The agony at the edge of the Bátis had been a warning, a physical manifestation of a bridge being built between two worlds.
As Leib stumbled away from the ancient stone well, gasping for air that felt like liquid lead in his lungs, he expected to see the Royal Guards rushing toward him.
He expected the King to appear, demanding to know why the air around the boy was suddenly thick with the scent of ozone and rot.
But the guards remained like statues at their posts. The world continued its indifferent rotation.
Leib clutched his chest, his fingers digging into the fabric of his tunic. The pain began to subside, leaving behind a cold, humming resonance. It was then that he saw it.
Floating just above his eye line, shimmering with a faint, ghostly luminescence, was a string of text. It wasn't written on a wall or etched in stone; it was burned into his very vision, a glowing prompt that moved as he moved.
[ 3.0 km Northeast ]
Leib blinked, rubbing his eyes until he saw stars, but the prompt remained. It was sharp, digital, and impossibly clear, the kind of interface he had only ever seen in the high-tech "view-mirror" games that the wealthy children of Paraiso played.
"What... what is this?" he whispered, his voice cracking.
He took a tentative step toward the palace, which lay to the southwest. Immediately, the numbers flickered and changed.
[ 3.01 km Northeast ]
He stopped. He turned around, facing the opposite direction, toward the wild, untamed lands that bordered the capital. The number ticked down.
[ 2.99 km Northeast ]
A jolt of adrenaline, sharper than the previous pain, spiked through him. Since the Awakening, Leib had been a leaf caught in a storm, moved by the whims of kings and the cruelty of fate.
For the first time, something was speaking directly to him. Something was giving him a direction.
He didn't think about the guards. He didn't think about the feast he was missing or the library books he had left open. He simply began to walk.
The walk was grueling. Leib's body felt heavy, as if the shadow within him was a physical weight he had to drag through the dirt. But every time he felt like collapsing, the glowing prompt acted as a tether.
[ 1.5 km ]
[ 1.0 km ]
The landscape shifted. The manicured gardens of the palace outskirts gave way to a lively, bustling village he hadn't visited before.
It was a place of commerce, the air filled with the rhythmic clack-clack of artisans carving jadestones.
The market was a riot of color, but Leib's gaze was drawn, as it always was, to the Gabays.
He saw a merchant with a Common-tier ox that glowed with a sturdy brown aura. He saw a group of children playing with a winged kitten that left trails of glitter in the air.
The familiar ache of jealousy flared in his chest, a bitter reminder of the partner he didn't have.
He looked up at his prompt, hoping it would lead him to a trainer, a temple, or perhaps a hidden spirit.
[ 500m ]
He hurried through the market, his eyes fixed on the numbers. He reached the far edge of the village, passing under a weathered stone archway that read: "Thank you for visiting the Jade Valleys." Ahead lay a dark, dense forest. The trees were ancient, their branches interlocking like skeletal fingers to blot out the sun.
Leib hesitated at the tree line. A young boy, no older than fifteen, jogged past him carrying a bundle of firewood. He stopped, looking at Leib with a curious, slightly fearful expression.
"Hey," the boy called out. "Are you going to the cemetery? Don't be scared. Just walk straight through the forest for ten minutes. You'll see the stone gates." Before Leib could ask a single question, the boy turned and sprinted back toward the safety of the village.
"A cemetery?" Leib muttered. "Why would a prompt lead me to a graveyard?"
His heart hammered against his ribs, but the curiosity was a hunger he couldn't ignore. He stepped into the shadows of the forest.
The forest was silent, the kind of silence that felt heavy and expectant. The light dimmed into a murky green twilight. As he walked, the numbers on his vision began to count down with a frantic rhythm.
[ 50m ]
[ 25m ]
[ 10m ]
[ 5m ]
He broke through the final line of trees and skidded to a halt. Before him lay a small, secluded graveyard. Most of the headstones were weathered and covered in moss, but one stood out.
The dirt in front of it was dark and damp, a fresh grave, likely dug within the last week. The flowers laid atop the mound were only just beginning to wilt.
Leib walked forward, his breath shallow. "Why here?"
He looked at the gravestone. It marked the passing of a woman, a local healer by the looks of the symbols carved into the granite.
But it wasn't the stone that held the prompt. Behind the grave, tucked into the tall grass, was a faint, pulsating blue light.
[ 0.0m ]
Leib rounded the monument and froze.
Sitting atop the fresh earth was a feline Gabay, a small cat with fur like velvet and eyes that shimmered with a soft, mournful blue light.
It was weeping. Real, translucent tears tracked through its fur as it let out a low, heartbreaking wail.
Leib's heart went out to the creature. He knew what this was. He had read about it in the Royal Archives.
When a trainer dies, their Gabay often refuses to leave the site of the burial. For a few days, the spirit lingers, mourning the bond that has been severed.
Eventually, the Gabay's physical form begins to evaporate into white light, its essence returning to the Bátis to be recycled into a new soul for a new generation.
The cat was already beginning to fade at the edges. Its time was almost up.
"Hey there," Leib whispered, kneeling beside the grave.
The cat startled, its fur bristling as it prepared to bolt. But as it looked into Leib's eyes, it seemed to sense something. It didn't see a stranger; it saw someone who understood what it felt like to be empty.
The cat tilted its head, its blue light flickering, and then it slowly stepped toward him, nuzzling its cold, spirit-flesh against his palm.
Leib petted its head, his own tears blurring his vision. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I know how it feels to lose everything."
Suddenly, the cat's eyes turned a brilliant, blinding white. It began to float, its body elongating as the evaporation process began. Leib prepared himself for the beautiful, sad moment of a spirit returning to the source.
Then, the world went wrong.
The glowing white light of the cat didn't evaporate into the sky. Instead, the white eyes suddenly snapped into a void-black. The entire creature, from its ears to its tail, began to turn a deep, oily obsidian, as if a bottle of ink had been poured into a bowl of milk.
The cat let out a sound, not a meow, but a distorted, digital screech.
Leib tried to pull his hand away, but he was frozen. The black spirit of the cat compressed itself, twisting and folding into a dense, rotating orb of pure darkness. It looked exactly like the shadow that had leapt from the Bátis several days ago.
Without warning, the black orb shot forward.
It didn't hit Leib; it sank into him. It passed through his chest as if he were made of smoke, settling right where the shadow had first landed.
Leib gasped, falling back onto the graveyard dirt. His skin crawled. He felt a surge of cold energy racing through his veins, a foreign power that felt like it was mapping his very DNA. The hollow ache in his chest didn't hurt anymore, it felt full.
A new prompt exploded in front of his eyes, pulsing with a dark, violet hue.
[ SOUL CONSUMPTION COMPLETE ]
[ ENERGY REFINED: COMMON-TIER (FELINE) ]
[ NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: BASIC FELINE REFLEXES (LVL 1) ]
Leib stared at the floating words, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He looked down at his hands. They weren't glowing, but they felt faster. Sharper. He looked back at the grave, but the blue cat was gone. There was no white light in the sky. There was only the silence of the forest and the heavy, thrumming power vibrating in his bones.
He hadn't been given a Gabay.
He had been given something that ate them.
As the realization settled in, his heart began to ache with a new, terrifying intensity. His vision flickered, the black text of the prompt beginning to glitch and smoke.
He tried to stand, but his legs gave out. The last thing he saw before the world turned black was a new number appearing in the corner of his eye.
[ NEXT TARGET LOCATED: 12km, Wanna Continue? ]
Leib's eyes rolled back, and he fell into a deep, dark unconsciousness right there on the fresh grave.