The ruins vibrated with a ghostly silence, a vast emptiness stretching before them like a graveyard of forgotten history. The crystalline structures that lined the walls flickered dully, remnants of a once-thriving civilization now left to decay.
For a while, no one spoke.
The only sound was the distant vibration in the air—low, steady, almost like a pulse.
They moved cautiously, the faint glow of the glyphs beneath their feet providing just enough illumination to navigate through the labyrinthine ruins. Towering arches loomed overhead, their edges smooth and unnaturally precise, untouched by time or erosion.
After a while, Xin broke the silence.
"I wonder what kind of people lived here."
Belial glanced at him, his violet eyes reflecting the pale light. "The kind that didn't make it."
Xin frowned. "That's not exactly reassuring."
Belial smirked slightly. "I'm not here to make you feel better."
Xin huffed. "Yeah, I've noticed."
Raven, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke. His deep voice cut through the stillness like a blade.
"The architecture… it's too advanced for it to have just vanished. Civilizations don't disappear without a trace unless they're wiped out."
Xin shuddered at the implication. "By what?"
No one answered.
Because none of them knew.
And that was the most terrifying part.
The etheric crystals embedded into the walls cast an eerie glow, their once-vibrant energy barely flickering now. Xin found himself drawn to them. Unlike ordinary minerals, these crystals felt… alive. Or at least, they had been.
As the others walked ahead, Xin lingered, his fingers hovering over one of the darkened crystals. On instinct, he channeled a sliver of ether into it.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
A faint flicker.
Xin's breath caught. He tried again, feeding more ether into it, and this time, the glow lasted longer before fading again.
"What are you doing?"
Belial's voice was sharp, cutting through the moment.
Xin turned slightly, his eyes still on the crystal. "I think… I can wake them up."
Belial frowned but didn't stop him.
Xin focused, closing his eyes, feeling the remnants of energy within the crystal. It was like trying to relight a dying flame. He let his ether flow deeper, searching, trying to reignite whatever spark remained.
And then—
A sudden flash.
A rush of images burst into Xin's mind, like a door opening to another time.
He saw tall figures, their bodies draped in flowing robes, their forms almost ethereal as they moved through the city. The crystals pulsed brightly around them, casting a warm golden glow across a world that felt impossibly distant.
The structures weren't just buildings—they were alive with power, floating above the ground, held aloft by pure etheric energy. Roads of light stretched through the air, connecting suspended platforms that defied gravity.
This place had been magnificent.
Then—a shift.
Darkness.
A deep, rumbling sound, like the groan of the world itself tearing apart.
Xin's vision blurred as thousands no millions ofshadows loomed over the city. Colossal creatures—twisted, nightmarish things with shifting, incomprehensible forms—descended upon the world. Their mere existence was wrong, as though reality itself rejected them.
Xin tried to focus on them, to understand what they were—
But his mind reeled.
A sense of insanity clawed at the edges of his consciousness. He felt like he was looking at something not meant to be seen, as if the sheer knowledge of their forms would break him apart.
He tore himself away from the vision, gasping.
His knees buckled, and he fell forward, his hand catching against the cold stone.
The images vanished, but the sensation of them lingered—the terror, the destruction, the sheer wrongness of what he had seen.
Xin's breaths came ragged and uneven. His skin was damp with sweat.
Belial was at his side in an instant, gripping his shoulder. "Xin! What the hell just happened?"
Xin shook his head, his pulse pounding in his ears. He could still feel the weight of those creatures in his mind, like an afterimage burned into his vision.
"I saw… them," he whispered.
Belial's grip tightened. "Them?"
Xin swallowed hard, his throat dry. "The things that destroyed this place."
Silence.
Belial didn't speak immediately. His golden eyes narrowed, searching Xin's face for answers.
Raven stepped closer, his heavy boots echoing through the empty chamber. "What did they look like?"
Xin hesitated. "I don't know. I mean, I couldn't know. Every time I tried to focus on them, it felt like my mind was being ripped apart."
Belial cursed under his breath. "That's not normal."
Xin let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, no kidding."
The crystal beside him was still dimly glowing, its energy stirred, but not fully restored. Xin clenched his fists.
"This place wasn't just a city," he murmured. "it was part of a country. A last stand against… whatever they were."
Belial exhaled slowly. "And they lost."
Xin nodded. "Completely."
Raven crossed his arms. "If those things are still out there, we need to figure out how to fight them."
Xin let out a breath. "If they're still out there… we might already be too late."
Another heavy silence settled between them.
Belial was the first to move. He reached out, touching the crystal himself, his expression unreadable. Whatever thoughts were running through his mind, he kept them to himself.
Then, after a moment, he turned away.
"Let's keep moving."
Xin stood, shaking off the lingering dizziness. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see more, but he knew one thing for certain.
This world had fallen once before.
And if they weren't careful…
It would fall again.
The group emerged from the winding tunnels into a narrow crevice, the air thick with the lingering chill of the underground. Their breaths were hushed, their movements careful as they stepped into a larger cave chamber, where a massive opening yawned before them.
Beyond it lay the outside world.
Rather the one inside the mountain
But the light of the dying sunset still bled into the cavern, staining the rocky ground in hues of orange and gold. The very sight of it sent a shiver of unease through Belial. That burning sky was no warmth—it was death itself, a harrowing reminder of why they could not step out yet.
And then—
Something moved.
A grotesque silhouette emerged from the cave's exit, stepping into the open with a slow, deliberate gait. The ground trembled beneath its weight.
Belial's breath caught in his throat.
"Don't look at it directly," he warned, his voice barely above a whisper.
Xin and Raven froze, their instincts screaming at them to run, but they listened. They averted their gazes, their eyes flickering between the shifting shadows rather than the thing itself.
It was enormous, its form twisted and unnatural, as though reality itself had been bent to accommodate its existence. Patches of chitinous armor jutted from its body in jagged formations, oozing a dark, viscous substance that sizzled against the sunlit ground. Its limbs were uneven, some elongated and clawed, others shrunken and malformed, as if it had evolved under impossible conditions.
Yet the most horrifying part wasn't its appearance.
It was that it could walk freely in the sunlight.
That should have been impossible. Every living thing they had encountered so far had burned beneath the planet's merciless star. And yet, this thing—a Scourge-rank monster—moved unfazed, its thick hide seemingly impervious to the searing light.
Belial's hands curled into fists.
This was not normal.
The group remained utterly motionless, their breath shallow, their hearts pounding in their chests.
The creature paused, its faceless head tilting as if sensing something.
For a horrifying moment, Belial thought it had noticed them.
His fingers twitched toward his weapon. His mind calculated their odds of survival if they had to fight. Not good.
But then, after what felt like an eternity, the monster kept walking.
It moved into the sun-scorched wasteland beyond the cave, its heavy footfalls leaving cracks in the ground.
The group stayed still. Watching. Waiting.
And then—
The outside world came into full view.
And it was not what they expected.
There was vegetation. Real vegetation.
Patches of lush, dark green plant life sprawled across the land, some twined with crystalline growths, glistening faintly in the fading sunlight. The air carried a strange freshness, something neither sterile nor hostile, unlike the suffocating tunnels they had traveled through.
An oasis in a world of death.
Belial exchanged looks with Xin and Raven.
Hope? Maybe.
But first, they had to wait.
They watched in silence until the sun finally set.
And, as expected—
The monster returned.
Without a sound, it slipped back into the cave, its massive form vanishing into the darkness.
After a few moments, Belial exhaled. He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath.
He turned to the others.
"Now," he murmured.
"Now we move."