The dim glow of the room cast long shadows as Clyde moved with quiet efficiency to packing only what he needed inside his backpack.
A few rations and a small healing potion all tucked neatly into his black backpack. He double-checked his gear, adjusting the straps before slinging the bag over his shoulder.
At his waist, his Elderglass Sword hung securely in its sheath, its translucent blade faintly shimring under the low light.
Beside it was the dagger from Hamr that rested in a concealed sheath, its black steel laced with crimson veins.
Clyde exhaled, rolling his shoulders. He had already contacted Graemory.
The eting was set. Now, he just needed to get to the portal without drawing attention.
With a single thought, he activated [Flight].
A faint pulse of energy surged beneath his feet, and he lifted off the ground, gliding swiftly through the fortress sprawling city.
His movents were precise—sticking to the high buildings, avoiding the main streets, ensuring that no lingering guards or wandering eyes would spot him.
The portal was near.
The swirling energy gateway pulsed with a quiet hum, illuminating the darkened center of the city with a soft glow. Clyde descended, landing lightly before it.
Without hesitation, he reached for the amulet tucked beneath his collar.
Pressing it against the portal’s shimring surface, a deep pulse of energy resonated from the connection. The runes etched along the gateway flickered, shifting in response.
Clyde didn’t wait.
He stepped forward, letting the light envelop him and in the next instant, he was gone.
---
The mont Clyde stepped through the portal, the sensation of movent blurred into nothingness. Then, reality solidified around him once more.
The air was dry and thin. The sky above stretched endlessly. He saw an expanse of fractured twilight thst neither day or night, caught in a perpetual suffocating dusk with a big crack in the middle of it all.
This was another Ruin.
Not just the remnants of a fallen civilization. A world that had ceased to exist after the Selection Stage.
Clyde stood atop a jagged plateau of cracked stone. Below, the landscape stretched in every direction. Twisted spires of old palace, broken continents lands aimlessly in the void, rivers of glowing mist carving paths through the desolation.
He lowered himself onto a half-shattered rock, resting his arms on his knees. His eyes drifted over the horizon, lost in thought.
He had co here to et Graemory. But more than that, he needed a mont to think.
The truth he had uncovered weighed on him.
This war the endless conflict between the Resistance and the Angels, Celestials, and Demons, had always seed like the greatest battle.
But now, he knew better. Sothing else was waking.
Sothing that didn’t belong in the equations of gods and Demons or Angels. A presence beyond understanding.
Sothing that feels older and greater. It was stirring, and he sohow connected to it.
Clyde sighed heavily, fingers tightening slightly.
The sky shifted subtly, dark clouds swirling in unnatural patterns.
Another portal opened and Graemory stepped out from it.
Clyde glanced up as the portal’s glow faded, revealing Graemory’s familiar figure.
She stood poised, her black gown clinging tight to her body like living shadow, accentuating every curve with sensuality that seed effortless.
The fabric shimred faintly in the dim fractured twilight, an unnatural contrast against the ruined world around them.
Her expression neutral and composed but Clyde knew better. Beneath that carefully maintained façade, she was also curious about his words. She always curious.
Not just about why he had called her here, but about his decision.
Graemory stepped forward, her gaze settling on him intensely. "You didn’t contact just for another negotiation, did you?"
Clyde exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders. "No. This is sothing bigger."
She crossed her arms, tilting her head slightly. "Then explain."
A breeze stirred through the wasteland, carrying with it the faint whispers of a dead world. Clyde t her gaze.
"I know sothing is coming," he said. "Sothing beyond the war we’re all caught in. Stronger than Angels. Stronger than Celestials or Demons."
Graemory’s eyes narrowed slightly. "And how exactly do you know this?"
Clyde hesitated for a mont. He wasn’t sure if the answer would satisfy her.
"Because I dread of it."
That vivid and suffocating vision had haunted his sleep. An ancient force shifting in the abyss, stirring for the first ti in who-knows how long.
He had seen glimpses of the eyes of that existence. It feels like he is seeing into the fractures in the fabric of reality itself. And sohow he had been connected to it.
He clenched his jaw.
But dreams alone weren’t enough to convince soone like Graemory.
"I saw it," he finally admitted. "In a dream. But I know that it wasn’t just a dream. It was real. My soul was dragged to so dark place it and I witness it. Its also begin when the anomalies talk to ."
For a mont, Graemory said nothing. Her piercing gaze studied him.
Then, she sighed, shifting her stance.
"If what you saw is real, if there is sothing waking beyond our understanding... then we need more than just visions."
Clyde nodded. He knew that, too.
"I will ll explain everything," Clyde said, his voice steady. "But first, I need a place to stay."
Graemory raised an eyebrow.
"I can’t stay in that fortress," Clyde continued. "If I do, I might endanger everyone there.If what I saw is real, then I can’t risk being near any of them."
Graemory sighed, tilting her head slightly as if weighing his words. Then, she sighed. "I don’t know that you have soft spot to protecting these people. Fine. I have a place."
She lifted a hand. The space before them trembled as dark energy rippled outward. A deep crimson glow pulsed at its center, expanding until it ford a swirling gateway.
Clyde glanced at her. "Where is this?"
"A safe place you can stay for now," Graemory replied then stepping toward the portal. "Sowhere you won’t be easily found. It was a Ruin."
She disappeared into the shimring light.
Clyde hesitated only for a mont before following.
The world around him distorted, the Ruin vanishing as he stepped forward.
Then, everything shifted.
Darkness swallowed them whole, and when the light returned, they stood in an unfamiliar place.
---
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