Steam still clung to the Predator Cub's corpse, curling in thin threads around the black rose.
The forest didn't breathe. Even the air felt pinned down—until a low, vibrating echo rolled through the trees. It hit in the ribs first, then in the teeth, and then in the spine.
Kade's lips moved before his mind caught up."So, that wasn't the main course. Figures."
Nor's weight shifted toward the rose. "We take it now."
Kade stepped into his path. "We don't."
Both of them had weapons drawn without the sound of steel. The space between their shoulders was narrow enough to taste the tension. Duskveil pulsed against Kade's ribs, a hungry, steady throb, as if it wanted the rose more than he did.
A stagger broke the standoff.
Rico and Nico—faces bloodied, coats torn—lurched out of the haze. One had an arm around the other, more dragging than guiding.
"It's here," Rico said, the words fraying at the edges. His knees buckled, and Nico barely kept him upright.
The treeline shifted like a thought half-formed, and something stepped out of it.
Too tall. Too long. The head was lowered enough to brush the mist, each stride swallowing the sound it should have made.
[SYSTEM: AREA BOSS — PREDATOR MOTHER — EST. THREAT: LETHAL]
The faintest taste slid under Kade's tongue—hope. Not his own. The twins' hope, aimed squarely at Nor. Gluttony stirred like a hand flexing in the dark, but Kade shut it down. Not now.
While the Mother still hung back, Nor moved.
Kade moved faster. They stopped an arm's reach from each other, blades angled, breath thin in the damp. No words. Just the quiet agreement that the other wouldn't walk away with what they wanted.
The twins edged forward, eyes fixed on the rose. Duskveil reacted before Kade thought to—threads flicking out like warning whips, cutting the distance.
The Mother crossed the last meters in silence. One paw—if you could call it that—shoved the Cub's body aside as if it weighed nothing.
Its head lifted just enough for the slit of its "eye" to glow faint amber. Then the roar came. Not loud in the ears, but deep in the bones—like something trying to shake the marrow out.
[WARNING: LOCAL ENVIRONMENT SHIFT INCOMING — 00:30]
The seam between forest and ruin started to break apart. Stones tilted and sank. Roots bled water into the cracks. Mist thickened until the air felt wet to swallow.
In seconds, sight was a memory. The metallic tang in Kade's mouth mingled with the rot of stagnant water.
The rose was just a silhouette now, wavering in the fog between him and Nor.
A weight pressed into the ground behind him. He felt the shift before he heard the breath against his neck—slow, humid, and close enough to touch.
"That's not Nor."
Kade didn't turn.
Turning meant giving it the neck.
The breath came again—hotter now, edged with the chemical sting he remembered from the Cub's blood. Duskveil's threads slid into his palm without asking, tightening around the Blood Dagger until the hilt felt like bone.
Something heavy settled into the soil beside his boot. The weight spread, a claw's slow flex.
The fog thinned in a single breath, just enough to show a shadow far too close. The Mother's head was still at the treeline. This wasn't her.
It moved wrong—jerks between fluid sweeps, like a puppet yanked by someone who didn't know the strings. Limbs half-familiar, half-scrap. A Predator, but smaller, and stitched from mistakes.
The ground shuddered. Not from its steps—from everything else.
[WARNING: LOCAL ENVIRONMENT SHIFT INCOMING — 00:10]
Stone teeth punched up through the forest floor as if the ruin was forcing itself into the trees. Vines whipped down from nowhere, slick with black sap.
Nor's voice cut through the fog: "Move!"
Kade did—backward, low, letting the stitched thing snap at air. It lunged past him into the mist, where Rico's cry broke and didn't come back.
The rose stayed where it was, untouched, petals glistening as though the air bent light toward it.
[SHIFT: INITIATED]
The sound was like mountains grinding. Roots tore upward in coils thick enough to crush a man. Stone blocks slammed into place where trunks had been seconds ago.
Kade caught a glimpse—Nor shoving Nico toward a gap, the Mother turning her head toward the movement—then the fog walled them off completely.
And Kade was alone.
Duskveil pulsed once, sharp, like a heartbeat in his ribs. In the direction of the rose.
Something else pulsed back.
Kade slid between two rising slabs of stone, eyes locked on the black rose.Every instinct screamed that he should run. Every instinct except the one that counted.
