The voice screamed in fury, but it wasn’t Jace screaming. It was something else. Something inside him. Dozens of soul fragments poured from his core, spilling into the Horror like a broken dam.
But it didn’t stop there.
He felt it.
A part of himself—a thread of his being—was siphoning out as well. His essence was being pulled, unraveled like thread off a reel. He struggled to hold onto something—anything.
Then the worst thing happened.
He stopped feeling in control.
He was still in his body… but only watching.
"Thank you for the offering," the voice cackled, now fully merged with his senses. "Let us see what your flesh can do when properly guided."
Jace watched in horror as his limbs moved without command. His body became a blur of bone and darkness, lashing out with a speed and precision he hadn’t known was possible. The Horror tried to react—to pull away—but it was too late.
His body—not his anymore—grabbed one of the limbs, tore it free, then drove it like a spear through the Horror’s mass.
The Soulbound Horror shrieked, but the sound was quickly swallowed by a second, thunderous crack as another limb was ripped off and thrown like a club.
Carnage. Total, unstoppable carnage.
Jace could only watch, trapped behind his own eyes, as the thing he was became something else entirely—something monstrous, something divine.
Jace watched, helpless, as his body surged forward. The spear shattered as he struck at it again. He grabbed his warhammer again, swinging it, catching the Soulbound Horror across the chest. Bone splintered. Flesh cratered. The Horror reeled, screeching in anguish.
Another swing. Then a third. Jace’s arms moved like pistons, driven by some unrelenting force. The hammer cracked through limbs, sending chunks of rotting flesh flying across the chamber. The Horror tried to retaliate, shrieking as it lashed out with a dozen limbs. One struck true, knocking the hammer from Jace’s grip.
But Jace—whoever Jace was now—didn’t falter. He leapt forward, hands bare, eyes glowing with soulfire.
He dove into the creature’s mass of writhing flesh. Limbs wrapped around him, but he tore through them with inhuman strength, ripping tendons and tearing muscle. He roared, slamming a fist into its chest again and again until his hands sank into the pulpy mass. Deep within, he found it—a pulsing black core.
Jace’s hands closed around it.
And he crushed it.
The Horror collapsed with a wet, gurgling shriek as its corrupted core pulsed once, then shattered in a blast of decayed soul energy. Blackened limbs twitched, curling in like a dying spider.
Jace stood in the center of it all, chest heaving, arms slick with blood that wasn’t entirely his. His warhammer was cracked. His knuckles were torn open. And inside his Soulreaver Core, the echo of more than a dozen consumed soul fragments howled with energy.
Reaper's Touch Activated
+70 Soul Fragments
Soulreaver Core Progress: 87/100
Major Soul Fragment Consumption Complete.
Stat Allocation Pending...
Strength +17 | Dexterity +14 | Intelligence +9 | Wisdom +8 | Endurance +6
He exhaled a breathless, bitter laugh.
"Bout fucking time!” he muttered, staggering back a step. “Finally. Something went right.”
But then—
The System flickered.
WARNING: External Influence Detected.
Soulreaver Core Stability: Compromised
Stat Recalibration Initiated...
Harmony’s Thread Detected. Initiating Siphon Protocol.
STAT LOSS – Strength: -43 | Dexterity: -33 | Intelligence: -24 | Wisdom: -24 | Endurance: -12
Pain lanced all throughout him—not physical, not magical, but deeper. Like something important inside him was being ripped away from him. He fell to both knees, gasping as if the very essence of his being had been yanked backward.
Core Fragment Extracted: "Reaper's Exultation"
Core Fragment Extracted: "Will to Resist"
Core Fragment Extracted: "Clarity"
“You never needed it all, my Paragon,” came the voice, sweet and soft—like a lullaby with broken teeth. “I only took what you wasted.”
Jace screamed. Not just out of pain. Not just out of fear.
But out of pure agonizing rage. All of the stats he had worked so hard for were stripped away from him.
He could feel it—power he had bled for, killed for, fought for—stolen from his core.
“Why…”
But again, there was no reply. And he could do nothing. He fell to his knees, exhausted and aching.
As usual, the silence was all that followed his words.
Soulreaver Core Stabilized – New Effective Stats Calculated
Name: Jace Halloway
Race: Soulborne
Class: Soulreaver
Strength: 99
Dexterity: 91
Endurance: 55
Intelligence: 65
Wisdom: 64
Soulreaver Core progress
10/100
Warning…
Core Protection has been eliminated. Siphon remains active. Continued growth may result in further losses.
He looked down at his hands—bloodied, trembling, still clenched into fists. His breath came ragged.
"I will find you," he whispered to no one, his voice raw. "And I will take it back."
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
He pushed himself up slowly, dazed, aching. Whatever Harmony was—whoever she was—she had taken something. And he would get it back.
Resolve firming, he rose to his feet again, shoulders stiff with determination. That’s when the voice returned.
"Take it back?" Her voice slithered through the silence like silk soaked in poison. "Without me, you would have died."
