Part 1 -The Inverted Seal
The group began to move.
One of the hunters — the same guy who had mocked Thomas — handed out black adhesive strips with white markings.
— Each strip is linked to your spiritual signature. Helps track vital signs from the surface. If shit goes south, we'll know who dies first.
No one laughed.
— And you, rookie — said another, Renzo, flashing a half-smile as he looked at Thomas — you're in charge of hauling the cores we find, recording what you see… and trying not to die. Cool?
— Sure — Thomas replied, sticking the strip onto his forearm. — Just don't count on me to carry people.
The man shrugged.
— Fair enough.
Lili passed by him in silence and handed over a small device shaped like an hourglass.
— This is a Recorder. It's expensive. Don't break it. It logs Ayvu readings and tracks spiritual surges. If the needle spikes, it means something — or someone — is about to explode near you.
Thomas stared at the tool for a second.
Then clipped it to his belt.
— Thanks.
She didn't answer.
— Five minutes 'til the seal gives way — Lili warned. — Once it opens, we go down. No turning back.
— Oh, and the rookie doesn't even have a rank yet — the man with the patchy beard added. — You guys hear that? He's a self-declared Class E.
Chuckles echoed.
The seal cracked open with a dry snap. Concrete gave way like a rotted lid, revealing a spiraling staircase — crooked and dark, like a throat with no end.
Then came the smell.
Moisture. Rot. But not quite flesh.
It was a stagnant odor, like mold and ancient breath.
Anahi was the first to descend.
Followed by the two jokers — chuckling under their breath, hands already near their weapons.
Lili went next.
Thomas took the fourth spot, then a younger man behind him, and finally Walter, the team leader, bringing up the rear.
They could feel it — the Ayvu in the air was thick, like walking through steam. Oppressive but silent.
The Recorder on Thomas's belt trembled slightly. Like a spiritual seismograph.
He glanced down at it. Then at the crumbling stairs.
Nothing he couldn't handle.
For now.
At the bottom, the stairs opened into a gallery of black stone, supported by cracked columns etched with weathered symbols.
This wasn't a natural cave.
It had been carved.
Constructed.
— This structure… it's ancient — Lili murmured. — Pre-colonial.
— Yandus build things like this? — Thomas asked.
— Some do. Others just twist what already existed. This place… was likely a temple.
The group split into two forward pairs.
Anahi remained beside Thomas.
— Nervous? — she asked casually.
— A little — he answered honestly. — More anticipation than fear.
— Good sign.
They moved through the quiet halls.
Scattered across the ground were strange remnants — rusted tools, carved wooden pieces, cracked masks bearing disturbingly human smiles.
No signs of life.
But the Ayvu in the air was dense.
Like the walls were breathing.
The group turned right.
One of the loud-mouthed men pretended to stumble, and in a clumsy-looking move, flicked a small wooden dart toward Thomas's back.
Thomas didn't turn.
But just before impact, the air around his shoulder rippled.
Ayvu condensed around it like a thin, invisible shield.
The dart bounced off as if it had hit stone.
It landed with a soft thunk.
The group paused. The man scratched his neck and smirked.
— My bad — he said mockingly. — Reflex.
Thomas looked at him with a neutral expression.
— Happens.
But Anahi saw everything.
She saw the ripple.
The precision.
The way Ayvu activated and deactivated in under a second — without flash or sound.
She didn't say a word.
Just walked forward, but noted it.
The rookie wasn't a rookie.
The hallway narrowed. The walls felt… alive. Not literally — but dark veins pulsed faintly beneath the stone surface.
Dense, degenerate Ayvu.
— This place is rotting — grunted the guy with the crossbow, spitting on the ground.
— Maybe it's just your fear stinking up the place — Elias, the larger man, replied with a laugh.
— Scared of what, Elias? The rookie? — Renzo shot a glare at Thomas. — Bet he's never even seen a real Yandu.
Thomas ignored them both.
He hardly even heard them.
Up ahead, the corridor opened into a circular chamber.
Five broken pillars encircled a central pit — deep, dark, like it devoured light itself.
Lili stepped forward and tossed a rock inside.
They waited.
A long drop…
Then a distant clack.
— About twenty meters — she muttered. — Looks ceremonial.
Thomas felt something coming from it. A vibration — not a sound, but a memory.
As if the place had witnessed horrors.
— Find anything? — came a voice behind them.
Walter.
The silent one. Always watching from the back.
— Nothing alive — Anahi said.
— Yet.
They continued forward. Two more rooms.
Then… they saw it.
A wall soaked in dried blood.
But not just any blood — it was deep purple, and it had flowed… upward.
As if gravity had twisted.
— Can Ayvu do that? — Thomas asked.
— It can — the woman with the staff replied. — But not for long. This isn't fresh. And no… it's not just Ayvu. That's human blood. Mixed with distorted flux.
— Distorted flux?
— When a creature's Ayvu becomes unstable, it warps everything around it. Physics starts breaking. Walls crack, shadows move… blood climbs ceilings. This isn't too crazy — it's just Class C. But anything below that… gets weird. I've never seen it firsthand.
Thomas stared at the wall.
He could feel his own Ayvu reacting — faintly. Uneasy.
Anahi stepped forward and touched the purple trail.
— Dry… but still warm — she whispered.
— It's close — said the scarred man. — I can feel it.
Silence fell.
