The Union Guild headquarters never slept.But tonight, the lights felt harsher, the air drier, like even the walls knew something was missing.
Daigo sat alone in the cafeteria, staring at a paper cup gone cold hours ago.The newsfeed on the wall cycled through reports of collapsed gates, rising dungeon activity, and the usual political drama—but none of it stuck.His eyes were fixed on the empty chair across from him.
"Three days," he muttered. "No contact. No ping."The comm in his palm blinked red, mocking him with silence.
A shadow fell across the table.He didn't need to look up to know it was Araki, his squad captain."You're still here," she said, voice low. "You've been here every night since he—"
"Since he vanished," Daigo cut in. His jaw worked like he was chewing glass. "Don't say 'since he failed.'"
Araki's gaze flickered. She had never seen Daigo like this—not since Osaka."You know what the Council's saying," she tried. "E-rankers don't survive trials like that. Even if he—"
"He's not dead." Daigo's voice was sharp enough to cut her sentence in half."If he was dead, I'd know."
There was no arguing with him when he got like this.So Araki shifted the topic."They've been asking questions about the Whisper Core. More than usual. If it leaks that you knew he was unstable…"
Daigo's fist tightened around the cup until it crumpled."Let them talk. I'm not abandoning my brother."
Outside, rain began to fall—thick, heavy drops that hissed against the glass like static.
And far beneath the city, where no light could reach, a faint whisper stirred in the dark.
The world came back in fragments.Cold first.Then the smell—iron, wet stone, something older than rot.
My hands were pressed to the ground. Not dirt. Bone. The entire floor was made of it.
"Welcome back."The voice was soft, too close.
I pushed up, muscles screaming, and saw her.Not a person. Not exactly.A silhouette cut out of black fire, seated on a throne of ribs that belonged to something big enough to swallow buildings.
"You've been sleeping," she said, head tilting like she was studying an insect. "Your kind… always sleeps when the world tries to eat them."
I didn't speak. My breath was still fogging in the air.
She rose from the throne. No footsteps—just the sound of chains dragging over the bone floor."I could have left you to dissolve," she continued. "The Whisper Core does that, you know. Chews through you until there's nothing left but a name."
Her hand lifted, and the black fire wrapped around her arm twisted into symbols I couldn't read. My skin prickled."Tell me, Riven Kael," she said, voice a razor across silk. "Do you want to live, or do you want to matter?"
The Whisper Core pulsed inside me.Once. Twice.Then—[SYSTEM RESPONSE: ALIGNMENT QUERY DETECTED.][Selection Required.]
My fingers curled into the bone floor."…Both."
The black fire stilled. Then it spread like a grin."Oh," she whispered. "You'll do."
The floor cracked beneath me.Bone dust erupted.And the world tilted—throwing me into a vertical chasm lit by screaming, burning shapes.
[TRIAL LAYER 3: THE ASCENT OF CARRION.]
I didn't have time to breathe.The first claw came for my throat.
The claw missed my throat by less than an inch.I twisted, boots scraping bone, and drove my blade up—Too slow.The thing's wrist caught my forearm and snapped it sideways.
Pain detonated. The Whisper Core didn't heal it—it spread it. Threads of black static burst up my arm, my vision warping at the edges.
The monster loomed over me.Not an orc. Not anything that belonged to the surface.It was built like a man but made of wet crow feathers and exposed sinew, face split by a beak full of human teeth.
It hissed.And my Core answered.
[Override.]The word wasn't sound—it was inside my skull. The world slowed. My broken arm jerked, bones sliding under skin like they were remembering where to go.
Then my shadow moved.Not me—it. The shadow ripped free from my feet and slammed into the creature, curling around its throat like a noose. The bone floor buckled under the force as it thrashed, the shadow's grip tightening until its head jerked sideways with a wet pop.
I was breathing too hard. My heart wasn't keeping up. My veins burned like molten glass.
[Warning: Core Synchronization 43% – Stability Critical.]
Another shape emerged from the chasm wall—taller, sharper, its claws dragging sparks off the bone as it walked. Behind it, dozens more flickered into existence like photographs catching fire.
The black fire woman's voice ghosted in the air."Climb, Riven. Or be eaten."
I spat blood, rolled my shoulder, and ran—straight up the jagged bone face.Every heartbeat made my shadow heavier, hungrier.Every kill it took made my limbs faster.
By the time I reached the first ledge, my Core was singing like a blade across glass.Below me, the carrion things swarmed over each other to follow.
And somewhere above, chains were ringing.Like something was waiting.
The wall wasn't just bone—it was alive.
Every time my fingers dug in, something under the surface twitched. Veins pulsed in the marrow, oozing black ichor over my hands.
The carrion swarm didn't climb like animals—they flowed. Limbs bent backward, torsos twisted 180 degrees, jaws splitting down to the collarbone as they scrambled after me.
My breath became steam.My shadow became a ladder, tendrils stabbing into the wall ahead so I could leap faster.
[Synchronization 51% – Stability Unstable.]
I didn't care.The more unstable, the less they could touch me.
A claw snagged my boot. I didn't look down. The shadow ripped it off, took the whole arm with it. The thing didn't even scream—it just kept coming, bleeding like tar.
The ledges grew narrower. The air thinner. And then—
A shape leaned over the lip above me.
Not a monster.Not human.
Armor made of cracked obsidian plates, each joint leaking red light. Its face hidden behind a helm with no eye-slits, only a single vertical line glowing like molten metal. In its hand—A chain.
The ringing I'd heard wasn't metal against metal.It was the chain's links grinding against bone as it lowered something past the ledge.
A cage.
Inside it—someone moved. Slowly. Weakly.Their head lifted just enough for me to see the eyes.
Daigo.
The chain keeper tilted its head like a curious insect. Then it began to pull the cage up.
[Core Synchronization 59% – Stability Critical.]
I didn't think. I launched. My shadow exploded from my feet, a black spear meant to skewer the thing before it could—
The wall shifted.An entire section turned over like a trapdoor, and I was falling again.
The fall wasn't silent.It was hollow.
Like the air itself had been punched out of the world.
I spun mid-air, claws of shadow stabbing at the wall, but the bone just melted around them.This wasn't gravity.This was a hand, pulling me down.
[Stability Collapse Imminent.]
Good.
The black fog inside my chest tore open like wet paper.A sound bled out of it—Not a voice.Not words.Just a hunger.
My skin crawled with it. The shadows on my arms no longer followed shape—they writhed, spitting fractal lines like a spiderweb burning in reverse.
The floor slammed up into me. Bone cracked under the impact.Not mine. The ground's.
I stood. Slowly. My shadow didn't stand with me—it rose behind me, a silhouette far taller, headless, twitching like it was deciding which way to face.
The carrion swarm froze.Every single one.
Some still hung from the walls, claws sunk into marrow, their jaws wide—But not one moved.
The whisper wasn't whispering anymore.It was speaking.
"Give."
My shadow lunged before I could even think. It dragged the nearest creature into itself—no blood, no sound—just gone. The outline of it thrashed inside my silhouette for half a second before folding into nothing.
Every monster moved at once after that, but not toward me—Away.
They climbed over each other, broke their own limbs to run, screamed until their throats burst black mist.
I looked up.The chain keeper was still there. Cage still rising.
It tilted its head again.Almost… slow.
Like it had just realized the thing it was supposed to be hunting…was me.