She didn't sleep again.
Couldn't.
After the binding, Nightbound didn't eject her. No jolt awake, no return to her paper-thin bedsheets at the orphanage. Just silence. Stretching. Wrapping. Tightening.
Seren had sat on the cracked edge of a stone staircase that went nowhere, knees tucked beneath her chin, arms wrapped tight around her legs. The shadow she'd bound earlier hadn't returned to physical form.
But it was there a tension inside her bones, a second heartbeat running under her skin. Like something small and sharp coiled just behind her lungs, waiting to unfold.
The mark hadn't disappeared either. It had darkened. Turned from silver to a deep iron-gray, like cold steel etched into her flesh. The shape kept shifting when she wasn't looking. As if it had moods. Thoughts. Hunger.
She looked down at it again.
Still. Watching. Waiting.
"Slot one: secured."
"Status: Partial Sync – 39%."
A thread of text slid across her vision like light reflecting off water. No screen. No interface. Just presence. It appeared without fanfare, disappearing the moment she blinked.
"Mental corruption: 4%"
Her breath hitched. "What…?" she whispered. The number didn't change.
She blinked again. Nothing. Not a game. Not a simulation. This was something alive. Rooted in her now. Like a seed slowly sinking into her soul. She clenched her fists to stop the trembling. Her fingernails bit into her palms. The system hadn't warned her about this part. It had offered power. The ability to bind. To command. But nowhere had it said: This will eat you from the inside out. Somewhere behind her, the stone cracked softly. She turned fast, heart leaping. Nothing.
Just her shadow, stretching unnaturally long. Again, that faint twitch like it lagged by half a second. That wasn't normal. Her voice came out shakier than she intended.
"Was that part of it too?"
No answer. The air tasted like static now.
Everything hummed, like the city itself had stopped breathing and was waiting for her next move. And beneath it all… A gnawing sensation. It wasn't fear. Not anymore.
It was something colder. Hungrier. Not hers. But now, undeniably inside her.
Seren rose slowly from the steps, the hem of her nightgown brushing against the soot-black ground. Her limbs felt heavier than before, like her muscles didn't fully belong to her anymore. As if some part of her was moving with her and another part was moving through her. The shadow behind her mimicked her motion. Almost.
It stood when she did, but for a split second, it flickered stretching taller than her body, then collapsing back into place. She turned sharply. Nothing.
Just silence. The same hungry hush that made the air feel like it was pressing in on her skull. "You are not whole."
The system's voice returned. No fanfare, no menu. Only truth. "Integration incomplete. Parasite Protocol remains unstable."
"Mental corruption: 4.3%"
The number had risen. Only a fraction. Barely measurable. But Seren felt it like a splinter in her brain not painful, but present. Constant. A new whisper slithered through her chest, too low to be words. It made her throat tighten. She pressed a hand to her sternum, just above the mark. Her fingers trembled. "Why me?" she muttered. "Why give this to someone like me?"
There was no answer. Only another screen flashing before her eyes, like light catching on the back of her eyelids.
🩸 [SYSTEM MODULE: Parasite Protocol – Dreamlink State: LIGHT]
Slots Unlocked: 3
Current Bound: 1
Sync Rate: 39%
Corruption Flow Detected: Minor
Emotional Override: Dormant
Cognitive Drift: Noted
Cognitive drift? "What does that even mean?" she whispered. "Thoughts unaligned from origin self." "You may experience emotional desync, memory bleed, or unfamiliar cravings."
"Cravings?"
That word struck too hard. Because somewhere, beneath all the fear…
…she was craving something. Not food. Not warmth. Not even escape. Something deeper. Raw. Like… another bind. Another whisper. Another pulse of submission kneeling before her. And the moment she acknowledged it even silently the system flared.
"Desire confirmed."
"Target class: Nightmare – Tier I. Proximity: Active."
Seren's head snapped up. "No. I didn't mean"
But it was too late. The ash began to stir again. A soft swirling just meters ahead of her, like something waking up beneath the ground. The same way the first one had formed. Except this time… it didn't wait.
The ash exploded. Not loud. Not violent.
But wrong. Like silence tearing. A shape rose from it lean, long, and fast. Four limbs. No face. Just a hollow void where a mouth should be. It moved like liquid metal in midair twitching, blinking in and out of view and it didn't bow. It charged. Seren stumbled back, heart crashing against her ribs. She barely registered her scream as the shadow lunged. Her mark flashed. Her vision narrowed. Time blurred. Something instinctive screamed inside her not to run, but to command.
"Submit."
The word left her lips before thought. Her mark blazed silver. The creature froze midair, body locking, limbs twitching like marionette strings caught in wind. Then it dropped to the ground with a hiss, clawing at itself, screaming in a voice like grinding metal. "Will resistance detected. Initiating Override."
Seren stood frozen, chest heaving. Her hands glowed now. Both. She hadn't tried to bind it. But she was trying not to. And that meant the Protocol had read her hesitation as consent. It had chosen for her.
The nightmare thrashed. Its limbs spasmed, claws dragging trenches through the ash.
It howled not in pain, but rage a sound that sliced across the air like broken glass inside thunder. And Seren watched, frozen. Not because she was afraid. Not anymore. But because something inside her… was enjoying this. The sight of it kneeling. The sound of its resistance breaking.
Her heart was racing, but not from panic from power. That terrified her more than the monster ever could. "Override in process…"
"Initiating Forced Link – Slot Two…"
"Warning: Sync Unstable."
The mark on her arm flared so bright it lit the surrounding buildings, casting shadows across shattered walls. The silver ink twisted violently too fast, too chaotic and for a moment, it felt like the veins under her skin were moving on their own. The creature lifted its head just enough for Seren to meet the emptiness where its eyes should've been. And then it spoke. Not aloud.
Inside. "You're no queen. Just another cursed girl playing god."
"Let's see how long you last."
Pain exploded in her skull. Seren staggered, clutching her temples. The world spun not around her, but inside her. Memory shards flickered behind her eyes. Flashes. A red hallway. A silver door. A woman screaming in a language she didn't understand.
Something chasing her through a hallway of mirrors. Her own reflection smiling back when she wasn't.
She dropped to one knee, gasping.
"Cognitive Drift Level: Moderate."
"Mental Corruption: 11.7%"
"Slot Two: Force-Bound – Sync Rate: 19%"
The numbers meant nothing now. Only the pressure remained like her thoughts were being rerouted through wires she couldn't see. The creature vanished not in a flash, not in a scream. It simply folded into her shadow. Another weight added. Her body swayed, suddenly off-balance. Two now. Two things living inside her. And one of them hated her.
Seren forced herself to her feet, legs trembling. Her shadow dragged behind her like wet chains. "I didn't choose this," she whispered. "I didn't ask to be anything."
"Yet you are."
The system's voice had changed. It was… warmer now. Almost soothing. That scared her most of all.
"Two bound. Final slot pending."
"Emotional Override: Partial."
"Crownweight Threshold Reached – Status: Monarch Candidate."
Seren blinked. "Wait— what did you say?" But the system said no more. Only a low chime echoed again in the far distance The Black Bell as if it had heard what she had done. As if it approved.
The city pulsed once. Lights flickered in buildings that had no doors. Far above, the blank sky rippled. And then…something noticed her. She felt it.
Like a presence scraping across the back of her mind ancient, slow, hungry.
Not the nightmares. Not the system. Something older. Deeper. She turned. Far beyond the ruins, past the collapsing towers and howling winds, a light blinked. Just once. Blood-red.
"Monarch Candidate Marked."
"Dreamlord Attention: Acquired."
"Let the Games Begin."