---
The parchment crackled in Kael's grip as he tore it from the mission board, its edges blackened as though someone had tried—and failed—to burn it away. The words **"Disappearances in the Old Dormitories – 50 Credits per Resolved Case"** glared up at him in jagged crimson script, the ink still faintly wet despite the notice being weeks old. Beneath the official seal, a single sentence was scribbled in what looked like charcoal:
*"They took the laughter first."*
Darius leaned in, his breath warm against Kael's neck. "Fifty credits? That's half a month's worth of decent meals. Or," he added with a waggle of his eyebrows, "one *really* good night at the Gambler's Den."
Lara's shadow stretched long across the cobblestones as she stepped forward, her fingers tracing the singed edge. "This was posted over a month ago," she murmured. "Why hasn't anyone taken it?"
Thea's sudden presence at Kael's other side made him tense. Her blue hair smelled of ozone and something metallic. "Because," she said, plucking the notice from Kael's fingers, "the last team that tried vanished too."
A chill skittered down Kael's spine.
The mission registrar, a grizzled third-year with a scar bisecting his lip, laughed when they presented the notice. "You're *first-years*," he sneered, slamming his ledger shut. "Come back when you can light a candle without blowing yourselves up."
Thea's gauntlets sparked. "We're taking the mission. Stamp it."
The registrar's eyes flicked to her wristband—to the gleaming **Vermont** name etched there—and his smirk died. "...Fine. But your funeral." The stamp came down like a guillotine.
As they walked away, Lira grabbed Thea's arm. "You didn't mention the other team.
The hallway **breathed** around them. Walls pulsed like a living throat, swallowing the light from Thea's gauntlets. Shadows dripped from the ceiling in thick, tar-like strands.
**"Movement! Three o'clock!"** Lira's daggers flashed as a **Fearling** (Basic-Tier) scuttled from the darkness—a grotesque fusion of spider and child, its mouth split vertically with needle teeth.
Kael's System flared crimson:
> **[ENEMY: FEARLING PACK (x4)]**
> **• STR:** 15 | **AGI:** 30 | **END:** 10
> **• WEAKNESS:** LIGHT-BASED ATTACKS
Darius roared, slamming his fists together. **"[Stonefist Barrage]!"** Earthen spikes erupted, impaling one creature mid-leap.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ **[FEARLING DEFEATED]** ┃
┃ **• XP GAINED:** +30 ┃
┃ **• WAR POINTS:** +5 ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
The remaining three **screeched**, their cries harmonizing into a sound like breaking glass.
---
**"Cover me!"** Thea's gauntlets whined as she charged them with crackling voltage. A Fearling lunged—
Lira **intercepted**, her shadow clones tangling the beast for a split second. **"NOW!"**
Thea's fist connected. Lightning **cooked** the Fearling from inside out, its charred corpse hitting the wall with a wet thud.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ **[FEARLING DEFEATED]** ┃
┃ **• XP GAINED:** +30 ┃
┃ **• TEAM BONUS:** +10 ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
The final two Fearlings **merged**, bones cracking as they formed a hunched, four-armed monstrosity.
> **[FEARLING ABERRATION]**
> **• TIER:** Intermediate
> **• NEW ABILITY:** [Terror Echo]
Its scream hit like a physical wave. Darius clutched his head as **hallucinations** erupted—Vorlag's sneering face, the scent of his own blood.
**"Darius!"** Kael tackled him aside as the aberration's claws shredded stone.
---
**[Wrath-Surge: AGI]** flooded Kael's veins. He moved faster than thought, weaving between the aberration's limbs.
***"The spine,"*** hissed the War God.
Kael's palm **glowed crimson**. **"[Annihilate]!"**
The beast's lower half **disintegrated**, but its upper torso **kept crawling**, fingers elongating into blades.
