The edge of the Twilight Glade shimmered with mist.
Beyond the pale, twisted trees, a dark silhouette rose from the fog.
"Is that… a castle?" Milo squinted, shading his eyes.
The structure loomed half-collapsed, moss choking its stone walls. Towers vanished into the low fog, their upper reaches swallowed whole.
Sera stepped closer. "Looks abandoned."
She paused.
"But I don't trust that."
Alex felt it immediately.
Jagged yellow vines crawled along the outer walls, faintly pulsing. Something tugged at the edges of his thoughts—soft, patient.
He looked away.
Not now.
— — —
They entered cautiously.
The interior smelled of damp stone and decay, with a faint metallic undertone. Broken furniture littered the halls. Shields lay split and abandoned, as if discarded mid-flight. Thin seams of yellow light traced cracks in the walls.
"Nothing here is ordinary," the hooded student murmured.
They spread slightly.
Milo examined a collapsed stairwell. "Centuries old. Either forgotten… or avoided."
Sera pried open a moss-choked chest. Inside: a minor elixir, a rusted dagger, a fragment of parchment etched with warped symbols.
Alex stopped at a cracked pedestal.
A dormant rune glimmered faintly beneath the dust.
"Magic," he said. "Sleeping. Or waiting."
— — —
Skittering echoed through the halls.
Horned rabbits burst from the shadows—dozens of them, eyes reflecting dim yellow light.
"Again?" Milo groaned.
The group handled it cleanly.
Sera carved space. Milo broke flanks. Alex struck precisely, conserving movement. The hooded student blocked a charge with a fallen shield, then repositioned without panic.
Moments later, the halls fell quiet again.
"Too easy," Sera muttered.
Alex didn't answer.
The deeper halls felt wrong.
— — —
Yellow vines clung to ceilings and pillars, twitching faintly as they passed. They found shattered armories, collapsed libraries, and a dining hall frozen in decay.
At the center sat a crystalline orb.
Alex lifted it.
The light dissolved.
It wrapped around him.
Not armor—presence.
Weightless. Responsive.
He moved instinctively.
The fabric flowed with him as wings flared briefly before he caught himself.
Milo frowned. "Did it do something?"
Alex flexed his shoulders. "Yeah."
— — —
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
Equipment Acquired: Ethereal Raiment
Classification: Armor
Integrity: Unbreakable
— — —
The robe settled seamlessly over his existing armor, invisible unless it caught the light just right.
Mobility improved.
Control sharpened.
Alex exhaled slowly.
This mattered.
— — —
In the main hall, a mural stretched across the stone.
A masked figure in flowing robes. Hands raised. Yellow vines curling beneath its feet.
Alex's chest tightened.
The tug returned—stronger this time.
He stepped back.
The castle was abandoned.
But it wasn't empty.
— — —
They regrouped in the courtyard.
Fog pressed in thick and cold, swallowing the towers above them.
A leather-bound book lay half-buried near a broken fountain.
Milo eyed it. "That looks cursed."
"It is," a voice said calmly.
The hooded student stepped forward, pulling back her hood.
"I'm Liora."
She knelt, brushing moss aside. "Vorathic script. Corrupted, but readable."
Alex stiffened. "What does it say?"
Liora flipped through the pages. "This was the domain of the Golden Knight. Feared. Ruthless. Entire halls were abandoned after his passing."
Sera frowned. "So he's dead?"
"Maybe," Liora said. "But places remember."
Alex looked back at the mural.
So did vines.
— — —
They left the castle.
Not because they were done—but because staying felt like a mistake.
— — —
The patrol didn't take long to prove why.
Horned wolves emerged from the undergrowth, dozens of them. Weak individually. Dangerous in numbers.
The team moved without orders.
Sera drew attention. Milo cleared paths. Alex struck from blind angles.
Liora raised her staff.
Violet threads unfurled—precise, controlled.
They bound leaping wolves midair and slammed them into the ground without killing them.
Milo blinked. "That's… efficient."
"Tendril Binding," Liora said. "Thread and thought."
The pack broke.
Silence returned.
Something had clicked.
— — —
Later, on a narrow path, rotten wood snapped beneath Alex's foot.
The ground gave way.
Instinct flared.
His wings caught him instantly.
He hovered for half a breath—
Then dropped.
Liora's tendril wrapped around his wrist as he landed.
"You saved me," Alex said quickly.
She froze. "I—what?"
"Perfect timing," he added. "Thanks."
Milo narrowed his eyes.
Sera said nothing.
Liora straightened, pride flickering across her face.
— — —
They moved on.
Alex didn't look back.
The lie sat heavier than the fall.
Not because it was hard—
—but because it had been easy.
— — —
That night, near a small ruin, Alex sat apart from the fire.
The robe shifted subtly with his breathing.
Hidden.
Effective.
Dangerous.
I'm getting sloppy, he thought.
The truth pressed in—not from the system, not from the vines—but from himself.
The Twilight Glade watched silently.
And somewhere beneath the fog, patience waited.
— — —