They veered off the interstate about a half-mile back, where the broken shoulder gave way to a narrow trail buried beneath years of moss and leaf rot. It didn’t show on any of Mireya’s maps, which meant it was either forgotten or wasn’t supposed to exist in the first place. Hikers had always loved to cut their own trails where they weren't supposed to.

  The forest pressed in close on either side, branches skeletal, bark slick with moisture. Fog clung low along the trail as if it were waiting for orders, pooling thicker with each step. Lawson and Briggs led the way, their squads spread in staggered intervals behind them.

  Kade maintained her position near the front, fourth in line, boots finding the path more by habit than vision. The fog muffled sound and devoured distance. Even the cadence of marching boots faded to a dull impression, like the world was being slowly wrapped in wet cotton.

  Mireya muttered something to her orb. The crystal pulsed faintly at her shoulder, then dimmed. Behind her, Elara moved in silence, one hand brushing the spellbook at her hip as if it might anchor her. Kade tilted her head back subtly, tracking Mireya’s flickering orb and Elara’s silence through the corner of her eye. Not because she didn’t trust them, but because they were a giant question mark in the Portland safe zone equation. What was the Ebonwake Conclave's bit of play in the game, she wondered.

  The terrain began to slope downward. Trees thinned out, revealing a break in the canopy ahead. As they crested the final ridge, the cemetery unfolded below. Even though she hadn't seen it before the reboot, it was clear that the Simulation had made some changes. It was wide and sunken, half-swallowed by moss and vine.

  Iron fencing marked the boundary, twisted and overgrown. Rusted spears jutted skyward like broken teeth, some bent outward, others sunken deep into the soft earth. At the center of the western wall, two angelic statues flanked a set of double gates. One angel still stood tall, face serene. The other leaned forward unnaturally, its right wing sheared off. Lichen bloomed across the cracked marble like decay pretending to be art.

  Deeper in the cemetery, a sickly green light pulsed through the fog. The source remained hidden, its shape lost behind the dense haze, leaving only the glow to bleed through the mist.

  "Eyes on the green glow," Lawson said. "Source looks to be dead center."

  Briggs grunted low in response. Not agreement, but the sound of a man who didn’t like what he saw and didn’t expect it to matter.

  Kade motioned the squads forward.

  They entered the graveyard in pairs, boots crunching over gravel and exposed roots. The tombstones stood at odd angles, some already loosened in their beds, others freshly cracked from whatever upheaval had shaken the ground. Names were still legible, but grime and streaks of lichen blurred the older script. Elara glanced at one as they passed, her brow twitching like she recognized the name, but said nothing.

  Kade moved between markers, noting the clean, geometric layout typical of modern cemeteries. What unsettled her wasn’t the structure. It was the silence. She had expected to find undead drifting between the stones, something to confirm the threat. Instead, there was nothing. Just fog and the sense of foreboding. She didn’t like it.

  At the heart of the grounds, the trail gave way to a clearing of flattened stone. Cracked flagstones formed a circular foundation around a central monument. The green light emanated from beneath the surface now, threading pulses through seams in the rock like veins under skin.

  The monument towered over the formation. A statue of a rider atop a rearing horse, blade raised high, cloak frozen mid-motion. The surface was chipped in places, streaked with soot and fresh grime from the recent upheaval. Someone’s blood had dried along the base, dark against the pale stone. At the bottom, carved in clean but dirt-smeared script:

  "Here lies Colonel Silas Drake, Hero of the Eastern March."

  Mireya stepped into the circle without hesitation. Her orb shifted closer, casting small analysis pulses across the ground.

  "The Conclave suspected cemeteries would act as convergence points," she said. "But they didn’t expect it to trigger something like this."

  Kade didn’t move. Her hand instantly went to her belt, ready to draw her cutlass at the first hint of danger. "Trigger what?"

  The answer came in light.

