The walls of the Ninth Precinct’s containment room shimmered with faintly pulsing sigils—designed to suppress lies, neutralize hostile magic, and weaken anything too dangerous to be left unchecked. A constant hum vibrated beneath the surface, a magical heartbeat that made most witches sweat.

  Kai sat like it didn’t matter.

  He leaned back in the steel chair, legs loosely crossed, his travel-worn cloak draped over one shoulder like a lazy afterthought. His arms were folded across his chest, gaze locked ahead. He looked like someone waiting for a storm—and daring it to come closer.

  Across from him stood Inspector Alex Lim. His posture was textbook straight, uniform pristine, the silver lion medallion of the Ninth Precinct gleaming on his chest. But his eyes—they never left Kai’s. Cold. Sharp. Searching.

  By the door stood Dario, arms folded, face unreadable. His presence was meant to balance the tension in the room, but his silence carried weight. History. Complication.

  Alex dropped a file onto the table. A series of photographs spilled out—sigils, drawn in blood, etched in cursed ink. Each one pulsed with residual malice.

  Kai’s expression didn’t change.

  Alex’s voice was crisp. “Let’s stop pretending. We’ve seen this sigil before. The same signature Bai bore on his arm. The same design burned into Lin Shu’s walls. Obsidian Dagger code. That’s no coincidence. You were trained in their methods. What do you know?”

  Kai didn’t blink. “I haven’t been with the Dagger for six months.”

  Alex’s gaze hardened. “But you recognized it. Back on Lazarus Island. You disabled the mark on Bai like it was routine. No one outside the Dagger could’ve done that—unless they were trained. Unless they practiced it.”

  Dario stirred. “Alex, let’s take a breath—”

  “No,” Kai said, his voice cutting across the room like a blade. “Let him finish accusing me.”

  Alex’s jaw tightened. “This isn’t personal. It’s observation. The Obsidian Dagger hasn’t operated openly in this part of the world for years. Now a vampire gang is using their soul-binding techniques. And they’re working with a necromancer calling himself the Hollow Fang.”

  Kai’s eyes darkened. “I don’t wear masks. I don’t take aliases. You want to know if I’m the Hollow Fang?”

  Alex didn’t blink. “Are you?”

  “No.”

  Alex’s silence stretched long enough to become suspicion. “You expect me to take that at face value?”

  “No,” Kai replied. “I expect you to do your job. To notice that the sigil, while based on Obsidian Dagger patterns, wasn’t mine. The signature’s wrong. The layering’s twisted. And—there’s something else.”

  He leaned forward, tone low. “Sahkil resonance. It’s not just soul-binding. There’s pact magic worked into it. A corruption layered into the base glyphs.”

  Dario stepped forward. “He’s right. I scanned the circle. There’s a blend of sahkil markings—subtle, but present. Old pact threads. And none of us were trained in that.”

  Alex frowned but didn’t refute it. “That doesn’t prove Kai isn’t involved.”

  “It doesn’t prove he is either,” Dario countered. “You think I’d bring him in if I thought he was the Hollow Fang?”

  Alex’s tone dropped. “You might not know. You’re too close to him.”

  The room shifted.

  Kai rose—not violently, but deliberately. Enough to break the stalemate.

  “I didn’t kill Lin Shu,” he said, voice level. “But I know someone who could have. Someone with access to Obsidian Dagger archives. Someone who trained with us. Someone who studied beyond the rules.”

  Alex narrowed his eyes. “You said yourself the sigil was familiar. Where did you learn it?”

  Kai hesitated.

  Then looked at Dario. Then back at Alex.

  “Silas.”

  The name fell like stone into still water.

  Dario’s features froze. Alex blinked once.

  “You’re saying the founder of the Obsidian Dagger passed this technique down?”

  “I’m saying this—” Kai tapped one of the photos, “—wasn't just copied. It was evolved. Someone took Silas’s techniques and merged them with forbidden sahkil rites. That takes more than skill. That takes permission.”

  Kai turned away, voice quieter now. “And there are only a few who ever had that.”

  Dario exhaled, slow and grim. “Silas adopted four of you. You, Liang, Mortem, and Vance. He never let anyone else into the inner circle. His magic—his personal rituals—were for all of your alone.”

  He looked at Kai, searching his face.

  “What you’re saying is... it’s one of us.”

  “It can’t be one of my brother,” Kai muttered.

  Silence thickened like smoke.

