Chapter 13—Wraiths in the Walls

She ran.

Her legs carried her swiftly and silently, her body moving with the fluid grace of a natural predator. The stone corridors blurred past her, a dizzying array of ancient ruins and forgotten pathways. Her breath came in quick, panting bursts, her chest heaving with the exertion.

Luna kept running.

The dungeon was enormous and complicated, with many dark spots and dangerous things that were difficult to see. The dungeon had many rooms, and each corridor led to a different one. Still, she felt like she knew each chamber. She felt something...different as she went deeper into the dungeon.

She was easily defeating the skeletons that tried to stop her. She tore them to shreds, ripping off limbs, smashing skulls, and devouring what little remained.

They were weak.

She added their bones to the Hive's resources, while Nemesis gradually trained his skills in the dungeon's recess. Mostly Puppet Strings.

Nemesis could see everything that Luna saw, and Luna was the only 'unit' he had available at this moment. It was also why he sent her on a hunting trip.

She was the one who needed her skills more than anyone. And it would benefit her to level her skills up.

Wave 2 of the Den of the Wraiths and Ghosts will start in ~18 hours. Nemesis didn’t have much time.

She licked bloodless bone dust from her muzzle and pressed forward. Every kill was a message: the Hive’s reach stretched further, and further, and further.

Behind her, invisible threads tugged at the fallen. Nemesis siphoned what little was left—splinters, marrow, fragments of tethered spirit—pulling them into the Hive Core.

She had upgraded and unlocked a few more skills through these battles:

—Bite → Lv. 10

—Claw → Lv. 5

—Tail Whip → Lv. 5

—Endurance → Lv. 10

And——

Hunting Instinct Lv. 1

Passively increases your senses, allowing for enhanced perception of the environment and potential prey.

Loyalty to the Hive Lv. 1

Passively enhances your combat abilities and survivability, fuelled by your devotion to your master, the Hive.

These two had been automatically obtained after Luna had fought enough times.

Nemesis had a few more things he wanted to do before Luna came back.

However, what he was most proud of was something entirely different.

[Thrall Title Unlocked]

Luna has unlocked the title “Skeleton Crusher” for single-handedly killing over 100 skeletons.

Effect:

+15% Physical Attack and Damage against Undead-Type Enemies

“Master?”

I smiled.

—What is it?

“Isn't this place...supposed to be filled with ghosts and spirits?” She hesitated, her ears twitching.

She had only found bones.

The dungeon was eerily silent.

—In some cultures, skeletons are considered a type of ghost, but you are correct. Where are they? There are only skeletons and no ghosts. And it’s been over 6 hours now…

It was strange.

She could not detect any other living or dead thing besides herself and Nemesis.

The whole dungeon felt...empty. It felt as if something essential was missing, something that should have been present but wasn't.

—I guess we are lucky, right?

She wasn't sure what to say. Was she really lucky? Or was it something else, something she didn't understand yet?

“I suppose.”

Luna laid herself down on the floor in the middle of the room; she closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift away from the present moment.

I saw through the eyes of Luna. And suddenly, I was filled with...something. The silence pressed too heavy, too perfect, and then I realized—this wasn’t silence at all. It was the sound of a thousand eyes, watching.

There were so many eyes staring down at Luna.

I could feel their presence all around her.

She could sense it too; her hackles rose and a growl rumbled deep within her throat, but she couldn't see anything. Her ears flattened against her head, and she crouched lower to the ground as she tried to locate the unseen watchers.

Their looks seemed to come at me from all sides, suffocating and pulling me down.

Then it was gone, just as quickly as it had come.

While slowly rising back to her full height, Luna let out a soft whimper and twitched her ears nervously.

There was a problem.

So what did I see when I looked at the world through Luna's eyes?

Everything was distorted and twisted, as if the world itself had warped into a nightmare. Colors dripped and ran, blurring together in sickening kaleidoscopes of hue.

Shadows moved in impossible ways, creeping along surfaces at angles that defied logic, lengthening and shortening with each flicker of light.

Shapes wavered, their outlines uncertain and shifting, as if the world had been rendered in wet paint and was still drying.

