Noah and Professor Cecilia dismounted from the fiery phoenix, their boots crunching softly on the blackened grass beneath their feet.
Noah used that opportunity to look around.
The air here was thick. It felt old, heavy with mana and faint traces of ash. Like they were the only people that had stepped in it for centuries.
The monolith at its center seed to shimr faintly under the light of the sun, its dark obsidian surface carved with sigils that glowed like veins beneath stone skin.
It was tall enough to dwarf the surrounding trees, standing like a spear of darkness piercing the light of morning.
Cecilia stood beside him, hands on her hips as she studied the structure.
"Beautiful, isn’t it?" she murmured.
Noah’s gaze flicked toward her. "You make it sound like an old friend."
A faint smile appeared on her face. "In a way, it is."
Noah’s brow furrowed, but she didn’t elaborate right away.
She stepped closer to the monolith, pressing her palm lightly against its surface.
The sigils under her hand flared with a soft, hungry glow that reflected in her golden eyes.
"When I was your age," she said, her tone distant, "I wanted to see the world. To test myself. The academy was... too small. Too controlled. So I snuck out. Alone."
Noah blinked. "You what?"
She chuckled, the sound surprisingly soft. "I broke the law. Left the safety of Calot’s walls. And I found them. Monoliths like this."
"So were already claid by the Kingdom or the Guilds, and others were still undiscovered. I mapped what I could. Catalogued them. Studied them."
She traced one of the sigils with her finger, eyes far away with mory.
"This one... this A-rank monolith... was the last one I found. I found it six months ago. Just before the sester began. I didn’t want to go through the dangerous hassle of trying to clear it alone."
She turned, smiling faintly. "But I think I can manage now, with so help."
Noah stared at her for a mont, processing that. He hadn’t expected this from Professor Cecilia.
He could rember the day he’d fought Damien Krell in the stone-tier dorm building. Cecilia had punished him by the book. Which was why this surprised him.
He couldn’t help but blurt out. "You broke the law just to explore monoliths?"
"Wouldn’t you?" she countered, raising an eyebrow.
Noah almost smiled. "You sound like ."
"That’s because I was," she said. "That sa hunger, that need to see, to know, to push the boundary, no matter what it costs."
The wind picked up, brushing her hair back as she dismissed the phoenix with a flick of her wrist.
The creature gave a low, lodious trill before dissolving into embers, the fire collapsing into motes of light that faded one by one.
Cecilia turned to Noah, her expression all business now. "Ready?"
He nodded once.
The monolith’s surface rippled like water as she pressed her hand against it again, murmuring to herself.
The sigils blazed brighter, their blue glow intensifying until the air itself humd with pressure.
Then, with a crack, the monolith opened, splitting down the middle to reveal a yawning tunnel of darkness.
They stepped inside.
Instantly, the temperature dropped.
The air was damp and thick with the sll of stone and sothing old, like dust that had never seen sunlight.
The tunnel walls shimred faintly with veins of bioluminescent moss, casting soft green light that flickered in rhythm with their footsteps.
Noah’s eyes swept the surroundings.
The walls were etched with marks, deep gouges, as if sothing massive had dragged itself through.
The sound of their boots echoed off the stone, the only sound save for the faint dripping of unseen water.
"Feels older than the one I entered," Noah said quietly.
Cecilia nodded. "It probably is. I just unsealed it now."
"With an undiscovered monolith like this, its guardian would be formidable."
"Sounds fun," Noah muttered.
As long as there were creatures that would allow his Feast to grant him great rewards, he didn’t mind.
They walked for several minutes in silence, the tunnel winding deeper. Then a sound cut through the quiet, faint at first, but rapidly growing louder.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
Cecilia slowed down, eyes narrowing.
The clanking grew louder, echoing as if the sound was coming from multiple directions. Then, there was a flash of movent.
From the shadows ahead, dozens of eyes began to glow faintly, creating white pinpricks in the dim light.
"Get ready," Cecilia said.
The first of the creatures erged from the tunnel ahead, running towards them with all its might.
It was a skeletal wolf, its ribs creaking as it moved. The bones glowed faintly from within, mana weaving through them. And behind it ca another. Then another.
Within seconds, the entire tunnel ahead shimred with motion as a tide of bone wolves rushed towards them, claws scraping the stone floor.
Noah stretched his hand, his shadow sword forming.
Cecilia’s eyes flared with light as she raised her hand, fire coiling around her fingers.
The wolves didn’t stop their charge.
Noah moved first, slashing low, the dark blade cutting through bone. One of the wolves shattered, its skull bouncing across the floor.
Beside him, Cecilia’s fire flared. She spun, sending a wave of fire cascading down the tunnel.
The fire hit the oncoming wolves, scattering them like brittle glass. The tunnel filled with hissing, the sound of burning bone echoing off the walls.
But even as they cut through the first wave, Noah realized sothing was wrong.
The wolves weren’t fighting to kill.
They were running past them.
Dozens of the creatures darted by, their glowing eyes fixed ahead. Not at them, but at sothing further in the tunnel.
A few stragglers lunged at him, and he instinctively began to channel Feast, but stopped himself at the last second.
No. Not here. Not in front of her. Not yet.
Instead, he called on Rot. His hand flicked out, and dark energy spread from his palm like a ripple of smoke.
The wolf that had leapt at him disintegrated in mid-air, its bones collapsing into fine ash before it even hit the ground.
Cecilia noticed his restraint but said nothing.
Her own magic burned in sweeping arcs, consuming the few wolves that dared to linger.
Within monts, the passage was littered with smoking fragnts of bone.
The rest of the swarm had vanished into the dark behind them, the clanking of their bones fading into silence.
Noah lowered his sword slowly, eyes narrowing. "They weren’t attacking us."
Cecilia turned, her gaze fixed on the direction the wolves had run from. Her expression hardened.
"They were fleeing."
Noah frowned. "From what?"
Then, from deep within the tunnel ahead, the air began to tremble.
It started as a faint vibration underfoot. Then ca the sound.
A low, grinding roar.
It wasn’t like an animal’s growl. It was deeper and heavier, like boulders grinding together.
Grraaaaannnnk!
The walls trembled. Loose dust rained down from the ceiling.
Cecilia’s head snapped up. "Back!"
Noah moved instantly, mana flooding his veins as they both retreated several steps.
The roar ca again, louder this ti, echoing through the tunnel like a quake.
A tremor rippled through the ground, and from the darkness ahead, a shadow began to move.
Sothing enormous.
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