The air changed the moment we stepped into the passage.
Cooler. Heavier. It settled against my skin, the hairs on my body stood on end, damp and quiet, like the space itself was aware we were moving through it.
We descended in silence. The staircase was narrow, forcing us into a single file, stone walls pressing in close from either side. The light from above thinned with every step until it disappeared entirely, replaced by a dim, uneven glow from torches that hadn't been there before. Their flames flickered low, stretching shadows across the wall in long, warped shapes.
The heat from the flames brushed against our skin just enough to feel it, but not enough to replace the cool, damp, air that swallowed the space hole.
As we descended, the walls became more than just stone.
Roots twisted through them. Thick, dark veins forcing their way between metal supports and aged wooden beams, all of it fused together like something that had grown first and been reinforced later. Like the earth itself had adapted around it, shaping it, slowly through the years.
I ran my fingers lightly along the surface as we moved, cold and damp, the smell a mix of rot and metal.
Then I saw it.
A smear dragged across the wall, uneven and broken, my hand hovered just above it.
Blood. Fresh.
The mark stretched forward, fingers splayed in a desperate line, like someone had tried to hold themselves up while being dragged deeper.
"Maybe a sign from Mark." I thought to myself.
"We're close," the insect woman said quietly from ahead, cutting off my thoughts.
Her antennae glowed faintly, pulsing in a slow rhythm that didn't match our steps. Her ability seemed to be an innate trait from her race, the realization that kings game had brought us face to face with so many different species finally seemed to settle in for me.
Though It did make sense, so many strange things had happened in such short notice that I subconsciously began to accept things for what they were instead of questioning them.
As we descended further, the smell began to change. Rot and metal were still prevalent, but underneath it lay something deeper that didn't belong in the open air.
Finally, we reached the bottom.
A steel door stood before us, heavy and deliberate, completely out of place against everything else. A turning wheel sat at its center, worn from repeated use.
No one spoke for a moment.
Then someone behind me muttered, "We should go back."
"No," Joseph said immediately, his voice tight. "We're not turning around."
I stepped forward and grabbed the wheel. It was cold enough to bite.
I turned it, the mechanism resisted until finally, it gave with a low metallic groan. The door opened slowly, releasing a breath of damp air that rolled over us.
We stepped inside.
The space beyond widened into a network of arched tunnels. Stone ceilings curved overhead in repeating layers, water running through carved channels along the floor, collecting in shallow grooves that guided it deeper into the structure. Moss clung to cracks.
Bones lay scattered along the edges, not arranged, not displayed. Discarded.
The passage branched in multiple directions. Some paths angled upward, leading back toward the surface.
Rooms.
Everywhere.
"They've been moving under us," Seraphina said quietly.
No one argued. Everyone here understood how grave the situation was. We had been deceived into believing the false paradise above our heads, and now we had discovered the one thing I'm sure they hadn't wanted us to find out.
A faint vibration passed through the ceiling above us.
Footsteps.
We froze, not even daring to breathe.
The sound travelled slowly, deliberate, then faded.
"What the hell is going on dude?" One of the others said, his body trembling, as if he was about to collapse any second.
" I don't know, but it's nothing good." Rai spoke, his eyes moving as they scanned the area.
"We should move." I said.
The others nodded in agreement, our legs began to move forward, staying close to each other as we moved.
"Hey, what's your name?" I tapped the shoulder of the woman with the antennae.
"Sandra. Yours?"
"Kael," I replied. " Since you're the one who seems to know where to go, it felt weird to not know your name."
The conversation between us didn't last long, the smell from before had grown worse the longer we walked, even myself who had smelled the scent of rotten corpses couldn't help but to hold my shirt over my nose.
Suddenly, something shifted ahead. The sound of turning metal echoed throughout the hallway, a small squeak escaped from underneath it as the sound of a door opening followed.
We scattered immediately, pressing ourselves behind broken stone and metal supports as a door opened from one of the side passages.
A guard stepped through.
One of the Velkyn.
His posture was straight. Controlled. Unhurried.
Over his shoulder hung a red haired woman, her body limp and unresponsive, her arms swaying slightly with each step he took, her body looked weightless in the way he carried her.
He paused just inside the passage, his gaze sweeping the area once, slow and deliberate, before muttering under his breath, " No one will notice if I'm a little late…" A chuckle escaped from his disgusting curved mouth.
He lowered her to the ground with a care that didn't feel right. Not gentle out of concern, but controlled, measured, like he was placing something fragile that didn't belong to him.
Her body shifted slightly as it touched the stone, her head rolling to the side, strands of her hair falling across her face.