Sounds echoed oddly, coming from places they shouldn't have been, rebounding from walls and floors that didn't exist, distorting into garbled gibberish.

And under it all, a sense of malevolence permeated the air—an unseen force that lurked just beyond the edge of perception, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Luna yelped as something touched her shoulder. She spun around, growling and snarling, but there was nothing there—at least, nothing she could see. The sensation lingered, though—like cold fingers trailing across her fur—and sent shivers down her spine.

[Alert! Your thrall—Luna—is under the influence of an illusionary effect.]

An illusion?

Of course...if this was an illusion, that would explain the strange visions. But who or what was creating them?

The air thickened. Not fog, not smoke, but a density in the atmosphere itself—like breathing through water.

Luna staggered, her paws slipping against stone that rippled beneath her like liquid. Her claws skittered uselessly, scraping sparks from the floor.

“Master—” Her voice was ragged, a whisper inside our shared mind. “The walls are moving.”

—I see them.

I didn’t see, not in the conventional sense. Through her eyes, the corridors melted and bled, becoming veins and arteries pulsating with cold luminescence. Every corner, every crack we had passed twisted into a face. Pale, leering faces—empty sockets and gaping maws.

The skeletons had been the prelude. These… these were the ghosts.

[System Alert!]

Hostile Detected: Dungeon Wraith (Tier 1 Specter)

HP: ??? | Type: Incorporeal, Undead | Resistances: Physical | Weakness: Light

Finally.

“Why can’t I bite them?” Luna snapped, her hackles raised, her body low and trembling.

—Because there’s nothing to bite.

The Wraiths drifted closer, their forms half-visible, smeared silhouettes against the air. They didn’t walk. They didn’t crawl. All they did was exist. With every blink, they were drawing nearer.

A single one brushed Luna's flank. With a yelp, she fell to her side. There was no physical injury—no blood or ripped flesh. Instead, like a fire smothered by ash, her black veins flickered—the proof of her appartenance to the Hive.

[Warning!]

Thrall Integrity is compromised. Hive Link Stability: 87% → 74%

The warning flashed, and I was frozen.

Was Luna going to be taken away from me? Panic seized me, and my hideous form writhed next to the Hive Core.

She mattered to me. After only one day, she already mattered so much. I'd rather be eaten alive than lose my first Thrall—lose my...family.

She whimpered, huddling into herself. A sob welled up in my gut, but no tears escaped my hollow eyes. I cursed myself, cursed the system, cursed fate, and I cursed God.

I was losing her.

[Stability: 74% → 62%]

I could see the connection between us weakening.

And she...was scared. Luna was afraid.

Afraid of being alone. Afraid of dying. Afraid of letting go. I was afraid of embarking on a journey that I couldn't pursue. I was afraid of going to a place where I couldn't save her.

No one had saved her before. She had lived a harsh existence, tormented and alone. Then, she died. That was it. There was no more future for her.

Then, I had brought her—somewhat—back.

And she knew.

That I was not God, nor Satan. I was neither an angel nor a demon.

“No!” I roared inside her mind, pulling my Puppet Strings taut. The threads strained, vibrating with impossible resistance. I stretched them through the dungeon, through every inch of darkness. I drew them tight.

But the more I pulled, the more I risked breaking them entirely.

And if she disappeared… Would I ever hear her again? Would she vanish from existence?

I didn't know the rules, which frightened me.

As the strings grew thinner and weaker, my fear became stronger. Terror gripped me in a way I’d never experienced. This loss, this threat of solitude, loomed over me. As a human, I had hated loneliness. Now, it seemed like an insurmountable darkness.

Would it matter to me if she were no longer here?

Of course.

Because I understood her feelings, her thoughts and emotions flooded through our bond. They merged with mine, creating a tempestuous cocktail of despair.

I had to get her away from those wraiths. Far from the ghosts and wraiths.

The closer I was to Luna, the more the wraiths pressed in. They did not fight like beasts. They did not resemble creatures with fangs or claws. They unmade. Each brush of their incorporeal forms shredded her essence, unraveling her thread by thread.

And I realized it then: if they devoured Luna, they would not just kill her. They would steal her from me.