"Hey, Erika."
Cole still maintained that exaggerated one-handed "telescope" pose against his brow, not even turning his head. His voice drifted oddly amid the restored bustle of the street.
"Do you believe in ghosts in this world?"
Ghosts?
The word dropped like an ice pellet into Erika's overheated mind, tense with confusion.
Not an abstract concept.Not a curse used as metaphor.
But something far more… folk-like. Direct.Images of lingering spirits, wandering phantoms—shadows that should not exist, yet refused to leave.
Related to "ghosts," he vaguely remembered there were also things like… monsters? But those ideas were distant, indistinct.
What truly flashed through his mind was something far more tangible—something that carried the stench of blood and rot.
"You mean… the Blighted?"
Erika's voice came out dry and brittle. His left hand unconsciously clenched the empty cuff of his right sleeve.
"There's nothing more terrifying than that."
Creatures that wandered the borderlands, devouring life and leaving behind only shriveled husks…That was the closest thing to "ghosts" in his understanding.
Cole finally lowered the imaginary "telescope" and turned around, leaning his back against the wall as he stood shoulder to shoulder with Erika.
He tilted his head, studying Erika's taut profile.
The playful smile on his face twisted into something strange—mixed with anticipation, and a hint of almost cruel excitement.
"Then watch closely," Cole said.
His voice dropped, each word clear and deliberate, carrying the solemnity of someone about to reveal either a miracle—or a brutal truth.
Then he let out a short laugh.
"Hahaha."
The sound was quickly swallowed by the street's noise.
Erika didn't understand.But Cole's demeanor made him tense up involuntarily, his attention snapping toward the "busy" crowd ahead.
Hawkers shouting.Conversations overlapping.Footsteps on stone.
Familiar sounds wove together into a living backdrop.
People in all kinds of clothing moved along the cobblestone road—stopping at stalls, entering and exiting shops. Slanted sunlight bathed everything in a warm golden sheen.
Normal.Utterly normal.
Without those two screams—so shrill they had pierced the eardrums—this truly could have been nothing more than an ordinary evening in Darenz's inner city.
Erika widened his eyes, forcing himself to look. To distinguish.
Faces—tired, numb, shrewd, pleased… all perfectly "normal."Movements—walking, carrying, bargaining, eating… nothing out of place.
Ghosts?Where?
The Blighted?Impossible, on such a clean and prosperous street.
Was Cole just messing with him?
Or were those screams truly just an accident—and Cole was merely using the moment to deliver yet another one of his inexplicable "lessons"?
Cole had pushed him against the wall and told him to watch closely.
Erika's heart pounded as his thoughts raced.
From this position—partially blocked by the wall, yet offering a clear view of the street—he was supposed to see something.
Something… unusual.
Had Cole anticipated it?
Before he could think further—
Cole suddenly snapped his head around.
The movement was so fast it almost whistled.
That smiling face surged into Erika's vision without warning, filling his field of view at terrifying proximity.
"Hhk!"
Erika jolted violently, his back slamming harder against the icy wall, nearly crying out.
"Boss," he swallowed hard, forcing his voice steady despite the lingering shock and irritation."That's not scary. And it's not funny."
Cole didn't react.
His smile didn't change at all.
His eyes stared straight at Erika—but the focus seemed to pass through him, landing on the wall behind… or somewhere else entirely.
The expression froze in that instant, like a suddenly stiffened mask locked into an eerie curve.
In those suffocating seconds of Cole's abrupt stillness—
Skritch… skritch…
A sound—extremely faint, yet unnaturally clear—cut through the surrounding footsteps, chatter, and rustling goods.
It was strange. Like coarse fabric—or something worse—scraping rapidly across stone.
It came from Erika's left.
Just beyond the edge of his peripheral vision.
Every hair on Erika's body stood on end.
He tore his gaze away from Cole's frozen face. His neck turned like a rusted hinge—stiff, yet frighteningly fast—as his vision snapped left.
Something was there.
Just a few steps away.
Pressed tight against the base of the opposite wall.
Moving with impossible speed.
