Chapter 14
The endless passage stretched on without mercy.
Hours slipped away beneath the ancient mountain, yet nothing around them seemed to change. The walls remained the same polished black stone, the towering crystal formations continued to bathe the cavern in their pale blue glow, and every corridor looked almost identical to the last.
There was no sunrise.
No sunset.
No shifting shadows to remind them that time was still passing.
Only silence.
An endless, oppressive silence that seemed to swallow every sound they made.
Even their footsteps felt strangely muted, as though the mountain itself was listening.
Kyrth had stopped trying to estimate how far they had walked.
His sense of direction, something he had always trusted without question, had begun to fail him. Every turn looked familiar. Every passage resembled another they had already crossed.
Several times, he had quietly marked the walls with chalk.
Every mark had disappeared.
Not smeared.
Not scratched away.
Simply… gone.
As though they had never existed.
The realization lingered in the back of his mind, refusing to leave.
Neither of them spoke for a long while.
There was nothing left to say.
The deeper they descended, the more the mountain seemed to erase everything familiar.
Then…
Saeroyx’s pace gradually slowed.
At first, it was so subtle that even he failed to notice.
His footsteps became lighter.
His breathing unconsciously steadied.
His gaze, which had been wandering across the walls only moments before, slowly settled on a single direction.
Kyrth continued walking for several steps before realizing Saeroyx was no longer beside him.
He stopped and turned around.
Saeroyx stood perfectly still.
His amber eyes were fixed on a narrow passage branching away from the main corridor.
“…Saeroyx?”
There was no response.
He wasn’t ignoring Kyrth.
It simply seemed as though he hadn’t heard him.
Something…
Something beyond that dark passage had captured every fragment of his attention.
A strange feeling spread through his chest.
It wasn’t pain.
It wasn’t fear.
It wasn’t even curiosity.
It felt…
Familiar.
Not because he recognized the place.
But because his heart did.
An invisible thread seemed to stretch from somewhere deep within the darkness, quietly wrapping itself around him.
It wasn’t pulling.
It wasn’t forcing.
It merely existed.
Patiently waiting.
Inviting him forward.
Without realizing it, Saeroyx took a slow step toward the side passage.
The strange sensation immediately became stronger.
Another step.
His heartbeat grew louder inside his ears.
Not with panic…
But with anticipation.
It felt as though he had been searching for something his entire life without ever knowing it.
And now…
He had finally found its direction.
Every instinct within him whispered the same silent truth.
Go.
There was no reason.
No explanation.
Only certainty.
He wanted to reach whatever lay beyond that darkness.
Nothing else mattered.
Nothing else occupied his thoughts.
The world around him gradually faded until only that unseen destination remained.
“Saeroyx.”
Kyrth’s voice echoed through the corridor once more.
This time, it carried enough firmness to break the strange trance.
Saeroyx blinked.
His gaze slowly shifted away from the passage before settling on Kyrth.
For a brief moment, confusion crossed his face.
Then he looked back toward the darkness.
“…I don’t know what’s happening.”
His voice was unusually quiet.
“It feels…”
He searched for words that refused to come.
“…like someone isn’t calling my name…”
“…but calling… me.”
Kyrth’s expression became serious.
“Do you recognize the feeling?”
Saeroyx slowly shook his head.
“No.”
“Do you sense danger?”
Another pause.
“…No.”
“Safety?”
“I don’t know.”
He lowered his eyes for a moment before speaking again.
“I only know that…”
“…I want to reach it.”
The honesty in his voice unsettled Kyrth more than any answer could have.
Saeroyx wasn’t fascinated.
He wasn’t curious.
He wasn’t acting recklessly.
He simply carried an unwavering certainty that defied all reason.
Kyrth looked toward the narrow passage.
It appeared no different from the countless others they had already passed.
Cold.
Silent.
Ancient.
Yet…
For reasons he couldn’t explain…
Even standing several steps away, he felt that the darkness within that corridor was somehow… deeper.
As though the mountain itself was hiding something there.
Neither of them moved.
The blue crystals continued their slow, rhythmic pulse.
And far beyond the reach of their light…
Something waited with endless patience.
Certain…
That eventually…
Saeroyx would come to it.
Kyrth remained silent for a long moment.
His eyes stayed fixed on the narrow passage before slowly shifting back to Saeroyx.
He had spent years trusting logic over instinct.
Every investigation he had ever undertaken relied on observation, evidence, and reason.
Instinct alone had never been enough.
Yet…
Nothing about this place obeyed reason anymore.
The mountain erased his markings.
Its passages seemed to shift without warning.
Time itself had become impossible to measure.
There were no maps.
No records.
No clues.
Only endless corridors leading into the unknown.
He let out a slow breath.
“We’ve already accepted one impossible thing after another.”
Saeroyx quietly watched him.
