CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 41 — THE NIGHT GRIM HOLLOW TREMBLED

The alarms were no longer isolated cries in the distance. They had blended into one long, continuous wail that vibrated through stone, metal, flesh, and bone. Red lights strobed across the purification hall as Bright Morgan stood over the dead cultist girl, her final smile forever carved into his mind.

Ink still seeped from the ruptured valve—thick as blood, smelling of rot and old rain. And beneath that smell... something else. A hum. A pulse. A whisper.

A presence.

Hailen had sensed it too. His blade remained drawn, edge dripping with the girl’s blood, his expression carved into grim granite.

Knowing that the ability core a recruit wielded also improved their foundational structure, and in Bright’s case it was his boosted perception.

He shifted slightly in his stance.

"Morgan," he said quietly, "listen again."

Bright inhaled sharply and shut out everything—the alarms, the guards shouting outside, Mara’s choked breaths, Rolf’s furious curses. He steadied his heartbeat and pushed his senses deeper.

The world sharpened.

He heard water crashing through defiled pipes, the buzz of arcane generators struggling to compensate for contamination, the heavy boots of the emergency teams approaching the hall. He heard echoes from the vents overhead, the faintest rattle of metal.

Then—

A heartbeat.

No. Multiple.

They were Fast and frantic but also fading. Running through the maintenance corridors.

Not toward them.

Away.

And above that—

A cold, steady, rhythmic thump.

The cult’s presence climbed to them like a second skin.

Their intent was dripped in red.

Bright’s eyes snapped open.

"Teacher. They’re splitting up. Some are fleeing the hall, going toward Sector Nine. Others... others are waiting."

"Waiting?" Lira whispered.

Bright nodded. "Like—like they expect us to chase. Like this contamination is only step one."

Hailen didn’t respond immediately. His mind was working rapidly, calculating the movements of the outpost’s patrols, the distance to Sector Nine, the manpower available, the severity of the water contamination...

And the girl’s last words:

"More... coming..."

Rolf slammed his fist into a metal drum hard enough to dent it. "They hit the damn food and water in one night. What’s next? The barracks?"

"No," Mara murmured. "If they wanted panic, they’d have attacked something public. These are strategic strikes."

Fen nodded. "Starvation. Thirst. Disease. They want Grim Hollow to collapse from the inside."

"They want the outpost to be isolated," Lira finished. "Vulnerable."

Hailen turned.

"We move. Immediately."

A guard commander ran in at that exact moment, weapons drawn, breath ragged.

"Sir—Sector Nine was hit again! Another explosion beneath the grain silos! We’re losing rations faster than we can extinguish the fire!"

Hailen’s jaw tightened.

"And the attackers?"

"Unknown. They used the vents, sir. They appear and vanish. They left no bodies, no tracks—"

"Wrong," Bright said, stepping forward. "They left one."

He pointed at the dead girl.

"Question her clothes. Her access. Her daily route. She wasn’t trained. She wasn’t a fighter. She was a recruit-level citizen. The Covenant can radicalize anyone with minimal effort. That’s the true danger we face."

The guard swallowed hard and nodded.

"I’ll alert Command."

Hailen suddenly stepped forward and gripped the guard’s shoulder.

"Listen carefully. Seal all access to the lower purification pipes. Shut down the secondary water line completely. If the ink reaches the residential tanks, Grim Hollow is lost."

"Yes, sir!"

The guard ran off.

Hailen turned back to the squad.

"We are pursuing the splinter group heading toward Sector Nine through the eastern auxiliary route. Morgan—lead again.

Bright nodded.

They sprinted out of the hall, boots thundering against metal floors, passing squads of terrified workers and injured soldiers being rushed the opposite direction.

Grim Hollow was unraveling.

The smoke from Sector Nine’s fires curled into the night sky, highlighted by the alarm lights. Shadows ran across battlements, squads rushing to reinforce vulnerable sectors. It felt like a siege—an invisible one.

The Covenant wasn’t fighting to win.

They were fighting to corrupt.

As they cut across the main yard, Bright’s enhanced vision caught something odd—pairs of soldiers whispering, heads bent down, refusing to meet their eyes. Fear. Confusion. Rumors spreading like wildfire.

Mara spoke softly as they ran. "Sir... these cultists... they don’t fight like the enemies we are used to. They are human but a far cry from what a normal human is meant to be. They just... bleed on purpose."

Bright studied her expression and said, " What do you think a normal human is meant to look like? Do you think running into a shroud to fight disgusting monsters is normal? Most of us here have a tinge of madness to us, because I know for a fact you can’t survive in the army without it."

"At least I think I do" Bright muttered while thinking of Tobin, the boy who got chopped up by a monster on his first mission.

Lira shivered. "Still, They have no survival instinct. That’s what scares me the most."

Rolf grunted. "Let them come. I’ll crush their bones."

Hailen didn’t respond. His silence meant one thing: this attack was worse than command would admit.

Bright led them northeast, toward an unlit corridor between the storage wings. The dimness didn’t bother him—his enhanced sight cut through the gloom like moonlight on glass.

Halfway through the corridor, Bright stopped.

"Here."

A faint trace of warmth on the floor. Barely visible scuffs. The scent of ink. His enhanced smell picked up metallic bitterness and sweat.

"They passed here," he whispered.

Hailen nodded. "Weapons out. Formation"

Fen and Mara took the rear. Rolf and Lira the sides. Juno stayed slightly behind Bright.

Bright stepped forward—

—and froze.

A single whisper drifted through the corridor.

"Closer..."

Every muscle in Bright’s body tightened.

They rushed deeper.

At the end of the passage was a service room—one used to store grain intake logs, spare tools, and large bags of powdered preservatives. Bright kicked the door open.