She stirred.
Barely.
Her lips parted, dry, trembling as she forced out a sound that almost didn't make it.
"…why…"
It was weak. Broken. Like the word itself didn't have enough strength to exist.
He crouched in front of her, his movements unhurried, almost patient.
"Don't make this difficult," he said softly.
His hand rose and brushed against her cheek, slow, deliberate, his fingers lingering just a moment too long before trailing downward.
The contact wasn't rough, but it wasn't kind either. There was no hesitation in it. No doubt.
My grip tightened around the knife before I even realized it. The pressure built in my hand, my body already leaning forward, already moving before the thought had fully formed.
I stepped.
A hand caught my wrist.
Seraphina.
"Give it to me."
I looked at her, her expression blank, but her eyes carried a sharpness that sent a chill down my spine.
I let go of the knife into her grasp, her hand clenched its handle as she raised her arm and threw it.
The blade cut through the air with quiet precision, burying itself into the guards skull, all of it happening in the matter of a moment.
The sound of his body hitting the ground echoed longer than it should have.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then we rushed forward.
I dropped beside the woman, pressing my fingers to her neck. Her pulse was faint, barely there. Her breathing came in shallow, uneven bursts like her body was struggling to remember how to function.
Her skin was pale. Drained. The corner of her lips carried a thin trace of dried blood.
My eyes returned back to Seraphina briefly, her eyes appearing colder than before as they laid upon the woman's weakened body.
There was something deeper there, hidden beneath them.
My attention returned back to the woman, her eyes opening slightly.
Her eyes unable to keep focus, a look of vacancy buried within them as her conscious bordered between the lines of awake and sleep.
"Help…" she whispered, before coughing weakly.
Her body went slack again.
She was alive, albeit barely.
I stood slowly, looking at the others. "This isn't right."
Joseph let out a breath that sounded more like frustration than fear. "No shit."
The space around us felt tighter now, like the air itself had thickened.
"Names," I said. "If we're doing this, we don't stay strangers. We need to have some form of trust if we want any chance of getting out of here."
"Oh what're you? Our leader now?" One of the women voiced, her ash gray hair draped over her aged face.
"I'm not," I said. "But if we don't work
together, we won't make it out."
Rai picked up the fallen guard's weapon, testing its weight.
"He's right."
Silence lingered, then broke as everyone began sharing their names.
As everyone finished sharing their names, the woman from earlier whose name we found to be, Grace, spoke, "Look, I don't know about you assholes, but I could care less about any of you guy's names. I'm not going ahead, who knows what's waiting for us ahead."
"Um…" A timid voice came from the side, " I don't feel comfortable going either, It's only eight of us and only Kael and Rai have means to protect themselves." Said Alice,her voice as soft as her personality.
A deep voice spoke up next, this time it was Roger. " Sorry to butt in, but has anyone else been wondering where the others are?" His Four arms crossed against his chest, " I mean when we arrived it was a lot of us wasn't it?"
Silence slipped between us, heads turned towards each other with hopes that someone had an answer.
"Exactly, none of us knows what's going on here! How is it that none of us even bothered to think about that?" Said Grace.
" They're right, I mean besides this girl here, we haven't seen anyone else," Seraphina chimed in. " It's possible they could've been taken down like Mark and this woman."
"I'm not leaving without my brother," Joseph said.
" Well you can go find him yourself, i'm sure he's dead by now anyways" Grace argued back.
"Say that again, I dare you." Joseph's voice grew cold.
I stepped in between them, " Calm down, we don't need to be fighting right now." I took a short breath. " I get it if you guys don't want to come, but I'm going to go find out what the hell's really going on here. I'm sure the others are still alive somewhere.
"Well you know my answer." Grace stepped back, crossing her arms." I'll stay here with the girl in case she wakes back up."
"S- same." Alexandria muttered, stepping closer to Grace.
"Anyone else?" I looked towards the others.
"I'll stay with them." Roger spoke, "You guys go on ahead, I'll protect them if I must."
"...Alright, we'll be back as fast as possible." I said.
I didn't agree with the idea of them staying behind, it was safety in numbers, but I wasn't going to waste time trying to convince them otherwise.
We moved forward.
The path narrowed before opening up again.
Another door.
Heavier. Sealed tighter.
I pushed it open.
A low hum filled the space beyond, vibrating faintly through the floor beneath my feet. The sound wasn't loud, but it carried, settling somewhere deeper than hearing.