  Around the edge of the clearing, sigils flared to life. Sickly green lines raced between the outer markers and the center monument. Shapes emerged from the intersecting geometry. The first skeletal hand broke the surface near a split headstone, dirt pouring off yellowed bone. Then another. Then six. Twelve.

  Figures pulled themselves from the grave soil, half-shrouded in tattered uniforms and ceremonial armor. Runes glowed faint on their exposed ribs, and cloth hung from blackened pauldrons like funeral banners caught in a wind only they could feel. Cracked iron halos crowned their skulls, some still bearing faded insignia. Empty sockets glowed faint green. Each raised both arms, hands lifted toward the monument.

  [Analyze] Gravebound Priest | Level 14 | Status: Hostile | Class: Dark Priest

  No sound at first. Then the chanting began. It wasn’t a language, but a thrumming chant. Something that resonated in the chest, like standing near an engine turbine or hearing a war drum through concrete.

  Kade whispered a sharp curse as drew her cutlass.

  A massive crystal, easily twice her height, erupted from the ground in front of the monument with a grinding snap of stone and earth. Its surface shimmered with green light, pulsing in time with the chant. Chains of arcane energy lashed outward from the spire, anchoring themselves to the glowing sigils around the clearing. As the last chain snapped into place, the ritual circle surged with light, lines locking into position like a battlefield map being drawn in real time.

  Chorus of the Buried

  Quest Notification! A ritual is underway. Gravebound Priests are attempting to summon a legendary undead warlord from beneath the cemetery grounds. A malevolent crystal has emerged as the focal point of their chant, channeling corrupted energy through active sigils. As long as the crystal remains intact, the warlord’s forces will continue to emerge from the surrounding graves. If the ritual completes, the summoned entity will manifest with full combat capability and command over all local undead.

  Remaining Priests: 12

  Ritual: 0% Complete

  Difficulty: Hard

  Completion Conditions: Eliminate all active enemies within the ritual zone. Destroy the focal crystal.

  Reward: Experience, gold, and one item reward.

  Accept Quest? Yes/No

  Quest Update! The proximity of the event location automatically accepts the Chorus of the Buried quest.

  A deep rumble cracked through the cemetery like a throat clearing from beneath the earth. Kade turned her head just in time to see blackened bone tear free from the ground along the event boundary. Bone spikes erupted upward in a wide ring around the clearing, ten feet high and woven tight like a ribcage meant to keep the living in. The sharp ends curled inward.

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  "Perimeter just closed," Lawson called from the left flank. "No one’s walking out."

  Kade didn’t respond. She was already watching the next phase unfold.

  The ground split again. This time, the movement wasn’t subtle. Great slabs of armored bone shoved free of the dirt like ancient statues dragging themselves back to duty. One after another, they rose. Towering skeletons, each sheathed in tarnished plate marked by ceremonial etchings and battle scarring. Their eyes burned green, and their zweih?nders hit the stone with the weight of finality.

  Twenty-four of them. One near each priest. The rest spaced out across the inner circle, locking their formation in place with the slow precision of a machine coming online.

  [Analyze] Grave Sentinels | Level 15 | Status: Hostile | Class: Dark Guard

  These weren’t like the skeletal corpses the squads had cut through back on the bridge. These moved with intent, every step angled to shield the priests behind them. Each stood over six feet tall, wielding swords nearly as long as their own bodies. Getting to the ritualists would not be easy.

  Kade slid into position at the center of the formation, boots grounded, cutlass drawn without flair. Mireya and Elara stood just behind her, both unnaturally still. Stone had moved to her right, hand already raised to cast.

  Across the clearing, more undead clawed their way free of the loose soil. Standard skeletons, lighter armor, weapons rusted and mismatched. But there were too many. Dozens, maybe more.

  The chant from the priests deepened.

  "Fan and engage!" Kade shouted. "Lawson, left flank! Briggs, right! Don’t let them encircle!"

  Lawson’s squad pivoted immediately, weapons at the ready. Briggs’ crew peeled wide to the opposite side, axes and polearms braced.

