Chapter 23: Wolf

Rael walked with his head down, cursing himself under his breath. Ever since he’d set foot in the First Realm, his thinking had gone soft, sloppy, forgivable only in hindsight. The signs had been there the whole time. Suzy never once using a priestess skill. The way high-level beasts appeared and vanished like they’d been summoned on cue. The strange, too-perfect timing of every attack. He’d seen all of it and chosen not to look. He should have copied her class the very first day. One touch. That’s all it would have taken to know.

"It’s not your fault," Nathia said.

"Yes it is. I should have been better."

"How could you have known?" She kept her eyes fixed on the path ahead, refusing to look at him. "None of us saw it."

Night pressed in between the trees, thick and close. Rael didn’t ask about her life before the realm, and he offered nothing of his own. The less they spoke of the ordinary world, the easier it was to keep moving, to keep breathing. Beneath Nathia’s calm expression, something burned—quiet, constant, unforgiving. Because of Suzy, Luke was dead. The girl had smiled. She’d played helpless. And the whole time, she’d been arranging his death like a piece on a board.

"She’s a sick bastard," Rael said, the words tasting like ash. "All of this is just a game to her."

They hadn’t gone much farther when a low shape moved between the trunks ahead.

[Monster Detected]

Species: Dire Wolf

Level: 8

Tier: Feral

No pack. Exactly the kind of target Rael needed—souls, without the risk of another jump in his own level.

Nathia raised both hands. "Water Shackles."

Coils of water erupted from the ground and locked around the wolf’s legs. It snarled and thrashed against them, but the bonds held just long enough. Rael formed a Fireball and drove it straight into the creature’s skull. Fur and skin blackened instantly. He didn’t wait—a second Fireball followed before the wolf could even recover its footing. The burned head tore loose from the body and rolled into the undergrowth.

[+4 souls]

Nathia stepped closer to the corpse, almost casual. "That was easy."

"Yeah."

Then the temperature dropped. Without warning. Without mercy.

A cold so sharp it felt like knives pressed flat against bare skin settled over the clearing. The air itself turned heavy, resistant, hard to drag into the lungs. Every hair on Rael’s arms rose at once. Nathia felt it in the same instant—her breath caught audibly, and she turned, slow and stiff, the same dread spreading across her face that he could feel gripping his own chest.

Rael looked back.

[Monster Detected]

Species: Frost Dire Wolf

Level: 50

Tier: Elite

The Frost Dire Wolf stood between the trees like a piece of the night itself, given shape and teeth. Its body was the size of a bus. Its pure white fur caught what little moonlight made it through the canopy and threw it back cold and sharp. Teeth jutted past its lips, long as knives. Its eyes glowed a deep, steady red, unblinking, fixed on him. Dark bloodstains marred the white coat in patches, and near the muzzle the fur was gone entirely, leaving raw, exposed skin.

The wolf opened its mouth and roared.

The sound hit like a physical blow, a wall of noise that rang in Rael’s ears and rattled something behind his ribs. It shoved him back a step even as he locked his legs and refused—refused—to give any more ground. Nathia went down hard, knees in the dirt, hands pressed flat against the earth like she was trying to hold the whole forest still.

"How can we ever beat something like that?" she whispered, and her voice cracked on the last word.

Rael could see the old wounds more clearly now—the missing fur, the scarred, raw skin around the mouth. He drew the goblin blade anyway. There was nowhere left to run, and some part of him had already accepted that. Sweat beaded cold on his forehead despite the freezing air biting at his skin. He waited for the charge. It had to come. It always came.

It never did.

The Frost Dire Wolf only stared at him. It ignored Nathia completely, as if she weren’t even there. After a long, unbearable moment, it turned and began walking to the left—then stopped, and looked back over its shoulder. The meaning was unmistakable, impossible to misread.

Follow.

Rael pulled Nathia to her feet. She was still shaking, her hand cold in his.

"We have to follow it," he said.

"Are you mad?"

The wolf roared again—shorter this time, sharper, impatient. Nathia flinched hard but somehow stayed on her feet.

"If it wanted us dead," Rael said, "it would have finished it already."

They started walking. The great white shape moved ahead of them at an easy, unhurried pace, never letting the distance stretch too wide, never letting them forget it was there. Rael kept the blade in his hand and watched for any chance to break away, but the forest on either side felt watched, sealed shut, like something unseen was holding its breath along with them. Neither of them spoke. There was nothing to say that wouldn’t sound small against the silence.

After a time, the wolf stopped in a small clearing and began scraping at the ground with one massive paw. Dirt flew in dark clumps. It looked at Rael. Then at the disturbed earth. Then back at Rael again, waiting.

"You want me to dig here?" he asked, and his own voice sounded strange to him in the quiet.

The thought came uninvited and refused to leave: that the beast was telling him to dig his own grave. Nathia’s hand closed hard around his arm.

"Don’t."

He shook his head and knelt anyway. The soil gave way soft beneath his fingers. It didn’t take long before he felt something solid—a long wooden shaft. He pulled it free and brushed the dirt from it with trembling hands. A spear. He’d seen this exact weapon before. He knew it.

"Alex," he said quietly, barely more than breath. "This is Alex’s spear."

Nathia stared at it, then at the wolf, understanding and horror dawning together on her face. Rael turned fully toward the massive white creature and made himself meet its red eyes. Something familiar lived in them now that he looked past the fear, something that made his chest ache.

"Alex?" he asked.

The wolf did not move.

Rael took a step closer, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Are you Alex?"

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