Cassie's eyes widened, her composure shattering for a brief moment. "What? Why?" she stammered, taking a half-step back as if struck. "What is the issue with sticking with Nephis? It's the safest path, the one with the highest chance of—"
"I want to do what I want," Kane cut in, his voice level and cold, leaving no room for argument. "Not follow someone blindly."
As the words left his lips, a darker, more private thought coiled in his mind. 'And I can't follow Nephis of all people. Not after knowing who she is. Even though she isn't like her father or her grandmother.'
As the thought surfaced, a flicker of movement at the edge of his perception caught his attention. A shadow, unnaturally still, was nestled in a corner near where he and Cassie stood.
'Sunny is eavesdropping, huh,' Kane thought, a flicker of annoyance rising within him. 'I should have a talk with him later.'
Cassie's expression crumpled, her shock giving way to a profound sadness. "Okay," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "But… please, rethink it."
With the heavy conversation concluded, they rejoined the group. An unspoken tension lingered in the air, thick and uncomfortable, but Nephis, ever the pragmatist, had already prepared breakfast. After they had eaten the meager meal in near silence, she stood up, her gaze fixed on a brilliant beam of light falling through the nearest gap between the giant vertebrae above them. Turning to Sunny, she spoke, her voice cutting through the quiet.
"Let's study the surroundings."
They needed to get the lay of the land and decide on their next move. Usually, this process was a familiar one: find the nearest natural feature high enough to stay above the surface of the rising night sea, then decide which one to aim for next. What followed would be a day or two of cautious scouting and hunting before they finally moved their camp.
Sunny gave her a decisive nod. "Alright."
He summoned the Echo, its monstrous form appearing silently to guard Cassie while they were away, and left his own shadow behind as a secondary lookout, just in case something happened. With their temporary camp secured, Kane and Sunny followed Nephis towards the gap in the bone.
As they walked, Kane activated his Aspect, his vision shifting to perceive the world in strands of fate and life force. 'No creatures,' he noted, scanning their path forward. The observation, which should have been reassuring, only put him more on edge. 'It's like a forest without the sound of animals. It only means one thing: there is a greater predator nearby, one that scares everything else away.'
After a strenuous trek and a final climb up the gargantuan spine, they emerged into the open air. The sight that greeted them, however, left all three of them utterly speechless.
Some distance away, the Labyrinth seemed to lose its color. The familiar, vibrant crimson blades of coral stood grey and misshapen, as though afflicted by some unknown, soul-leaching disease that had drained them of all life. The once-hard, stone-like material now looked brittle and fragile, as if ready to crumble into dust at the slightest touch.
This patch of dead coral spread out before them, stretching as far as the eye could see. Further in the distance, the very walls of the Labyrinth appeared to have collapsed entirely, dissolving into a vast, featureless sea of ash-grey sand. This ashen wasteland looked so alien, so profoundly wrong after weeks of seeing only the endless crimson pathways, that Sunny felt an involuntary shiver trace a cold path down his spine.
The fact that they couldn't spot even a single monster moving through the mud or sand below only amplified his disturbance.
There was only one visible high point to the west of them. Far off in the distance, the ground rose sharply, forming a tall, solitary hill. The hill was probably the largest they had yet seen, easily capable of becoming a true island once the dark sea rose in the night. Its smooth, rounded shape reminded Sunny of a colossal burial barrow.
Covered in the same grey sand left behind by the dead coral, the hill resembled a mountain of pure ash. And that mountain was crowned by a giant, impossible tree.
The tree rose into the sky like a jet-black tower, its branches spreading so wide they could easily cover the entire island in their shade. The bark of this gargantuan tree was as black as the midnight water of the dark sea, while its leaves were a shocking, brilliant red, like droplets of fresh blood.
Contrasted against the bleak, grey sky, the crimson crown of the majestic tree looked incredibly vibrant and magnificent, a beacon of terrible beauty in a dead land.
Sunny swallowed hard, his voice a hoarse whisper. "What… the hell… is that?"
"I have no idea," Kane replied, his own voice tight with awe and apprehension.
Nephis was silent, either lost in thought or having nothing to say. She just stared into the distance, a slight frown creasing her brow.
At that moment, something glistened brightly from beneath the tree's blood-red canopy. The glimmer was sharp and clear, easily visible even from their position, like a beam of sunlight reflecting off a large mirror. A moment later it was gone, only to reappear a few seconds later in a rhythmic pulse.
'A mirror…' Sunny shivered, the memory of his cursed reflection from the previous night resurfacing with unwelcome clarity. For some reason, that bright, distant glimmer suddenly seemed profoundly menacing.
After a long, tense silence, Nephis finally turned to Kane and Sunny. "What do you think?"
"I have no idea," Kane repeated, his gaze still locked on the impossible tree.
She lingered a bit, deliberating on what to say. While she thought, Sunny glanced at the ashen wasteland again, the feeling of unease growing stronger.