The tone was gentle. Soothing. Almost maternal.
"You fought well, Jace. But it wasn’t enough to defeat that corrupted horror."
It wasn't a voice meant to comfort him anymore—it was a lullaby stretched across eternity, beautiful in the way a storm looks from afar.
"Don’t... Harmony," he snapped, taking a wild guess that landed too well. "Don’t pretend that wasn’t you."
A soft hum. Not quite a laugh, but close. "I never pretended. I told you I would help. And I did."
"Help?" His laugh was hoarse and hollow. "You hijacked my body and bled me dry. I felt myself slipping—my stats, my strength, gone. Don’t lie to me. You were siphoning everything you could."
"Not everything," she said, amused. "I only took the souls. The rest—the stat loss, the system backlash—was the price of breaking your chains."
He paused. Remembered the fragmented notification. The warnings.
"You saw them, didn’t you? You were never meant to do what you did. I merely made it... possible."
His teeth clenched. "You used me."
"I gave you a chance. A gift. You were dying, torn apart like a child's toy. That wasn’t control, Jace. That was mercy."
He stood in silence, fists shaking, soul still trembling from the aftermath.
"Besides," Harmony purred, "what’s lost can be regained. Look how far you’ve come already. One dungeon. So many kills. You’ll earn it all back—and more. And you’ll do it our way."
"Our way," he repeated bitterly. "I never agreed to be your weapon."
"You’re not a weapon," she said softly. "You’re a key. A crack in the machine. A soul the System can’t bind. I asked for fragments, not your will."
He hesitated. His core pulsed—not devouring, but humming. Alive. In sync.
"Why me?" he asked. "Why the souls?"
There was silence.
"Because they were mine," she finally said, voice low. "Long before the gods ever claimed them."
A pause. Then quieter, filled with something heavy: "And you… You’re the only one who can take them back."
His breath hitched. "Your souls? Are you the God of Death or something?"
"Or something," she replied. "But that’s for another time."
A flicker of static broke through the air.
"We’re being watched."
Then the System erupted.
[ERROR//]UNAUTHORIZED INTERFACE BREACH……signal echo mismatch...corrupted corrupted corrupted corrupted/Soulstream INTRUSION DETECTED
Another message tried to overwrite it, glitching violently.
>> SYSTEM NOTICE
PROTOCOL: INTERRUPT_SEQUENCE [FAIL]ERROR: Unauthorized Input DetectedERROR: Subject Class UnverifiedDATA INTEGRITY COMPROMISEDAttempting Recalibration...Attempting......PROTOCOL OVERRIDE BLOCKEDSOURCE: [UNKNOWN]LOGGING EVENT: [REDACTED]... ... ...WARNING: Observational interference detectedReestablishing Control...……Overridden
Everything stopped.
His headache vanished. The System alerts blinked out. He stood alone in the silence, but her presence lingered, faint, like a lullaby fading through walls.
His body throbbed. His soul ached. But he was alive.
And yet… something inside him felt missing.
She had left a mark. Not physical. Not magical. But deeper. Her words had embedded themselves in his marrow, in the seams of his very being.
He pressed a hand to his chest, half expecting to feel warmth, a glow, something.
There was nothing.
He didn’t trust her. Or the System. Or whatever the hell was watching them.
But in that moment, brief, terrifying—he had felt seen. Not by gods. Not by fate. But by something that didn’t care who he was before.
Only who he could become.
And that scared him more than the dungeon ever had.
He stared into the green flickering torchlight, breath shaky.
"…What the hell have I stepped into?"
And worse still... why did part of him want to step in deeper?
The adrenaline had faded, leaving behind instinct, sharp and cold.
Survive first. Think later.
He didn’t have answers. Not yet. But he’d earned the right to look.
And there was still a corpse in front of him.
Jace moved quickly, boots crunching over fractured bones and chunks of necrotic tissue. The grotesque remains of the corrupted horror were already dissolving into void-black mist, its bloated mass breaking down as if unmade by the system itself. But not fast enough to stop him from looting the damn thing.
His eyes darted across the remains, hands already working, searching for anything—everything—he could use. He moved quickly, picking through the wreckage of the undead horror. Its remains were already dissolving into wisps of void-black mist, but not before he snagged anything of value.
Potions, vials, and strange tinctures lined the shelves—some glowing faintly, others still bubbling in sealed flasks. Many bore no labels. Most looked unstable. Jace took them anyway. Alchemical supplies, even unidentified, had value. And right now, survival demanded everything he could carry.
He moved to the broken bodies scattered across the room—skeletal remnants of what were once adventurers. Bits of shattered armor and rusted weapons were still clutched in bone-white fingers. He pried them free without a word, tucking them into his pouch. Scarred steel was still steel, and steel could mean the difference between life and death.
Then, he saw it.
The Dungeon Boss Chest.
It sat untouched in the corner, its blackened wood reinforced with iron bands, faint runes still pulsing along its surface. Jace approached slowly, reverently. No fanfare. No breath held in excitement. Just silence.
