I didn't sleep.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the empty shell of the spirit collapsing in on itself silent, effortless, final. No scream. No struggle. Just absence.
Fear should have lingered.
It didn't.
At dawn or what passed for it beneath the ever-present fog I returned to the archway. The ground was clean. Too clean. No residue of fear, no spiritual echo, nothing for scavenger spirits to feed on.
It was as if the spirit had never existed.
"That's impossible," I muttered.
Lumo drifted in slow circles, its glow subdued. Even it seemed unsettled. Spirits lived on echoes fear always left traces. Always.
Except when it didn't.
A presence brushed against my senses.
I froze.
This wasn't hostile. It wasn't spiritual either. It was… methodical.
"You came back."
The voice came from behind me.
I turned slowly.
A man stood beneath the broken archway, tall and lean, his cloak marked with faintly glowing symbols similar to the Spirit Warriors I had seen before but older. Deeper. Etched with purpose.
He crouched, running two fingers across the stone where the spirit had fallen.
"No residue," he said quietly. "No rebound. No regeneration cycle."
He straightened and looked directly at me.
"You didn't just harvest fear," he continued. "You erased it."
My throat tightened. "You're a Spirit Warrior."
"Yes," he replied. "And you've done something very few ever manage."
"That doesn't sound like praise."
"It isn't."
He stepped closer, and the air grew heavy. Fear stirred not wild, but restrained. Disciplined.
"Spirits disappearing without echoes destabilize the balance," he said. "They create voids. Voids attract things far worse than ordinary spirits."
I clenched my fists. "I didn't mean to "
"I know," he interrupted. "That's what worries me."
Silence stretched between us.
"Your circuit is incomplete," he said at last. "Too clean. Too absolute. You're treating fear like fuel, not life."
"And you aren't?" I snapped.
His gaze hardened. "We harvest with restraint. You extracted without mercy."
Lumo drifted between us, its light flaring protectively.
The man exhaled slowly. "You need guidance. Or oversight."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then others won't ask."
That chilled me more than any spirit ever had.
He turned away, pausing only once. "Name's Kael. I'll give you time to fix what you've broken."
Fix it?
I stared at the empty archway again.
Some things couldn't be undone.