The moon hung like a lone eye in the ink-black sky, its silvery gaze breaking through cracks in the forest canopy. The twisted trees loomed like the gnarled fingers of a corpse, and the only sound was the rapid panting of Anna, her boots crunching against dead leaves and the wet snarl of something terrible behind her.
Her once-pristine uniform was tattered, her side bleeding from a narrow graze, but she didn't stop. She couldn't.Behind her, the Hound of Murkveil, a beast of corrupted sinew and smoky tendrils, crashed through the brush with unnatural speed. Its breath steamed in the cold air. Eyes glowing red with unnatural malice.
Anna glanced back, muttering a curse. "What kind of freakin' fantasy world is this?!"
She leapt over a fallen log—and faltered. Her ankle twisted, pain lancing up her leg as she crashed into the dirt.
The beast pounced.
But a figure dropped from the trees above like a shadow cast by the moon itself. In a heartbeat, a branch swung with brutal force, striking the hound mid-leap. A blast of bark and wind exploded as the creature was slammed sideways into a tree.
Anna blinked up at the boy now standing in front of her protectively.
Disheveled black hair. Eyes too tired for someone his age.A familiar idiot.
"Luke?!"
He turned, panting heavily. "Tch. Thought you could outrun a demon beast with those skinny legs?"
"Shut up—how the hell are you even here?!"
"No time," he grunted. "We'll catch up after we don't die."
The hound was already back on its feet, snarling. Its body morphed and rippled—this was no ordinary monster. It was made of condensed mana, warped into hate. A corrupted familiar.
Luke pulled a jagged dagger from his side, barely magical, the edge chipped. Anna stood despite her ankle, palms glowing faintly with magic—unstable, flickering.
They weren't ready for this.
The fight exploded in a blur of howling, lunges, and glowing strikes. The beast attacked like a thunderstorm—wild, fast, unrelenting. Luke fought recklessly, ducking under its claws, slicing along its side, getting thrown, bleeding. Anna tried to back him up, shooting flares of light from trembling fingers, her magic unpredictable and raw.
The monster nearly gutted Luke—but Anna blasted it back with a surge of mana that burned her fingertips raw.
"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" she screamed, panting.
The forest fell silent. The beast lay twitching, dissolving into smoke, its corrupted spirit finally breaking apart.
They collapsed to the ground, gasping. For a long time, neither spoke.
Then Anna broke the silence.
"…So. You still stalking girls through corridors, huh?"
Luke gave a weak chuckle, brushing dirt from his face. "Old habits die hard."
"You're a creep."
"You're bossy."
"…You're bleeding."
He winced, checking his side. "Not dead, so that's progress."
Anna hesitated, before finally ripping a sleeve and wrapping his wound. Silence passed between them again, filled only by the crackling fire they lit later with half-dry wood.
As Anna finally dozed off beside the flames, Luke sat up.
His gaze drifted skyward.
Narrating to the unseen stars, his thoughts cracked open like the earth before a quake.
"I was following her that day… not in a creepy way, I swear. I just… wanted to tell her how I still felt. That maybe, after all this time, we could fix things.
I blinked, and the world changed. Literally. One moment, I was in the corridor, the next... I was standing in a forest of monsters. No warning, no power-up, no cheat code.
And now here she is again. Anna.The girl I loved.The girl who broke me.
…And I think I'd break all over again, if I had to lose her once more."
His grip tightened on the hilt of the dagger, knuckles white. The wind whispered through the trees like it knew the future.
And in the far distance, hidden in mist, something darker watched.