Royal Reboot: Level up, Your Majesty!

Silence of the Senses

4

The stench hit Astra first, a sour rot that stopped her blade mid-arc. She turned toward the dining hall, nose wrinkling, instincts spiking. Something vibrated out there. Astra couldn’t hear it or even feel it. But she knew it was there, like a heart trying to wake.

Beside her, Theo swung his ice blade again and again. Each strike sheared a tendril of purple mist, yet the creature only laughed in vapour, slipping around him like it was teasing him.

Astra studied the fight closely, her mind piercing the timeline together.

The first attack of this creature was through Tiffany as a vessel. There was a mindless hunger there.

The second attack had been different. Less direct. The mist had moved with deliberate unpredictability: playful, almost mischievous. It didn’t press the offensive so much as dance about like a prankster.

And now, barely a day later, after she had assumed it destroyed, it was back. Weaker, yes. She could sense that much. 

Why return at all?

Theo couldn’t freeze it this time; his mana reserves were nearly drained, and the open terrain gave them no control.

Could that have been the goal? A test of limits…

Or had it been a distraction all along?

“We’re being played,” she murmured. “It’s a distraction.”

Theo froze. “A distraction? This attack? How do you know that?”

“Can you stall it?” Her feet were already moving.

He nodded, confused but trusting. Astra sprinted toward the dining hall; the stink thickened with every stride.

While the recent food poisoning had definitely been malicious, this playful battle didn’t feel the same. Maybe there were even more than one entity.

Bursting through the double doors, she was met with silence. Up-ended chairs, crusted food, shattered plates. But no presence. Only the trail of sour air, leading toward the industrial freezer.

The freezer inside was quiet. But the arctic cold she expected wasn’t there. Had someone shut the freezer off during this morning’s decontamination?

Astra pulled out her phone and switched on the flashlight. Stainless steel racks stood bare as the food had been removed and destroyed. There was only the dripping sound as frost melted in slow droplets. 

Then she saw a marking on the floor. As she moved to inspect it, a new sound made her freeze: footsteps crunching over broken porcelain.

She spun, blade raised, flash light pointed towards the door.

A dog stood in the doorway. Sleek black coat, tall and lean, ears erect, tail wagging nonchalantly. A Doberman, no doubt. The school had a strict no-pet policy, and this was the first time Astra had seen such an animal here. Judging by its appearance, it was too well-kept to be a stray.

The Doberman watched her with amusement as she stepped closer. It wagged its tail once, padded over, and licked the back of her hand as if granting permission to breathe the same air. 

She blinked.

“Did you find anything?” Theo’s voice called from outside.

The dog took advantage of her distraction and bolted, disappearing into a bush.

“Just residue,” Astra replied, still staring at the spot where it had vanished. She hesitated, debating whether to follow or stay. “From the freezer. It wasn’t there last night.”

“The mist vanished on my end,” Theo said. “Destroyed, maybe?”

“Or it retreated.”

When they returned to the freezer, the strange pattern she had seen earlier was gone. In its place, faint gouges scored the melting ice. She shone the flashlight across the marks, noticing that the lines followed the pattern of a circle.

She ran her fingers along the ridges, then stopped when she felt something slick.

Warm blood.

Theo appeared behind her. Their eyes met. No words, just shared certainty:

Something terrible had happened here.

Earlier

Astra and Theo carved circles in the grass outside, blades of ice and purple haze flashing like dueling constellations. Inside the dining hall, a quieter war started.

Eydis slipped past the broken doors, shoes silent on timber. She went straight to the control panel, flipped every switch. The freezer’s hum faltered, coughed, died.

The room jerked. Frost on the empty steel shelves melted in a rush, unnaturally fast; water slid down, hissed on contact with the floor. Violet steam curled up in tendrils, thin at first, then thick as rope.

From the swirling haze rose a chorus voices, maybe hundreds, melding into one anguished whine. 

"Hungry. So hungry."

Eydis’s lips curved to a sly grin. The dark freezer pulsed with flickering purple light as if Gluttony was chewing on empty air. How pathetic.

Adorable.

"Dramatic, as always,” she called.

The smoke writhed. "Who dares mock the Devourer?”

"Devourer? Nice upgrade. New vocabulary suits you.”

The mist flared. “Enough. Feed me or suffer.”

"Angry because the hall’s empty? I must admit, the subzero treatment for your putrid essence was rather inventive, even for me."

A tendril lashed at her, but truck harmlessly against her violet shield. "It was YOU? You who interrupted my feast?”

"Guilty," Eydis purred. "Gluttony behaving gluttonously? Shocking. Had you shown a shred of restraint, causing minimal harm to my… associates, I might’ve allowed you another night’s freedom.”

"Freedom? Don't—"

The rest was swallowed by panic as arcane syllables spilled from Eydis’s lips. Her finger traced quick, precise lines across the floor, glyphs weaving into numbers, circles into runes. A trap made just for this.

"What is this?" Gluttony shrieked, the panic evident in its thrashing. "A binding sigil?"

The circle lit crimson. It drank the Sin’s signature like a whirlpool. A deep, grinding groan echoed through the metal walls, the sound of unseen gears straining to capture the Sin.

It was not Envy. That Sin reveled in the seductive thrill of chosen prey. Gluttony, however, was a bottomless pit, swollen from a week of feeding. It fought the sigil’s pull with mindless, monstrous strength.

Malevolent heat rolled of Gluttony, sulfur and rot choking the space. There it was. A familiar scent that reeked like a pack of drowned rats.

She gritted her teeth, this would surely reach Astra, no matter how far they were. Not only did she have to contain Gluttony, but Astra's unexpected perceptiveness was a great inconvenience.

The mist thickened, knitting itself into a translucent membrane lined with black and red veins. It bulged forward, tried to wrap around her, drawing power straight through the shield like a leech.

Eydis's eyes blazed gold. Her own arcane energy crackled around her, needles of violet light pricked the membrane. Sweat stung her eyes. She kept chanting, feet planted in the humming circle.

Then she struck. A violet dagger winked into being. She drove it into the living wall. The membrane burst, oozing green acid.

Gluttony shrieked, membrane flexing to heal. Acid rained on her barrier, sizzling holes. Magic bled from her rapidly.

“Foolish mortal!” the Sin roared. “You think that blade can stop me? Let’s end this!”

The membrane pulsed once, twice, before morphing into a muscular, bloated pouch. Light drained from her vision. The walls of her prison closed in.

“You Sins and your smothering affection." She chuckled, even as her shield strained and buckled beneath the onslaught of acid rain.

Gluttony struck with abrupt force. Its swollen gut snapped Eydis’s barrier, then swallowed her whole.

“Delicious…”