  And then—

  Three knocks on the door.

  It opened, and Inspector Ho stepped inside, eyes wide, clipboard in hand.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” she said quickly. “But we’ve got a situation.”

  Alex tensed. “What is it?”

  “The Ghost Lantern Clan. My informant says that they’re gathering at Bukit Brown Cemetery. Conducting a ritual. Aggressive formation. Full summoning prep.”

  Dario stepped toward her. “Who are they summoning?”

  Ho hesitated. “We don’t know. No names have been registered. But from the readings... it’s not small.”

  Kai’s body had already shifted. He pulled on his cloak again, his tone sharp. “Let me guess. They’re trying to summon a sahkil. It is the only being good enough to send against a powerful vampire like Michelle Teo”

  Kai swore under his breath.

  Dario’s voice turned grim. “If they’re trying to anchor his spirit—especially after what the Frangipani did—it won’t be a summoning.”

  “It’ll be a resurrection,” Kai finished.

  Alex grabbed his coat. “Then we’d better get there before they bring back something none of us can send back.”

  The room emptied in a rush of tension and footsteps.

  ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  The moon sat low over Bukit Brown Cemetery, its pale light filtering through the jungle canopy and casting spectral patterns over the moss-covered tombstones. The air shimmered with the residual heat of day, but beneath it was something colder, something ancient. The spirits that lingered here had gone quiet.

  Too quiet.

  Kai stepped through the veil of trees, flanked by Dario and Alex. All three moved in near silence, their boots crunching lightly on the gravel path as they entered the heart of the cemetery. Up ahead, torchlight danced from the hilltop shrine. The distinct glow of ritual magic painted the night in dull reds and deep blues, pulsing in steady rhythm with the chant that rolled through the air like low thunder.

  "They're already deep into the summoning," Dario muttered, his eyes narrowing. "This isn't some low-level invocation. That circle—those are spirit-binder glyphs. They're calling something big."

  "We warned them," Alex said flatly. "They bypassed Council protocol. Now they're playing with fire."

  Kai didn't speak. His eyes were fixed on the glowing runes and the figure standing at the center of the ritual circle. Marcus Lin.

  The Ghost Lantern leader was clad in ceremonial robes, black and gold, his arms raised in invocation. Around him, ghost fire flickered in tight formation, flicking across the ground like scattered bone dust. Behind him stood several senior members of the Ghost Lantern clan, keeping the circle intact.

  As the trio approached, the chanting faltered. Marcus turned. His eyes, normally calm and introspective, now burned with barely contained fury.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "You're not welcome here," Marcus said, his voice echoing unnaturally. "This is Ghost Lantern business."

  "You're reaching into the Pale Curtain," Alex shot back. "This ritual—you know it is dangerous. The Ghost Lantern are protectors."

  Marcus snarled. "Not after what they did to my father. We will do anything"

  Kai stepped forward. "Vengeance won't bring him back. And what you're summoning? It's not going to answer to you."

  Marcus laughed, low and bitter. "Then prove it. I dont care."

  Before anyone could move, Marcus reached into his robe and pulled out a bone-white talisman. He shattered it against the hilt of his blade, and a burst of spirit-light exploded outward. The ritual circle flared. Kai felt the Pale Curtain thin.

  "I challenge you, Shaman. Spirit duel. You win, I end the ritual. I win, you leave, and never interfere again."

  Alex stepped forward. "That's insane. You can't—"

  "Let him," Kai said quietly, removing his cloak. "It might be the only way."

  He stepped into the circle. The wards snapped shut behind him.

  The air inside the circle thickened instantly. Marcus drew his weapon, a blade carved from spirit-iron and jade. Kai answered with a whisper. A blood red energy flared into being, crimson and pulsing. It shaped into a shield and deflected Marcus’ blow.

  They clashed.

  Spirit and steel. Flesh and fire.

  Marcus moved with speed and grace, driven by grief and righteous fury. But Kai moved with something else. Reluctance. Mercy.

  He parried a sweeping strike, ducked under a lunge, and whispered a word that sent vines of blood-magic coiling around Marcus's ankle—enough to slow him, but not harm.

  Marcus howled and broke free with a burst of spirit energy.

  "You hold back? You mock me?"

  Marcus quickly deflected Kai’s magic. Kai needed more power.

  The Blood Asura stirred inside him, responding to his mounting need. His breath hitched. His grip trembled.

