The ink was still receding into the cracks of the marble when another sound began, faint at first, just a suggestion of something moving in the distance. It came in measured intervals, each one carrying through the stone beneath their boots like a heartbeat too large for the body it belonged to.

Thud.

A pause long enough for the silence to feel unnatural.

Thud.

Dust trembled loose from the ceiling.

By the third impact, Celestine knew these were no ordinary strides. They belonged to something large, heavy, and confident enough not to hide its approach. She shifted her footing, eyes narrowing toward the far end of the corridor.

The sound quickened. Not by much, just enough for the tremors to overlap , and then, without warning, the pace broke entirely. The impacts became rapid, claws biting stone, the air shivering with the speed of it.

Three shapes exploded from the far dark, darting between the narrow walls with terrifying speed. Aria barely caught the blur of their outlines; Ivan didn't even manage that, his head snapping side to side as they streaked past. Only Celestine tracked them fully, their long, slick bodies, the glint of claws and the red streaks in their shifting hide.

They didn't attack. They didn't even glance at the three of them. Their claws dug deep into the walls as they ran, leaving molten grooves that steamed in the cooling air. It was movement born of desperation, of creatures with no interest in prey because they were prey themselves.

Running. Fleeing.

The implication hit Celestine in a single, cold wave. If these were the same beasts they had just fought, and she had no doubt they were, then whatever they were running from was worse. Much worse.

Ivan frowned, watching their retreat. "That's… comforting," he said, though the half-smile didn't reach his eyes.

Then the temperature shifted. The air thinned, drying at the back of the throat, and beads of sweat began to gather on skin. A stillness fell, as if the corridor ahead had been cut from the world and left unlit.

The darkness at the far end seemed to lean forward, stretching toward them without moving, until the edges of it swallowed the last of the light.

Celestine's hand found her hilt without thought. Her voice was even. "Stay behind me."

Ivan, however, had already taken two steps backward. "Oh, I'm happy to. Don't wanna steal all the glory. You know… leave some for you, Princess."

Aria glanced over her shoulder at him, deadpan. "What, afraid you'll chip a nail?"

He shot her a look. "These hands are—"

"—soft, pampered, and mostly used for waving at people," she finished, raising her bow toward the dark.

Before he could retort, it appeared.

Two points of red light bloomed in the black, not the glow of Sol nor the heat of flame, but something colder, light that wasn't light at all. The eyes didn't blink. They didn't waver. They locked onto them with such unbroken focus that, after only a few seconds, Ivan's throat worked in a swallow he didn't finish. A faint, acidic burn rose in his gut, and his hand twitched toward his mouth as bile threatened to climb.

Celestine didn't look away, but she could feel the muscles along her spine tighten. Whatever it was, it had no reason to hide itself. That alone was dangerous.

She wasn't going to wait for it to make the first move.

Her palm lifted, a quick gesture, and light answered, a sudden, searing bloom that rolled down the corridor like a tide. Shadows fled in every direction, their absence leaving only clarity.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And there he was.

Kaiser stood in the center of the hall, his back to the darkness, one hand pinning a thrashing beast against the wall as though it weighed nothing. The claws of its free arm raked shallowly at the stone, but they might as well have been scratching glass for all the effect they had on him. Around his boots, three more lay in various states of dissolution, their bodies melting into slick, black pools that hissed and bubbled against the marble.

He was smiling. Not the polite curve he used to test people, not the sharp smirk that cut before it charmed, but a slow, deliberate expression that told them he had chosen to be here, exactly like this.

His eyes found theirs, and for a heartbeat, the sound of the fleeing beasts, the pressure of the cold, even the sight of the melting corpses all faded beneath the weight of that look.

"Finally," he said, as though they had been the ones keeping him waiting.

No one spoke.

The silence stretched as Kaiser's fingers clenched tighter around the beast's throat. The sound it made was thin and wet, like the air was leaking out of its body, and then his grip closed all the way. The creature ruptured, bursting into a violent spray of ink that splashed across the wall and streaked down the marble in long, dripping lines.

Celestine's stance shifted almost imperceptibly, but her eyes stayed locked on him. The image of Kaiser standing there, half-shadowed, hand dripping with the same ink that was still pooling around his boots, was too close to the last thing she had seen before the teleport, him with an Unborn under his knee, blade poised for the kill. The memory was too fresh, too ignore.

Ivan took a half-step back. Not out of cowardice, or at least that's what he'd tell himself later, but because something in the way Kaiser was smiling didn't feel like the man they'd walked beside. It felt… hungrier.

Even Aria, who never flinched from him, kept her bow up a moment longer than usual. She lowered it eventually, but the tension in her jaw didn't ease.

Celestine finally spoke, her voice carrying the authority of someone used to being obeyed.

"Stand still."

Kaiser tilted his head just slightly, as if considering whether that was a request or a command, but he didn't move.

"Now," she added, her hand resting lightly on the hilt at her side.

It was Aria who broke formation. She stepped forward until she was a few paces ahead of Celestine.

"Aria—" Celestine's tone sharpened in warning.

But the archer didn't stop. Her eyes glistened faintly in the light, her breathing tighter than before. Kaiser's gaze followed her, the edge of his smile curling upward again.

"Little spider," he said, raising one hand slightly as though he might reach for her.

She froze, but didn't come closer. Her voice was quiet, almost breaking. "Are you… truly all right?"

For the briefest moment, something changed in his expression and the sharpness eased. "Yes," he said confidently.

"Prove it," Celestine cut in.

Kaiser's eyes slid toward her, his smile fading into something more neutral.

"You know how it works," she continued, stepping forward just enough to keep Aria in her periphery. "Once someone's far enough gone, they forget. First the details, then the faces, then the reason they're even fighting beside us. If you've been touched by the taint of the Unborn, even a little, it will show."

She turned to Aria. "You've known him the longest. Ask him something personal. Something he can't fake."

Aria hesitated, her gaze flicking between them, but then she nodded slowly. "All right."

She swallowed once, her voice suddenly firmer. "Kaiser… the three numbers."

His brow furrowed, just slightly. "What numbers?"

Her hands clenched at her sides, the rising tension making her words sharp. "The numbers, Kaiser."

He shook his head faintly. "I don't—"

"THE NUMBERS, KAISER!" The sudden shout cracked in the air, raw enough to echo off the walls.

Something flickered behind his eyes. His smile returned, but it wasn't the predatory curve from before, it was smaller, warmer, without the shadow that had clung to it since they'd found him.

"Zero," he said, the word quiet but certain. "Eleven. Forty-five."

The moment the last number left his lips, Aria ran. She closed the distance and jumped, her arms locking around his neck in a grip fierce enough to lift her off her own feet. For a heartbeat, she dangled there, the front of her armor pressed against his ink-streaked one.

Kaiser's free hand came up, resting lightly against the back of her head in a pat that was almost absentminded, but undeniably real. He didn't flinch at the contact, and she didn't care about the ink smearing across her clothes.

"Aria, wait—!" Celestine's warning came too late, but as she watched the two of them, her grip on her sword eased. The suspicion in her chest didn't vanish entirely, but it loosened, replaced by something warmer, steadier.

She saw no corruption in his eyes, no confusion in his words, only the man she'd fought beside. The man who still knew exactly which three numbers mattered to one particular archer.

Ivan let out a slow breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Well," he said, smirking just enough to cover the relief in his voice, "Guess we're not putting him down today."

Celestine stepped forward at last, her eyes still searching Kaiser for any sign of the wrongness she'd feared, and finding none.

For the first time since the ink swallowed him, they all stood a little closer.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.