  One Grave Sentinel stepped forward, zweih?nder scraping against the stone. Then, they all moved.

  Kade didn’t wait. She surged forward into the opening at the center, cutting down a rising standard skeleton with a single angled strike. Bone snapped, and the corpse folded before it finished standing. The green light didn’t vanish. It leapt from the broken body into the air, absorbed by one sigil. The ritual wasn’t just feeding energy. It was recycling it.

  "We need to kill the priests!" she called, slicing through another standard corpse.

  "No! Just wait," Mireya snapped. Her orb pulsed red near her shoulder. "If we interrupt it now, we might never understand what this ritual was trying to do."

  Kade turned sharply. "This isn’t a lecture hall, Doctor."

  "I’m not saying don’t act," Mireya replied, tone clipped. "I’m saying, not yet."

  The first Grave Sentinel closed on Briggs’ line.

  The thing moved faster than it had any right to. Its armor wasn’t just for show. The plates were thick, heavy, and shaped for killing. The zweih?nder came down in a wide arc, cleaving the air with a force that felt out of proportion for a creature made of bone. One of Briggs’ marines caught the blow on her shield, but the impact drove her back a full step, her arm hanging limp from the hit.

  Briggs moved in to counter, axe hooking into the Guardian’s gauntlet and dragging it down. Another marine swept the legs, and the construct hit the stone hard. It didn’t scream. Just began to rise again, relentlessly.

  Chorus of the Buried

  Remaining Priests: 12

  Ritual: 50% Complete

  Lawson’s squad wasn’t doing much better. Two Guardians had broken through their outer line, and one crossbowman was already down, pinned under a rusted halberd that had no business being that sharp.

  "Focus fire, break them down!" Lawson barked.

  Stone stepped forward and released a burst of radiant light from her palm. It cracked into the guardian near Kade, searing straight through the breastplate and leaving a glowing hole the size of a fist. The creature staggered but kept moving, sword raised.

  Kade slipped in under the next swing. Her cutlass scored across the thing’s side, sparks and bone fragments trailing the blade. It turned on her, reacting with just enough intelligence to know she was a threat.

  She triggered Blade Whirl, and her cutlass became a blur of motion and metal. Three strikes landed in rapid succession on the knee, wrist, and neck. The Sentinel teetered for a moment and then collapsed.

  As with every creature they had killed so far, a flash of green pulsed from the fallen monster and the ritual flared brighter.

  "The crystal’s drawing power from every kill," Mireya said. "Fascinating!"

  Kade’s eyes narrowed. "Kill the goddamn priests! All we're doing right now is helping speed up whatever is coming to try to kill us."

  "It’s building toward something," Mireya replied.

  More skeletons rose. The circle was nearly full now. All twenty-three remaining Sentinels were in motion, and the standard skeletons were swarming the outer lines.

  Kade pivoted, driving the tip of her cutlass into the dirt to anchor it, then drew her new pistol in one clean motion. She took aim at the nearest priest and squeezed the trigger. Fire burst from the barrel, the shot cracking through the fog. The priest’s head snapped back, then burst apart in a spray of bone and flame. Whatever force had been animating it was long dead, but the enchantment on her weapon made sure the remains caught fire anyway.

  Chorus of the Buried

  Quest Update! One of the twelve Gravebound Priests has been destroyed. The ritual’s tempo has weakened, and summoning progression has slowed.

  Remaining Priests: 11

  Ritual: 95% Complete

  Despite the priest’s smoldering corpse, the chant didn’t stop.

  Kade lowered her pistol, sightline crowded with the chaos of allies and undead. Too many bodies, too much motion. One shot had landed clean, but she wasn’t going to risk another without a clear line. She holstered the weapon and pulled her cutlass free from the dirt in one motion, eyes already scanning for a breach. The ritual’s tempo had slowed, and the pulsing crystal had dimmed slightly, but it was still active. It was still building.