Floating past—
No.
Scuttling.
A disheveled figure in tattered, colorless clothes.
Four limbs on the ground.Head hanging low.Long hair nearly sweeping the stones.
She crawled forward at terrifying speed.
Her movements were disturbingly coordinated—yet unnaturally rigid. Her body stayed close to the ground, gliding with horrific steadiness, driven by a single-minded, reckless momentum.
She scuttled forward in a straight, silent line—so fast that broken afterimages burned into the retina.
She slammed straight into the ankle of a pedestrian who was counting coins with his head lowered.
The man only stumbled slightly.
He didn't look down.Didn't react.Didn't show the slightest hint of surprise or offense.
As if he had merely tripped over a loose stone.
He frowned, continued counting his coins, completely indifferent—as though the rapidly crawling humanoid either didn't exist…
Or simply wasn't worth noticing.
Erika stared at the figure as it vanished around the next corner.
His mouth hung slightly open.He couldn't breathe.
Back pressed against the cold wall.Beside him stood Cole—who had just unfrozen, now smiling faintly.
Before them, an utterly incompatible horror played out in silence, buried within "normal" noise.
What… was that?
Then—
A flash of white burst into Erika's vision.
Cole.
At some point, he had already broken free of that frozen stillness.
He shot forward like an arrow released from the bow, sprinting toward the corner where the crawling figure had disappeared.
His white robe snapped violently in the rush of motion, carving a stark, decisive line through the still-normal flow of colorful pedestrians.
He was fast.
In just a few steps, he shoved past several bewildered passersby. His figure blurred—and then vanished around the corner, chasing after the thing.
From Cole's sudden launch to his disappearance—
Barely two or three heartbeats passed.
Erika remained frozen in place, his back still against the wall, eyes fixed blankly on the now-empty corner.
The uninterrupted clamor of street life poured into his ears—utterly oblivious to what had just occurred.
Run?Chase?Stay here?
Thoughts surged and burst like bubbles in boiling water.
Stay here?
On this seemingly prosperous yet deeply wrong street—where people ignored things crawling along the ground?
Wait for nightfall?
Then…
No.
Erika sucked in a sharp breath. The cold air burned his throat.
His left leg pushed off the wall.
He glanced around once more—sunlight, crowds, shops, aromas—all so normal it made his skin crawl.
No one looked at him.No one cared about the white figure who had rushed off.No one noticed the pale, one-armed boy pulling himself free from the wall.
He could not stay here alone.
That thought crushed everything else.
He clenched his teeth.
His empty right sleeve swung awkwardly behind him as he moved.
Left leg forward. Then right.
He started running.
The first few steps were clumsy, struggling to move through the dense crowd. But he quickly found the gaps—ducking low, weaving between people, mimicking Cole's earlier movements.
His eyes stayed locked on the corner where Cole had vanished.
The white figure was long gone.
But he had to follow.
He sprinted toward the corner.
Snatches of conversation, vendors' shouts, children's laughter—all of it dissolved into meaningless, irritating background noise.
His world narrowed to that corner ahead—
And whatever waited beyond it.
And Cole.
He darted past an old man carrying a fish basket, the stench hitting his nose—
Then—
He turned the corner.
A narrow alley opened before him, dimmer beneath the shadow of taller buildings.
The crowd thinned, though a few scattered pedestrians remained.
The alley stretched forward, leading toward a slightly wider intersection ahead.
And there—
About a dozen paces away—
That familiar, grimy white.
Cole's back.
It flickered in and out of view as he continued moving fast.
Caught up.
A wave of relief washed over Erika—only to be immediately replaced by sharper anxiety.
He didn't dare call out.
He only pumped his legs harder, chasing that speck of white with everything he had.
Cobblestones flew beneath his feet.Shadows slid past his sides.
He didn't know where Cole was going.What that scuttling thing truly was.Or what awaited them ahead.
He only knew this—
Right now, that moving speck of dirty white was his only living direction markerin the eerie, "prosperous" Darenz inner city—where hidden terror lurked beneath normalcy.