"Are you sure this is the place?"
Damien couldn't help but voice the question, his tone low but serious.
Some time ago, they had arrived at the deepest reaches of the Thousand Beast Forest—a place where the trees stood like ancient sentinels, towering and twisted, their bark scarred by time and battle. Yet here, amidst that oppressive wilderness, they now stood in a surprisingly open clearing.
A vast lake stretched out before them, so wide it seemed to touch the horizon. Its waters glowing under the filtered sunlight, unnaturally still, like a pane of polished glass. Beneath the surface, the lakebed sparkled with multicolored crystals, each one pulsing faintly with spiritual energy—an eerie, mesmerizing glow that turned the lake into a prismatic mirror.
But it wasn't the scenery that made Damien tense.
It was the aura—or rather, auras.
