The wind had changed.
It carried no scent, no warmth—only the silence of things watching.
Lira leaned against me weakly, her pale arms still trembling from exhaustion. We hadn't spoken much since the escape from the ritual circle. She just held onto my sleeve like I was the last solid thing in a crumbling world.
And maybe I was.
We moved away from the ravine, the shadows behind us growing darker as if reluctant to let us go. The Spiral cultists had been forced to retreat, but they'd taken something with them.
They left behind a warning.
And a presence.
Even now, I could feel it—beneath the soil, in the trees, behind the quiet hush of every breeze. A pressure like a heartbeat pulsing too slow to hear, but too heavy to ignore.
The Spiral Moon was watching.
We stopped at the edge of a shallow creek. A ruined stone outpost—barely more than a wall and collapsed arch—gave us just enough shelter for a moment's rest. I set Lira down gently.
"You holding up?"
She nodded. "I… I think so."
Her voice was stronger now, but distant. Like part of her still hadn't left the ritual grounds.
"Drink," I said, handing her water from a cracked leather flask I'd scavenged.
As she sipped, I took a breath and called the system again.
"Show me my status."
A familiar shimmer passed across my thoughts.
[STATUS SCREEN – Soulbound Host: Isaac]
Level: 5Race: Unknown (Undead-Linked)Class: NoneTitle: [Revenant]
HP: 80 / 130MP: 10 / 65Strength: 10Agility: 6Endurance: 8Intelligence: 8Willpower: 7Charisma: 1Luck: ???
Recent Gains:+1 STR, +1 AGI, +1 WIL, +1 INT (Soul Echo)+1 END, +10 HP, +5 MP (Architect's Insight)
Ultimate Skills (Rank EX):
Resurrection(Cooldown: 5 Days 12 Hours)
Soul Echo(Passive)
Limit Breach(Passive)
Devourer's Core(Passive/Active)
Architect's Insight(Passive)
Skills:
Clawing Swipe Lv. 1 (Rank D)
Spiral Rend Lv. 2 (Rank B+)
Rot Pulse Lv. 1 (Rank C)
Fragment Memory Lv. 1 (Rank B)
Passives:
Soulbound Vessel
Spiral Resistance I
'I'm growing.'
But so was the danger.
I'd felt the weight behind those masked Spiral elites. They weren't fanatics—they were wielders. Bound by a greater intelligence. The spirals in their masks weren't mere symbols—they were eyes. Portals.
And they'd marked me.
The next encounter wouldn't be a ritual ambush. It would be a hunt.
A challenge.
"You've changed," Lira said suddenly, breaking the silence.
I turned. Her eyes were fixed on me—not with fear, but something stranger. A searching kind of awe.
"You're not like the others I saw in their robes," she said. "Your presence... it fights the spiral. It hurts it."
I blinked. "You can feel that?"
She nodded slowly. "I heard their whispers for days. Couldn't sleep. Could barely think. But since you pulled me out... they're gone."
I said nothing.
But deep inside, I knew why.
Soul Echo, Devourer's Core, and Spiral Resistance had begun to do more than protect me.
They were shaping me.
Twisting me against the spiral's design.
'Not a follower. Not a vessel.'
A fracture.
The Spiral Moon rose overhead—larger than before, painted in smoky light.
Its glow made the broken stones around us gleam faintly.
Then something shifted.
Not the air. Not the trees.
Me.
The moment I'd leveled up, something had stirred within my core. Not a skill. Not a stat. A pull.
Like memory—but not mine.
'Is this Fragment Memory activating?'
I closed my eyes.
And the world tilted.
Flashes. Searing. Distant screams.
I saw a vast hall of stone lit by spirals that bled light. And in the center—a man. No… a being wrapped in pale robes. His head a spiraling crown of bone.
He was chanting in a language that rattled the teeth of time.
Then I saw it:
The Spiral Gate.
Blacker than night. Cracked. Breathing.
A portal sealed with iron brands… and something trying to claw through from the other side.
Then it was gone.
I stumbled back, gasping.
Fragment Memory faded like mist, leaving behind only an echo of fear.
Lira clutched my arm. "What did you see?"
"Something we're not ready for," I said.
"But something that's coming."
And as the Spiral Moon pulsed once more, I knew:
This wasn't a cult.
It was a religion.
And something sacred was trying to break through.