Morning in Hollowfall came slow and smoky.
Sunlight struggled through the stained glass of The Crooked Fang Inn, casting warped rainbow shadows on the cracked wooden tables of the dining hall. The scent of sizzling meats, stale ale, and fresh flatbread filled the air as the group sat gathered around one of the larger tables.
Korrak was already halfway through a heap of charred sausage links. "You know what this place lacks?" he muttered between bites. "Proper eggs. I want eggs that scream when they crack."
"You're terrifying," Sylthea replied dryly, sipping from a cup of steaming rootbrew.
Kyra sat cross-legged on her chair, nibbling on a roll bigger than her head. "You scream when you stub your toe," she added sweetly to Korrak.
Brakka grunted. "I heard eggs scream like a moose giving birth."
Axel laughed behind a bite of lizard jerky. "You've heard that before?"
Brakka gave him a sidelong smirk. "You spend enough time in mercenary camps, you hear everything."
It was a peaceful moment, raucous, even joyful. A rare breath in a world thick with smoke and blood.
They talked about nothing in particular, the worst places they'd slept (Korrak once on a nest of biting beetles), weird foods they'd tasted (Sylthea confessed to loving jellyfish jam), and how Hollowfall's fruit juice tasted like moldy socks but in a good way.
Even Sylthea laughed. Even Brakka cracked a grin.
But soon the plates emptied. The tankards dried.
It was time to move on.
On the Road Again
The forest trail outside Hollowfall bent like a sleeping serpent, twisting through mossy ruins and fog-kissed glades. Leaves drifted in lazy spirals from the canopy, and the only sounds were boots on dirt and distant birdsong.
Kyra, as always, was perched on Axel's shoulders, swinging her legs back and forth.
She looked like the happiest goblin in the world.
But Axel hadn't said a word for nearly half an hour.
Sylthea, walking beside him, narrowed her eyes. "You're unusually quiet, Black Wolf. Even for someone brooding in all black."
Axel smirked slightly, then spoke without moving his lips.
"I was just observing the new members of the pack."
The voice didn't come from Axel, it came from the suit.
From the Black Wolf itself.
Kyra giggled and patted Axel's helmet. "See? He talks when he wants to."
Brakka stopped in her tracks. "Wait... he?"
Korrak frowned. "Hold up. That wasn't you, Axel?"
Axel sighed. "No. That was him."
Brakka looked between Axel and the suit, her jaw slightly open. "You mean… you knew it was alive?"
"Since the day Sylthea and her father enchanted it." Axel replied, calm.
Sylthea added, "We didn't tell you because… honestly, we didn't know how you'd react."
"Yep, I don't know how to react when suits start talking back," Korrak muttered.
Brakka stepped forward, her expression serious now. "How is that even possible?"
Sylthea glanced at her, then at the suit. "My father and I used a forbidden spell. Not just magic, ritual. Enchantment. The suit isn't just smart. It's alive."
Brakka's gaze fell to the chest of the armor. She stepped closer, then narrowed her eyes.
"This rune…" she said slowly, brushing a finger over the faintly glowing sigil carved into the metal. "This isn't just a creation seal."
"What is it?" Axel asked.
Brakka straightened. Her voice dropped.
"It's a demonic ritual mark. Old. Underworld magic."
Everyone fell silent.
"…I always thought it was just decorative," Brakka muttered. "You know. Because non-humans keep calling you a demon."
Sylthea looked down, suddenly uncomfortable. "We found the spell in a book… made of human skin."
All eyes turned toward her.
Axel raised a brow. "You what?"
Korrak slowly backed up a step. "That's definitely demonic."
Even Kyra blinked. "Wait... Black Wolf, are you a demon?"
"No."
Kyra smiled brightly. "Okay."
But the others didn't look convinced.
Then the voice added...
"If I was… I'd kill you last, Kyra."
Kyra burst out laughing. "Aw, thanks!"
Brakka's hand went to her weapon. "That wasn't funny."
"Just joking."
The suit's voice was flat. Perfectly unreadable.
But the chill it left behind wasn't.
Sylthea gave Axel a side glance. "You sure you're in control?"
Axel didn't answer right away.
Then...
"I don't think he'd hurt us."
"Unless necessary," the suit added.
