The east side of the city had always been quiet.
Too quiet.
Empty lots turned into junkyards. Warehouses with bricked-up windows. Crumbling churches left to rot under rust-colored skies.
Now, those places had a new name:
⚠️ The Hollow Strip
It wasn't just abandoned.It had been drained.
No birds. No traffic. No wind.Even the air felt heavy, like it had to push through someone else's breath.
And somewhere beneath it all — a heartbeat.
Not mine.
Not human.
I stood outside the church at dusk.
A forgotten cathedral, choked in dead vines and broken stone angels. The front doors hung open like the mouth of a yawning corpse.
Inside: flickering torches.No electricity. No signs. Just symbols scratched into every wall — circular, like eyes carved by a blind hand.
That's when I heard them.
Voices.Dozens of them. Chanting, low and rhythmic, like they were digging through sound itself.
And in the center of it all… a man stood with a shovel made of bone.
✅ [You have discovered: Victor Pale – The First Digger]
Grave Rank: UnknownStatus: Alive… Mostly
☠️ Known for inventing "Choral Binding" — merging multiple souls into a single consciousness.
Victor was tall, gaunt, and barefoot.His face was covered in funeral ash.And his eyes… were not white.
They were empty.Like the sockets had been scrubbed clean and filled with grave dust.
He turned toward me.
"We have a new guest," he said without sound. His voice wasn't spoken — it landed directly inside my head like a whisper across glass.
"Step forward. Let the tomb speak through you."
I felt Maren stir inside me.
"Don't say your name," she hissed. "Names have power here."
But it was too late.
Victor raised a bone shard — and it floated in the air like a needle above my chest.
The cultists surrounded me in a perfect circle.
⚠️ [Choral Binding Ritual Initiated]
Objective: Let your soul echo with the choir — or be overwritten.
Options:
[Resist] – Fight the binding and risk exposure
[Mimic] – Echo a fragment of a buried soul, masking your presence
[Offer] – Sacrifice part of Maren to deepen the bond
The needle trembled.
My chest burned.
Maren screamed.
And then the world went black.
[Memory Invasion: Bound Soul Fragment – "The Pit Dancer"]
I was no longer me.
I was a woman. Bound in chains. Dancing above a pit as nobles threw bones into the fire, whispering sins.Every step I took sent screams rising from the pit. Every cheer was hollow.
I had danced until my legs broke.
And then I kept dancing.
Because if I stopped… they'd bury me alive.
You have inherited a memory shard: The Pit Dancer.
Trait Gained: "Elegy Step" – dodge with unnatural fluidity. Your feet make no sound.
Identity: Masked. Binding: Successful
Victor Pale: Deceived.
I opened my eyes.
Victor smiled — or something like it.
"Welcome, Dancer," he said. "We have graves to unearth."
And somewhere behind him…in the back of the cathedral…something huge was breathing.