Night in the Restless Chapel was never silent.
Even in its ruin, the stone seemed to breathe with the forest groaning softly as wind crawled through its cracks, sighing as if haunted by prayers long since abandoned. The fire had burned low. Shadows stretched across the walls like living things.
Ash lay on the cold floor, wrapped in an old cloak, unable to sleep.
Something in him churned. That strange hum beneath the skin, that second heartbeat pulsing from somewhere deeper than flesh. He stared at the crumbling rafters, wondering if sleep would ever come.
It didn't.
Instead it came.
The ground trembled.
Not gently.
Not subtly.
A step.
Then another.
Thorne was already on his feet before the sound had fully formed. His axe was in his hands, eyes narrowed at the chapel door.
Lysira whispered a spell under her breath, her hand glowing faintly as her other reached for her satchels.
Kael stepped forward silently, sword drawn. His eyes glinted in the firelight.
The door burst inward.
Wood exploded. Iron screeched.
And through the shattered entrance came something bigger than anything they'd seen in the forest.
It had the shape of those other monsters elongated limbs, eyeless face, joints bent wrong but its body was larger, thicker, layered in twisted plates of blackened bone. Its clawed feet cracked the stone with every step. From its maw poured a low, echoing growl, like a furnace exhaling in rage.
The others had been spawn.
This was something older.
Meaner.
Thorne didn't wait.
He charged with a roar, swinging his axe with wild fury. The blade met the beast's forearm and bit deep bone cracked, black ichor spraying.
The monster didn't flinch.
It turned and swatted Thorne aside with a single backhanded blow.
Like a god striking a child.
Thorne slammed into the far wall with a crunch, crashing through broken pews and landing in a heap. He groaned, but didn't rise.
Lysira turned readying a ward, hands trembling. The monster roared and charged her, claws wide.
Kael moved.
He stepped in front of Lysira just in time, both hands gripping his blade as the monster's massive claw came down.
Steel met shadow.
Kael caught it.
The impact sent dust and fire spiraling outward. Kael's boots scraped along the stone as he pushed back, veins straining. The claw trembled just above Lysira's head, shaking with pressure.
He growled through his teeth. "I won't let you touch them."
The monster pressed harder.
Kael's arms shook.
And Ash stood frozen.
The weight in his chest was there. The power. But it wouldn't move. Wouldn't answer. Fear locked his limbs like chains.
"Ash!" Lysira shouted, throwing something toward him.
A staff.
He caught it, nearly dropping it as its polished wood vibrated in his grip. A gem pulsed at its tip like a heartbeat, flickering between colorless light and deep black.
"Focus!" Lysira cried. "Everything you have everything! Channel it into the staff!"
The monster roared.
Kael's arms buckled.
Ash screamed and poured the storm inside him into the staff.
The air fractured.
Stars blinked into existence behind his eyes. Space twisted. The staff trembled violently, then released.
A beam of ancient, cosmic energy shot from the gem, striking the monster in the chest.
The blast tore stone from the floor. It struck with the force of collapsing suns. Light poured out in spirals, swallowing half the chapel.
The creature shrieked.
It crashed back into the altar smoke rising from its torn chest. The church cracked beneath the weight of the blow.
Ash fell to his knees, gasping.
Silence.
Then movement.
The monster stirred.
It rose.
Ragged.
Enraged.
Its claws bled black steam, bones cracked back into place. The attack had not ended it.
Only awakened its fury.
Kael stepped forward, face grim.
He took a deep breath, raised his sword, and spoke not just to the monster, but to the dark, the heavens, the boy, the world.
"I am Kael," he said, voice calm and resolute. "Knight of the Crimson Path. And I will not stop until my mission is complet and everyone is safe."
His blade glowed.
Not with light but with molten heat.
A red-orange glow pulsed from the runes carved into the steel, dripping like lava. The heat cracked the ground beneath him. Fire kissed the edges of his cloak.
Kael raised the sword in both hands.
The monster lunged.
And Kael swung.
The blade roared.
It came down with a booming crack, like the sky splitting open.
The monster's body cleaved from shoulder to rib, black ichor gushing in waves. It stumbled, gurgled, and collapsed in a ruin of bone and smoke.
The chapel fell still again.
Ash dropped the staff.
Lysira lowered her hands.
Thorne groaned from the far side of the room, muttering curses.
Kael exhaled, planting the sword tip against the stone, the glow fading.
"We'll need to move camp tomorrow," he said, wiping sweat from his brow. "They'll have felt that."
Ash sat down hard, body trembling. For a long time, he said nothing.
Then, barely a whisper: "What… am I?"
No one answered.
Because no one knew