The first disappearance went unnoticed.
A farmer from Riverhold traveling back after trade negotiations.
He never reached home.
Bandits, they assumed.
Then a Talren courier vanished along the eastern forest route.
Then two hunters from a minor banner.
No bodies.
No ransom.
No burned wagons.
Just absence.
The Pattern
Arden brought the reports to Eren three days later.
"Different factions," Arden said, laying out marked tokens across the map.
"Different routes."
"No sign of struggle."
"None."
"Common denominator?"
Arden hesitated.
"All were traveling alone."
Kael frowned.
"That's normal."
"Yes."
"But all were traveling after dark."
Silence.
"And?" Lysa pressed.
Arden's expression tightened.
"They were last seen near woodland areas with high mana density."
Eren's gaze sharpened.
"Predators?"
"Not any known species."
The room cooled slightly.
Stonefall had dealt with slavers.
Coalitions.
Political fracture.
This felt different.
Unstructured.
Unclaimed.
Status Flicker
The System pulsed faintly.
Not a full notification.
Just a flicker.
Eren focused.
Environmental Anomaly Detected
Mana Flux Irregularity – Eastern Woodlands
Classification: Uncatalogued
Uncatalogued.
That word again.
Not faction.
Not army.
Not rebellion.
Unknown.
The First Body
They found him at dawn.
Pinned upright against a tree.
Not mutilated.
Not torn apart.
Drained.
Skin pale gray.
Eyes empty.
A thin black residue around the mouth and nose.
Kael crouched beside the corpse.
"No weapon wounds."
"No bite marks."
"No claw tearing."
Eren knelt.
The ground beneath the body was undisturbed.
No signs of struggle.
It was as if the man had simply—
Stopped.
Lysa scanned the area with a mana lens.
"Residual energy present," she said quietly.
"Not elemental."
"Not conjured."
"Absorbed."
That word hung.
Absorbed.
The Second Discovery
Two hundred meters deeper into the woods—
They found the missing Talren courier.
Same condition.
No violence.
No blood.
Just hollow.
Arden swallowed.
"This isn't bandits."
"No," Eren said.
"It isn't."
The System pulsed again.
Stronger.
New Threat Classification Available
Designation: Mana Consumption Entity
Threat Level: Unknown
Origin: Unknown
Entity.
Not faction.
Not animal.
Something else.
The Survivor
They were almost back to Stonefall when they heard it.
Breathing.
Weak.
A young Riverhold scout lay slumped against a fallen log.
Alive.
Barely.
Kael lifted him carefully.
His pulse was erratic.
Eyes unfocused.
"They were watching," the scout whispered.
"Who?" Eren asked.
"Not who."
The boy's hand trembled, pointing toward the treeline.
"What?"
"They weren't solid."
Silence pressed down.
"They moved between the trees," he rasped.
"Like smoke."
His breathing hitched.
"They didn't attack."
"They just… waited."
"For what?" Lysa asked quietly.
The scout's eyes rolled back.
"For us to stop moving."
Then he passed out.
Back in Stonefall
He survived.
Barely.
But something was wrong.
He didn't heal normally.
Healing magic accelerated tissue repair.
But his mana reserves—
Were gone.
Not drained temporarily.
Gone.
Lysa examined him late into the night.
"It's like his internal mana core was siphoned."
"Can it regenerate?" Eren asked.
"Slowly."
"How slowly?"
She didn't answer immediately.
"…Months."
Silence.
Mana cores didn't just vanish.
Not without catastrophic force.
The Whispering Woods
That night, sentries along the eastern wall reported movement.
Not advancing.
Not charging.
Watching.
Shapes between trees.
Never fully visible.
When torches flared—
Nothing.
But the feeling remained.
Watched.
Eren stood atop the wall long after midnight.
The forest was quiet.
Too quiet.
The System flickered.
Threat Behavior Analysis Incomplete
Observed Pattern:
Targets isolated individuals
Avoids large groups
Avoids direct confrontation
Consumes mana source
Potential Growth State: Early Stage
Early stage.
That was worse.
Kael joined him.
"Not soldiers."
"No."
"Not beasts."
"No."
"Then what?"
Eren didn't look away from the dark treeline.
"Something that feeds."
The Realization
Riverhold relied on fertile mana-rich fields.
Talren used enchanted contracts.
Westreach powered its trade hubs through stabilized mana cores.
Stonefall's defensive nodes ran on woven ley energy.
If something was consuming mana itself—
It wasn't just hunting people.
It was feeding on infrastructure.
The Accord had formed.
Unity fragile but real.
And now—
An enemy emerged that did not care about politics.
It cared about energy.
Kael's voice was low.
"If it grows…"
"Yes."
"It won't stop at travelers."
"No."
"It will test walls."
"Yes."
A thin breeze passed through the valley.
For just a second—
Eren saw it.
Between two trees.
A distortion.
Like heat haze.
Then gone.
The System flared sharply.
Threat Escalation Probability Rising
Recommended Action: Investigate Source
Warning: Prolonged Delay Increases Entity Maturation
Eren exhaled slowly.
War between factions had rules.
Charters.
Negotiations.
Even betrayal followed logic.
This?
This was hunger.
And hunger did not negotiate.