The mont Clyde stepped through the portal, the air felt different from a usual Ruin he stepped into. He glanced around and looking at his new surroundings.
This Ruin looks older than the one they had just left. The landscape stretched in eerie silence. The remnants of a civilization have long been erased.
The floating landmasses here were much smaller because they were fragnted into countless drifting isles that seed barely held together by invisible threads. The lands are getting older and barely able to put their particles together. He didn’t know that it was possible.
Thin streams of light pulsed through the cracks in the floating stones, flickering like dying embers.
Unlike the previous Ruins, where twisted palaces and jagged plateaus still stood as echoes of past grandeur, this place was reduced to ruins of ruins. Like a skeletal remnant of a world that had long since perished.
Clyde narrowed his eyes.
"Was this world recently destroyed, or has it been like this for a long ti?" he asked.
"This Ruin was destroyed a very long ti ago." Graemory’s voice was calm, almost amused.
She gestured to the shifting darkness beyond, where faint shapes lurked in the distant mist. Then said, "The monsters here have evolved past their limits. Only the strongest remain. The weak died out long ago because of the harshness of this place. The creatures that survived have been through an endless cycle of destruction until only the absolute predators remained."
Clyde’s expression hardened. He had seen strong monsters before, but sothing in Graemory’s tone made it clear that this place was different.
He turned his gaze back to her. "Then why did you bring here?"
Graemory smiled, tilting her head slightly, studying him with her usual air of amusent.
"Because I have a place here. A small sanctuary, hidden away."
She flicked her fingers, and for a mont, a faint shimr of magic pulsed in the air before fading.
"The monsters that obey will guard you. They will not let anything touch you unless I command it. Besides," her smile widened, "I doubt any of the creatures here would be a real problem for you."
Clyde exhaled sharply. He didn’t like being tested, but he understood her logic. He was seeking refuge and in this Ruin, hopefully away from prying eyes, he would be nearly hard to find.
Graemory turned and began walking forward, her black gown flowing behind her like liquid shadow.
Clyde followed without a word.
As they moved deeper into the broken world, the oppressive silence was punctuated by distant sounds of low growls, scraping claws, then slow and steady breathing of things lurking in the dark.
Clyde knew that right now sothing watched them from the void.
However, Clyde didn’t feel any overwhelming pressure from the surroundings. There was no suffocating aura, no primal force crushing down on his senses like he had felt in other Ruins filled with powerful burning beings created from Asmodeus’ fire before.
The creatures here were not strong enough to bother him.
He glanced at Graemory and she also showed no signs of concern. Her movents were quick and easy like soone who had walked these shattered lands countless tis before. She wasn’t worried.
She had spent a long ti here. She knew this place and everything in it.
Clyde focused ahead. Cols white mist drifted along the edges of their path, coiling and shifting unnaturally as if sothing unseen moved within it. He ignored it for now.
"Clyde, you need to start explaining what you know." Graemory spoke, her tone cool and composed. She didn’t even glance back at him as she walked. "I’ve already examined the anomaly substance you gave last ti. It doesn’t belong to this realm. Not to the Celestials, not to the Angels. Not to any domain I’ve ever encountered."
Clyde t her gaze, and let out a sigh. "Because they aren’t from any of those realms."
Graemory slowed her steps. She turned to him sharply. "What do you an by that?"
Clyde didn’t answer imdiately. Instead, he followed her as they continued moving toward a floating landmass, their pace slow now.
The land beneath them barely held itself together. Fragnts of stone occasionally cracked and crumbled, dissolving into nothingness.
"The dreams I’ve been having... They aren’t just visions. They’re about sothing that exists outside of everything we know. Sothing strange. Sothing mysterious and above all. That thing was ancient."
He looked at Graemory.
"And you rember how those anomalies tried talking to ?"
Graemory gave a slow nod, watching him carefully.
Clyde’s fingers curled slightly. "The existence in my dreams spoke to too. Not just as a vision or so incomprehensible force whispering in the dark. They understood and I understood them."
Graemory’s gaze sharpened. The air between them felt heavier.
Clyde didn’t explain everything to Graemory. He wouldn’t ntion the long-haired Angel. Not yet.
The image of that being... His unsettling presence, his strange ritual and the way he manipulated those three beings, was still burned into his mind. He still didn’t understand what he had witnessed and until he did, he would keep it to himself.
For now, he just need to search for more clues.
"What did that existance say to you?" Graemory’s voice broke through his thoughts, softer than before, almost as if she was being careful.
Clyde’s gaze lingered on the endless abyss stretching beyond the fragnted landmasses. The mist shifted around him like unseen shapes that never fully erged.
His answer ca quietly. He said, "It said I’m not ready yet."
Graemory looking at him with a frown and her eyes narrowed in thought. Clyde could see the questions, the calculations, and the unspoken concerns forming in her mind
Graemory was thinking tahtt that whatever had reached out to Clydee was sothing beyond even her understanding. Sothing ancient and sothing that almost definitely dangerous.
Graemory exhaled slowly. "Not ready for what?"
Clyde shook his head. He himself didn’t know about that.
"Alright." Graemory nodded stiffly. "Co on. We almost there."
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