Then the light came into view, a dull, unnatural green that bled into the darkness ahead, growing stronger with each step until it filled the room entirely. Rows of glass tubes stretched along the walls, tall and narrow, their surfaces fogged with condensation that slowly dripped down in uneven trails.
Something moved inside them. Not clearly at first, just faint shapes shifting behind the glass, but as we stepped closer, the details began to settle into place.
Bodies.
Twisted. Elongated in ways that didn't follow any natural structure. Limbs stretched too far, joints bent at angles they shouldn't hold, faces half-formed or pressed against the glass as if they had tried to escape before whatever strength they had left gave out.
Some of them resembled the Velkyn, their features warped but recognizable. Others… didn't resemble anything that should exist. Flesh layered over itself, mismatched proportions, incomplete forms suspended in that thick green liquid like failed attempts at something that was never meant to be human.
A few of them moved.
Not fully. Not consciously.
Just slight, uneven motions. A twitch of a finger. A slow turn of the head. Breathing that came too shallow, too irregular.
Alive.
The sound of it settled into the room. Not loud, but present. Wet, uneven breathing mixing with the low hum that vibrated through the floor beneath us.
To the side, a metal table stood beneath a dim light. A journal lay open across it, its pages worn, edges stained, the writing jagged and uneven as if it had been carved into the paper more than written.
I stepped closer, my eyes scanning the entries.
"Day 3… failure continues. The vessel rejects integration."
"Subjects unstable. Blood of the chosen is insufficient in current state."
"More are needed. Fresh. Untainted."
Further down, the writing grew more frantic.
"The Blood Moon approaches. Alignment must be achieved."
"The priestess… the vessel… remains viable."
"Her body accepts it. She will hold both. She must."
"The chosen will be drained at the peak. Their blood will complete the rite."
My grip tightened slightly, grabbing the journal and tugging it into my pocket."
In the far corner of the room, bodies had been piled together.
Not carefully. Not respectfully.
Discarded.
Skin pale and empty, veins collapsed, their forms hollowed out like whatever had been inside them had been taken piece by piece until nothing was left worth keeping. Some still wore the same clothes we had arrived in.
On the side of the wall stood rows of different weapons, knives and swords alike. Each one of them covered in dried blood.
Everything connected at once.
The food.
The air.
The feeling that had been creeping into our thoughts.
"They're controlling us," Sandra whispered, her voice barely steady.
"Not just that," Rai said quietly, his eyes still scanning the room. "They're preparing us."
The door behind us slammed open.
We turned.
Alice stumbled inside, her breathing broken, her eyes widened with panic. She took two steps ahead before a blade tore through her face from behind. Her mouth left wide open, blood bursting outward.
Her body dropped hard to the floor revealing a Velkyn behind her. His posture tall and composed, his tail swaying gently in the air as he licked the blood clean off of his sword.
In his other hand he dragged Grace, his hands tightly gripped around her head as her body hung limp, blood painted on her face, arms gone, torn clean from her body.
He let her fall.
"You shouldn't be down here," he said.
Then his gaze settled on us.
"It doesn't matter anymore."
His eyes shifted.
One dark.
One glowing faintly.
Blood began to leak from both. Thin at first, then heavier, trailing down his face in slow, deliberate lines. His body followed, changing in a way that didn't happen all at once.
His frame expanded, muscle tightening beneath his skin as bone forced its way outward along his spine, tearing through flesh in jagged protrusions that hardened into sharp, uneven spikes. His tail lengthened behind him, splitting at the end into bladed extensions that dragged across the stone with a harsh, scraping sound.
"This is for the goddess," he said, his voice no longer stable, something layered beneath it, something that didn't belong to him. "You heathens should be grateful."
He moved.
The distance between us collapsed in an instant as his blade came down toward Rai.
The strike carried enough force to split bone cleanly, the air itself distorting around it from the speed alone.
Rai stepped into it.
The impact hit.
And stopped.
It should have driven him back, should have shattered his stance, forced him into the ground, but it didn't. His feet ground into the stone beneath him, cracking the surface slightly, but he held. The force pressed into him and stalled, like something behind him had anchored him in place and refused to let him move.
The space around him felt different.
Heavier.Denser.
Like the ground had chosen him as something it wouldn't allow to fall.
The Velkyn's eyes flicked, registering it for a fraction of a second before Seraphina moved.
I barely saw her.
One moment she was there, the next she wasn't. Her body slipped through the space between movements, her blade already cutting before it looked like she had committed to the strike. It slid across the Velkyn's side in a clean, precise line, not deep enough to kill, but exact enough to matter.
There was no adjustment in her movement.
No correction.
It was right before it happened.
