A crack races through the nearest grave marker as the mist pours downward instead of away. The child grips Aiden’s cloak again, their breath catching in the sudden cold.
The rebel duelist circles the broken stones, searching for a warding mark beneath mud and moonlit lichen. Nearby, the champion remains sprawled unconscious, sword beyond reach.
The Rebel Duelist
The ritual is not failing. It is opening something.
Beneath the earth, something enormous exhales. Grave soil lifts in slow ripples, and loose stones tremble toward a fissure spreading between the crypt and the lord’s fallen ring.
The Cruel Lord
No. No, that seal was meant to command it. I did not summon it.
The cruel lord crawls backward from the ring, staring into the widening crack. His fear strips the arrogance from his face, while the mist coils down into darkness.
The Child
Something is waking under us.
The rebel duelist finds a faint silver symbol carved beneath a fallen stone, but the next breath from below snuffs its glow. The ground waits for what Aiden does next.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop the entity beneath the graveyard from emerging