CHAPTER 5 : Echoes in the Mist

My heart skipped a beat as a cold chill ran down my spine.

Whatever that thing was, it had been waiting.

The air around us felt heavier than before, thick with something unnatural. Even the mist seemed wrong—too still, too aware. For a moment, there was only silence… and then the sound.

A low, hungry growl echoed from the darkness.

Something moved within the shadows.

It wasn’t a clean entrance, not like anything human or beast. It formed itself out of the mist, piece by piece, as if reality was struggling to decide what it was supposed to be. One moment it wasn’t there… and the next, it was.

Not fully human.

Not fully monster.

Something in between.

Its body shifted in ways that didn’t make sense. Its movements were swift but broken—like glitches in the world itself. Each step felt unstable, as if it could vanish and reappear somewhere else at any moment. The shadows clung to it, but they didn’t hide it. They obeyed it.

Then it laughed.

A quiet, unsettling sound that didn’t belong in the battlefield.

Lexia stepped forward slightly, her voice sharp despite the tension.

“Who are you?”

The creature tilted its head, as if studying us like prey it had already chosen.

“We’ve been waiting,” it said softly. Its voice was calm… too calm. “If I can just take a piece of you… I will gain immortality.”

My stomach dropped.

That wasn’t a normal monster. It wasn’t speaking like an animal or a mindless beast. It understood us. Worse—it wanted something from us.

“Licking it… or tearing it out,” I thought I heard it murmur under its breath, like it was deciding how to feed.

The air around me tightened. My instincts screamed at me to move, to run, to fight—anything but stay still.

Something about it was wrong. Not just strong… different. I could feel it in the way it stood there, as if it didn’t belong to the same rules as the rest of the creatures we had fought before.

Then Claire shouted behind me.

“Get behind me now!”

Her voice broke the tension like a blade.

I moved instantly.

My hands were shaking, my breathing uneven. I could feel Alaze inside me trembling too, her presence reacting to the danger. We weren’t separate right now—we were connected, and fear was bleeding through both of us.

I tried to steady myself.

Focus. Observe. Survive.

But the feeling wouldn’t leave.

Something was watching—not just the creature in front of us, but something deeper in the mist. Something I couldn’t see, but could feel, like eyes pressing against my thoughts.

And then everything snapped.

The creature moved.

One moment it was standing still… and the next it was already in motion, launching forward with terrifying speed. The air cracked with its movement, and the mist scattered violently as it came for us.

I barely had time to react.

“I thought I was done for,” I remember thinking.

But before the strike landed—

A blaze of light cut through the darkness.

The attack stopped mid-motion.

Silence returned, heavy and confusing.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw her.

Claire.

She was standing there like nothing had happened, but something had changed in the air around her. Something unspoken. Unseen. The creature had stopped too, as if it had recognized something it didn’t like.

I forced my voice out.

“What happened…?”

Claire didn’t answer.

She just looked at me.

And smiled slightly.

“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “Maybe it’s a miracle.”

Her laugh was light—but her eyes weren’t.

I stared at her, my chest tight.

Because I could feel it clearly now.

Something was hiding.

And it wasn’t just the monster.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***