Kai's breath caught in his throat the moment his fingers brushed against the black chest. A pulse ran through it. Something slow and steady, but very wrong. Something that went against the natural course of life and death.
The surface was slick with an unnatural warmth, the wood subtly shifting under his grip like living flesh.
Orlin gave him an amused glance. "Feel that?"
Kai nodded stiffly. "It's… alive?"
"In a way." Orlin's grin widened, ever so slightly. "The soul within has corrupted the vessel that once held it. The chest is no longer just an object. It's a mimic. A creature that is both prison and prisoner. Your task is twofold. Destroy the soul within… and survive."
Kai barely had time to process those words before the box shuddered violently in his grasp. He instinctively yanked his hands back as the wood groaned, splitting apart at the seams. Hinges bent and warped, the once-small container stretching grotesquely as it grew, expanding like a thing being born.
