The black auras, laced with faint threads of gold within them, shifted. Devon watched them wriggle free from the trees, the mountain rocks, and the ground itself.
They moved with an unsettling, lazy ease, their flow almost like thick and dark liquid.
And the sheer number was overwhelming. Devon couldn't even begin to count them, there were just too many. A wave of oppressive psychic energy washed over him, a cold dread that had nothing to do with the night air.
"What is it, Dev?" Raline whispered, her voice tight with panic as she saw her brother's body suddenly go rigid.
For a moment, he couldn't speak. Just seeing those countless auras through his Death Sight made his stomach churn. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and traced paths down his back.
"...Dev..." Raline moved closer, pressing herself against him. She was terrified now, looking at her brother, who had gone pale as bone.
Bony, the skeletal horse, sensed the newly risen undead too. It shuffled backward, deep into the cave, until its bony flanks pressed tight against the back wall.
Devon couldn't explain how, but he distinctly registered a sound—a high, rattling noise that sounded exactly like a whimper of sheer terror from the bone horse.
"There are more creatures... but this time, they feel way more dangerous," he finally whispered. Raline whimpered, tightening her grip on his arm, burying her face into his side.
Devon's eyes snapped to the small, flickering campfire. Quick, bordering on panic, he doused the flame with a splash of water.
The cave plunged into pitch blackness. Raline squeezed his arm even tighter.
One of the dark auras was approaching their position, moving straight toward the cave.
"One is coming this way..." Devon breathed, his voice strained and tense, his face fixed on the cave entrance. He exerted his will, pushing a mental command at Bony to lie down close to them.
The skeletal horse obeyed slowly, rattling as it settled down right next to Raline, who let out a shuddering gasp.
"What—"
"Shhhh!" He cut off his sister before she could say another word, and she instantly fell silent. The world around them became perfectly, terrifyingly still.
Outside the cave, the silence was total. Not even the chirping of crickets or the sounds of other night creatures could be heard.
Devon strained his ears, but he still couldn't hear any footsteps from the creature whose aura he saw approaching. But the aura kept getting closer, now practically at the cave entrance.
He pulled his sister against him, drawing her in even tighter, inching them both further into the shadow of the wall.
The creature was only a few steps away now. Devon swallowed hard, the lump in his throat thick with nervousness. His gut screamed that even one of these things would be incredibly difficult to fight.
And then, the creature stood right in front of the cave mouth, facing them.
Devon and Raline gasped, eyes wide, seeing a human-shaped figure that glowed with a soft, eerie light. The creature then floated, not walked, into the cave.
It was only now that Devon realized what kind of monster this was. 'A Revenant...'
A Revenant. Not just a ghost, but a spirit consumed by a violent, powerful desire for vengeance against those who had harmed it. It was like a zombie, but with full awareness and boiling emotion.
Because of its vengeful and aggressive nature, a Revenant could attack anyone. Especially if they were in an area of conflict or a place targeted by the Revenant's fury.
And they were unbelievably tough. Even though they were technically undead, they were also spirits, meaning they had both physical strength and resistance to magical attacks.
They even had the ability to regenerate, making them ridiculously hard to defeat, let alone permanently kill.
The one entering the cave had a rotting body, its head half-severed, tilting grotesquely to one side. Its eyes were chillingly vacant. It moved in a normal walking motion, yet seemed to glide inches above the ground.
Devon forced himself to look up at the Revenant. The thing swiveled its empty gaze around the dark space, finally landing on the three of them huddled in the corner.
A low, guttural growl emerged from its body. The creature drifted closer, stopping directly in front of Devon. Then, it bent—or rather, tilted—its body, its half-severed head drooping down to look directly into Devon's eyes, inches away.
Devon did not look away from the Revenant. It wasn't courage, exactly. He just knew Revenants wouldn't attack if you didn't make a move against them.
The monster released a sound from its mangled throat, a noise like a vicious alien beast combined with human speech.
"What the fuck are you guys doing here?"
Devon choked on his breath. He scrambled for a way to answer without saying anything that might offend the terrifying thing.
Finally, he decided on the truth.
"We're hiding from the Skeletons that are hunting us down..."
The creature suddenly let out a deafening, violent roar. Its hand shot out, pointing right at Bony, who was pressed even closer to Raline.
"Then why is he with you?!!"
His voice slightly trembling, Devon replied, "I killed his master. So he's been following me ever since..."
The Revenant went silent for a few seconds, looking at Bony, who refused to raise its skull.
After a moment, the monster threw its head back and erupted in a fit of booming, manic laughter. Its head, which was half-dangling on its neck, snapped back straight, then immediately flopped back to its side as it laughed.
"Alright," it said, calming down. "You guys can stay here."
Devon stared at the Revenant, utterly shocked. He had been 50/50 on whether they were about to die right then and there.
"Thank you," he replied politely.
The Revenant spun its body around, then laughed again, its voice still alien and strange. This time, it wasn't a roaring laugh, so its head remained tilted.
"The guy who owned that horse was one of the ones who killed us," the Revenant said, still chuckling. Its purplish, glowing body floated out of the cave, the odd laughter echoing behind it.
After a long time, and only when Devon saw the aura moving far away, did he dare to exhale. He looked down at his sister, who was next to him, and his heart ached for her. She was crying silently, her lips trembling with fear.
"It's okay, Raline. The monster is gone now," he said softly, trying to soothe her.
She didn't move. She just continued to cry, her body stiff and tense. She was completely unresponsive.
"Raline!" Devon whispered, a little louder this time.
She only stared back at her brother, wordless, tears streaming down her face, her eyes wide with what looked like shock. Seeing his sister like that, Devon gently shook her body, trying to bring her back.
But her expression remained the same. He pulled her into a tight embrace, confused and lost as to what to do next.