We found enemies an hour later.
Not the arm-creatures from last night.
Something else.
Tier 4 Ghost Rebounds.
Three of them.
They looked human once.
Now... not anymore.
Flesh melted into bone.
Joints twisted backward.
Faces stretched like wet paper.
Mouths full of too many teeth.
Failed bindings.
People who'd become what they fought.
"Defensive formation!" Kael shouted.
But I stepped forward.
"I'll handle them."
"Sidd, there's three—"
"I need to test something."
You need to feed, the mask whispered.
Eight hours since your last consumption. The Hunger grows. Feed… before it controls you.
The Mask of Hunger pulsed faintly on my face.
The air trembled around me — thin, heavy, alive.
And I charged.
The first creature lunged.
A blur of claws and teeth.
My Truth-Seer Vision flared.
Its essence — black and chaotic — moved before it even attacked.
I stepped aside.
Grabbed its throat.
And pulled.
Not physically. Essence-wise.
A heat wave surged through my arm.
The Devourer awoke.
The creature screamed — high, shrill, almost human.
Then it shriveled.
Flesh blackened. Crumbled.
Gone in three seconds.
Ash scattered over my boots.
[ESSENCE CONSUMED: CORRUPTED TIER 4 ENTITY]
[ABSORPTION: 45%]
[TEMPORARY ABILITY GAINED: BONE CLAWS (24 HOURS)]
[PERMANENT STAT INCREASE: +0.5% TO ALL PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES]
[HUNGER TIMER RESET: 12 HOURS]
The ache in my chest eased.
The need faded.
And new power flowed in.
Bone claws slid out from my fingertips — pale, sharp, dripping faint red mist.
The second one attacked from behind.
Fast. Quiet. Too quiet.
But my vision saw everything — its shape, its motion, even its intent.
I turned just as it leapt.
Its teeth sank into my arm.
Pain. Hot. Immediate.
Venom spread like fire through my veins.
But my Adaptive Flesh shifted instantly.
Blood chemistry twisted.
Cells rewrote themselves.
The poison became harmless.
I caught its skull with one hand.
And drained.
Its body withered mid-scream.
[ESSENCE CONSUMED: CORRUPTED TIER 4 ENTITY]
[TEMPORARY ABILITY GAINED: TOXIC BITE (24 HOURS)]
[PERMANENT STAT INCREASE: +0.5%]
[POISON RESISTANCE UPGRADED: IMMUNE TO TIER 4 AND BELOW TOXINS]
Two down.
The third ran.
Coward.
But its essence burned like a flare in my mind — impossible to hide.
"Running northeast," I said. "Fifty meters. Fast."
Gery didn't hesitate.
He drew his Azure Fang and threw.
The blade whistled through the air.
Cut clean.
The creature fell, screaming.
I walked to it.
Its hand reached out, trembling.
"Please—"
I didn't let it finish.
[ESSENCE CONSUMED: CORRUPTED TIER 4 ENTITY]
[ABSORPTION COMPLETE]
[HUNGER SATISFIED: 12 HOURS]
Silence.
Three enemies.
One minute.
They stared at me.
Chen's voice cracked. "What… did you just do?"
"My Anchor powers," I said quietly. "I can drain essence. Absorb abilities temporarily. It strengthens me."
Kael's jaw tightened. "That's horrifying."
I looked down at my claws.
The ash still clinging to my skin.
"That's survival."
The claws retracted.
But the corruption didn't.
White bled further through my hair.
Black veins pulsed beneath my neck.
[CORRUPTION LEVEL: 36%]
Two percent for three kills.
At this rate... I'd hit seventy before the month ended.
We moved on.
The Flesh Cradle stretched like a dead city.
Walls breathing. Air humming.
Memory spheres floated above shattered altars — showing fragments of people before they fell.
Every one of them bore a True Name.
Every one had a Flaw.
Every one died here.
None escaped.
Their faces flickered in the spheres — twisted by regret, despair, madness.
The Cradle was a graveyard of promises.
"How many have died here?" Gery whispered.
"Thousands," I said. "Maybe tens of thousands."
"And all of them failed."
"Yes."
"So why do we think we'll survive?"
No one answered.
By the time twilight fell, we reached the surface again.
Lucy waited near the entrance. Her face brightened when she saw us.
"You're back—thank god, we thought—"
Her smile faded.
She stared at me.
"Sidd... your hair."
I touched it.
White. More white than black.
"It's the corruption," I said. "It spreads when I use my power."
"Can you stop it?"
"No."
She didn't say anything, but I saw it — in her eyes, in her heartbeat.
Fear.
Not of the monsters.
Of me.
The Truth hurts, the mask whispered.
This is your Flaw. You'll see their fear until it breaks you.
I turned away.
"I don't want to see anymore."
"The unbound?" I asked Somi.
"Five have bound. Four remain. Survival probability: under eight percent."
Kael's tone was flat. "We saw the memories. Everyone before us died."
Somi tilted her head. "Then we are the exception."
"Based on what?"
"Based on the alternative being certain death."
Hard logic.
Cold comfort.
Night came.
The grey water rose again — swallowing the ruins below.
The arms emerged from the depths, reaching for us like shadows.
We climbed higher.
And I felt it again — the gnawing emptiness.
The Hunger.
[HUNGER TIMER: 11 HOURS, 32 MINUTES]
[CORRUPTION LEVEL: 36%]
[HUMANITY: 64%]
Feed, the mask whispered.
Before it controls you.
"Not yet," I muttered.
Soon.
The reflection in the glass looked back at me — white hair, black eyes, faint red glow pulsing behind the mask's cracks.
Lucy sat beside me, quiet.
"You're changing faster than the others."
"I know."
"Why?"
Because I feed on things that shouldn't exist.
Because I devour what was never meant to be consumed.
Because the Devourer inside me never stops.
But the Silence Flaw sealed my throat.
"I don't know," I lied.
She didn't believe me.
But she didn't ask again.
We just watched the tide rise.
The mask whispered again.
You're already lost.
You have been since the first feed.
The question isn't if you'll fall…
It's whether you'll find yourself before you disappear.
I closed my eyes.
The sound of the water.
The cold breathing of the Cradle.
The hollow hunger pulsing in my chest.
Maybe the mask was right.
Maybe I was already lost.
The only question left was—
Could I still be found?
Or was I truly...
Lost forever?