catching. "This song… I've heard it before. In my dreams."
Kaizen gripped her wrist. "No. It's calling you. Ignore it."
But she couldn't. None of them could.
The forest ahead opened into a circular ruin—half-swallowed by the earth, its stones etched with symbols they couldn't understand but their blood did. In the center, a monolith pulsed, veins of dark red light stretching from its base into the soil like roots.
And standing in front of it… was a figure.
Human in shape. But still.
Covered in wrappings and rusted armor, the being did not breathe. Its face was a mask of obsidian, cracked and weeping black ichor.
"Identify yourself!" Veyra commanded.
It didn't move.
Kaizen stepped forward. "Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head. When it spoke, the voice echoed in everyone's mind.
"We are called Mourn-Shell. Bound to the First Shard. Guardian of Silence."
Ayaka stepped back. "That name… It was in the old scrolls Kaizen's mother left behind. The Mourn-Shells were protectors. Before the Veinborn War."
Kaizen frowned. "Why are you still here?"
The voice answered with no emotion. "We are dreaming of the end. And of you, Shard King."
That word again.
Kaizen's breath caught. "I'm not your King."
"Not yet. But you will become Him. Unless broken. Unless unmade."
Suddenly, the monolith pulsed. The ground cracked. Dozens of skeletal arms reached up, clawing toward the surface. Half-formed Bists, corrupted and mad, rose with shrieks.
"Ambush!" Veyra shouted.
Steel clashed with bone. Ayaka's blades danced, Yurei unleashed his spectral chains, and Kaizen felt the shard inside his chest burn.
But his focus was on Mourn-Shell.
It hadn't moved. It simply watched. Judging. Waiting.
Kaizen dashed forward, driving his fist into the monolith. A wave of force shattered the nearest Bists—but also unleashed a scream that rattled the sky.
Lightning burst from the clouds. The fog turned blood red.
And in that moment—Kaizen saw him again.
Nerovar.
Standing atop a cliff far away. Watching.
Only this time, Kaizen wasn't scared.
He was angry.
"You keep hiding," Kaizen growled. "But I'll find you. And when I do—"
Ayaka shouted, "Kaizen behind you!"
A Bist with a mouth stretching across its torso lunged. Kaizen spun and drove his foot into its skull, snapping it backwards.
But the moment shifted again.
Mourn-Shell raised its hand. All movement froze.
Time stilled. Even the wind held its breath.
"You are not ready," it said.
Then, with a burst of light, everything vanished.
---
The squad awoke several hours later.
No monolith. No corpses. Just the ruined stone ring—and a mark on Kaizen's hand.
A black circle, shaped like a broken crown.
Ayaka knelt beside him. "What did it do to you?"
Kaizen didn't know how to answer.
But something inside him had shifted.
He could hear the pulse beneath the ground.
And it was starting to match his own.