The car stopped near an abandoned part of the city where streetlights flickered and most buildings had long since been forgotten by time.
Broken windows. Rusted gates. Overgrown weeds pushing through cracked concrete.
The kind of place where people didn't walk at night.
And the kind of place where poltergeists gathered.
Alumna stepped out of the car first, closing the door quietly. He walked around to the passenger side and picked up the glass jar with Stud inside.
Stud looked around through the glass.
"…Ah," he said. "This looks like a place where I would definitely not want to be murdered."
"This is the place," Alumna said.
"Wonderful. Kidnapped and brought to a death zone. I will remember this betrayal."
Alumna ignored him and walked toward a half-collapsed building. The entrance was blocked by wooden boards, but the boards were covered in faint markings—seals, symbols, and thin threads of spiritual energy.
Stud immediately noticed.
"…You sealed the perimeter."
"Yes."
"So it's confirmed."
"Yes."
Stud looked toward the dark interior of the building.
"…Hive."
Alumna removed the lid of the jar but kept water dripping over the outside, maintaining a thin barrier.
"You can come out," he said.
Stud phased carefully through the opening and floated into the air, stretching like someone who had been cramped in a small space for too long.
"I am filing a complaint later."
"Noted."
Stud floated toward the entrance of the building and stopped just before the darkness inside. His usual joking expression slowly disappeared.
"…Yeah," he said quietly. "This is a hive."
Inside the Building
The air inside was heavy.
Not physically heavy—but spiritually.
The deeper they walked, the colder the air felt. The walls were covered in black stains that looked like mold but were actually residue from spiritual energy. The floor was cracked, and strange scratch marks ran along the walls like something with claws had been dragged repeatedly through the halls.
Stud floated slightly ahead of Alumna, acting as a guide.
"…Worker types," Stud said, looking at the walls. "Low intelligence. They gather energy, bring it back to the center."
"You can tell from this?" Alumna asked.
Stud pointed at the scratch marks.
"Workers move in groups and drag energy cores or prey. Hunters move alone. Different behavior, different marks."
They walked down a long hallway until they reached a large open area that used to be a lobby.
Now it looked like a nest.
Black, web-like spiritual material covered the walls and ceiling. Several small floating shapes moved slowly around the room like insects inside a hive.
Poltergeists.
At least twenty of them.
Alumna stopped walking.
Stud floated slightly forward.
"…Don't attack yet," Stud said quietly. "If this is really a hive, the core is deeper. These are just workers."
One of the poltergeists suddenly twitched.
Then another.
Then all of them slowly turned toward Alumna at the same time.
They had sensed him.
Alumna sighed quietly.
"…So much for stealth."
The poltergeists rushed toward him all at once.
Alumna moved instantly.
He stepped forward and drew a short blade from inside his coat. The blade glowed faintly with spiritual energy.
The first poltergeist lunged—
Alumna sliced through it in one clean motion.
The creature dissolved into black smoke immediately.
Another came from behind.
He turned and stabbed backward without looking, purifying it instantly.
Two more came from the side—
He stepped forward, spun once, and cut both of them in a single motion.
Stud floated above the fight, watching.
"…You know," Stud said casually, "most humans would be dead by now."
Alumna didn't respond.
Another poltergeist tried to grab his arm, but he grabbed it first and slammed it into the ground before driving the blade through its core.
The creature dissolved immediately.
Within less than a minute—
The entire room was silent.
All the worker poltergeists were gone.
Black smoke slowly faded into the air.
Stud looked around.
"…Efficient," he said. "You really did kill a lot of poltergeists in your life."
Alumna cleaned the blade with a cloth and put it back inside his coat.
"This was just the entrance."
Stud looked toward a dark hallway leading deeper underground.
"…Yeah," he said quietly. "The hive core is down there."
They moved down a staircase leading underground.
The air became colder.
The walls were completely covered now in black spiritual webbing. Some of it pulsed slowly, like a living organism breathing.
Stud touched one of the walls lightly.
"…Energy storage," he said. "They're feeding something."
"The queen?" Alumna asked.
"Maybe. Or something worse."
They reached the bottom of the stairs.
A massive underground chamber opened in front of them.
And in the center—
A huge black mass was attached to the floor and ceiling like a cocoon. Spiritual energy pulsed through it like veins.
Around it were dozens of inactive poltergeists hanging from the walls like sleeping bats.
Stud stared at the cocoon.
Then his expression changed.
For the first time since they arrived—
Stud looked genuinely serious.
"…Alumna," he said quietly.
"Yes."
"…This isn't just a hive."
Alumna looked at the massive cocoon.
"…What is it?"
Stud didn't look away from the cocoon.
"…This is a breeding nest."
Silence filled the underground chamber.
"…They're not just gathering energy," Stud continued. "They're making something."
The cocoon pulsed again.
Once.
Twice.
Like a heartbeat.
Stud's voice became quieter.
"…And whatever is inside that thing…"
The cocoon twitched slightly.
"…is going to be very, very bad."
Alumna slowly reached into his coat again and gripped his blade.
"…Then we destroy it now."
Stud didn't smile this time.
"…Yeah," he said quietly.
"…We destroy it now."
The underground chamber pulsed like a living heart.
Black spiritual veins spread across the walls, the floor, and the ceiling, all connected to the massive cocoon in the center of the chamber. Each pulse sent a faint vibration through the ground, like something inside was breathing.
Alumna stood still, observing.
Stud floated beside him, unusually quiet.