No one drew weapons.
But their eyes searched for angles. Cover. Escape routes.
Anahi glanced at Thomas.
He wasn't tense. Or panicked.
Just… present.
Part 2 – The Shadow Attack
The air thickened — but not from heat or pressure.
The kind of pressure Thomas had learned to recognize.
When your skin prickles, when the atmosphere bends slightly inward — like reality itself is about to break.
The group stopped.
— You feel that? — Anahi whispered, her voice lower than usual.
Lili rolled her shoulders and planted her staff into the ground.
The metal echoed like a bell inside a cathedral.
— It's not just one — Walter said, eyes locked on the corridor ahead. — There are several.
— Several? — Renzo chuckled nervously. — I thought this was a one-core mission?
— They're not real Yandus — Anahi said coldly. — They're shadows.
Thomas turned sharply.
— Shadows?
She nodded.
— Some creatures can project spiritual shadows of others.
Not offspring.
Not clones.
We're talking unstable copies — spawned from corrupted Ayvu.
— And what do they do?
— Kill — Walter answered flatly, as if there was no other possibility.
Thomas frowned.
— Class C Yandus shouldn't be able to create shadows.
The walls began to crack — but not stone.
Color.
Fractures opened at the edges of reality itself.
Dark droplets leaked from the ceiling, like the cave was crying shadows.
And then the sound came. A snap.
Another — like flesh being pulled inside out.
Something was being born — or regurgitated — from the fractured floor.
The shadows emerged.
First one.
Then three.
Five.
Seven.
Their forms were vague — blurry, as if carved from a dream too fast.
Yandus, yes… but smaller.
Deformed.
Rushed into existence.
They laughed — not with sound, but with mouths that shouldn't exist.
Eyes where no soul lived.
Anahi stepped back two paces, calm but ready.
Renzo and Elias moved into defensive formation.
Lili muttered something under her breath, drawing a containment circle.
Thomas scanned the chamber.
The shadows… they were forming a squad.
Tactical. Precise.
— If they're shadows… — Thomas said, adjusting the sensors on his wrist — …that means the summoner's close, right?
Anahi looked at him. Her gaze changed.
Sharper. Curious.
— Exactly.
Part 3 – Contact
The group steadied.
Instinct took over.
The shadows advanced.
The first didn't run — it slid.
A black mass that warped the air around it.
Like ink suspended in water.
Its torso stretched, elongated like a nightmare with no end.
— Left side! — Renzo yelled, pulling the crossbow from his back.
But before he could fire, it struck.
No growl. No warning.
Just a whip-like arm — liquid muscle — aiming straight for Renzo's chest.
Davi, the quiet boy with the floating dagger, summoned cubic constructs and launched them forward.
They deflected the strike by inches.
Renzo hit the ground, rolling.
— Shit!
— Get up! — Walter barked, drawing a curved blade from his back.
He jumped in. No hesitation.
The blade slashed through the shadow's flank.
It felt like cutting into a pressurized sack of fluid.
The shadow imploded, dissolving like smoke torn by wind.
— They've got no bones! — he yelled.
The shadow reformed mid-air, striking back like a spring-loaded beast.
Its arm stretched to three times its length, aiming straight at Walter's ribs.
But Anahi was already moving.
In a blink, she ducked low and embedded a glass dart into the shadow's arm — which had solidified for the strike.
The liquid inside exploded in swirling blue tendrils.
The shadow screamed — but with pressure, not sound.
Everyone felt their ears tighten.
— My grenades work on them — she muttered. — But only for a while.
Another shadow dropped from the ceiling.
A disfigured serpent, falling toward Lili.
But the circle was ready.
She slammed her staff into the floor.
White Ayvu flared upward — forming a vertical wall of light.
The shadow hit it and burned from the inside out — like acid melting bone.
— One… two… three… — she counted under her breath. Timing the barrier's lifespan.
But three more shadows were already closing in.
Renzo fired three arrows.
Two missed.
The third stuck — glowing on impact.
— Marking the dense ones! — he called. — That one with the cracked shoulder? If it gets close, someone dies.
Thomas scanned the scene.
It was controlled chaos.
Walter spun with saber precision, cutting wide arcs.
Renzo moved like a street hunter — shooting, dodging, reloading on the go.
Lili was surrounded by floating spiritual circles, keeping the shadows at bay.
Davi conjured geometric traps — suppressing and boxing them in.
The giant man pummeled any shadow that got too close, fists glowing with Ayvu — he used Ipokan, same style as Hector.
And Anahi?
She moved like she was analyzing the battlefield — not just fighting.
Every dodge, every throw — measured.
And she kept watching Thomas.
The group began pushing back.
One by one, the shadows fell — vanishing like failed illusions.
Until they stopped fighting.
They started vanishing.
Thomas noticed it.
— There's a core nearby! — he shouted. — These things are summoned. The summoner is watching us.
— And how exactly did you figure that out? — Walter grunted, slicing the last one in half.
— Intuition. And maybe a little logic — Thomas smirked. — I'm new, not stupid.
Some of them almost laughed.
But there was no time.
Because just then…
The ground shook.
Not from Ayvu.
Not from shadows.
Something real was coming.
Heavy.
From deep below.
The cave groaned.
Dust fell.
A crack opened in the floor — and from it, a new presence rose.
Anahi narrowed her eyes.
— Now that…
That's the summoner.