CHAPTER 41: THE GHOST TOWN

Arrival at the ghost town. Signs that other Tamers have passed through.

Ghost town on the map. Atmosphere of a curse.

The diffuse morning light barely touched the twisted treetops, but the system shone steadily before Eren’s eyes, translucent as a sacred revelation:

[Maximum Affinity Reached]

[Nyssa – 100%]

[Kaela – 100%]

[Morwynn – 110%]

[Skill Activated: Synchronization Core]

[Shared Status: 35%]

[ Instincts partially merged.]

[Emotional communication enabled.]

[Observation:]

[Nyssa ↔ Kaela: Minimal sharing.]

[Morwynn isolated: Exclusive bond with Eren.]

[Personal Effect: You absorb the best of everyone.]

Eren exhaled slowly, without smiling. The sensation was subtle — as if his mind was sharper, his body more precise. He hadn’t gained brute strength or a burst of magic. It was... harmony. Instinct. He felt when Kaela grew impatient, when Nyssa hesitated, when Morwynn planned something. He was at the center of an invisible web, and each strand vibrated with others’ emotions.

Kaela rubbed her arms, frowning.

"What is this feeling? I’m getting... the urge to hug someone?"

Nyssa pressed her fingers over her chest, smiling shyly.

"I feel... braver. As if I could... protect you, Kaela..."

"Huh?!" The wolf looked at her with a mix of repulsion and bewilderment. "Stay away from me, slime."

"Oh... sorry," Nyssa stepped back, melting a little at the edges, as if wilting.

Morwynn remained silent, perched on a curved branch. The web on her back fluttered in the weak wind. She looked at Eren as if she already knew she was outside of that collective sharing. Her only connection was with him. And that was enough.

"They’re in sync... but not with me," she whispered, not to complain, but as if noting something valuable.

Eren turned to the trail.

"It doesn’t matter. You three are still with me. And that’s what matters now."

Without further delay, they continued.

The forest was dying with every step.

The trees became more twisted, whitened leaves hanging like faded flags. Roots rose from the ground, forming arches and hollows. There were no more birds — only the dry rustling of hollowed bark and the echo of footsteps in the ghostly silence.

Kaela growled from time to time, sniffing the air with irritation.

"It smells like city... and death."

"I agree," said Eren, watching the path. "We’re close. Another kilometer or two."

Nyssa walked close to his side, quiet, as if any sound might attract something that still slept. Her eyes moved quickly, and her body swayed with unease.

Morwynn, on the other hand, seemed at home. She moved lightly through the dead branches, weaving small threads as she passed. As if marking territory.

"This place... wasn’t always like this," she said, almost in a trance. "There was life here. A center. A pact... that was broken."

"You sense these things?" Eren asked, curious.

"The world’s web has memory. I just read the fragments that still cling to the walls."

"Too poetic for me," Kaela muttered, kicking a stone that fell into a deep hole.

The hill gave way as they advanced, and the pale mist enveloping the ground made it difficult to see more than a few meters ahead. It was then that Eren stopped.

Below, between two withered slopes and charred trees, rose a cluster of ancient structures. Walls covered in lichen. Roofs slanted as if the city’s bones were collapsing upon themselves.

"There it is. The ghost town before Barovik."

Kaela narrowed her eyes.

"And we’re going in?"

Eren looked around. The system didn’t alert danger — but the system didn’t understand everything either.

"Yes. But with caution."

Nyssa swallowed hard.

"Is there... someone... inside?"

Eren didn’t answer. He felt... something. A kind of gentle pressure behind the eyes, as if the city was watching. Not alive, but... aware. Like an old closed library, waiting for the moment to open its pages.

Morwynn descended and walked up to him. She looked at the gray horizon for long seconds before whispering:

"Here, the dead don’t sleep. They just forgot they died."

Eren nodded. The kind of phrase he would expect from her.

"Then let’s remind them what we’re made of."

And the four advanced towards the silent city — now linked by invisible threads, tuned like an orchestra that didn’t yet know what music it was about to play.

The abandoned city appeared before them like a forgotten scar in the middle of the forest. No sound of crows, no rustling of the wind. Only the creaking of rotten wood and the echo of their own footsteps over uneven stones.

The ruins seemed frozen in time. Partially collapsed stone buildings, rusted lanterns swaying without breeze, and strange markings carved on the walls. Some seemed like containment sigils. Others, just meaningless words, repeated in a spiral, like screams that couldn’t echo.

Eren stopped before an ancient toppled statue, covered in moss and webs. On the pedestal, the words could barely be read:

["Faith failed. The monsters became mirrors."]

