The next morning came without color.
No torchlight. No footsteps. No voices.
Just a heavy silence hanging over the pit like fog.
Auron met Mira at the top edge of the Drift Chambers before dawn. She wore a different cloak today — dark gray, no noble emblems. Her sword was strapped tight across her back.
Two guards stood with her.
No more.
"This isn't a raid," she said. "It's a trace."
Auron nodded. "Looking for signs."
"Looking for him," she corrected.
He knew who she meant.
The boy with the broken mask.
Mira handed Auron a vial of thick, black liquid.
"Drink."
He studied it.
"What is it?"
"Nullroot extract. Suppresses corruption for an hour. Keeps the Abyss from calling to you while we're down there."
"I don't need it."
"You don't know that."
Auron drank it anyway.
It burned all the way down.
---
The Drift Chambers smelled like rust and rot.
Stale water dripped from the ceiling. Pools of black sludge covered the ground in places. Chains hung from the old supply rails, swaying slightly even though there was no wind.
The walls were marked with deep claw scratches.
No one spoke.
Mira moved like a blade — quiet, eyes sharp, senses alert.
Auron moved ahead of her, one hand on the hilt of his Void Edge, the other brushing the wall, feeling for echoes in the stone.
It didn't take long to find something.
Near the third chamber, the system pinged.
\[Residue Detected – Abyssal Variant Signature: 74% Match]
\[Warning: Entity Presence Within Range – Hiding]
Auron raised a hand. Mira stopped.
Then he pointed.
A broken metal crate stood at the edge of the sludge pool.
Inside it, barely visible, was a small shape.
Crouched.
Breathing.
Watching.
Mira drew her sword slowly. "Is that him?"
Auron stepped closer.
The boy looked up.
His face was pale, soaked in shadow. His eyes were completely black.
The cracked mask covered half of his face, fused to his skin like it had grown there.
"I didn't mean to hurt them," the boy whispered.
Mira raised her sword.
"Step out."
The boy shook his head.
"I tried to stop it. I tried to hold it down."
Auron stepped between Mira and the boy.
"You're being eaten from the inside," he said quietly. "The Abyss doesn't give — it takes."
The boy looked at him.
"You feel it too, don't you? The hunger."
"I control it."
"No," the boy said, almost smiling. "You think you do. But it's waiting."
Suddenly, the pool behind him shifted.
A shape rose from it — tall, thin, black as smoke.
Not a person.
Not a shadow.
Something born from him.
Mira cursed and stepped back.
Auron drew Void Edge.
The system flashed.
\[Corrupted Echo Manifested – Combat Imminent]
\[Entity Type: Fragmented Will]
\[Weak Point: Host Connection Thread – Target Neck]
The shadow creature lunged forward.
Auron moved faster.
He sliced the arm clean off.
It hissed, not in pain, but in rage.
Mira stabbed from behind, piercing the torso.
The thing split in half—only to reform a second later.
"We can't kill it unless the boy breaks the link," Mira shouted.
Auron turned to him.
"You have to let go."
The boy clutched the mask.
Tears ran from one eye, the only one still human.
"I can't," he sobbed. "It's all I have left."
The creature lunged again.
This time, Auron didn't dodge.
He jumped past it—straight to the boy.
Then, with one motion, he grabbed the mask.
And tore it off.
The boy screamed.
The mask shattered in his hand like glass.
The creature froze mid-strike.
Then collapsed into ash.
Silence returned.
The boy passed out.
Auron knelt beside him, breathing hard.
The system buzzed.
\[New Mask Variant Destroyed – Residual Energy Absorbed]
\[Connection to Whispering Mask: 11%]
\[Corruption Level: 14% – Stable]
Mira sheathed her blade.
"You shouldn't have touched it," she said.
"I had to," Auron replied. "He wouldn't survive the bond."
She looked at him for a long moment.
"You're changing. Faster than I expected."
Auron stood, holding the broken fragments.
"So is the Abyss."
And far below, deeper than even the Drift, something stirred.