Aiden froze.
That voice didn't belong here.
Not on Floor 2.
Not in this nightmare.
"Elara…?" he whispered.
A dim blue glow flickered ahead.
Aiden forced himself up, wincing as the half-broken gauntlet sparked. He kept one hand against the wall of roots as he walked toward the voice.
The glow brightened.
Someone stepped into view.
Elara.
Dust-covered, limping slightly, uniform torn, but alive.
She held a faintly glowing orb in her hand—an emergency student item used only when someone was on the brink of death.
Her eyes widened when she saw him.
"Aiden? You survived… the fall?"
"Barely." He swallowed. "How are you even alive?"
Elara didn't answer immediately.
Her eyes darted behind him, toward the collapsed chamber he had escaped from.
"You didn't… see anyone else, did you?" she asked quietly.
"No. Why?"
Elara looked away.
"That room… wasn't empty when I got there."
Aiden's stomach tightened.
"What happened?"
She hesitated, then shook her head. "Later. When we're somewhere safer."
The tunnel behind her opened into a larger cavern, filled with thick fog that crawled along the ground.
Aiden entered cautiously.
The fog moved unnaturally, swirling around their legs like it was alive.
The System pinged:
[Floor 2 Sub-Zone: Echo Mist Cavern]
[Primary Hazard: Auditory Illusions]
Before Aiden could react—
voices whispered from the fog.
Dozens of them.
Some crying.
Some laughing.
Some screaming.
Elara stepped closer to him. "Don't listen. The illusions try to break your focus."
Aiden forced himself to block the whispers out… until he heard one that wasn't like the rest.
"Aiden… help me…"
A child's voice.
His face went pale.
He heard it again—
closer this time.
"Aiden… why didn't you help me?"
His breath went cold.
The System responded instantly:
[WARNING
Psychological Attack Detected]
[Subject's Memory Targeted]
Elara grabbed his arm. "Ignore it. It's lying. If you react, it gets worse."
But Aiden wasn't listening.
Because the voice whispered again—
"…Brother…"
Aiden stopped moving.
That word pierced him like a blade.
Brother.
But Aiden didn't have a brother.
He only had—
No.
His chest tightened.
His vision flickered.
The fog thickened around him, curling upward like hands trying to choke him.
Elara pulled him back sharply. "Aiden! Snap out of it!"
The fog recoiled when she touched him.
She dragged him deeper into the cavern until the whispers weakened.
Aiden leaned against the wall, sweating, heart racing.
Elara looked at him with concern.
"The Echo Mist shows you the memory that hurts most. That's how it kills people."
He didn't reply.
He couldn't.
The System buzzed again:
[Mental Resistance +1]
[New Weakness Logged: Unknown Sibling Memory]
Aiden clenched his jaw.
Unknown sibling memory?
He tried to push the thought out of his mind, but the damage was done. The whispers had hooked something deep.
Before he could question Elara further, a loud crack echoed through the cavern.
Both of them snapped their heads toward the tunnel entrance they came from.
The roots trembled.
Footsteps—heavy, uneven—echoed closer.
Elara's face drained of color.
"That sound… no. It can't be."
Aiden grabbed her wrist. "What is it?"
Elara whispered like she was afraid the cavern might hear her:
"The Guardian.
It's not dead."
Roots snapped violently in the distance, drawing nearer.
But something was wrong—
The footsteps weren't steady.
They dragged.
Scraped.
Like the creature was injured beyond recognition… but still moving.
Aiden stepped forward, lifting the damaged gauntlet.
The System flickered red:
[WARNING
Guardian signature approaching at abnormal trajectory]
Aiden tightened his stance.
Then a voice—raspy, distorted, but unmistakably human—echoed from the tunnel:
"Aiden Vale…
You… shouldn't have hit me."
Aiden's blood froze.
The Guardian was speaking.
Speaking in a human voice.
And worse—
It knew his name.
Elara whispered, trembling:
"That… that's impossible."
Aiden whispered back:
"No. It's coming."
The roots behind them exploded as something crawled into the cavern—
Not the Guardian.
Not fully.
A half-ruined body, bones cracked, one eye missing…
…wearing a shredded student uniform.
Aiden's entire world stopped.
The Guardian hadn't chased him.
This was one of the students—
But twisted.
Warped.
Consumed.
And it smiled with a mouth that wasn't human anymore.
"Aiden…
Your turn…"
It launched at him.