Lira's shadows **speared** its arms. **"Thea! Fry it!"**
Thea's gauntlets **overloaded**, plasma arcing into the creature's maw. It burst like a rotten fruit.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ **[ABERRATION DEFEATED]** ┃
┃ **• XP GAINED:** +80 ┃
┃ **• WAR POINTS:** +15 ┃
┃ **• LOOT:** [Fear Gland] ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
Darius wiped blood from his nose. **"Since when do they *fuse*?!"**
The walls **shuddered** in response.
---
Room 312 wasn't a room—it was a **living cathedral of shadows**. Cocooned students hung like grotesque puppets, their faces frozen in silent screams. At the center pulsed a **Shadowbeast Alpha**, its obsidian ribs cradling a core of liquid night.
> **[ALPHA SHADOWBEAST]**
> **• TIER:** Advanced
> **• ABILITIES:**
> **- [Shadow Clone]**
> **- [Fear Leech]**
> **- [Void Phase]**
It **unfolded** from the ceiling, jaws unhinging to release a **sonic shriek**.
Windows shattered. Blood trickled from Kael's ears.
> **[PARTY STATUS]**
> **• KAEL:** HP 100% | SAN 40/100
> **• DARIUS:** HP 85% | Concussed
> **• LIRA:** HP 70% | Shadow Exhaustion
> **• THEA:** HP 60% | Gauntlet Overload
---
#### **Phase 1: Divide and Shatter**
The Alpha **split** into three clones.
**"I'll take left!"** Darius charged, stone skin flaking under shadow claws.
Lira **shadow-dashed** to intercept the second, her blades screeching against ephemeral flesh.
The third lunged at Thea—
**"[Reality Anchor]!"** Kael's War Affinity **flared**, nullifying its intangibility. Thea's electrified uppercut **shattered** its jaw.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ **[SHADOW CLONE DESTROYED]** ┃
┃ **• XP GAINED:** +50 ┃
┃ **• WP GAINED:** +10 ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
---
#### **Phase 2: Core Exposure**
The reunited Alpha **retreated**, leaching fear from the cocoons. Its core **swelled**, distorting gravity.
**"It's powering up!"** Thea's gauntlets sparked weakly. **"Lira—ideas?!"**
Lira's eyes locked onto the core. **"I can **overload** it with shadow energy… but I'll be vulnerable."**
Kael's System calculated:
> **[SUCCESS RATE: 67%]**
> **• REQUIRES:**
> **- Distraction (Darius/Thea)**
> **- Precision Strike (Kael)**
**"Do it,"** Kael growled.
---
Darius **slammed** a stone pillar into the Alpha's flank. Thea's lightning **chained** across its eyes, blinding it.
Lira's shadows **speared** the core, flooding it with corrupted energy. The Alpha **convulsed**, its form destabilizing—
***"NOW!"*** roared the War God.
Kael's fist **plunged** into the core. **"[ANNIHILATE: MAX OUTPUT]!"**
Black light **erupted**. The hive **imploded**.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ **[ALPHA SHADOWBEAST DEFEATED]** ┃
┃ **• XP GAINED:** +200 ┃
┃ **• WAR POINTS:** +40 ┃
┃ **• LOOT:** [Void-Shroud Fragment] ┃
┃ **! LEVEL UP !** ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
---
The cocoons dissolved, freeing the students. Darius slumped against a wall, clutching his ribs. Thea's gauntlets smoked. Lira's shadows now swirled with **flecks of void energy**.
Kael's System updated:
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ **KAEL VANCE - LEVEL 12** ┃
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫ Affinity: War and Destruction_ S grade
Mastery level 1
┃ **XP** : 30/800 ┃
┃ **WAR POINTS**: 95 ┃
┃ **SANITY** : 35/100 ┃
┃ **STR** : 25 -26 ┃
┃ **AGI** : 22 → **24** ┃
┃ **END** : 20 -21 ┃
┃ **PER** : 11 → **13** ┃
┃ **NEW ABILITY** ┃
┃ • [Void Resonance] ┃
┃ **(Sense Void Rifts)** ┃
Quirks
Wrath surge
Wrath siphon
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
As they staggered into sunlight, the ruins **whispered** after them:
*"You only found the nursery..."*
---