He read it silently, eyes narrowing. The statue depicted a Tamer kneeling, arms open to two creatures dissolving in the air, like sand carried by the wind.

Kaela sniffed the air and growled low.

"This place... reeks of trapped spirit."

Nyssa huddled close to Eren, her eyes shining with instinctive fear.

"It’s like... the walls are watching," she whispered. "I don’t want to sleep here."

Morwynn, on the other hand, seemed curious. She touched symbols on the walls with her thin fingers, almost in reverence.

"They screamed... but no one heard," she said, more to herself. "The art of pain left unfinished."

Eren looked around, assessing the path with coolness. He had already noticed recent marks — footprints, scrapes on stones. People had passed through there not long ago. Tamers. But why had they abandoned everything? Or were they forced to?

[System: Tamer Trace Detection – Activated]

[Last recorded passage: 4 days ago]

[Status: Signs of conflict and abrupt dispersal]

"Typical," he murmured. "A group tried to use this path and didn’t return."

"And we’re still going to follow it?" Kaela asked, her arm hairs standing on end. "I can smell there’s something dead walking around here."

Eren nodded.

"Because that’s exactly why no one expects anyone to cross this place."

In the distance, through the gaps of a collapsed roof, Sylha watched. Her translucent body blended with the mist that descended like a veil over the ruins. Her spectral eyes followed every movement of the group, silent as a forgotten vow. She did not follow them. She merely... kept watch.

There was something there that even she did not dare to face head-on.

Eren walked at the front, his eyes sharp, analyzing the environment like a board of traps. The ground was covered with small burnt runes—perhaps ancient containment traps, activated by monsters of great affinity. But now, everything seemed inert. As if the place was waiting.

The group passed through an ancient square where the central fountain spewed a black, dense liquid. When Nyssa approached, the system emitted an alert:

[Corrupted Substance – Consumption forbidden for bound entities]

"So it’s that kind of place," Morwynn murmured, gently pulling back the slime with a web tug.

"Stay with me," Eren said. "Don’t touch anything that seems useful. In this kind of city, anything that looks good... is bait."

Kaela clenched her fists.

"I don’t like how the silence screams here. Like something’s waiting for us to let our guard down."

"We won’t," Eren replied. "We’ll cross without stopping. Sleeping here isn’t an option."

And as if to confirm his words, voices began to emerge in the distance.

Low, broken, repetitive. Like whispers inside the mind.

"Have you already lost?"

"It was your fault."

"She screamed... and you ran."

"You are a Tamer. You are the curse."

Nyssa began to cry softly, her hands on her ears, trying to block out the whispers.

"I... I don’t want to hear this, master. I don’t want to!"

Kaela gripped the handle of her improvised blade, cracking her neck.

"I’ll kill whatever’s saying that."

But there was no one.

Morwynn looked up and released a thread of web into the air.

"Psychic echoes," she murmured. "Emotional remnants engraved in the walls. The city was used as a final sanctuary for Tamers who lost everything. It’s a crypt of failed bonds."

Eren stopped, observing a wall where claw marks scratched repeated phrases:

"He didn’t hear me."

"I was loyal."

"Why did he sell me?"

The system emitted an unusual message:

[Cursed Area: "City of Offerings"]

[Active Modifier: Dark Empathy]

[Warning: amplified emotions may temporarily distort bonds.]

"It’s a test," Eren said. "If anyone’s bond here is weak... it breaks. This place is made for that."

He turned to the three:

"We’ll cross. And remember: nothing here is true. No thought other than our own has value."

Kaela growled but nodded.

Nyssa wiped her eyes, trembling, but moved forward.

Morwynn walked slowly, her arachnid legs touching the rubble as if they were notes of a sad score.

As they crossed the city, the voices grew louder. But they no longer spoke in unison—they now whispered specific things.

To Kaela:

"You didn’t protect her."

"You were a beast, but you didn’t know who the real monster was."

To Nyssa:

"He only uses you."

"You’re the weakest. Only good as a shield."

To Morwynn:

"You want his pain. Not love."

"Is this what you call art?"

And to Eren:

"You manipulate them."

"You are the end of humanity."

"You will be the last tamer."

But he just walked.

The cold was dense. The shadows, longer than usual. The statues in the streets seemed to move when no one was looking. And even the light from the sky seemed... hesitant to pierce the mist.

The city did not want to be forgotten.

Sylha, at a distance, still watched. But her eyes, for the first time, were filled with something close to... fear.

Not for her.

But for Eren.

Because something in that city seemed to whisper:

"Finally... a worthy tamer."