The smile on the man's face didn't reach his eyes.
Five of them stood in the corridor ahead—well-fed by ruin standards, armor patched but maintained, weapons clean. Not desperate. Not wandering. Organized.
That made them dangerous.
"Friendly," Kael repeated under his breath, unimpressed.
The system hovered at the edge of my vision, unhelpfully neutral.
PLAYER GROUP DETECTED
FORMATION: LOOSE SEMI-CIRCLE
INTENT: UNDETERMINED
NOTE: PLAYER INTENT CAN CHANGE RAPIDLY
The smiling man raised his hands slightly, palms open. A practiced gesture. "Easy. No need to posture. We're just passing through."
"Funny," I said. "So are we."
His eyes flicked to my sword, then to Kael's crossbow. He cataloged us quickly—levels, gear, posture. I could almost see the numbers ticking behind his gaze.
"I'm Reth," he said. "We run trade routes between safe pockets. Information, supplies, escort work. You look like you've had a rough day."
Kael snorted. "It's been a rough apocalypse."
A couple of Reth's people chuckled. The sound felt rehearsed.
Reth nodded sympathetically. "You're heading toward the Forsaken City, aren't you?"
My stomach tightened.
The system reacted a fraction too late.
LOCATION FLAG DETECTED
FORSaken CITY – PROXIMITY INCREASING
"We didn't say that," Kael replied.
"You didn't need to," Reth said. "Everyone ends up there eventually. Night's coming."
As if summoned by his words, the ambient light dimmed. The glow from the rune-lines faded, shadows stretching longer, thicker.
Somewhere far above, something groaned—stone shifting under its own weight.
The whispers changed.
Night remembers…
Night feeds…
Reth glanced upward. "We don't move after dark. City rules."
"City?" I asked.
Reth smiled again, this time thinner. "You'll see."
He stepped aside, gesturing down the corridor behind them. "We've secured a path to the outer district. Shelter. Fires. Walls that mostly hold. You're welcome to join us."
The system pulsed.
CHOICE DETECTED
OPTION A: TRAVEL WITH PLAYER GROUP (UNKNOWN BENEFITS / UNKNOWN RISKS)
OPTION B: PROCEED ALONE (HIGH RISK)
Kael leaned closer to me. "This feels wrong."
"Everything feels wrong," I whispered back.
Reth watched us quietly, patient. Too patient.
"What's the cost?" I asked.
"Nothing upfront," Reth replied. "We share space. Share watch. Share information." His eyes hardened slightly. "And we don't tolerate freeloaders."
Kael's jaw tightened. He knew what that meant.
Still, night was falling. And the system wasn't subtle about what happened after dark.
I nodded once. "We walk together. For now."
Reth's smile returned in full. "Smart."
The walk to the city took less time than I expected—and far longer than I liked.
The corridor opened suddenly, spilling us out onto a massive overlook. My breath caught despite myself.
The Forsaken City sprawled below, a vast ruin carved into a sunken basin. Towers leaned against each other like exhausted giants. Streets twisted unnaturally, bending at angles that made my eyes ache. Dim lights flickered between broken structures—fires, glowing sigils, something else.
Above it all, the sky fractured.
Not clouds. Cracks. Jagged lines of darkness slicing through a dull red glow, as if reality itself had been shattered and poorly stitched back together.
The system went silent.
Then—
MAJOR LOCATION DISCOVERED
FORSaken CITY
STATUS: ACTIVE / UNSTABLE
WARNING: NIGHT CYCLE INITIATING
A low sound rolled across the city, like a distant horn—or a breath being drawn.
Kael swallowed. "That's… big."
"Bigger than big," Reth said. "And older than the system likes to admit."
We descended into the outer district as darkness thickened. Fires were lit along barricades made of scavenged stone and metal. People moved with purpose, eyes wary, voices low.
No one laughed.
As we passed through a gate reinforced with glowing runes, the air changed again. Heavier. Charged.
SAFE ZONE: PARTIAL
SYSTEM INFLUENCE: REDUCED
NOTE: PROTECTION NOT GUARANTEED
Reth's group dispersed slightly, each taking up familiar positions. This wasn't their first night here.
"You two stick close," Reth said. "And don't wander. The city notices patterns."
"Notices?" Kael echoed.
Reth didn't answer.
We were given a corner near a collapsed building, walls reinforced with sigils similar to the one the stranger had given me. I felt the sigil in my pack warm faintly, resonating.
Kael noticed. "That thing reacting?"
"Yeah," I said. "Which means we're exactly where we're not supposed to be."
Night fell fully.
The sky cracked wider, and shadows began to move where they shouldn't—sliding across walls, stretching against gravity. Sounds carried strangely: footsteps echoing twice, whispers arriving before mouths moved.
Then the scream came.
Sharp. Sudden. Cut off too fast.
No one ran toward it.
No one even looked.
Reth's voice carried through the dark. "All guards, positions!"
The system flickered violently.
NIGHT EVENT ACTIVE
ENEMY TYPES: VARIABLE
VISIBILITY: REDUCED
DEATH PENALTY: INCREASED
Kael gripped his weapon. "This is the part they didn't advertise."
Something skittered across a rooftop above us, claws scraping stone. Another shadow detached itself from a wall and slithered away, too many joints bending the wrong way.
The whispers rose to a chorus.
They hide…
They hope…
The city decides…
A figure stumbled into the light near the barricade—one of Reth's people. Blood streaked his armor, eyes wild.
"They're inside," he gasped. "Not monsters. Worse."
Reth's expression hardened. "Shades?"
The man nodded once before collapsing.
The system screamed again, text flashing red.
BREACH DETECTED
INTERNAL THREAT CONFIRMED
SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: DECLINING
Kael looked at me. "We should've kept walking."
"No," I said, watching the darkness shift. "We would've been dead already."
A shape peeled itself out of the shadow across the street—humanoid, but hollow, edges blurring like smoke. Its eyes burned white.
Then another.
Then more.
The city breathed in.
Steel rang as weapons were drawn. Sigils flared. People shouted orders that dissolved into chaos.
I raised my sword, heart pounding—not with fear alone, but with understanding.
This wasn't just night.
This was a test.
And the Forsaken City was about to see who it would keep—and who it would consume.