The air around her felt sharp. Not cold in temperature, but stripped of everything unnecessary. Clean. Focused. Like stepping too close to her meant stepping into something that had already decided where you would break.
The Velkyn twisted with unnatural speed, his tail lashing out in a wide arc toward her. The spikes at its end tore through the air with a high, cutting whistle. She leaned just enough to avoid it, the edge of one spike grazing past her shoulder close enough to split a strand of hair.
Joseph charged in from the side, his voice breaking through the tension. "Get off-"
The Velkyn didn't turn fully.
He didn't need to.
His arm shot out, faster than Joseph could react, fingers digging into his shoulder and yanking him forward. The motion was abrupt, brutal, completely controlled. Joseph struggled for a fraction of a second.
Then the Velkyn leaned in.
One bite.
Clean.
Joseph's body dropped where he stood, collapsing into itself as his head hit the ground a split second later, rolling once before going still.
Then Sandra was next, the Velkyn dashed forward slicing her neck clean.
Everything stopped.
Not the fight.
Just something inside me.
For half a second, the world felt like it paused at the edge of something.
Then it shifted around me.
The ground beneath my feet didn't feel unstable, but it didn't feel fixed either. Like it hadn't fully decided where I was supposed to stand. The hum in the room slipped out of rhythm, arriving just before I expected it, then just after. The edges of everything looked… slightly off, like they didn't fully line up with where they should be.
The Velkyn moved again.
I saw it.
Not faster but clearer.
The angle of his shoulders. The tension in his legs. The exact moment before he pushed forward I felt, no, I saw the space around him changing, breaking.
I stepped.
The blade came down.
It should have hit.
It didn't.
Not because I was faster.
Because something about it didn't line up.
My body shifted just enough, the edge of his strike passing through the space I had occupied a fraction of a second ago. I caught his arm as it moved past me, my grip locking in without hesitation as I redirected the momentum forward instead of away.
Rai was already there.
His strike came in heavy, grounded, carrying weight that didn't shift or waver. It connected with the Velkyn's side, forcing his body to turn just enough, but seraphina had already moved.
Her blade followed the same line as before, finding the exact point Rai had opened without needing to search for it. The strike landed clean, deeper this time, cutting into the space between bone and muscle with surgical precision.
The Velkyn roared, his body twisting violently, movements becoming less controlled, more erratic. The spikes along his back shifted, extending further, his tail whipping in tighter, more aggressive arcs as he lashed out in every direction.
He locked onto me and lunged.
Everything narrowed.
The moment stretched.
His foot hit the ground at the wrong angle.
Just slightly off. Not enough to notice under normal circumstances.
His balance broke for a fraction of a second.
His body followed through anyway.
Too much force. Not enough control.
I stepped to the side, guiding that momentum instead of resisting it, my hand pushing against his arm just enough to keep him moving in the direction he had already committed to.
His body slammed into the structure behind him.
Glass shattered instantly, the tubes breaking apart in a cascade of sharp, splintering cracks. The green liquid spilled out across the floor, mixing with blood and broken fragments as the hum in the room surged violently.
Then snapped.
The sound cut out.
For a fraction of a second, everything went silent.
Then fire ignited. Green In color.
It spread fast, feeding on the liquid, climbing the walls, wrapping around the broken structures in flickering, unstable waves. The heat followed immediately, rising in a sharp, suffocating rush that filled the space.
The Velkyn twitched once, his body spasming as the flames caught.
Then he went still.
I turned.
Joseph's body lay near one of the shattered tubes, blood pooling beneath him, unmoving. Right beside him, through the cracked glass of another tube, a figure floated inside.
Still.
Breathing.
His brother.
The realization settled without words.
No one said anything.
We moved. Through a side passage barely wide enough to fit through, the heat pressing against our backs as the structure groaned and cracked behind us.
The sound of breaking stone and collapsing metal followed us upward, the fire chasing through the tunnels as we climbed.
We burst through the exit.
And stopped.
The village was no longer empty.
They were all there.
Every Velkyn stood surrounding the altar in perfect stillness, their bodies unmoving, their heads tilted upward toward the sky. Their eyes were open, unblinking, thin streams of blood running from them in slow, steady lines that traced down their faces and fell to the ground beneath them.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
The air felt heavier here. Not just thick, but waiting. Like something had already begun and we had arrived too late to stop it.
Above them, at the center of it all, the priestess rested on top of the altar, her body restrained, her form still, untouched by the chaos below.
The crimson moon loomed overhead, bathing everything in a deep, unnatural red that sank into the stone, the bodies, the blood.
They weren't praying.
They were offering themselves