Aria didn't relax after the Lycaon Spawn fell.
That alone told me something was wrong.
The ash drifted upward, thin and gray, dissolving into the trees. The ground around us was torn apart. Broken roots. Deep grooves. The park felt quieter now—but not safe.
"If it's a spawn," I said, forcing the words out, "the master should be nearby."
Aria nodded once. "Yes."
That was it. No reassurance.
She wiped blood from her arm and looked around, eyes sharp.
"This thing," I continued, "it wasn't acting like a mindless beast. It looked like it was guarding something."
"Because it was," she said.
I looked at her. "Guarding what?"
"An exit," she replied. "Or an entrance."
My perception stirred again. Not violently. Just enough to feel direction.
"There's something pulling," I said. "Deeper into the park."
Aria shook her head. "Not our fight. Not tonight."
She turned and started walking, fast and deliberate.
"Alex," she said, "stay close. This place remembers blood."
We moved quickly through the trees. The path twisted in ways it shouldn't have. Benches appeared, disappeared. The same tree passed us twice.
"I think we're looping," I said.
"Good," she replied. "Then break it."
I focused. Not on the park—but on repetition.
"That tree," I said, pointing. "We've passed it before."
Aria changed direction immediately, cutting through brush instead of following the path. The air grew colder. The pressure in my head eased.
Behind us, something shifted.
A sound like breath being held too long.
We didn't look back.
We broke through the tree line and onto asphalt. Streetlights snapped into focus. The noise of the city rushed back like a wave.
I stumbled.
Aria grabbed my arm and pulled me forward, stopping only when we were fully under the light.
The park entrance behind us looked normal now. Just trees. Darkness. Silence.
I leaned over, hands on my knees, breathing hard.
"That wasn't random," I said.
"No," Aria agreed. "Nothing like that ever is."
I straightened. "What exactly does being a 'spawn' mean?"
She was quiet for a moment.
Then she said, "It means the Lycaon, it's master, wasn't born like that."
I frowned. "You mean he was summoned?"
"No," she said. "He was someone."
That made my stomach drop.
She leaned against the lamppost, arms crossed.
"Furies," she said. "Lycaons. Harpies. Gorgons. They're not monsters in the way people imagine."
I waited.
"They're players," she continued. "Or they were."
My throat went dry. "Corrupted?"
"Yes."
I thought about the pain I'd felt inside the creature. The constant strain. The wrongness.
"That explains the core," I said quietly.
Aria nodded. "When a player refuses death, or clings to power too long, the System doesn't always erase them. Sometimes it… twists them."
"Into furies," I said.
"Furies are what happens when a player's purpose rots," she replied. "When identity collapses but the drive remains."
I swallowed. "So the Lycaon—"
"Was once human," Aria said. "Strong. Skilled. Obsessed."
She pushed off the lamppost.
"The original Lycaon was a frontline player," she went on. "Close-range fighter. Predator-type build. He specialized in pursuit. Tracking. Killing faster than anything else in his tier."
That matched what I'd seen.
"He gained followers," she continued. "Other players who hunted with him. Learned from him. Worshipped the results."
"Let me guess," I said. "He stopped seeing people as people."
"He stopped seeing himself as one," Aria said.
The image formed in my mind easily.
"He died during a high-risk hunt," she said. "But he refused to let go. His build, his instincts, his hunger—those stayed. The System tried to recycle him."
"And failed."
"Partially," she said. "What came back wasn't a player. It was a fury wearing his shape."
"And the spawns?"
"Echoes," Aria said. "Fragments of his corrupted data. They guard places tied to him. Old kills. Old lairs. Old paths."
I looked back at the park entrance.
"So this place mattered to him."
"Yes."
"And killing the spawn—"
"Woke the rest," she finished.
A soft chime interrupted us.
System text appeared.
[LORE UNLOCKED: CORRUPTED ENTITIES]
I barely noticed.
My perception had latched onto something else.
The pull wasn't coming from the park anymore.
It was coming from below.
"There's a deeper source," I said. "Not here. Under the city."
Aria followed my gaze down the street.
"Old tunnels," she said. "Buried routes."
I nodded. "That's where he went when he stopped being human."
She exhaled slowly. "Then that's where this ends."
I looked at her. "You knew this could happen."
"Yes."
"And you still brought me."
I swallowed.