The door was opened just a crack, silently, and the two slipped back into the cold, night-drenched corridor.
The castle was colossal from the inside as well—built from black stone, with towers rising toward the sky.Blood-red moss crawled along the walls as if the fortress itself were made of living flesh.To their right and left, swarms of phantoms drifted through the air.
The fetus-like spirits—the same ones that devoured Cassadee's skin—floated beneath the walls,gray and translucent, twisted embryos with tendrils and bone-like teeth.
The red moon painted them crimson.
"Stay as far from those as possible… not even the seal can reflect that many, they would eat us alive," Rintal whispered.
"I agree," Areday replied quietly.
Phantoms were everywhere, but the two thieves had learned through the years how to blend with shadowsand move in silence, unseen by almost everything.
As they crept along the corridor and ascended to the first floor,the wind caught the banner of the Sons of the Dawns' ship—visible from a distant window on the opposite side of the island from their shipwreck.
On the black cloth, a cracked sun-disc was painted in silver oil,its jagged rays stretching outward.Behind it a thin, razor-sharp crescent moon curved downward,as if trying to slice the sun in half.
A blood-red stripe ran across the bottom of the banner—as if someone had slaughtered the sky with it.
Silver runes shimmered along the side of the ship in the red moonlight—the protective marks of the mages.
Rintal and Areday continued.Every step was calculated, measured.They moved in perfect unison—as if they had been forged together like twin blades.
Phantom swarms drifted above them, unnoticed.
Or so they believed.
Rintal and Areday kept moving.Their synchronized steps echoed softly—two shadows gliding as one.
As they moved from the first floor toward the second—
Silence.Darkness.Slow steps.And then…
Something approached.
The air grew colder.The silence shifted—too perfect, too uniform.
They felt it tighten in their chests.
Areday's expression hardened.
"Brother… something—"
No time to finish.
Three phantoms appeared at the end of the corridor.Their twisted, translucent bodies drifted forward as if the air had turned to water.
Rintal spun around.
Two emerged from the shadow behind them.Two along the walls.Three descending from the ceiling.
A full circle.Closing in silently—predators savoring their prey.
"We're surrounded…" Areday whispered.
Rintal stepped forward, his face carved into cold determination.
"Then we break out."
The first phantom lunged.Its tendril-arm extended into a shadow-blade, slashing toward Rintal.
Rintal leaned aside with effortless precision and stabbed upward, piercing its head.
The second surged from behind.
Areday stepped forward, twisted his body aside, and sliced through the phantom's "spine,"where the black energy pulsed.
The creature screamed silently and dissolved.
Two phantoms attacked Rintal at once.He pushed off the wall, flipped upward,and slid between them—decapitating both in one fluid movement.
Areday fought three at once.
He ducked the first strike, leapt aside from the second,and grabbed the third phantom's body—slamming it into a wall so hard the crumbling stone collapsed over the nearby stairs.The phantom smeared apart like smoke.
He threw two knives into the other two,then dashed forward—slashing one across the faceand punching the other with a brutal right hook,followed by a left that tore its head clean off.The phantom screamed until its body disintegrated.
The fourth phantom darted straight at him—Areday rolled aside mid-air, rotated his dagger,and plunged it into the creature's core.
It collapsed like burning ash.
Rintal was struck by two at the same time.One blade cut his left shoulder, the other sliced his right leg.The seal's crimson glow flickered.
But Rintal reacted with the same rage as against the werewolves—a bloodlust rising.
He lunged forward, slid along the floor, spun,and stabbed upward through a phantom's torso.
He leapt onto the next one—pressing the seal to its "face."A burst of red energy exploded outward from his hand,obliterating the creature from within.
Silence.
Only dust and curling shadow-smoke remained.
Rintal and Areday gasped for breath.
Areday wiped phantom "blood" from his face.
"That… wasn't easy."
"There will be more," Rintal rasped.
"You're badly hurt, Rintal?" Areday asked.
"It's nothing. I'm already healing."He activated the seal with his will—but a sudden stab of pain shrieked through his skull,forcing him to stagger.
"Hold on, brother," Areday said softly."We'll get out of here, and I'll find a way to heal you. We always survive everything together."
"I'm trying, Areday… but I feel—"
A vision struck him.
Zofia.The tragedy.And then—
Areday, smiling like a lunatic, staring at the corpses of their friends:
"Why save the hopeless if they can't save themselves?"
"No… no, no… I don't believe it," Rintal muttered, grinding his teeth, clawing at his hair like a maniac.
Areday placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled—a smile dripping with blood.
"If I must… I will kill you too, if you are useless."
Rintal froze in shock.