Duskveil coiled down his arm, threads twitching like they could already feel the artifact's pulse. The closer he got, the sharper it became—heat without warmth, a pull without touch.
Five meters.
The mist shifted. The rose swayed, just once.
Something massive pressed against the fog in front of him, and the world seemed to lean away. The Mother stepped through—slow, deliberate, silent. Her "eye" slit burned with the same amber as the Cub's, only deeper, hungrier.
Kade froze. Not because of fear—because of the calculation.Too fast. Too heavy. No angles.
Her head lowered, nostrils flaring, and he realized she wasn't looking at him. She was looking through him—at the rose behind.
That gave him one move. One.
He darted left, Duskveil snapping outward to hook the rose's stem. The threads recoiled instantly—burning, like they'd touched raw lightning. The artifact didn't want to be taken.
The Mother's head whipped toward him.
Impact.
He didn't even see the leg move—just the wall of muscle and hide slamming him sideways into a half-buried block. The taste of copper filled his mouth.
[HEALTH — 64%]
Duskveil tightened on its own, forcing him upright. The Mother advanced one slow step, not rushing, not needing to. She could close the gap whenever she wanted.
The rose still pulsed behind her, untouched.
Somewhere in the fog, Nor shouted his name.
The Mother turned her head—not all the way, just enough that Kade felt the shift in her attention. It was all he needed.
He dove into the mist, blind, hearing only the slow scrape of her claws on stone behind him.
The mist didn't thin—it just changed color. Pale, wet gray bled into a deep, metallic blue, lit from nowhere. The ground under Kade's boots felt wrong—too smooth, too level—until it cracked under his next step like thin ice.
He caught himself on a jagged edge. Not stone. Glass.
A chime slid into his head:
[SYSTEM: BIOME SHIFT COMPLETE] [LOCATION: THE GLASS MIRE] [CONDITION: Visibility — Low | Traction — Unstable | Predators — Unknown]
Predators. Plural. Wonderful.
Nor came out of the blue haze, dragging Nico with him. The twin was barely conscious, blood drying along his jaw. No sign of Rico.
"Don't stop," Kade called, low. "It's in here."
Nor didn't need clarification. They both heard it—the slow, deliberate scrape of claws on glass.
The sound moved, then doubled—two sets now. Duskveil's threads trembled, unable to lock a single direction.
Then the Mother's slit-pupil glow bled through the haze, closer than it should've been. Her attention skimmed over Nor and Nico and landed on Kade like a weight.
He stepped forward, letting the Blood Dagger hang loose, posture open. The scent of her focus was almost sweet—Gluttony stirred in the background, but he smothered it.
The glass beneath them groaned. Cracks spiderwebbed outward, light bleeding up through them.
Kade's eyes flicked once—not to Nor, not to the Mother, but to the faint shadow in the mist to their left. The rose. Still here.
"Move!" he barked. Nor started for a jagged spire in the distance, dragging Nico.
"I'll draw her," Kade added, loud enough to carry. "Keep going!"
Nor didn't hesitate. He hauled Nico toward the spire, boots slipping on the glass. The Mother tracked Kade, just as planned.
Kade backed away, letting her think he was falling into the lure—right hand loose at his side, left hand trailing Duskveil threads along the floor. Each thread hooked into a glass crack, pulling, weaving a subtle circle.
The Mother's gait shifted—shorter steps, head lowering. She thought she was herding him.
Perfect.
When the last thread tightened, Kade yanked. The glass circle shattered inward, dumping shards into the blue void beneath. The sound snapped the Mother's focus just long enough for him to twist toward the rose's shadow.
Duskveil lashed out, but not to grab—it hooked the ground beside the rose and dragged Kade in a clean arc past it. As he passed, the Blood Dagger's point severed the stem in a single, surgical cut.
The moment the stem broke, the rose dissolved into black vapor—straight into his inventory slot.
[SYSTEM: EPIC ARTIFACT — THE DYING — OBTAINED]
He didn't stop. He let his momentum carry him back into the haze, keeping the Mother in sight just enough to make her think she still had him pinned.
Nor reached the spire with Nico, turning just in time to see Kade vanish into the fog.
Kade's lips twitched—not a smile, exactly. More like the shadow of one.Helped you, didn't I?