"You fear monsters? Try hearing them pray."
The marsh stank of sulfur and decay.
Each step squelched in black water, riddled with bones long forgotten. Mist slithered around Kael and Drayke like living silk. Even the air was laced with aura rot—a corruption that warped the senses and made monsters silent.
This was Noctheron.
A Dungeon Field long sealed from the public.
Not because it was too dangerous—
But because it was too aware.
"So where's our welcoming committee?" Drayke muttered, tightening the Infernal Gauntlets. "I haven't punched anything in hours."
"They're watching us," Kael said. "They don't fight head-on."
His blade—Ashen Bloom—hummed quietly, its edge twitching toward shadows unseen.
"I take it back," Drayke said. "I hate sneaky bastards."
The mission was clear: track the signal of the missing Vanguard scout team.
Rumor said they were lured here by Hollow Fang, the Eternal-Spawn born from death and fear.
But Kael suspected more.
The marsh called to him.
Just like the Rift had.
Only this time… it wasn't speaking in whispers.
It was chanting.
They found the first body an hour in.
"No wounds," Kael noted. "But look at his eyes."
"Gone," Drayke whispered. "Like… sucked out."
His aura flared unconsciously, igniting sparks along the swamp surface.
"Don't light the water," Kael warned. "It feeds on light here."
Too late.
A rumble answered from beneath.
The water parted—no splash, no ripple.
Just absence.
A massive eel-like creature, skin stitched from armor and bone, lunged out with a mouth shaped like a spiral of teeth.
Monster Identified: Hollow Maw – Spawn of the Fang
Class: Apex
Aura Type: Abyssal Drown
Special: Devours aura signatures and mimics the last scream of its prey.
"Finally," Drayke grinned. "Something ugly!"
He launched forward, gauntlets ablaze.
The Maw met him midair, jaws wide—but Drayke's uppercut slammed it sideways into a tree that screamed upon impact.
Kael wasn't watching the fight.
He was scanning the air.
The real enemy wasn't the monster.
It was the absence.
"Drayke! It's a lure!"
The real threat lunged from beneath them.
A shadow—a thing with no defined body, just teeth, mist, and the sound of mourning.
It latched onto Kael's back like a cloak.
"Kael!" Drayke shouted.
Kael didn't scream.
He breathed.
"Haaah… what a strong aura."
[Ashen Bloom – Echo Shift: Predator Form Activated]
Trait: Gains shape advantage against enemies with undefined physicality.
Kael's blade turned to a black ripple.
He stabbed behind him—into the creature's core.
But it didn't bleed.
It whispered.
"Join us… fire-child…"
"I'm not yours," Kael growled. "And you're not him."
He tore the blade upward.
The thing unraveled into smoke.
The marsh fell quiet again.
They made camp in a ruined temple half-sunk in the mire.
Zera's voice rang through Kael's relay rune later that night.
"You're closer to the Hollow Fang than expected. It's awake now."
"What is it?" Kael asked.
"The final fear of dying aura users. When an Eminence is devoured, the Fang collects what's left. And now it's hungry again."
Kael didn't respond.
But inside… the Ashcore pulsed.
The Seeder's Echo stirred.
And it liked this place.
That night, Kael dreamed again.
But not of fire.
This time—teeth.
A spiral of them. Endless. Chewing not just flesh, but concept.
He watched a Vanguard scout scream silently as her aura, rank, and even name were devoured.
Not killed.
Erased.
"You cannot burn what has no form," the voice echoed. "You cannot fight what remembers nothing."
Kael stood in the dream—bleeding ash.
And smiled.
"Then I'll teach you what fear remembers."
He woke at dawn.
Drayke was already armored and ready.
"That thing's close. I can smell it."
"It doesn't have scent," Kael said.
"Exactly."
They marched into the heart of the marsh—where trees had no leaves, and the sky hung like wet paper.
And then they saw it.
The Hollow Fang.
Or what passed for it.
A mass of mouths, fused around a central pulsing core of floating eyes and drifting memories.
Eternal-Spawn Detected – Hollow Fang of Noctheron
Class: Dungeon Lord
Aura Type: Dread Echo / Abyssal Maw
Special: Devours aura. If target is defeated, gains access to their aura signature permanently.
"That thing's not alive," Drayke whispered.
"No," Kael said. "It's what's left of those who weren't."
The battle began with silence.
No roar. No charge.
Just a ripple in space—and suddenly, Drayke vanished.
"Drayke!" Kael shouted.
But there was no answer.
Only the echo of Kael's own voice replying.
"Kael…"
"I'm not Kael."
"I'm not Kael."
The marsh twisted—memories looping, reversing.
Reality bent as the Fang chewed through time.
But Kael laughed.
"You think my past will trap me?"
The Ashcore ignited.
[Ashen Bloom – Domain Fusion Unlocked: Ashen Requiem]
Effect: Creates a burning echo chamber where only Kael's current aura exists. Nullifies memory-based attacks. Burns echoes permanently.
Flames erupted.
The Fang screeched—the first real sound it made.
Kael surged forward, blade burning black and gold, every step erasing the lies around him.
He didn't fight the Fang.
He erased everything it ever was.
Until only the final mouth remained.
It whispered—
"You fear monsters…"
Kael drove his blade through it.
"Try hearing them pray."
The Fang collapsed into ash.
And from it, a core.
But not aura.
A memory.
Drayke reappeared behind Kael, breathing hard.
"Was I gone long?"
Kael handed him the core.
"You were forgotten. But not anymore."