The Gion Street Gate opened into a vault of jagged stone, the air instantly heavy with the static of raw magic. It was a cold that didn't just chill the skin; it felt like a weight in the lungs.
"Huh. This energy," Renji murmured. He shifted the strap of the heavy equipment bag. His eyes traced the ceiling, following the faint, oily shimmers of mana that the others couldn't see.
The Iron Fang hunters were already twenty paces ahead. They moved with a practiced, nervous tension. Takeshi led the wedge, his hand white on his sword hilt.
"Renji, stay close. Don't fall behind," Yuto called back, a confident grin plastered on his face. It was the look of a man trying to convince himself he was in control.
The deeper they walked, the more the cavern seemed to shrink. The temperature plummeted. One moment it was cool; the next, the moisture on their lips began to frost.
"What is this?" Takeshi's breath came out in a thick cloud. He shivered, his armor plates rattling.
"This isn't a low-rank," Renji said. His voice was flat, cutting through the silence. "This feels like an elite-rank. We should stop."
Daichi didn't even look back. He let out a sharp, dismissive bark of a laugh. "Forget it, Renji. You're an E-rank courier. Don't let a little draft make you go soft. I don't feel anything worth panicking over."
They kept walking. Steel rang softly against stone.
Kenta slowed his pace, falling back until he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Renji. He looked at the massive pile of gear Renji was lugging and reached out. "Let me take some of that. You're going to wear yourself out before we even see a beast."
Renji didn't move the bags. "Orders are orders, Kenta. Just focus on the front line."
Kenta's smile was small, earnest. He stepped in front of Renji, raising his shield arm slightly. "Don't worry then. I'm here. I'll protect you."
Renji looked at the back of Kenta's head. A strange, dry sound—a laugh escaped him.
"Yes, sir."
The snarls didn't come from the front. They came from the stone itself. Frost Ghouls, grey and gaunt, peeled themselves from the shadows of the walls. They didn't run; they skittered, their claws clicking like needles on the ice. Above them, the leathery snap of wings echoed. Winged Razorbacks, monstrous, bony things circled the cavern ceiling.
The carnage was immediate. Takeshi roared, his blade catching a Ghoul mid-leap, but for every one that died, three more surged from the dark.
Renji didn't draw a weapon. He stepped to the side, found a flat-topped rock, and sat. He leaned his back against the cold wall and crossed his legs, watching the hunters struggle.
"They said I'm the weakest," he said to the empty air. He closed his eyes for a heartbeat. "So the strongest must fight."
The math was brutal.
The ghouls were a tide. Every kill took a chunk of mana, a breath of stamina. Sora screamed as a Ghoul's claws found the gap in her greaves. Daichi was pulled down, lost under a pile of grey limbs. By the time the last Ghoul lay still, the floor was a mess of ice and gore. Of the original team, only seven remained. One hunter sat down, his chest heaving, and simply stopped breathing. Six.
Then the Razorbacks dropped.
They moved like lightning. Sora didn't even have time to raise her sword before a Razorback's wing-edge, sharp as a monomolecular wire, sheared through her neck. Her head hit the stone with a dull thud.
The survivors fought like cornered animals. They killed the beasts, but the cost was etched in the way they stood—hunched, trembling, bleeding.
"Sora... Daichi... Akari... they're all dead," Yuto whispered. His voice broke.
Then, the air shifted.
Yuto didn't even scream. Something invisible, something that displaced the air with a heavy, predatory weight, stepped behind him. There was a wet, tearing sound.
Yuto's chest buckled outward as a hand, seen only by the spray of blood coating it—ripped his heart from his ribs.
The remaining hunters spun in circles, slashing at nothing.
"Show yourself!"
Slash. Takeshi's arm hit the floor, still clutching his sword. An invisible blade followed, driving through his throat. He slumped, his life bubbling out onto the ice.
Renji watched. He couldn't see the creature with his eyes, but he could feel the cold void where it stood. A terrifying, jagged aura.
Kenta was next. A thin line of red appeared on his shoulder. Then a deeper gash on his back.
"Aargh! Renji, please... help!" Kenta fell to his knees. He looked toward the rock, tears tracking through the soot on his face.
Behind him, the air distorted for a third strike.
Renji's jaw tightened. "Shit."
He was a blur. He didn't run; he flowed. He caught Kenta by the collar, hauling him out of the path of the invisible blade just as it whistled through the space Kenta's spine had occupied. He dragged him back to the wall.
"Stay here," Renji said. The "weak kid" mask was gone. His eyes were cold, silver pits.
"You'll die!" Kenta gripped his sleeve, his hand shaking. "Run, Renji! Just run!"
Renji looked at him. "Don't worry. We'll both be safe. I promise."