“If your instincts are leading you somewhere…”
Kyrth looked once more toward the silent passage.
“…then following them isn’t any less reasonable than wandering aimlessly.”
Saeroyx gave a small nod.
“So…”
“We follow your instincts.”
“…Together.”
For the first time since the strange sensation had appeared, Saeroyx smiled.
It wasn’t his usual playful grin.
It was softer.
Almost grateful.
Without another word, he turned toward the narrow corridor.
The moment he stepped inside…
The strange pull became clearer.
Not stronger.
Clearer.
As though he had finally chosen the correct path.
He continued walking.
Not hurriedly.
Not carelessly.
Each step felt natural.
Almost effortless.
Kyrth followed only a pace behind, his eyes constantly sweeping across the unfamiliar surroundings.
The passage gradually began to change.
The smooth black walls became increasingly polished until they reflected faint silhouettes beneath the crystal light.
Ancient pillars emerged from the darkness, each carved with patterns neither of them recognized.
The blue crystals that had illuminated every corridor until now slowly began to disappear.
Their place was taken by something entirely different.
Thin veins of pale silver light ran through the walls themselves.
The light flowed like liquid beneath the stone.
Slowly.
Silently.
As though blood flowed through the mountain.
Neither of them spoke.
The air itself had changed.
It no longer carried the damp scent of ancient caves.
Instead…
It felt strangely fresh.
Cool.
Almost alive.
Then…
The passage widened.
The sudden change forced both of them to stop.
Before them stretched a corridor unlike anything they had seen since entering the mountain.
It was perfectly straight.
Perfectly symmetrical.
Its floor had been carved into smooth black stone without a single crack or imperfection.
On either side stood towering pillars, each separated by exactly the same distance, disappearing far into the darkness ahead.
There were no crystals.
No dripping water.
No broken rock.
Only silence.
An unnatural silence.
Saeroyx slowly took another step forward.
The instant his foot touched the polished floor…
A faint silver glow spread outward beneath it.
Like ripples across a still lake.
The light raced forward between the pillars.
One after another…
Ancient symbols engraved into the stone awakened.
The entire corridor gradually illuminated.
Not brightly.
Just enough to reveal its impossible scale.
Kyrth’s breathing unconsciously slowed.
“…Someone built this.”
His voice echoed softly.
“No…”
He looked again.
“…Someone far beyond our understanding.”
The silver light continued traveling deeper into the endless corridor, as though announcing the arrival of two unexpected visitors.
Far ahead…
Beyond the final reach of the light…
Something responded.
Not with a sound.
Not with movement.
But with a presence so ancient that even the mountain itself seemed to grow still.
The awakened corridor stretched endlessly before them.
Neither Kyrth nor Saeroyx dared to break the silence.
Their footsteps echoed in perfect rhythm against the polished black floor.
The silver veins running through the stone pulsed faintly beneath their feet, each pulse resembling the slow beat of an enormous heart hidden somewhere far below.
The farther they walked…
The heavier the air became.
It was subtle at first.
A slight pressure against their shoulders.
Then against their chests.
As though the mountain itself had begun to acknowledge their presence.
Kyrth instinctively tightened his grip around the hilt of his weapon.
His eyes never stopped scanning the darkness ahead.
“Something is here.”
His voice was barely above a whisper.
Saeroyx nodded.
This time…
He could sense it as well.
Not the strange pull from before.
Something else.
Something that hadn’t been there until now.
The silver light illuminating the corridor suddenly dimmed.
Not enough to plunge them into darkness…
Just enough for the shadows between the pillars to deepen.
Then…
One of those shadows moved.
Kyrth froze.
“…Did you see that?”
“I did.”
Several pillars ahead, something shifted.
It wasn’t an animal.
It wasn’t a person.
It had no clear shape.
It resembled a mass of living darkness, constantly folding into itself, stretching, shrinking, and reforming every few seconds. No matter how long Kyrth looked at it, his eyes refused to decide what they were seeing.
At one moment it seemed impossibly tall.
The next…
It appeared to crawl across the floor.
Then it was standing again.
The longer they stared…
The less certain they became of its form.
A cold sensation crept down Kyrth’s spine.
He had investigated countless supernatural phenomena.
Never…
Not once…
Had he encountered something his mind struggled to perceive.
The black mass remained motionless.
Then, without warning…
It shifted forward.
Not by walking.
Not by crawling.
The darkness itself seemed to slide across the polished floor.
Silently.
Smoothly.
Closing the distance between them.
Kyrth immediately stepped in front of Saeroyx.
His weapon rose into a guarded stance.
He couldn’t tell where its head was.
Where its limbs were.
Or where he should even aim.
“…Don’t move,” he whispered.
The creature continued its silent approach.
Every pulse of the silver light revealed a different silhouette before swallowing it once more.