Finally, she spoke, her voice laced with grim certainty. "This is the only way west."
Sunny grimaced and looked away. He didn't like this turn of events one bit. "So, we're going?"
Nephis turned back to face the giant tree and, as though affected by its silent, imposing grandeur, gave a hesitant shrug. "Do we have a choice?"
"Can't we go on a roundabout way?" Kane asked, voicing the question they were all thinking.
Nephis shook her head. "That would mean going back through the most dangerous parts of the Labyrinth, the ones we barely survived the first time. The chances of survival are lower that way."
Sometime later, they abandoned the skeletal remains of the giant sea monster and moved west, their new plan being to investigate the situation inside the wasteland that lay between them and the Ashen Barrow. Initially, they hadn't planned to approach the strange island directly, but things turned out to be rather unusual once they entered the dead zone.
With grey sand crunching under their feet and the dead, crumbling coral walls surrounding them, the group was fully prepared to face an unknown danger. Despite not having seen any monsters from their high vantage point, none of them truly believed the region was empty. There were too many ways for Nightmare Creatures to hide themselves, and if there was one thing the Sleepers had learned on the Forgotten Shore, it was that everything here was either deadly or concealing something capable of killing them. Their first encounter with the subterranean carnivorous worms had been an especially traumatic lesson in that regard.
However, their common sense, honed by weeks of brutal survival, turned out to be wrong this time. The wasteland was quiet. It was utterly empty, completely void of any signs of life. The absence of monsters was, in theory, supposed to make them feel better, but instead, Kane felt even more nervous than usual.
This whole situation reeked of danger. It felt unnatural, a violation of the Labyrinth's fundamental rules. If even the monsters were afraid to approach this place, what were they, mere humans, doing walking deeper and deeper into the wasteland of their own free will? Were they fools for not turning around and running away immediately?
Soon, they reached the point where the crumbling walls of the Labyrinth had given way completely. Now, there was nothing but a vast, open expanse of grey sand between them and the hill crowned by the giant tree. Nothing could hide on this ashen flat.
But that also meant they would be unable to conceal themselves from anyone's gaze.
Kane glanced at Sunny and Nephis, his expression grim. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Changing Star's jaw tightened. She looked forward, her gaze resolute, and gave a sharp nod. "Let's go."
As soon as they left the familiar, claustrophobic confines of the Labyrinth and stepped into the vast, open expanse of the ashen wasteland, an unnerving feeling washed over them. It was as though they had all unknowingly developed a touch of agoraphobia while traveling through the complicated madness of the crimson maze. They had grown accustomed to being surrounded by tall walls of coral, with endless tangled paths stretching in all directions. Despite the dangers it hid, the Labyrinth offered a strange sort of safety in its complexity.
Now, with nothing but grey sand beneath their feet and an unbroken line of sight to the horizon, they had lost that advantage. 'How are we supposed to fight a creature out here?' Kane thought, the lack of cover making his skin crawl.
That thought, which was meant to be a tactical assessment, had the opposite of a calming effect. Indeed, there were no Nightmare Creatures anywhere in this desolate wasteland… but why? What could possibly make them so eager to avoid this place?
Kane and Nephis walked at the front of the group, with Sunny right behind them. The Echo, their silent pack beast, brought up the rear, moving at a slow, steady pace.
Sunny looked around nervously, and after a moment of hesitation, said in a low voice, "I don't like this."
"Stay alert," Kane replied, his voice a low command.
They continued forward in silence, the only sound the soft squeaking of sand under their feet. A dozen or so minutes later, Changing Star raised her hand, gesturing for them to stop. Turning to Sunny, she asked, "Has your shadow noticed anything?"
Sunny shook his head. "No. There are some irregularities here and there—small knolls, shallow pits—but nothing is moving. Mostly, it just seems flat and lifeless."
Nephis then addressed Kane. "Any life signs?"
Kane scanned the surroundings again, his Aspect flaring. "No. There is no life form hiding anywhere nearby."
As he gave his answer, his specialized vision suddenly focused on the tree in the distance, and he saw it not as the others did. Through his Aspect, the tree was impossibly vibrant. It was covered in a dense, shimmering network of countless threads of pure white light, so many that the tree itself seemed to be made of them. The black bark was like a thin cloth wrapped around this brilliant core, and the blood-red leaves were merely the final dressing.
'What the heck is it?' Kane thought, his mind reeling. 'Is it alive? If so, where is its soul core? I can't see one.'
He couldn't judge what it was, only that it was something far beyond his understanding. He was about to raise his concern, but before he could form the words, a single, sharp cry cut through the silence.
It was Sunny.
"Hide!"
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I will include original Characters and original arcs for this Fanfic.Kindly give your concerns.And I have came to Know my Synopsis for this Fanfic is not good,So I changed it .Kindly tell me is it better?Does it convey the meaning?