A body fell out.

A guard, throat slit cleanly, eyes wide in shock.

Mara gasped.

Rolf cursed loudly.

Bright knelt and examined the cut.

"Just one stroke. Very efficient . It wasn’t a struggle."

Hailen nodded grimly. "Experienced hand."

That meant—

Someone else was in the room.

Bright raised a hand silently.

The squad froze.

He stepped inside carefully.

The room was lit only by a single dying lamp. Shadows moved in the corners, shifting with the flickering light. Sacks of grain lay torn open across the floor.

And in the back—

Another mark smeared into the wall.

The same eye shape.

Juno shivered violently.

Mara whispered, her calm mind ability activated , "Sir... this feels wrong."

Bright inhaled deeply again—

—and his senses screamed.

"MOVE!"

They dove aside just as a blade sliced through the space where Bright’s head had been.

A figure dropped from the rafters, masked, moving with frightening precision. This was not a worker or a child.

An adult.

A trained killer.

An operative of the Umbral Covenant.

They attacked with terrifying silence—no battle cry, no rage, just fluid efficiency.

Hailen met the assassin’s blade with his own, sparks flying as steel clashed.

The assassin twisted, redirected, pivoted, striking with unnatural angles. Their body moved like smoke. Like someone who had broken their own bones to move in ways no human should.

Bright lunged forward, weapon drawn.

But the assassin flipped backward, avoiding his strike entirely.

They landed lightly, expression unreadable beneath the shadowed mask.

Bright froze and felt the pale hands of fear once again, The man was probably an initiate just like him but a high initiate with his ability cores filled.He fought with the grace his youth afforded him unlike Hailen who was old and decrepit. An instructor, although talented, was still a far cry from a stone cold killer of men.

The assassin rushed forward again.

Bright blocked, but the force behind the strike stunned him. The assassin’s strength wasn’t normal—nothing about their movement was normal.

But Bright wasn’t normal either.

He retaliated, blades clashing, his enhanced perception giving him a slight advantage .

Rolf charged at the assassin’s flank—

—and the assassin twisted their wrist unnaturally, elbow bending the wrong direction, slicing at Rolf’s exposed side.

Bright intercepted the blow just in time.

Hailen spun around the assassin and sliced at their neck.

The assassin ducked.

Too easily.

Too predictably.

In one smooth motion, the assassin leapt backward, rolled under a shelf, grabbed a container of powder, and hurled it into the air.

Before Bright could shout—

The assassin slashed the container.

A cloud of fine dust exploded across the room.

Fen coughed. "What is that—?!"

Mara’s eyes widened. "Preservative dust! Do NOT inhale it—it causes respiratory constriction!"

But the assassin wasn’t using it to poison them.

They were using it to blind Bright.

The dust obscured his enhanced senses a bit—everything blurred.

He tried listening—

But the assassin’s heartbeat slowed. And slowed. As if they were forcing their own pulse to become faint.

Bright moved slowly, senses impaired, searching—

A whisper drifted behind him.

"Your flame dims, Initiate."

The assassin’s blade stabbed toward Bright’s spine—

Hailen intercepted.

He blocked the assassin with a full-body shove, slamming them against the wall so hard the shelves rattled.

The assassin slid free like oil, their bones bending again, joints cracking grotesquely.

Hailen struck again—

And this time, his blade sliced across their mask.

A crack formed.

A sliver of pale skin showed beneath.

The assassin froze.

Then—

They laughed.

A thin, broken, whispery sound.

"You will all drown in His light."

Bright lunged—

But the assassin grabbed a lantern from the wall and smashed it on the floor.

Flames roared instantly.

Smoke flooded the room.

By the time the squad staggered out coughing, the assassin was gone.

Vanished into the vent system.

Hailen stared at the vent, jaw clenched. Realizing how powerless they were In this fight, his age and old injuries really catching up to him.

"Damn it."

Bright wiped the dust from his face.

"Sir. They’re targeting the tiny bit of food we have left, if the silos fall then..."

"

Hailen straightened.

"Then we stop them."

Bright nodded.

"We follow the vents."

Rolf growled. "Finally."

Hailen raised a hand sharply.

"No. This time—they want us in the vents."

Bright inhaled sharply.

"They want to trap us."

"Exactly."

Lira looked up. "Then how do we catch them?"

Hailen turned.

"We use the surface routes. The vents have limited exits. We seal the ones we know and reach the main grain silos before they do."

Bright swallowed.

"What if they’re already there?"

Hailen whispered:

"Then this night becomes a slaughter."

—

They sprinted across the outpost again, this time toward the tallest structure in Grim Hollow: the central grain silo tower. Smoke rose from its base. Shouts echoed from its ladders.

Bright felt it before he saw it.

Danger.

Concentrated and Waiting.

And as they neared the tower—

A figure stepped out of the shadows.

But it wasn’t the assassin.

Someone worse, but the squad didn’t know that yet.

A man with pale skin, veins darkened with ink, eyes entirely black.

He smiled slowly.

"Welcome, Initiate Morgan, heard you have a record in the campaign, quite nice. But us old fellows are a bit envious, won’t you say so Hailen?"

Bright’s blood ran cold.

He had seen this man in their army’s colors strutting around, looking very hardworking. He even remembered complimenting how busy he looked.

The pressure he radiated at the moment was unlike what the assassin had, from all inferences made, he was the cult’s covert handler.

Larkin spread his arms, smiling wider.

"Tonight... the Great One takes his first breath."

Hailen drew his blade.

Bright raised his weapon.

And the grain tower behind Larkin began to shake.

Cracking.

Crushing.

Collapsing.

Tonight, Grim Hollow would live up to its name, hollowed out by a grim fate creeping ever closer.