  "Don't," Dario whispered from outside the circle.

  He summoned Blood Asura, not caring about the vampiric curse.

  As soon as he was quick, he will not suffer the effect of the vampirism curse.

  Blood Asura appeared on his hand. Power surged through him like a second heartbeat.The soulsword responded in kind, extending into a two-handed nodachi of liquid flame.

  Kai charged. In two strokes, Marcus's sword shattered. The third blow stopped a hair from his throat.

  Kai slashed Marcus one last time. Blood flowed like water out of Marcus and flowed towards Kai.

  The ritual circle trembled.

  Kai felt an urge to rip Marcus’ throat. Instead he took the blade and smashed the ritual circle with it.

  Kai was about to unsummon Blood Asura when Marcus laughed.

  "Too late."

  The ground split open.

  From beneath the ritual circle, a rift yawned wide from the Pale Curtain, and a clawed hand reached out. The sahkil was like a armed and armored woman. The creature’s head is nothing more than a naked skull, decorated with engravings.

  “You summoned a hell maiden?” Kai cursed.

  Known as “hell maidens”, hemnallids are the elite soldiers of the sahkils. They represent a fear of warfare, especially to noncombatants. Hemnallids infiltrate armies in order to incite violence against civilians, stoke the impulse to commit war crimes, and generally delight in atrocity.

  As the hell maiden stared at Kai, a wave of fear passed onto Kai.

  No, there was no time to unsummon the Blood Asura.

  Kai stepped back, extending his blood. The curse clawed at him, but he pushed it down.

  Dario and Alex moved forward, weapons drawn.

  The hell maiden charged and Kai met here.

  Fen Jie roared in triumph for such a powerful opponent.

  Ethereal still, Kai’s blade hit nothing but the hell maiden’s blade bit through.

  Unholy magic hit Kai.

  Alex took out his revolver and shot at the hell maiden. Dario took out his daggers and throw it,

  But both proved useless.

  The hellmaiden hit Kai squarely in the shoulder and sent Kai tumbling.

  Undettered, Kai swung his blade widely and this time chanted an incantation. This time the blade hit through. The hell maiden gave a yelp but Kai followed up with another hit. This time, it cleanly took out the hell maiden.

  As Kai sent the hell maiden back to the Pale Curtain, Kai collapsed. It was too late, the vampiric curse had taken ahold.

  As Dario rushed to pick Kai up, something else moved faster.

  A ripple of darkness passed over the cemetery.

  And then, the Hollow Fang arrived.

  He stepped from the shadows like he'd always been there, face hidden behind a porcelain mourning mask. His cloak was woven from the void between worlds. His presence silenced the wind.

  "What a lovely ritual," he said, voice amused. "And all for me."

  Marcus, who had been lying down, turned. "Who—"

  The Hollow Fang didn't let him finish.

  One gesture. One spell.

  A spike of necrotic magic shot from his hand, piercing Marcus through the chest. The Ghost Lantern leader froze, mouth agape.

  Then he fell.

  The Hollow Fang moved to the ritual circle and gathered the glowing remnants of the talismans, the artifacts Marcus had used to stabilize the breach.

  "With these, the Pale Curtain will fall."

  "Stop !" Alex shouted, firing his revolver at him.

  Kai moved first.

  But the Hollow Fang didn't flinch. He parried Kai's first strike with a necrotic blast, then touched Kai's chest.

  Pain.

  Pure, unfiltered spiritual agony. Kai staggered.

  "Brother ,you're strong. It seemed that Silas had done a number on you," the Hollow Fang mused.

  Then he lifted his mask.

  Kai gasped.

  Under the mask was Mortem.

  His face was calm. Serene. But his eyes burned with a light not his own.

  Kai whispered, horrified. "You're possessed."

  Mortem smiled.

  "I offered myself freely. It was the only way I was free from Silas. The sahkil... simply made me better."

  Mortem moved to Kai’s side.

  “I can’t get rid of Silas’ curse. But I can help you.” Mortem said.

  Mortem sang. Kai missed how Mortem sang.

  Kai felt a sense of relief as the vampiric curse subsided. It was still there but the urging to drain everyone dry was abated.

  He stepped into the circle. The ground howled.

  And then he vanished.

  Leaving behind only a blood-soaked shrine, a dead leader, and the knowledge that the Pale Curtain was one step closer to breaking.

  Kai dropped to his knees, eyes hollow.