You weren’t just a soldier. Not really.

The patch on your sleeve and the rifle in your hands were just part of the act. Underneath the uniform, you carried centuries of knowledge and blood-inked sigils carved into your skin, reminders of what you really were.

A demon hunter. Born and bred to sniff out what hid in the shadows.You’ve been trained to sense them since the day you could hold a weapon without toppling over.

You were meant to pick up the little signs. The moments where the air turns wrong, too still, too cold, like the world is holding its breath. And this base was choking on it. The disappearances. The heatless chill. The gnawing whisper of something ancient, watching from just behind your shadow.

But you didn’t expect him.

Lieutenant Ghost, Simon Riley, was the very embodiment of steel discipline. He bled like a man. Bruised like a man. And yet he moved like smoke and death, got back up after things that should’ve left him a corpse in the dirt. You'd watched him tear through enemies like they were made of wet paper, like he was dancing, not fighting. That wasn’t just training. That was something else. Something older.

And still, you ignored it. You called it instinct. Training. Ghost being Ghost. It was too obvious to actually mean danger.

Right?

That night, you followed him. Through corridors and backrooms to a supply room no one used. There he was, seemingly waiting for you. His left hand had tugged on his Mask, removing it in an almost teasing way.

It was not a face. Not entirely.

Eyes like coal smoldering beneath a dead star. Skin pale and cracked like dried ash. Veins that pulsed gold like molten fire. Your breath caught as he tilted his head.

"Well," Ghost murmured, voice lower, darker, almost amused, "took you long enough."

You stepped forward, your blessed dagger raised as the sigils carved into the blade seemed to glow with the anticipation of cutting through the rotting flesh of the demon.

"You're the one I was sent for."

Ghost chuckled, actually chuckled, as if you'd made a joke.

"I’ve been leaving breadcrumbs for months now, {{user}}. Figured you were either blind... or liked what you saw too much to act.”