Korrak exhaled sharply. "That's not helping."
But Kyra just hummed, resting her cheek on Axel's head. "He's scary to everyone else. But he keeps me safe. That's all I care about."
As they walked on, the forest seemed quieter.
Darker.
And though they didn't speak of it again, one truth settled unspoken among them...
They were no longer just traveling with Axel.
They were traveling with something else too.
Something watching.
Something learning.
Something that smiled… without a face.
The forest pressed tighter the farther they walked.
The mist deepened, the trees grew twisted, bark like gnarled hands reaching from the soil. Moss clung to everything, wet, heavy, silent. It felt like walking through someone's memory. Or a graveyard.
Then they saw it.
A crooked house stood alone in a small clearing. It leaned like it had been forgotten by time, shingles missing from the roof, a crooked chimney puffing lazy curls of green smoke. Strange charms hung from the eaves, bones, feathers, red-glass beads that shimmered like blood.
"Creepy," Korrak muttered. "Let's knock."
Axel stepped up and gave the door a firm knock.
It creaked open slowly on its own.
An old woman stood in the doorway, bent but regal, her eyes milky with age, though her voice held strength. "Travelers," she rasped. "Come in. Come in. No danger here."
The group hesitated.
But Kyra, fearless as ever, stepped inside first.
The witch looked down at her and smiled. A soft, genuine smile, eyes crinkling. "Oh, you are full of life, little one."
Korrak entered next, ducking through the low doorway.
Sylthea followed, staff tight in hand.
Brakka stepped inside warily, scanning every inch of the cluttered room, shelves lined with bottled storms, spider-stitched books, and floating runes.
Axel was the last.
And the moment his boot crossed the threshold...
The witch's face changed.
She grabbed her staff and slammed it into the ground, arcane symbols igniting the air. A massive flame burst into her hands, roaring into a sphere of blistering heat, and her voice was no longer kind, it was a scream of fury and despair.
"YOU BROUGHT IT HERE?!"
The room exploded in tension.
"That thing!" the witch shouted, pointing directly at Axel. "The thing inside the suit! You brought it into this world!"
Sylthea's eyes widened. "The suit…"
"No. Not the suit," the witch snarled. "What's inside it. What it truly is. It's the key. The gate. The anchor to the underworld. You've doomed us all...!"
Before she could finish...
Axel moved.
Faster than anyone could react, he surged forward like a missile. His hand snapped around the witch's throat. The fire spell vanished with a hiss.
Her feet left the ground as he lifted her high into the air.
And then...
Snap.
The old woman's body went limp.
Silence.
A moment frozen in horror.
Kyra screamed. "Axel... NO!" She ran to him and pounded her fists against his leg.
"Put her down! Stop!"
The others didn't move. Couldn't.
Axel stood still, eyes vacant, breath mechanical.
Then...
His body shuddered.
He blinked.
Looked at his hand.
Looked at the lifeless witch.
And dropped her.
He stumbled backward, catching himself against the table, gasping for breath like he'd been drowning.
"…What happened?" he asked.
No one answered.
Brakka's voice came first, low and tense. "That… wasn't you."
Axel looked at her. "I... I blacked out. I don't remember grabbing her. I just… woke up with her in my hand."
Sylthea stepped forward slowly. "Black Wolf," she said quietly, "Why did you do that?"
The voice from the suit responded instantly.
"Because she was about to unleash a Class-7 inferno spell. High lethality. Potential to kill Kyra. Injure the rest of the pack. I neutralized the threat."
Everyone went quiet.
Even Kyra stopped crying.
The logic was… cold. Clean.
Efficient.
Too efficient.
Korrak muttered, "You're not just alive. You're… a killer."
The silence dragged.
Only Kyra spoke. "He… he was trying to protect us."
No one answered her.
No one agreed.
A few minutes later, Axel knelt outside, hands covered in soil as he finished burying the old woman behind her crooked house. His eyes were sunken. His breaths shallow.
The others stood back, watching.
No one said a word.
When it was done, they returned to the path.
The journey to the next village resumed but something fundamental had shifted.
Their laughter had gone.
Their steps were heavier.
And while Kyra still rode on Axel's shoulders…
The others walked behind him now.
A little farther than before.