Chapter 7: The Howl That Echoes Through Bone
The air was colder now.
Kaen and Lira moved through the forest in silence, the trees around them tall and ancient, their branches clawing at the grey sky like skeletal fingers. Every few steps, Kaen would glance at his hand—the sigil, 6666, still faintly glowing, pulsing with a rhythm not quite his own.
He could feel it… the world wasn't the same anymore. Not since he awakened whatever was inside him.
Not since he heard the whispering numbers.
"How much further?" Kaen finally asked, his voice low but steady.
Lira hesitated before answering. "We're close. The artifact… it's hidden in the ruins of Veyr's Spine. But something's wrong. The path—it shouldn't be this quiet."
Kaen nodded. He felt it too. The absence of birdsong. The wind, unnaturally still. Even the insects had vanished.
It wasn't silence.
It was anticipation.
Suddenly, the air snapped with an unseen force. A deafening howl tore through the silence, shaking the very ground. Kaen stumbled, instinctively drawing power to his limbs, his body reacting before his mind could.
Lira drew her blade, her eyes scanning the trees.
Then, they saw it.
A shape—tall, thin, moving with impossible speed between the shadows. Its presence brought nausea, as if the world itself rejected its existence. Black mist trailed behind it, curling like smoke that refused to rise.
Kaen stepped forward, fists clenched, the ancient energy humming in his veins.
"What is that thing?" he asked, already knowing it wasn't something natural.
Lira's voice trembled. "A First Circle Howler… They were created to erase anomalies—creatures or people who awaken what they were never meant to touch."
"Like me," Kaen muttered.
The Howler stepped into the light. It had no face—only a stretched mouth filled with rows of broken, jagged teeth. Its skin was tight, almost translucent, revealing veins filled with something that wasn't blood. And in its chest… a hollow, where a heart should be.
But what made Kaen pause wasn't its grotesque form.
It was the brand burned into its shoulder—the same sigil that marked his hand.
6666.
"It's… connected to me," he whispered.
The creature shrieked, the sound a mixture of agony and rage, and lunged forward.
Kaen moved on instinct. The power inside him surged—his steps blurred, his fist glowing with the ancient language etched across his skin. He struck the Howler in midair, the force cracking a tree in half behind it. But the creature didn't fall—it twisted, landed, and came again, faster.
It was testing him.
Kaen was no longer just fighting to survive. He was being measured.
Lira joined the fray, slashing across the creature's leg, buying Kaen seconds to regroup. He focused, channeled the sigil—and for a moment, time slowed. The symbols around him responded, forming a barrier of energy that repelled the Howler.
The creature screamed, staggering back.
And in that moment, Kaen saw her again.
His mother.
A flicker of her face. The same eyes. The same mark on her hand.
She had fought a Howler once. She had survived it.
"Kaen!" Lira shouted.
He snapped out of the vision just in time to catch the creature's claws with his bare hands. It should've torn through him. But it didn't.
Because he wasn't the same boy anymore.
With a shout that echoed like thunder, Kaen released all the energy inside him. A shockwave blasted the Howler backward, slamming it against a stone outcrop. It didn't move again.
Silence returned to the forest—but this time, it felt earned.
Kaen dropped to one knee, breathing hard, the sigil on his hand flickering like a dying flame.
Lira approached slowly. "You fought like someone who's done that before."
"I didn't," Kaen said. "But she did."
Lira nodded. "We need to find the artifact. If the Howler was sent now… it means others are coming. And they'll be stronger."
Kaen stood, his eyes glowing faintly now—not just with power, but with resolve. The visions, the whispers, the howls—they weren't just warnings.
They were invitation
s.
And he would answer.
End of Chapter 7: The Howl That Echoes Through Bone