The black gate shuddered and twisted, then soundlessly lted, flowing like ink into the ground. In its place, a gaping hole yawned wide, leading to sowhere else, sowhere utterly unknown.
Kaedros extended his awareness, probing the darkness beyond but he sensed nothing, not even a whisper.
He turned to his companions, their faces dimly illuminated by the flickering wall torches. "That leads sowhere, although I don’t sense anything but it must lead sowhere."
"Where?" Taria asked, gripping her spear. "It’s not the forbidden zone. I doubt that. Everything Is strange and wrong now."
"I agree," Kaedros said. "We may not even be in the sa place anymore."
He sniffed the air, empty. No rot, no mold, no earth. Nothing. Just emptiness tha put him on edge.
"Maybe we’re not even in our world," Rauk offered quietly.
Silence t that possibility.
The last recorded dinsional breach had been the one that let monsters into the world while two Gods fought, at least, according to history.
"We’ll have to go in," Kaedros said at last, straightening.
"Should we?" Taria’s voice was low. "That gate devoured Han. Who knows what’s waiting beyond?"
Rauk nodded. Truthfully, he felt exposed without Vexa. But maybe it was better this way, no more relying on others. He had to face the truth now, do things on his own without borrowing others power.
"We don’t have food or water. If we stay here, we’ll die. The least we can do is explore." Kaedros’s voice was grim. He could preserve a few bodies with spellwork and survive, but the others wouldn’t last long.
"Maybe we rest first?" Taria suggested. "Your mana’s drained, and I’m running low too."
Kaedros nodded. Her logic was sound. "Rauk?"
The prince shrugged. "A little rest wouldn’t hurt." His stomach growled loudly. "And maybe a little food."
There was no food.
So they rested.
They sat against the wall in uneasy silence. Rauk and Taria drifted off eventually, but Kaedros remained awake, his mind spinning.
His thoughts returned to the Choosing and to the being he’d t there. The one that had called itself the Codex.
But Kaedros didn’t believe it.
He didn’t trust anything that spoke in riddles and smiled without a face. Still, it had given him one answer.
The see of Light of Annihilation in migh lie behind those doors. The reason he was so different from the others.
And now, from the mana wave he could sense from the vanished gate, and from beyond it, Kaedros might be getting his answers faster than he imagined.
"You didn’t sleep?" Taria yawned, rubbing her eyes.
"I didn’t," Kaedros replied.
"Don’t you find it strange? The torches are still burning after all that chaos."
"Look at the tal holding," Kaedros pointed. "There are runes etched into them."
Ancient runes, ones he didn’t recognize. That ant they were either long lost or had never existed in the world in the first place.
"What is this place?" Taria whispered, hugging her spear close.
"No idea," Kaedros said. "But I have a bad feeling we’re about to find out. Rauk?"
The prince opened his eyes, pale blue and sharp. He rose slowly. "I’m ready."
"I could kill for so water," Taria muttered.
"Maybe we’ll find so," Kaedros said, pointing toward the opening.
They began move. They passed through the hole and froze at what they first saw. Fog.
The gate had left behind a hole that led into thick fog and blackness.
They approached cautiously, no choice but to continue so they walked into the fog, the air grew colder with each steps. The fog clung to them like breath.
Kaedros conjured a small yellow fla and sent it forward. It hovered, casting soft light, parting the fog enough for them to glimpse cracked cobblestones,before the mist swallowed the light whole.
He created another fla. "Let’s go."
And jumped.
He landed almost instantly.
"The ground’s close," Kaedros called up. But his voice didn’t echo. It vanished into the fog.
Taria landed next, grunting as her heels struck hard. "You could’ve warned ," she muttered, shooting a glare at Rauk, who dropped down like mist and landed gracefully.
"Told you," Kaedros grinned.
He lifted his fla and turned to look behind them.
Nothing.
Only fog and darkness. No sign of the place they had co from.
"Well," Taria shivered, "it keeps getting stranger."
And then the floor trembled.
A massive, breath-like exhale shuddered through the ground. Cool, fresh air swept up from below.
The fog spun, coiling around them, then vanished entirely.
"Now this is strange," Rauk murmured.
They stood before a colossal castle.
It lood impossibly tall, its towers made of colored glass that caught no light. A low wall of polished blue stone surrounded the structure. But the gate...
The gate was human-sized.
Not massive. Not grand. Just... small.
"Did the ground just breathe on us? And now a castle appears out of fog?" Taria turned, eyes wide. "I’m not going inside."
She spun on her heel....and froze.
There was nothing behind her. Nothing but cobblestone underfoot, leading only one way...toward the castle.
Everything else was devoured by absolute blackness.
She stumbled back in alarm.
"Well?" Kaedros said, voice tight with a mixture of awe and excitent.
They looked at him.
They had no ho to return to. And if they ever wanted to go back, they needed answers.
They stepped forward together.
Each ti their feet moved forward, the cobblestones behind them crumbled, vanishing into nothingness, and the remaining just hung there, next to emptiness.
They truly couldn’t return.
The gate ahead was as black as the one they’d passed through, but this one was forged from delicate interlocking tal, twisting and intricate. In front of it stood a statue.
A hunched monster of tal.
As they drew closer, the statue moved, flowing like liquid as it ca alive.
Its mouth opened, full of jagged fangs, and it spoke in a voice that was old, hollow, and full of weight.
"It’s been years. Years!"
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