Rin's voice cut through the quiet. "Target on the upper ceiling. One twitching."
Lucen snapped back into position.
He stepped forward and peered through the flickering light.
A black shape was clinging to the far corner of the ceiling. No limbs. Just a mass of writhing something, barely visible against the rot-stained surface.
Kell was already moving.
He pulled something from his belt that looked like a baton wrapped in copper runes and extended it with a snap.
Lucen squinted.
'That's gonna be loud.'
He was right.
The moment Kell swung it upward, the rune strip lit bright orange. It hit the ceiling with a crack, and the thing above exploded into ash.
The hallway shook.
A few chunks of rusted pipe dropped to the ground.
Kell stepped back, dusting off his shoulder.
"Clean."
Maika grinned. "I give that a nine. Lost points for property damage."
Rin said nothing. Just lowered her dagger.
Lucen didn't laugh.
He kept staring at the ash cloud as it settled.
The fog thickened in that direction.
Only slightly.
But again, it reached toward him.
Just a single line.
Not aggressive. Just… curious.
He let it reach.
Didn't react.
The moment it touched his ankle, the system flickered again.
[Drift Observation Tag: Adaptive Spell Input Detected]
Local Entity Field: Responsive
Suggestion: Sample Extraction Optional – Risk Rating Unknown
Lucen blinked.
Then closed the window fast.
'Nope. No. Not sampling anything called a local entity field. I don't even know what that means and I already hate it.'
He stepped back into formation.
Didn't say a word.
Maika gave him a sideways glance. "You good?"
"Fine."
"You sure? You got this look like someone just told you your cat joined a cult."
Lucen stared forward. "Just thinking."
'About whether or not the fog is alive. No big deal.'
Kell kept walking.
They followed.
Lucen kept one hand loose near his belt. Not on a weapon. Just close enough to cast without lifting his arm.
'This drift's not right. I can feel it.'
And for once, it wasn't just his paranoia.
—
The hallway bent left.
Lucen stepped lightly, just behind Rin. Every surface around them looked like it had been forgotten for a century.
Stone tiles cracked in patterns too chaotic to be natural. Pipes ran along the upper corners, half-melted into the wall. Some dripped. Some hissed.
The fog thickened.
Not a lot. Just enough to notice.
It hugged the floor tighter now. Not swirling. Not floating. More like creeping. And it kept shifting toward him in small, deliberate pulses, like it was sniffing.
Lucen slowed by a half-step.
The group kept moving.
No one noticed.
His eyes stayed locked on the fog curling around his left boot. It wasn't attacking. Wasn't draining his mana. Just trailing behind like some clingy little cousin that didn't know what personal space meant.
'This is not normal. It's not even pretending to be normal.'
He glanced up.
Maika was still chatting. Something about loot tags and who got dibs on rare sigils. Kell nodded every few seconds like his brain had checked out five turns ago.
Rin kept walking in silence, blade low, scanning corners.
Lucen raised his hand slightly.
Just a twitch of the wrist.
A harmless glyph flickered into place. Basic structure. No cast. Just a holding rune he could cancel any time. A little arc loop connected to a dummy pressure point.
The fog reacted instantly.
It lifted.
Curved upward like it was trying to peek over his shoulder.
Lucen stared at it.
'It's reacting to pre-cast glyphs. Before I even trigger them.'
He held it for another second.
The fog shifted again. Not aggressive. Just curious.
Then he let the glyph fade.
The fog sank back.
'Yeah. Not creepy at all. Definitely not going in my "burn everything and run" list.'
He rejoined the group without a word.
Rin gave him a glance. Nothing more.
Maika looked back once. "You good?"
Lucen nodded.
"Your face says you're planning a heist or thinking about bugs. Either way, I don't want details."
He said, "Just tracking the fog pattern."
Kell spoke without turning around. "It's thicker this route. Ash types like to hide in it. Stick together."
Lucen didn't answer.
He just kept walking.
His thoughts were louder than the footsteps.
'The fog isn't just a visual effect. It's got some kind of field awareness. Not like a living thing. More like a sensor. A layer.'
He opened the system again. Quietly. Just the drift readout.
[Arcane Ash Drift: Active]
Passive Entity Field Detected
Spell Sync: Unregistered
Optional: Begin Behavioral Mapping
Risk Rating: Grey – Nonaggressive
He blinked at that last line.
'Nonaggressive for now. So what happens when it stops being curious?'
The hallway narrowed again. Ahead, the wall shifted from concrete to rusted steel. New tiles had strange ridges, it almost clawed.
Maika's voice dropped. "There's a glow up ahead. Possible spawn zone."
Kell nodded. "Brace. Two ticks out."
Lucen flexed his hand behind his coat.
Primed Gravitic Snap.
Just in case.
The fog around his boots lifted again.
But only his.
He didn't speak.
Didn't blink.
Just thought, 'Okay. Let's see if you're watching. Or waiting.'
—
The hallway ended at a yawning chamber.
It looked like a collapsed train platform. Cracked tiles formed uneven steps down to a wide open floor with broken pillars, old signage warped into jagged shapes, and pieces of what used to be benches half-swallowed by drift growth.
The fog clung heavier here. Pale gray. Muffled. Wet, like the room was breathing.
Lucen stayed near the entrance.
The others moved forward in a loose triangle. Kell took point, boots heavy on the stone. Maika held the left side, her scarf already caught on a bit of pipe. Rin flanked right, knife loose in one hand, eyes darting between shadowed corners.
Lucen didn't move.
His fingers hovered near his belt. He didn't need to grab anything. He could cast without reaching. But habit liked having something to pretend with.
His system flickered in the corner of his vision.
[Warning: Passive Echo Detected]
Drift Field Response Active – Source Unstable
He dismissed it.
The room stayed quiet.
Too quiet.
Then the first sound came.
A wet scrape. Right side. Near the back pillar.
Rin tensed.
Maika whispered, "We got company."
Kell said, "Hold."
Lucen squinted through the fog.
Movement.
Small. Crawling. Something slumped down from the ceiling like melted paper soaked in oil. Limbs didn't move right. No symmetry. Just too many angles folded into each other.