Then…
Saeroyx staggered.
A sharp breath escaped him.
“…Saeroyx?”
He reached for the nearest pillar to steady himself.
The strange pull inside him, which had quietly guided him until now, suddenly became overwhelming.
It no longer felt like an invitation.
It felt…
As though countless unseen hands were reaching toward something buried deep within him.
His heartbeat became painfully loud.
His vision blurred.
The silver light around him twisted into indistinct streaks.
He pressed one hand against his chest.
“…What…”
Another wave crashed through him.
His knees buckled.
He dropped heavily onto the cold stone floor.
“Saeroyx!”
Kyrth immediately knelt beside him, catching him before he could collapse completely.
Saeroyx’s breathing had become uneven.
His hands trembled uncontrollably.
He wasn’t bleeding.
There was no visible wound.
Yet his condition worsened with every passing second.
It felt as though something inside him was responding to the presence ahead.
He couldn’t understand it.
He couldn’t stop it.
The black mass halted several pillars away.
It neither attacked nor retreated.
It simply remained there…
Watching.
Waiting.
As if it had expected this moment from the very beginning.
Kyrth glanced between the motionless creature and the man struggling to remain conscious in his arms.
For the first time since entering the mountain…
He realized that whatever lay hidden beneath the Western Forest had never been interested in the investigators.
It had been waiting…
For Saeroyx.
Elsewhere Beneath the Mountain…
While Kyrth and Saeroyx ventured deeper into the unknown, the remaining investigators continued along the path they had chosen after the great chasm.
Their route had been nothing like the one the two had taken.
The tunnels had gradually widened until they finally emerged into a cavern so vast that none of them could see its ceiling.
Their torchlight vanished into the darkness long before reaching the opposite side.
One investigator instinctively whispered,
“…How big is this place?”
No one answered.
The silence itself felt large enough to swallow the question.
Unlike the polished corridors they had crossed before, this cavern was wild.
Ancient.
Untouched.
Jagged pillars of black stone rose from the ground like the remains of a forgotten forest.
The air was cold enough that every breath became visible for a brief moment before disappearing into the darkness.
The group advanced cautiously.
Every step echoed across the immense chamber before returning several seconds later.
Then…
The investigator at the front suddenly stopped.
His torch lowered toward the ground.
“…Bones.”
The others immediately gathered around him.
Scattered across the stone floor were bleached white remains.
Human bones.
Old enough that no trace of flesh remained.
Some still wore fragments of rusted armor that crumbled at the slightest touch.
Others clutched broken weapons, their blades eaten away by centuries of decay.
The investigators’ expressions grew solemn.
“This wasn’t one person…”
“There are dozens.”
As they searched farther ahead…
Dozens became hundreds.
The cavern floor was littered with skeletal remains stretching as far as their torchlight could reach.
Not all of them were human.
Many belonged to creatures unlike anything they had ever seen.
Some possessed skulls far too large for their bodies.
Others had ribs that curved outward like cages.
Several skeletons had far more limbs than any known beast.
One enormous spine disappeared beneath a mound of stone, each vertebra nearly the size of a man’s torso.
No one could even imagine what kind of creature it had belonged to.
“…I’ve never seen anything like these.”
Neither had anyone else.
What unsettled them most wasn’t simply the number of bones.
It was their condition.
Almost every skeleton bore signs of violent destruction.
Human skulls were cracked inward as though crushed by overwhelming force.
Several ribcages had been torn completely open.
Long, parallel grooves marked countless bones, deep enough that whatever had made them must have possessed incredible strength.
The unknown creatures had fared no better.
Massive jaws had been shattered.
Thick leg bones had splintered into dozens of fragments.
Some skeletons still lay tangled together, as though they had died fighting one another…
Or something else.
One investigator crouched beside a broken skull.
His fingers hovered over the bite marks carved into the bone.
His expression slowly changed.
“…These weren’t made after death.”
Everyone looked toward him.
He swallowed.
“…Something bit through the bone itself.”
The realization sent a chill through the group.
Bone.
Not flesh.
Bone.
Whatever had hunted here possessed jaws powerful enough to crush solid skeletons.
No one spoke after that.
The enormous cavern suddenly felt far less empty than it appeared.
Even though there wasn’t a single sound…
Not a single movement…
Every investigator found themselves lowering their voices.
Instinctively walking closer together.
Keeping their torches pointed toward the darkness.
Whatever had left behind this endless field of bones…
Was nowhere to be seen.
And somehow…
That was even more terrifying.
Without needing to discuss it, the survivors silently altered their course.
They began skirting the edges of the vast cavern, giving the center a wide berth.
No one wanted to walk among the countless remains.
No one wanted to discover what had created them.
The empty center of the chamber remained undisturbed.
As though even after countless years…
It still belonged to something.
And none of them wished to challenge that silent claim.