Areday wiped his face clean and repeated:
"If I must… I will always protect you, my Twin."
"We must hurry," Rintal said."If I leave this place alive, I don't know how long I'll hold on. This thing… it wants me to kill you."
A cold, metallic voice sliced through his skull:
"Friend. False. Liar. Disappointment."
"Brother, let's keep moving. Please," Areday urged.
Rintal no longer leaned on him.
"Then let's reach the highest point," Areday answered.
They looked up at the staircase—collapsed during the battle.
Beside the shattered steps, a hole in the wall had opened,revealing a narrow exit.
"Look, Brother—here. We can climb outside," Areday said."This way we avoid unnecessary fights."
Rintal nodded.
A narrow crack led outside—just wide enough for two trained thieves.
Areday slipped through first, tilting his body sideways.The outer wall was cold, rough stone, covered in moss and creeping fungus,as if the castle had been rotting for centuries.
Rintal followed.
The red moon drowned the world below them—a sick, swollen disc bleeding over the sea.The dark waters smashed against the cliffs like black blades.
Shadows circled the walls.The embryo-spirits hunted beneath them,guided by an invisible will.
"Brother… there's no turning back now," Areday whispered.
Rintal nodded, the seal burning faintly.
"Let's move."
Areday climbed first, always maintaining two anchor points—silent, methodical, a master thief.
Rintal followed.
Below, heavy, crashing sounds echoed through the castle—something charging through the halls, tearing stone apart.
"Do you hear that?" Areday whispered.
Rintal nodded.The seal trembled.
He climbed higher and reached a gaping window—and when he looked down, he saw it:
The Pack Leader.Breaking into the temple's main chamber.
But it no longer looked like the beast from the shore.
Now—
black bone-plates grew across its ribs
blood-fog leaked from its jaws
its eyes were glowing, molten yellow slits
its claws were longer than sword-blades
and from its teeth seeped black vapor—as if demons breathed through it.
Dozens of embryo-spirits hung from its body—its trophies, its kills.
It ripped the walls apart like paper.The temple columns shook as its roar exploded outward:
"AAaAARRGHHHRRRRR—!"
The entire castle trembled.Even the outer wall shook beneath Rintal and Areday.
"We should hurry," Areday hissed.
"You don't need to tell me twice," Rintal replied.
As they climbed higher along the crumbling wall,they reached a narrow ledge.
There—between two decrepit towers—stood two figures bathed in the red moonlight.
Their cloaks fluttered quietly,their posture radiating lethal confidence.
They had witnessed the Pack Leader's entry—and their eyes gleamed like hungry predators.
The taller man—Gnatz
colossal, broad-shouldered framea long, black, battle-torn cloaka massive greatsword strapped to his back—wider than any mortal's chestancient runes and scars carved into its grip
his face covered in deep, intersecting scarseyes cold and dead from witnessing too many deaths
Gnatzspoke, his voice deep as an earthquake:
"Xnaider… sweep the entire western wing.The Pack Leader has breached the temple.And someone—or something—fought the phantoms.I doubt they were ours."
"I'll inform Rayuka that his plan is working," he added."The bait has arrived."
Beside him stood Xnaider—slimmer, but far more sinister:
silver ribbed breastplate glowing with faint violet runesblack coat filled with hidden pouches and talismanstwo curved daggers forged from shadow itselfpurple necrotic light flickering behind his eyesa long scar across his face, proudly worn
His movements were assassin-silent—yet carried the cold aura of a necromancer.
Xnaider's voice was sharp and clear:
"Understood, Gnatz.The orb will soon be ours,and Rayuka will finally have the powerto protect our kind from extinction."
"Xnaider took a deep breath, looked at the horizon and the infected village, then answered from the ledge above.""Leave it to me."
Gnatz stopped.
The air grew still—as if the castle itself held its breath.
Slowly…
very slowly…
he turned toward the castle wall.
Exactly where Rintal and Areday were climbing.
His eyes flashed red—as if he sensed the seal's tremor.
"Xnaider…" he said, low and dangerous."Someone… is watching us."
Xnaider instantly gripped one of his shadow-blades.
On the wall, Rintal and Areday froze—like trapped animals feeling the predator's gaze on their backs.
Gnatz stared into the darkness for long, silent seconds.As if he could hear the beating hearts behind the stone.
Then he spoke—calm, certain:
"Let's go."
He stepped back from the ledge.
"If they're here…I will find them."
He paused.
Looked straight down the castle wall.
"I always find them."
No hatred.No rage.Only a monster's unshakeable promise.
Gnatz and Xnaider dissolved into shadow—as if the moonlight itself swallowed them.