Renji stepped into the center of the chamber.
Slash. A thin nick appeared on Renji's shoulder. He didn't flinch. He drew the Shadow-Forged Dagger. He closed his eyes, listening. He felt the displacement of air, the minute change in the wind currents.
Clang. He blocked the invisible sword with a flick of his wrist. The entity paused, circling him.
"Shadow Pulse."
The energy flared out from Renji in a dark, silent wave. In his mind's eye, the world turned into a thermal map. He saw the heat tracks. He saw the distorted, man-shaped hole in reality.
He jumped. He didn't aim for where the creature was, but where it was moving. He drove the dagger into the neck of the distortion. It hissed a sound of escaping gas and punched Renji in the chest. He hit the wall hard, blood copper in his mouth.
The pulse was fading. Nineteen seconds. Twenty. The tracks vanished.
"Shadow Pulse."
He triggered it again. This time, he didn't wait. He ran up the vertical stone of the wall, gravity ignored, and dived from the ceiling.
He drove the dagger through the center of the heat signature and ripped downward.
The creature shrieked, a sound of tearing metal, and collapsed. It didn't leave a body. Just a pile of cold, grey ash.
Renji dropped to the floor, breathing hard.
"Hush. Only twenty seconds."
He went to Kenta, hoisting the man onto his back. He walked to the exit, but the system chimed, the sound sharp in his skull.
[Alert! High-Level Soul Signature Detected!]
[Potential for Rare Shadow Extraction!]
Renji looked at the exit, then at the dying man on his back. He carried Kenta out. He laid him on the Gion Street pavement, the morning air feeling like a lie.
"You have to go," Renji told him. "I left something inside."
He didn't wait for an answer. He ran back in.
Deep in the dungeon, he found the heart of the cold. A massive hall, silent and thick with the scent of five-hundred-year-old soot.
Against a golden throne sat a giant. His armor was blackened, scorched by fires that had gone out centuries ago. A massive greatsword was driven into the floor between his feet.
[Target: Venerated Knight of Ashes - Sir Kael Rothar]
Renji's hand trembled. His Shadow Dagger was chipped, his vitality low.
"So this is him..."
The ground shivered. The Knight's head tilted up. Two pits of crimson fire ignited in the darkness of his visor.
"...Another thief?" The voice was a hollow echo. "What do you want, boy?"
Renji gripped his broken blade. "To kill you."
The Knight laughed. It was a cold, dry sound. "Then come. Earn the right."
Renji dashed. He was fast, but the Knight was a mountain that moved like a gale. A single swing of the rusted greatsword sent a shockwave that cracked the floor. Renji rolled, his ribs screaming.
He lunged again. Steel met steel.
The Shadow Dagger shattered.
Renji froze, looking at the stump of his blade. The Knight's gauntleted fist hit him in the sternum. Renji flew thirty feet, skidding across the ash.
[Health: 37%]
The Knight advanced, the greatsword screeching against the stone. "You have no resolve. You insult me."
Renji coughed, forcing himself up. He spat a glob of blood. "Maybe I'm weak... but I won't die here."
He charged unarmed. The Knight's sword opened a jagged red line across his shoulder. Renji fell to one knee, the world going dark at the edges.
[Vitality: Critical]
The greatsword rose for the execution.
[Emergency Protocol Triggered.]
[New Skill Unlocked — "Soul Drain: Tier I"]
Renji's eyes snapped open. They weren't brown or silver anymore. They were a toxic, spectral green.
"I told you..." His voice was a distorted growl. "I won't die."
He reached out. Shadows coiled around the Knight's armor like crushing chains. The Knight roared, his red eyes flickering.
[Soul Drain Activated... 94%... Complete.]
Renji stepped forward, blood dripping from his chin. He took the jagged shard of his broken dagger and drove it through the tiny seam in the Knight's gorget.
The red light went out.
[Level Up!]
[Achievement: "Defy the Dead."]
Renji dropped to his knees, gasping. The massive suit of armor lay still.
[Attempt Soul Extraction? Y/N]
"Extract," Renji croaked.
[Extraction Failed.]
"Extract!"
[Extraction Failed.]
He clenched his teeth, his vision swimming. He poured every drop of his remaining will into his hand. "I need you! EXTRACT!"
[Success!]
The Knight's body ignited in green, ghostly fire. He rose, not as a corpse, but as a phantom of blackened steel. He lowered his head, sinking to one knee.
"...You fought with nothing," the Knight's hollow voice whispered. "You have earned it, Master."
Renji stood over him, his eyes glowing with the cold light of the abyss.
"Kneel," Renji commanded. "And live again."
[New Servant Acquired — The Venerated Knight of Ashes.]