"…Yeah," Stud said slowly. "That's not normal."
The cocoon twitched again.
A low sound echoed through the chamber, somewhere between a growl and a heartbeat.
Alumna stepped forward.
"We destroy it," he said calmly.
Stud didn't joke this time.
"…Yeah. We destroy it before it hatches."
Alumna took another step forward.
The moment his foot touched the center of the chamber—
The cocoon violently pulsed.
All the inactive poltergeists hanging on the walls suddenly opened their eyes at the same time.
The chamber filled with a low screeching sound.
Stud immediately floated upward.
"…You triggered the defense system," he said. "Good job."
The poltergeists dropped from the walls one by one, surrounding Alumna from all sides.
There were dozens of them.
Maybe more.
Alumna reached into his coat and pulled out his blade again.
The blade glowed faintly blue in the darkness.
The first poltergeist lunged.
Alumna stepped forward and cut through it in one clean motion.
The second came from the side—
He ducked, grabbed it, and slammed it into the ground before driving the blade through its core.
A third jumped from behind—
Stud fired a thin beam of spiritual energy from above, piercing it instantly.
"I'm helping," Stud said. "Don't get used to it."
More poltergeists rushed toward Alumna.
He moved without hesitation—stepping, turning, cutting, striking—each movement precise, efficient, and controlled. Every swing of his blade purified another poltergeist into black smoke.
But they kept coming.
"They're stalling us," Stud said. "The cocoon is still growing."
Alumna looked toward the center of the chamber.
The cocoon was pulsing faster now.
Stronger.
Then—
CRACK.
A large crack appeared across the surface.
Both Alumna and Stud froze.
"…That's not good," Stud muttered.
CRACK.
Another crack spread across the cocoon.
Spiritual energy began leaking out like smoke.
Then the entire cocoon split open.
Something large fell from the cocoon and landed on the ground with a heavy, wet sound.
The remaining poltergeists immediately retreated to the walls, almost like servants backing away from their master.
The creature slowly stood up.
It was huge—twice the size of a human, with long arms that dragged on the ground and several tentacle-like appendages moving behind its back. Its body looked like it was made from condensed shadows, constantly shifting and reforming.
Where its face should have been, there was only a dark hole.
Stud stared at it.
"…Well," he said quietly. "That's new."
The creature suddenly moved.
In one instant it was standing near the cocoon—
The next instant it was in front of Alumna.
Alumna barely managed to block the attack. One of the creature's arms slammed into his blade, sending a shockwave through the room and pushing him backward several meters.
He slid across the ground but kept his balance.
The creature attacked again immediately, tentacles shooting forward like spears.
Alumna dodged one, cut another, but a third wrapped around his arm and slammed him into a wall.
The impact cracked the concrete.
Stud fired another energy beam, cutting the tentacle and freeing Alumna.
"You okay?" Stud asked.
"I'm fine," Alumna replied calmly, even though dust and debris fell around him.
The creature screeched and rushed forward again.
This time Alumna didn't retreat.
He stepped forward.
When the creature attacked, he moved inside its range instead of away from it, dodging the main arm and driving his blade directly into the center of its body.
The blade glowed brighter.
Spiritual energy surged through the weapon.
The creature let out a horrible screech and tried to pull away, but Alumna held the blade in place.
"Purification," he said quietly.
The blade flashed with light.
The creature's body began to crack, black energy leaking out from the cracks.
It struggled, thrashed, and slammed its arms into the ground, but the cracks spread across its entire body.
Then—
It shattered into black smoke.
The entire chamber became silent.
The remaining small poltergeists fled into the walls and disappeared.
The cocoon stopped pulsing.
Everything was quiet again.
The Tracker
Alumna stood still for a moment, making sure the creature was completely gone.
Stud floated down beside him.
"…Well," Stud said, "that was unpleasant. But successful."
Alumna didn't respond.
He was looking at the ground.
"…Alumna?" Stud said.
Alumna slowly walked forward and knelt down.
Something was lying on the floor.
A small metal object.
Damaged.
Covered in black residue.
Stud floated closer.
"…What is that?"
Alumna picked it up slowly.
His eyes widened slightly.
For the first time since the mission started—
Alumna looked shocked.
"…This is impossible," he said quietly.
Stud looked at the object carefully.
"…What is it?"
Alumna held the object in his hand.
"…A tracker."
Stud frowned.
"…So?"
Alumna's voice became quieter.
"…This is the tracker Reige and I placed years ago."
Stud froze.
"…Wait."
Alumna slowly looked around the chamber.
Near the tracker, something else was lying on the ground.
A severed tentacle.
Black. Large. Still slowly dissolving.
Alumna stared at it.
"…This belongs to the poltergeist that attacked Serena."
Silence filled the underground chamber.
Stud looked at the tracker.
Then at the severed tentacle.
Then back at Alumna.
"…So let me get this straight," Stud said slowly.
"…The poltergeist that hunts Serena every year…"
He looked around the destroyed chamber.
"…Came here…"
He looked at the severed tentacle again.
"…And something here ripped its arm off?"
Alumna didn't answer immediately.
He just stared at the tracker in his hand.
Then he said quietly,
"…Yes."
Stud looked toward the broken cocoon.
Then toward the darkness deeper in the hive tunnels.
For once—
Stud didn't make a joke.
"…Alumna," he said quietly.
"Yes."
"…I don't think we just killed the strongest thing in this hive."
Alumna slowly stood up, still holding the broken tracker.
"…I know."
The underground chamber suddenly felt much darker than before.