  Across the clearing, the Sentinels pressed the Marines' line with brutal efficiency. Their zweih?nders moved in wide-arcing sweeps, forcing anyone in their path to move back. Skeletons kept pouring from shallow graves, swarming Lawson and Briggs’ flanks like tidewater over rock. A sharp shout rose behind her, followed by a sudden flare of heat and light.

  Mireya and Elara.

  "They’re vulnerable to fire and holy magic!" Mireya yelled.

  Kade didn’t ask how she knew. Mireya’s Analyze was more advanced than hers, probably providing data on the rest of them couldn’t see. What irritated her was that the insight had come now, not when it would have saved them blood.

  Before she could say anything, Elara stepped forward. Her spellbook snapped open in mid-air, pages rippling with arcane momentum. Flame poured from her hands in a tight, searing column, wrapping one of the Grave Sentinels like a noose of living fire. The giant reeled, limbs convulsing as heat warped bone and blackened steel. It dropped a moment later, helm split, armor glowing dull red.

  Stone moved in beside Kade without a word, mace in one hand, the other already raised. Holy radiance burst outward from her, not as a bolt but as a cone of light that swept across the field like a spotlight at sea. Regular skeletons caught in the wash simply disintegrated, brittle bone flashing to ash. Two nearby Sentinels recoiled, armor blackening, their advance broken.

  "Briggs!" Kade called.

  "On it!" came the reply.

  His squad surged in. The wounded Sentinels went down hard, one crushed under an axe cleave that split its helm, the other dragged to the ground and dismantled with surgical aggression.

  The ritual reacted as flashes of green pulsed from every kil. Central runes carved into the stone flared with blinding green light. The chanting stopped.

  Eleven Gravebound Priests fell silent and dropped where they stood, crumpling like puppets with cut strings. Their robes caught fire, not from heat, but from within as ritual energy burned out whatever had been fueling them.

  For a moment, nothing moved. Even the undead seemed to pause, heads turning toward the monument at the center.

  Kade shifted her position to face the monument, blade raised.

  The ground cracked.

  A thick column of bone spiraled upward from beneath the earth in front of the statue of Colonel Drake. It rose like a spine pulled from a corpse, vertebrae knitting themselves into a tower. At the top, a shape began to take form. Broad, armored, and inhumanly tall.

  Mireya stepped forward, still watching the last of the energy chains seal into the forming figure. "The priests acted as a timer," she said, almost to herself. "Kill them early, the event’s easier. Let them finish, and you get the full encounter. Question is... do the skeletons we’ve killed just speed the clock up, or scale the boss too?"

  "Oh goodie," Briggs said. "We might've just upgraded from mini-boss to mandatory funeral."

  "Back," Kade snapped, stepping between her and the growing shape.

  The last of the ritual light surged. Chains of green energy snapped inward, binding into the figure. Where they touched, plates of ancient blackened armor formed, sealing into place over the skeletal frame. A tattered cloak hung from its shoulders, threadbare and scorched, fastened by rusted clasps shaped like wolf skulls.

  Chorus of the Buried

  Quest Update! The earth trembles as the final sigils burn away. A cold wind tears through the graveyard as twelve voices fall silent. From the bones of the land and the memory of war, a commander rises. Colonel Silas Drake, Bone Marshal of the Eastern March, has returned to the field.

  [Analyze] Colonel Silas Drake the Bone Marshal | Level: 15 Elite | Status: Hostile | Class: Dark Paladin

  Colonel Silas Drake opened his eyes. Green fire burned behind its helm. It didn’t step forward. It lunged.

  "Son of a…" Kade exclaimed as she backpedaled fast, boots scraping stone as steel flashed toward her.

  Lawson didn't answer. He was already moving.

  We’re currently five weeks ahead on Tides of Ruin over on Patreon. The same goes for The Grand Crusade, where we’re five weeks ahead as well, already deep into Book Three.