After a month of relentless training, Guildmaster Crane summoned Astraeus to his office. He didn't waste time with pleasantries.
"You've had your month of preparation," Crane said, his eyes fixed on Astraeus. "You have your budget, your autonomy, and your team of specialists. It's time to produce results. The mission board has a new posting. It's a situation that I believe falls within your new, 'unconventional' purview."
He pushed a piece of parchment across the desk. It was a standard Guild request, but the details were anything but.
The posting was from a small, remote mining village in the northern mountains called Silvercreek. The village elder reported a strange phenomenon. For the past two weeks, the villagers had been plagued by a persistent, low-frequency hum that seemed to emanate from the mountains themselves. It was causing headaches, nausea, and a pervasive sense of anxiety. More disturbingly, people had begun to have shared, vivid nightmares of "a sky full of whispering stars." Several miners who had ventured deeper into the mountains to investigate had not returned.
"A humming sound and bad dreams?" Astraeus asked, though he already knew the answer. "This doesn't sound like a typical monster contract."
"Exactly," Crane said. "The local Guild representative is a retired mage who is out of his depth. He suspects a powerful sonic phenomenon or a localized psychic field. I suspect something more. Something dimensional. This is your first test, Astraeus. Go to Silvercreek. Investigate the source of the disturbance. Solve the problem. And report back to me. Discretely."
It was the perfect mission for them. It was not a straightforward battle, but a mystery, a situation that required investigation, analysis, and a team that could handle the unexpected. It was a test of their new skills as scholars and soldiers.
Astraeus gathered the team and briefed them. They approached the mission with the cool professionalism that had been drilled into them over the past month. They spent the morning in the library, researching the history of the Silvercreek region. They found no record of magical anomalies or dimensional instability. It was a quiet, unremarkable corner of the world. Which, as Thomas pointed out, made the current situation all the more alarming.
They then moved to the requisitions department, where their new, expanded budget was put to good use. Darius finally acquired his master-crafted adamantite-steel shield, a beautiful, functional piece of art that was as much a wall as it was a shield. Lyra and Kira were outfitted with lighter, more flexible armor that allowed for greater mobility without sacrificing protection. Thomas, true to his word, upgraded his focusing crystal to a flawless, fist-sized sapphire that hummed with latent power.
Astraeus, for his part, focused on utility. He acquired a set of enchanted climbing gear, a variety of alchemical potions for healing and stamina, and a series of blank, high-quality scrolls for note-taking and, if necessary, for attempting to replicate complex runic patterns.
But as they drew closer to the village, a subtle wrongness began to creep into the edges of their perception. It started as a faint, almost subliminal vibration in the bones, a low hum that was felt more than heard. By the time they were within a few miles of Silvercreek, it was a distinct, audible sound, a monotonous, low-frequency drone that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"I feel it," Lyra said, her hand pressed to her temple. "It's like a pressure building inside my skull."
"It's interfering with my essence sense," Kira added, her expression troubled. "Everything feels… fuzzy. Muted."
It is a dimensional resonance, Kha'Zul's voice was a low growl in Astraeus's mind. The fabric of reality here is vibrating, like a drum skin that has been struck. This is not a natural phenomenon. Something is deliberately causing this.
They arrived in Silvercreek in the late afternoon. The village was nestled in a narrow, high-altitude valley, a cluster of simple, stone-and-timber buildings surrounded by the towering, snow-capped peaks of the mountains. But the picturesque scene was marred by an atmosphere of profound unease. The streets were nearly deserted. The few villagers they saw hurried along with their heads down, their faces pale and drawn. A palpable sense of fear and exhaustion hung over the village like a shroud.
The local Guild representative, an old, stooped mage named Elias, met them at the entrance to the village inn. His relief at their arrival was palpable.
"Thank the gods," he said, his voice trembling slightly. "I… I have never encountered anything like this. The hum… it never stops. And the nightmares… every night, the same dream. A sky full of stars, and they are all whispering my name."
As he spoke, Astraeus's gaze was drawn to the mountains that loomed over the village. The sun was beginning to set, and the peaks were bathed in a deep, purple twilight. And as he watched, he saw it. A faint, almost imperceptible shimmer in the air around the highest peak, a subtle distortion, like heat haze on a summer day. But there was no heat here. It was the visual manifestation of the dimensional resonance, the sight of reality itself being stretched to its breaking point.
And in that moment, he heard it. Not with his ears, but in the back of his mind. A faint, sibilant whisper, a chorus of voices that seemed to ride on the ever-present hum. It was the sound of stars singing in a language of static and dread.
Void corruption, Kha'Zul confirmed, his voice tight with recognition. But not a natural incursion. This is deliberate. Focused. Something is calling to the people of this village, trying to convert them.
"We need to move fast," Astraeus said, turning to his team. "Whatever is up in those mountains, it's getting stronger. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to stop."
Lyra nodded, her expression grim. "Then we go tonight. We find the source, and we end this."
Darius checked his shield straps one more time. "No rest for the wicked," he muttered.
Thomas managed a weak smile. "Or for us, apparently."
Thomas managed a weak smile. "Or for us, apparently."
Kira placed a hand on Elias's shoulder, her healing magic flowing into him in a gentle wave. "We'll take care of this," she promised. "You and your people will be safe."
The old mage looked at them with a mixture of hope and fear. "Be careful," he said. "Whatever is up there... it's not of this world."
"Neither are we," Astraeus said quietly, thinking of the Demon King in his soul and the reality-warping power he carried. "Not anymore."
This was no simple psychic phenomenon. This was the whisper of the Void. And they were about to walk straight into its heart.