❖❖❖
The fog moved like breath.
Kaen gripped Emberfang tight as the team of five approached the silent village of Reedlight Crossing. Once a lively trade hub, it now sat eerily still beneath a heavy white mist. No birds. No carts. No sound except the wind.
"This is wrong," muttered Yurei, the youngest scout, eyes darting.
"Stay close," Daizo ordered, sword half-drawn. "Watch the shadows."
Kaen felt his heartbeat in his throat. He could sense it — a pressure. Not weight, but a vibration in the air. A presence that made his fire stir uneasily within his chest.
Mira had told him the cursed left behind echoes.
This place screamed with them.
They passed the main gate, its warding sigils shattered and burned.
Inside, bodies lay scattered — some huddled, others torn open as if something had erupted from within. Blood painted the walls. But what chilled Kaen most… were their faces.
Smiling.
Every corpse wore a twisted, blissful grin.
"What kind of Gloamspawn does this?" he whispered.
Daizo knelt beside one, eyes narrowed. "Not a common breed."
"It's feeding on emotion," said Ashen Blade Rika, flame-reader. "Joy. Euphoria. It intoxicates them before devouring them."
"Like… a nightmare that makes you want to die?" Kaen asked.
She nodded.
"And worse… you beg it for more."
They advanced through the empty streets. The deeper they went, the louder the whispers became.
Not real whispers.
But inside their minds.
Kaen heard Mira's voice calling his name. Heard his father laughing. Heard the sounds of Ember Hollow, alive again — the market, the blacksmith, the temple bell.
He shook his head. It wasn't real.
Yurei, however, wasn't so lucky.
"Mother?" he whispered. "Is that you?"
He ran.
"Yurei! No!"
But the fog swallowed him.
Seconds later, they heard the screaming.
Then silence.
Kaen surged forward, ignoring Daizo's warning. He found Yurei crumpled in a side alley — alive, but shaking violently.
His eyes were rolled back. His mouth smiled wide, despite the tears streaming from his face.
"I saw her…" he sobbed. "She said she forgave me… She hugged me…"
Kaen tried to pull him up. That's when he saw it:
Black worms, thin as hairs, crawling from Yurei's ears and eyes.
Kaen recoiled in horror.
Daizo appeared behind him, blade in hand.
"No…" Kaen growled. "He's still—"
Daizo plunged his sword.
Yurei burned to ash, peacefully smiling.
"We don't leave the turned," Daizo said coldly.
The team pressed on, now only four.
Kaen's hands shook. His soulfire felt like ice.
He couldn't let it happen to Mira.
He wouldn't.
At the village shrine, they found the source.
A woman stood at the altar, back turned, dressed in crimson robes. Her long hair floated unnaturally, moving as if underwater.
"Who are you?" Daizo asked.
She didn't turn.
Kaen stepped forward. "Did you do this?"
Still silence.
Then — she turned.
Her face was blank. Not empty — literally blank. No eyes. No mouth. Just smooth, pale skin.
A single slit opened across the center, revealing a glowing violet eye.
"I am Joymother," she whispered directly into their minds. "And they begged me for release."
The fog thickened.
The dead began to rise — smiling, twitching, their mouths stretching wide open.
Gloamspawn puppets.
"Form a circle!" Daizo roared.
Kaen activated his Soulfire, Emberfang blazing in red light. The dead came fast — not strong, but overwhelming. For every one they cut down, two more emerged from the mist.
Kaen slashed and spun, the flame blade carving swaths of light. Rika's fire arrows lit the fog in bursts of gold. Daizo moved like thunder, cleaving with brutal precision.
But the Joymother did not move. She just watched.
And slowly… fed.
Kaen felt it. She was drawing from their emotions — turning pain into power.
He had to break her connection.
"I'm going for her!" he shouted.
"Kaen, wait—!"
But he was already charging.
Joymother's head tilted.
She raised one hand.
And suddenly— Kaen was elsewhere.
He stood in Ember Hollow, sun shining, his mother stirring stew, his father laughing, Mira dancing barefoot beneath cherry trees.
"It's not real," he whispered.
But it felt perfect.
Mira came to him. "Don't leave. Stay here. Be happy."
"I can't," Kaen said.
She touched his cheek. "Don't you love me?"
"I love you more than anything."
"Then burn with me."
Her face began to melt.
The sky turned black.
The trees bled.
Kaen screamed—
And ignited.
A pillar of Soulfire erupted around him, breaking the illusion.
The fog hissed.
Joymother recoiled.
Her smile finally broke.
Kaen leapt forward, Emberfang blazing brighter than ever.
Joymother raised her arms, but too late — Kaen drove the sword through her center eye.
She let out a soundless scream — and burst into violet flame.
The fog shattered.
The puppets dropped.
Silence returned.
They buried Yurei's ashes beneath the shrine.
Daizo said nothing for a long time.
Then: "You resisted a full mind trap. That's rare."
Kaen just stared at his hands. "I didn't save him."
"You saved everyone else."
Kaen turned. "I'm not strong enough."
Daizo looked at him. "Then become stronger."
Back at Bladestone Hollow, Mira waited.
When Kaen returned, she touched his cheek gently.
"I felt it," she whispered. "You were fading. But you came back."
"I will always come back."
She smiled faintly. "Then maybe there's still time. Before I'm lost."
Kaen's jaw tightened.
"No. I'll find the thing behind this curse. And I'll end it."
From far above the mountain, in a chamber of black glass, the White Seer watched him through a pool of cursed light.
"The boy grows," he muttered.
And behind him, dozens of Gloamspawn stirred in their chains.
"The fire will feed the flame."
✴️ END OF CHAPTER 3