The stench of rotting mud and dead moss was cut by a bone-chilling cold. Echo tremors beneath Ren's feet resonated deep and blunt.
In front of him, the faceless giant—The Dread Maw Rootbound—lifted its massive body from the ground. Thin mist crept through the root gaps, shrouding Mira, still perched atop the giant rib-root, while Ren stood below, mud sucking at his every step.
One more leap to reach the root Mira clung to—but the ground beneath him bulged, as if something inside wanted out.
He felt it. Echo. Deep. Ancient. Hungry.
Damn.
The roots around him seemed to hold their breath.
"Ren! Quickly! Climb!" Mira shouted from above.
Ren braced himself—
But the Rootbound moved first.
The giant raised its thick, block-like arm, sending a wave of mud that knocked him off balance. Momentum lost. Mud splashed like grasping hands, trying to hold him down.
Another tremor appeared—not from the Rootbound, but another resonance, lighter, faster: Tormented Husk.
It leapt from a root gap, crawling as if from behind the giant tree rib.
Silent.
No warning.
No scream.
Ren saw it.
"MIRA—!"
Not a warning, just inevitability.
The claw tore through Mira's stomach in one clean motion.
SREK—!
Time froze.
No scream came, only a breath unfinished.
Her body lifted, then shaken by the creature as if to erase resistance. Blood spattered onto Ren's face.
Ren froze.
Mira's eyes searched for him, not safety. Shock, fear unspoken.
The roots trembled, drinking the blood like thirsty soil.
Tormented Husk withdrew. Mira fell, exposed.
Instinctively, Ren reached—hands outstretched, unplanned—
But her body slipped past his fingers.
BUUK.
She struck his shoulder and slid into mud.
His arms grasped air.
As if gravity could be denied.
As if time could rewind.
A wave of alien emotions slammed into him:
Fear. Cold. Regret. Desire to live. Loss unspoken…
All of it erupted from Mira's body, a traumatic resonance filling the air with suffocating pressure.
Ren shivered, responding.
Mark activation.
The Deep Mark—long locked, cold, nearly dead—triggered.
His shadow expanded.
Subtle tremors became dark pulses crawling through the earth.
Husks crawling behind froze simultaneously.
They sensed it.
Emptiness energy.
Vessel resonance.
Mira lifted her hand slightly. Not pleading. Not resisting.
Just… seeking something familiar.
"R-Ren… C-cold…" Her lips trembled.
The voice broke.
Ren knelt beside her, trembling under two forces colliding:
External trauma, slicing through his mind—and the dark Mark mechanism, trying to devour every reaction.
He touched her arm.
The final Echo entered him like ice through veins:
"Don't… leave... me…"
RAAAAAK—!
A colossal shadow leapt from the gap.
Slender, pitch-black, face like a broken helmet—no eyes.
Chest and back perforated with air-sucking holes, producing a sound that shredded thought.
Gloom Walker. A predator of the mind.
It didn't kill physically—it consumed emotions, trauma, identity.
Mira had just died.
Her fear and despair still thick in the air.
This predator didn't come for Ren.
It came for what remained of Mira.
Ren stood, shadow flowing like black ink, cracks pulsing.
Gloom Walker halted, lifting its head.
From the void of its helmet came acknowledgment:
"…empty… vessel…"
Ren didn't react.
No room to feel.
Mira's trauma filled his mind.
The Deep Mark absorbed the rest.
The predator approached, low and cautious, circling—not prey—but something to recognize.
Ren lowered his gaze slightly.
It no longer saw him as human, but as a trapped vessel of trauma.
Ren closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them, his gaze was sharp, cold, empty—emptier than before.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said softly.
"But I belong to no one."
The air vibrated around him, humming like charged electricity.
His shadow floated, mist-thin, stretching and shrinking like a living thing.
Gloom Walker stopped three steps away.
It bowed, broken helmet creaking.
Low hisses came from its holes—uncertain, predator unsure whether to strike.
Ren felt something click inside.
Twenty-seven doors in his mind opening at once.
Echoes sealed for years—fragments of death, remnants of 27 other creatures—flowed from Hidden Mark into mental activation.
And one fresh, warm Echo: Mira.
Her fear. Desperation. Desire to live.
Ren tried to breathe—and almost choked. His body resisted, but the Mark accepted it all.
His shadow pulsed.
—thum
—thum
—thum
Three beats. Three trembling layers.
Gloom Walker recoiled, sensing a threat it couldn't comprehend.
Its holes widened, wanting to absorb Ren—yet afraid of what emerged from him.
"…If you want…" Ren whispered, shadow creeping like blood dripping from his feet.
"…then take it."
The predator hissed—a loud, resonating sound that shook roots.
It accepted the challenge.
The creature lunged without touching the ground. Fast.
Ren felt it—not with eyes, but through Echo pulses.
Echo #7: Reflex Imprint (Hunter instincts from Rift Beast)
Echo #14: Spatial Slip (One-step distortion to avoid danger)
Echo Mira: Frost Despair Pulse (Cold, desperate resonance—freezing enemy focus, not attack)
All surged without his intent.
Gloom Walker struck. Ren sidestepped—like a shadow pulled by an invisible hook.
The attack hit air.
Suicide to touch it.
Its movements broken like a puppet, faltering.
Mira's Echo froze its mind.
Gloom Walker shrieked, sucking air, whirling dirt and Echo fragments.
The Dread Maw Rootbound behind groaned, reacting to the clash of emotional entities.
Ren stood tall, shadow stretching into a black blade on the ground.
Echo #3, #11, #19, #24 trembled, waiting—but he held back. His body wasn't ready for all at once.
Gloom Walker raised both arms. CRRRRHHH echoed, hundreds of layered screams.
Ren's shadow shattered at his feet into thin, dagger-like branches.
This time, he acted intentionally:
Echo #14: Spatial Slip — Fissure Step.
Ren vanished, appearing in front of Gloom Walker.
The creature staggered, instincts delayed.
He pressed his palm to its chest, one emotion-sucking hole.
"Eat this."
He released Mira's Echo.
Cold shards. Despair's fragment.
Silent explosion.
Gloom Walker screamed as if torn from inside.
Its arms clawed earth, roots shattered, air spiraled wildly.
Ren stood amid the storm, shadow keeping him grounded.
He forced the predator to retreat.
Gloom Walker leapt back, shaking violently, chest holes constricting.
It looked at him.
No longer a Vessel.
A threat.
Ren exhaled.
"…how does it feel?"
Empty eyes.
Deep Mark pulsing.
Gloom Walker bowed.
Submission.
Acknowledgment.
The massive Dread Maw Rootbound finally moved to kill them both.
Then, the earth trembled again—stronger.
A low rumble echoed, unlike anything they'd felt.
From the swamp's deepest shadows, something massive stirred—far larger than the first faceless creature.
And it was coming for them.
Ren's pupils narrowed.
"Get ready, Mira," he whispered.
The Siphon Mire had just begun to speak… and this time, it would devour.