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Chapter 1: The Uncaged Phantom
The city of Blackreach was a graveyard long before the ghosts arrived. Rusted streetlights flickered, their glow swallowed by an unnatural mist slithering through the alleys. The air smelled of rot, not from the living, but from the things lurking just beyond sight.
Kael Veyne adjusted the worn-out Catcher’s Glove on his right hand, fingers brushing over the ancient Phantom Seal etched into the metal. A cold shiver crawled down his spine—not from fear, but from something else. Something watching.
“This is a bad idea,” murmured Jenna, his only companion for tonight’s hunt. She checked the ammo in her Specter Rifle, her hands trembling slightly. “A Phantom Lord was spotted near here. We should wait for backup.”
Kael smirked, stepping forward. “Since when have I ever waited for backup?”
Jenna sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
The job was supposed to be simple—hunt an A-Rank Revenant, an easy paycheck. But as they turned the corner, Kael saw it.
A figure stood in the mist.
It was tall, wearing a tattered cloak that moved as if alive. Its face was hidden behind a broken mask, hollow sockets leaking black mist. The streetlights flickered out one by one, drowning them in darkness.
[WARNING: Presence Detected – Phantom Lord “Ezram the Hollow”]
Kael’s breath hitched. Phantom Lord? No way. That was a God-Tier entity.
Jenna immediately raised her rifle, but Kael knew it was useless. Normal ghost catchers couldn’t fight things like this.
Ezram tilted its head, whispering in a voice colder than death.
“You… are unmarked by the cycle.”
Kael didn’t understand what that meant. He had only one instinct left—capture or die.
Focusing his mind, he activated his Catcher’s Glove. Phantom Seal: Release!
Chains of spectral energy shot out, wrapping around the Phantom Lord. But instead of resisting, Ezram simply laughed.
"You think chains can bind me, mortal?"
Kael felt the overwhelming force of the ghost’s power surge through him—but then something snapped. The chains didn't just bind Ezram.
They dragged him inside.
Kael’s vision blurred as the impossible happened—his glove, meant to hold weak spirits, had just consumed a Phantom Lord.
[NOTICE: You have captured a God-Level Ghost.]
[WARNING: Power Overload. Body unable to process spectral energy.]
[Error! Unknown Ability Awakening…]
Then, Kael heard the voice. A voice inside his head.
“Interesting… You are different from the others. Let’s see if you survive what comes next.”
Then everything went dark.
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Chapter 2: The Phantom’s Curse
Kael woke up in a cold sweat, his body feeling like it had been dipped in ice. His veins pulsed with something otherworldly.
Jenna stood over him, panic in her eyes.
“You… you didn’t just survive that, did you?” she whispered.
Kael groaned, sitting up. The moment he did, a phantom sigil burned into his skin—the mark of a God-Level ghost.
His hand clenched into a fist as power unlike anything he had ever felt surged through him.
Ezram was still inside him. And now…
He wasn’t just a Ghost Catcher anymore.
He was something else entirely.
