It has a mind of its own: The Mourner’s Pack

The Mourner’s Pack.

That’s what I call the stitched-together mess of rags and blackened leather always strapped to my back. It may look like it was salvaged from a battlefield between garbage collectors and shit dispensers but trust me, other than my shovel, it's the most important tool in my arsenal.

Because inside…this pack is Depth.

I’ve said this before: I collect weapons, specifically heroes' weapons, which are essential in my resonance ability. And I needed a place to stash them all. The Mourner’s Pack is that place.

It is bottomless and I mean that literally. Once you reach past the worn cloth and into the dark void, you don’t feel cloth; you don’t feel much of anything.

But there’s a catch.

I can’t choose which weapon to use.

The pack does.

“Hero!” I called out. “Remember what I said about something binding this spell?”

“Uh, some parts,” he replied, joining beside me. “You didn’t get to finish your thoughts. You have a plan?”

“Yeah. There is a rune hidden somewhere in the walls. We need to find it and break it.”

I plunged my hand past my elbow. The feeling was, as always, freezing and endless almost like shoving my arm into a grave. I felt a tug at the back of my hand, something brushing my fingers.

I yanked.

The weight nearly yanked me off my feet—I staggered back, barely keeping hold of the massive, iron-headed war hammer.

“Seriously, what am I going to do with this?” I muttered, eyes darting around the tight cube-shaped room.

Keiji gawked. “That thing’s bigger than you are! Just…smash them with it!”

Five to ten minutes. That’s all I get with these weapons before the resonance fades and they turn into dead weight. But the hammer… it was heavier than it should be. Wrong, somehow. And my arm…

…was shaking.

Why was it shaking?

My resonance allows me to use a hero’s weapon the same way they would and that includes their strength and skill. But for some reason, it wasn't working.

I didn’t have time to wonder. Plan B then.

I set the hammer down as my copy came at me. It swept my legs from under me before I could move, crushing hard. A second later, its shovel came down on my chest.

I was one breath away from being a goner but Keiji arrived just in time to block it. I rolled away as the two of them went at it.

“Shit…!”

I saw the rune again on the walls.

Maybe it was the pain or something else but I felt an instant connection. On instinct, I outstretched my arm —and the hammer ripped through the air, flying back to my grip with a thunderous BOOM that shook the very walls.

“Yes!” I shouted—except it didn’t sound like me.

It was like getting hit by lightning; my chest tightened and my vision blurred.

What is happeni….?

I was gone.

“Haha! Worry not, little wimp… for I am here!”

The voice bellowed from my throat but it wasn’t my voice.

Keiji blinked. “…Uh, Ash, are you okay?”

I couldn’t speak but my mouth was moving.

What is happening to me?

“I am not Ash, whelp. I… am the luminous! The legendary! The unparalleled…CIX ZARONEUXX!”

Keiji squinted. “...Six what?”

“ZARONEUXX, you ungrateful whelp!”

My hand spun the warhammer effortlessly, the same weapon that nearly tore my shoulder from its socket just a minute ago.

“Rejoice, mortals! The sky itself trembles at my return....for I, CIX ZARONEUXX, have descended once more upon this cursed land!”

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. I was watching everything unfold through a window in my own skull.

CIX had overtaken my body, somehow.

The moment the copies lunged, he blurred into motion. My body spun, ducked, vaulted over a sweeping strike with a theatrical flourish, and then—

CRACK!

The hammer came down like divine punishment. The first copy exploded into glittering shards.

“BEGONE, SHADOWS!”

The second rushed him—me?—but CIX sidestepped gracefully, laughing, flipping the hammer over his back and smashing it behind him without even looking.

“Too slow, faker! Your mimicry is as thin as your convictions!”

Keiji stood frozen. “Ash... Ash what the hell is going on?!”

I don’t know either.

CIX turned toward him with a bright, flawless smile. “Worry not, weakling! You are now under the personal protection of CIX ZARONEUXX, First Blade of the Falling Sky, Wielder of the Celestial Hammer, Champion of...”

Keiji raised a hand. “Okay, okay, I get it! You're six.”

But the copies weren’t done.

They reformed—again and again.

And CIX’s grin widened.

“HAHA... Finally, a worthy challenge! I have been craving entertainment

“Ash…uh, CIX…dude!” Keiji yelled from behind. “We have a plan. Ash said something about runes in the walls….”

“Pffft! I don’t need the help of a gravedigger who is unworthy of wielding my weapon. Weaklings fret around with theories! But fear not, because I am here…we shall not lose!”

CIX leapt back into the fray, whirling the hammer like it was weightless. Each blow created shockwaves that rattled the walls and sent cracks spidering across the floor. Even the cube itself groaned under the pressure. CIX moved like a bull charging head-on. The hammer wasn’t a weapon; it was a stage partner in his twisted ballet of destruction.

And he danced

Again. And again.

And I—Ash—was screaming inside my own head.

I was a passenger. A ghost in my own skin. I could feel every swing, every stomp—but none of it was mine.

This isn’t how resonance is supposed to work. I’m supposed to be in control. I’m supposed to be—

And then…

It stopped.

“Fool!” was the last word CIX spat, his voice like thunder in a storm-clouded mind.

And I was back.

I collapsed to one knee, gasping, the hammer thudding to the ground beside me like it suddenly weighed a thousand tons again. My lungs fought for air.

“Hero… what is happening?” I rasped.

Keiji ran over, crouching beside me. “You tell me! You just went berserk. You kept talking weirdly, saying your name was Six Zaruto? I don’t know, man, it was weird.”

“…CIX ZARONEUXX,” I muttered, still trying to steady my breath.

I didn’t know much about him. Just the name etched on his headstone. I remember burying him. But that was before I started accompanying the heroes, before I became the Remnant Collector.

I looked down at the hammer, now cold and dormant.

“I think… I was possessed.”