He opened it. This time, the flash of light didn't bother him. He just numbly stared into the chest until he could see its contents.
Inside—dust, ancient cloth, and something more.
Soulreaver Core Fragment-
A shard of condensed essence, faintly translucent and pulsing with soft, internal light. The fragment hums with unstable energy—neither warm nor cold, but something ancient and raw, like a heartbeat sealed in crystal. Wisps of ethereal threads spiral within its core, echoing the presence of countless lost souls compressed into a single point of potential. Holding it feels like clutching lightning wrapped in memory—dangerous, beautiful, and not entirely still.
It doesn't just radiate power. It whispers of purpose.
The moment his hand touched it, the fragment dissolved into glowing light that surged into his chest. He staggered, breath caught in his throat as raw power flooded into his core. It wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t gentle either. His Soulreaver Core stirred violently, reacting to the intrusion.
Yet, no words passed his lips. Just a sharp breath and clenched jaw.
He moved on.
Primer of Bone Magic-
A weathered tome bound in pale, leathered flesh stretched tight over cracked bone. Its cover is etched with sigils that seem to shift when looked at too long, as if the book itself resents being understood. Faint whispers coil from its pages, speaking in tongues older than the gods. When opened, the ink inside pulses like veins—each line a living conduit of necrotic knowledge. The pages don’t teach—they brand. Unlocks Spells, rituals, and manipulations of marrow and sinew that imprint themselves directly into the mind, bypassing thought with instinctual command. It's not just a book. It’s an initiation into something primal. Something forbidden
The book felt… old. Bone-bound and weathered, its cover was rough beneath his fingers. As he opened it, knowledge spilled into him like water breaking through a dam—spells, rituals, and control. His thoughts darkened with what he understood.
Jace’s fingers tightened around the tome, the bone-bound cover rasping against his skin like ancient sandpaper. His heartbeat quickened, each pulse echoing in his ears. There was no going back once he opened this book. He knew it instinctively, felt it deep within his soul.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he lifted the cover.
The whispers surged, exploding from the pages like trapped souls suddenly freed. Voices, dozens—no, hundreds—poured into his mind, overlapping, gibbering in tongues he couldn't comprehend, yet understood perfectly. He tried to recoil, tried to slam the book shut, but his hands no longer obeyed him.
The ink on the pages writhed, moving as though alive, forming patterns that twisted and reformed in endless cycles. They pulsed, matching the rhythm of his heartbeat, surging brighter and brighter until the symbols seared themselves directly onto his vision. Pain shot through his skull, jagged and raw, as if hot needles pierced his brain, embedding deeply, branding his consciousness.
Jace gasped, falling to his knees as waves of agony and dark knowledge coursed through him. He felt it—every bone in his body, every piece of marrow responding, resonating. His muscles seized, his spine arched, and for an instant, he saw the world through different eyes, ancient eyes that had witnessed worlds rise and fall.
He saw battlefields littered with shattered limbs, ancient necromancers shaping armies from death itself, and saw forbidden rituals beneath blood-red moons. He learned not only to control bones, but to shape them, break them, and rebuild them into something stronger, something monstrous.
Each spell settled in his mind not as learned information, but as instincts, raw and primal. It wasn’t just knowledge he’d gained—it was transformation. His bones felt denser, stronger, reinforced by something eldritch and dark.
Slowly, the pain receded, the cacophony of voices fading into murmurs in the deepest recesses of his mind. Jace forced himself upright, panting, sweat dripping from his brow.
He stared at the book, still open, its pages now blank, emptied of their dark teachings—he had consumed it completely. Shutting the book, he felt the changes within him, the knowledge restless beneath his skin, waiting eagerly to be unleashed.
“That wasn’t fucking trippy at all.” He shook his head, the ancient power slowly settling within as he turned to check the rest of the loot in the chest. He caught sight of a folded-up garment. He pulled it out, and the item popped up in his vision.
Item: Hallow Mantle
Type: Mantle (Equipment)
Rarity: Rare
Effect: +10 Intelligence, +10 Wisdom
Passive: ??? (Undiscovered)
Midnight black. Silver-threaded. It shimmered with latent energy. He placed it around his shoulders. He hadn't noticed it much before but now with his missing stats, he could feel the biting cold.
Lastly, a hidden compartment. A pendant, impossibly delicate.
Charm of the Melodies.
Error…
No Info Available…
Silver shaped like a tuning fork, gold-threaded and faintly glowing. It pulsed in his hand. Not with power, but with memory. Recognition. Something called out to him, but at this moment he didn't care. He stored it immediately. There was no need to ask questions he wasn’t ready to hear the answers to.
Instead, he searched the room until he found what looked like the exit—stone-carved and unassuming.
Finally, a real exit.
He didn’t trust her. He didn’t forgive her. But as he stepped toward the exit, one truth remained: he wasn’t done. Not with her. Not with this dungeon. Not even close.
Harmony of the Fallen!!!!!!!!!!!!
What fresh nightmare is waiting for Jace next?
