Back in Therese’s guild.The late afternoon sun hung low, its light casting long skeletal shadows across the entrance of the towering guild hall. The golden emblem of the Crescent Fang Guild gleamed from its marble facade—sharp, proud, clean. A place of reputation. A place of power. A place that expected results.Kael stood there, shoulders drawn tight as though the weight of the last forty-eight hours clung to his bones. Sweat clung to his brow—not from the heat, but from nerves that twisted his stomach into knots. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, chest rising and falling in a slow, tense breath.Two days.Two days of searching.Two days of questioning his decisions.Two days of knowing he would return empty-handed.Leonis was nowhere.Or perhaps, Kael had simply stopped looking.He muttered under his breath, voice low and bitter. “What the hell am I going to tell her…”Therese. His aunt. His guild master. The woman who had taken him in when his parents died. The woma

The air stank of metal and damp stone. Groans of dying beasts echoed through the fallen corridors. Leo moved without speaking, the afterimages of Quick Step still fading around him as he scanned the ruin for movement.Nyra was slumped against his back, small arms looped around his shoulders, head buried into the collar of his cloak. Her breathing was uneven. The exertion had drained her. Mira hovered beside them in her small spirit form, silent for once—watching.Rurik held Tesaa who was still limping as they rounded a corner."Dean should be around her." Tessa tilted her head in a direction while Leo followed the faint ring of steel-on-steel through the corridor. He didn’t call out again—no reason to alert anything else still lurking.He found Dean in a broken chamber deeper in the maze, lit only by the flicker of dying torchlight.Dean stood alone, sword locked with a Tower Warden—a skeletal knight in corroded full-plate. Its greatsword weighed like a slab of black iron, forcing Dean

The fog wrapped around them like a living thing, curling and coiling around ankles, legs, and weapons alike. The trees of Mistfang Graveyard arched overhead, skeletal branches rattling as if whispering secrets the wind itself dared not speak aloud. Lanterns swayed from rusted chains, their shattered glass reflecting the pale light of the moon, fractured into ghostly shards that scattered across the moss-strewn graves.Leo led the way, steps slow and deliberate. The gate behind them had shut without sound, leaving them inside a silence so thick it pressed against their ears. Nyra clutched at his sleeve, her small hands trembling, wings folded tightly against her back as if hoping sheer concentration could keep the mist at bay.“Papa Leo… it’s… it’s really dark,” she whispered.“Yes. And it’s supposed to be,” he replied evenly, voice low but steady. “Stay close, don’t wander. And don’t scream.”Nyra’s lips pressed together, but her eyes were wide enough to swallow the fog whole. Mira, pe

Leo squared his shoulders and stared up at the thing he’d promised to stall.The Grave Warden was everything the rumors had whispered and none of the lullaby versions you told children. It rose like an earth-turned colossus, phantom flame licking the gaps where flesh had failed, chains coiling round its limbs like living scars. When it moved, the ground remembered how to tremble.“Guard Nyra,” Leo said once to the white wolf, voice a blade of calm. “Since you don't want to be more useful. Don’t—don’t let her run.”The wolf let out a low snarl.Mira’s stone wings opened in a sweep that threw grit into the air. “I’ll cage the sky. You give the mountain a nice shove and then come back for tea.” Her sarcasm did not hide the tension in the way she flexed talons that glowed faint with rune-light.The cub slithered into Nyra’s arms, small and surprisingly steady. Nyra’s hands shook, but she nodded. “Okay.”Leo felt the dagger in his palm like a heartbeat. The screams had been thorns at the ed

The forest beyond Mistfang Graveyard was deceptively quiet, the fog curling lazily over roots and broken branches. Leo gripped Nyra tightly, the white wolf pup trailing behind with its ears twitching at every shadow. Mira had entered the ring, her stone wings bristling, sensing something off.“I… I can feel it,” she murmured, scanning the forest. “Killing intent. Someone’s here.”Leo’s jaw tightened. “Since when can you sense that?”“Since you became an E-Class Level 3,” she replied flatly, eyes narrowing.Leo smirked. “So other gargoyles get bonus abilities too, huh?”“Yeah,” Mira replied, a hint of amusement breaking through her usual seriousness.The wolf growled low, almost in protest. Nyra tilted her head. “You… should maybe become Papa Leo’s mount. Then you could get abilities too.”The wolf grunted in disdain, flicking its head away. Leo shook his head with a sigh, muttering, “I don’t think it’s going to happen.”He opened the system interface with a flick of his wrist. The rewa