In the dark of the misty forest, the trio moved in silence, each step a calculated thought. White fog, thick and heavy, clung to the air, making it nearly impossible to distinguish obstacles from shadow, slowing their progress.

  Alex’s eyes darted constantly, his heart a quiet war hammer against his ribs. His sword was drawn, gripped tightly in his right hand. It vibrated subtly, a soft hum traveling up his arm.

  Alex knew exactly what that meant.

  “Stay close,” Iris whispered as she walked beside him. Her hooked weapons pulsed faintly, like a steady heartbeat, causing the mist around them to glow softly. Ahead, Roric moved with practiced caution, his silver sword clenched in both hands, its sharp tip pointed forward.

  ‘What a nightmare,’ Alex grimaced.

  For the past hour, that was exactly what it felt like. A heavy, invisible presence pressed in on them, just like when they had first entered the forest, only now it felt denser, more suffocating.

  Alex blinked.

  For the briefest moment, at the very edge of his vision, he would have sworn he saw a figure standing still, watching them. He spun toward it, breath hitching, sword raised…

  Nothing. Only shadows shifting in the fog.

  Yet the hairs on his skin stood on end, screaming that he wasn’t wrong. Alex exhaled slowly, the breath trembling as he tried to steady himself. And then his heart spiked again. The mere thought of being watched by some unseen adversary shook him to his core.

  ‘Wow… when you think about it,’ he scoffed silently, ‘this is like a horror movie. A cursed forest and everything.’

  “Something on your mind?” Iris asked quietly.

  She had pushed back the hood of her cloak, revealing her practical, neck-length hair, darkened and damp from the mist.

  “It’s just…” Alex paused, gaze lingering forward. “Everything feels wrong…”

  Slowing down Iris turned slightly toward him. Under the dark and mist smothered forest, she could hear the strain in his voice. “Let’s just get through the night,” she said. “The Sunken Archives shouldn’t be far now… maybe.”

  “Yeah?” Alex tilted his head toward her.

  At the mention of the Archives, his thoughts shifted. He didn’t know what awaited them there, what answers, or what dangers, but beyond it lay Elenora. The thought surfaced like a small, fragile light, one he clung to before the forest could swallow it.

  His grip on the sword loosened, just a fraction.

  “Yes,” Iris said, firm this time.

  “Good to know.” A faint smile tugged at Alex’s lips as he nodded, the fear still there, but steadied, anchored by something worth reaching for.

  However, Alex didn’t realize his hand had tightened around the hilt until the sword answered, its hum rising sharply as Roric’s voice cut through the fog.

  “You might want to take a look at this,” Roric said, standing at the edge of a ledge, his sword lowered just slightly.

  Alex and Iris shared a brief glance before quickening their pace.

  Standing beside Roric, Alex fixed his gaze on what lay below. Rays of pale blue light broke through the thick mist from above, illuminating the ground beneath. His heart raced as his thoughts collided.

  Below them, just a few meters down, lay metal and bone. Broken. Scattered.

  The pale light revealed rusted swords, dented helmets, shattered chest pieces jutting from the dirt. A crater of death, one the mist itself seemed to avoid, curling away from its edges as if aware of what rested within.

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  Alex’s gaze swept across the littered ground, cataloging the remains… until it stopped.

  At the far edge of the crater. The bones there were different.

  Alex leaned forward instinctively, a sharp chill racing up his spine as his thoughts stalled. His eyes widened. The bones were enormous.

  And judging by the way the mist refused to touch it, something here still remembered what had happened.

  Alex swallowed, his throat dry. “Whatever did this…” He trailed off.

  Roric straightened slowly, scanning the edges of the crater, the treeline beyond. “Isn’t here anymore,” he said. “But it was.”

  That didn’t help.

  A distant sound rolled through the forest. Not a roar, not quite. More like a wet, dragging resonance, as if something vast was shifting its weight far away. The mist around the crater shuddered in response, rippling outward in slow waves.

  Alex’s sword screamed. The hum spiked violently, rattling his arm as if trying to tear itself free from his grip. Iris’s weapons flared bright, their glow cutting through the fog in sharp pulses.

  “Run,” Roric said.

  They didn’t hesitate.

  Alex’s heart slammed against his ribs as they bolted into the mist, boots tearing through wet earth, breath ripping in and out of his lungs. The forest closed in immediately, fog swallowing their path after every step as if it were erasing them as they went.

  Behind them, something moved.

  Alex stole a glance back and instantly wished he hadn’t.

  Under the pale blue light behind, a silhouette loomed within the mist, towering above the treeline. Its outline writhed unnaturally, shifting and folding as if it couldn’t decide what shape to wear. Long appendages dragged across the ground, gouging deep trenches into the soil. Each step sent a tremor through the forest floor, rattling branches and shaking loose clumps of dirt.

  It was getting closer.

  “Don’t look back!” Iris shouted.

  Easier said than done.

  The mist made running a nightmare. Trees emerged from nowhere, their dark trunks masquerading as shadows until the last second. Alex swerved hard to avoid a collision, shoulder clipping bark as pain flared through his arm. Branches clawed at his leather armor, snagging, tearing, trying to hold him back.

  The sword in his hand screamed its warning, the hum vibrating violently up his arm. Still he held it tight.

  Iris surged ahead, taking the lead. Her hooked blades blazed brighter now, their glow carving a narrow tunnel of visibility through the fog. It wasn’t much, barely a few meters. but it was enough.

  Enough to keep moving. Enough to survive. The light gave them direction… and gave them away.

  Alex could feel it then, the pressure behind them shifting, accelerating. Heavy impacts echoed through the forest as something massive barreled forward, uncaring of obstacles. Trees cracked. Something splintered.

  The ground shook.

  “It’s gaining!” Alex gasped.

  “Best to keep moving!” Roric snapped, not slowing.

  Just when Alex’s lungs began to burn, when his legs screamed for mercy, the trees broke apart ahead.

  A clearing.

  Bursting through the treeline, they skidded to a halt, boots sliding across damp grass as the mist thinned abruptly. Standing at the center of the clearing was a cabin.

  Dark wooden walls hunched beneath the fog, crooked and old, as if grown rather than built. Stained, cathedral-like windows reflected faint traces of pale light, distorting it into fractured colors.

  Behind them, the forest roared.

  Alex spun around just in time to see it.

  Two burning rubies, glimmered within the writhing silhouette at the edge of the clearing. The many-limbed shape recoiled, its outline shuddering as if pressed against an invisible barrier.

  It hesitated.

  Then, slowly, uneasily, it retreated, dissolving back into the mist from which it had emerged.

  Silence fell.

  Alex doubled over, hands braced on his knees, lungs burning. His sword still hummed, but softer now, uneasy rather than frantic.

  ‘…Why did it stop?’ he thought between ragged breaths.

  A few paces away, Roric had dropped to one knee, his sword piercing the dirt as he gripped the hilt tightly, chest heaving. His gaze remained fixed on the cabin, jaw clenched.

  Iris, on the other hand, stayed standing despite the visible tremor in her legs. Her blades pulsed softly at her sides, and her eyes were wide as she stared at the cabin.

  Hope.

  Or something else entirely.

  That didn’t make Alex feel any better.