[A soul was offered]

Covered in disgusting blood, Nico looked more like a monster than the Guardian. He dragged himself from the corpse, his mind blank. Nico stepped into the pool and waded until his head rested above the water. Weightless and cool, Nico closed his eyes to forget his troubles.

Gen dug the shards out of the monster and laid one next to Whispering Reed. Nico took the shard and put the smooth, glassy surface on his forehead. After the shard turned to dust, Nico opened his hand, looking at the black stone resting on his palm.

The stone was cracked and aged, having a deeper marble look caused by the water. One edge was straight and sharp, while the other sides were jagged. It was obvious that the stone was part of a whole.

‘How did it end up in the guts of a monster?’ Nico turned the stone over. Etched into the flat surface were old runes, each one different from the last, like multiple people had written each one. The spell didn’t translate the runes, leaving Nico entirely puzzled.

He traced the runes with his fingers as he tried to piece together their meanings: ‘B-black…heart.’

The stone suddenly exploded into sparks, and the spell whispered into his ear. [You received a memory.]

Nico wasted no time and went into his soul sea.

[Black Heart]

Rank: Unknown

Type: Unknown

[Soul Seer sped up her explanation. “-unknown- searches and calls out for its lost… it has become a desperate beast. With the god’s gone, it rests on us to keep it away.” The Contessa of Writhing Lands opened her mouth to speak, stopped, and decided against speaking. She truly wished her sister luck. Sadly, the two of them would never meet again.

Irritated by the description, Nico summoned the memory back into his hands. The description was long but vague in the crucial areas.

‘This Soul Seer entrusted something to the other. But who is -unknown-?’ Nico studied the runes individually, hoping to uncover their meaning. Whoever wrote on the stone never consistently used a tool. Some lines were thin, and others were thick, with a few jagged lines looking like they were carved with fingernails.

Splashing his face clean, Nico looked himself over and cursed his bad luck. ‘Why couldn’t it have been armor?’

Nico dipped into the pool as soon as he dried off and sat back by the fire, repeating the childish process.

“You--,” Nico broke out of his stupor and turned around. Gen’s single word had set off a thousand thoughts, each more outlandish than the last. His tone was more ‘surprised’ than ‘outraged.’ Not an accusation.

“Your hair…” Nico frowned, checking himself in the water. Then, it dawned on him. The bath had washed the blood from his hair, revealing the pale locks underneath.

“Never seen an albino?” Nico asked. Gen shook his head, focusing on the metal shard in his hand.

“Where did you get this?”

“From a fallen demon,” Nico stepped out of the pool, brushed back his dripping hair, and dismissed Black Heart. Nico took the sharp metal from Gen’s hands and transferred the fireplace back to him. Gen nodded slightly and returned the feathers.

‘He’s getting harder to feel.’ Gen’s feelings used to be like intrusive thoughts that filled Nico’s mind, but now they were faint ideas like something Nico was going to say but forgot to.

They spent the rest of the day skinning the monster of all its edible parts. Nico draped leather by the fire to dry the skin, yet another skill learned from Rio’s lessons.

Nico ran his fingers over his shoulder and palm, feeling the scarring. After killing the Aureus, his wounds healed astonishingly fast. ‘Shards or souls?’

With nothing else to do, Nico peeked down the tunnel where the pool drained. The cave was unnaturally dark, with the sound of falling water escaping the void. Nico tossed a rock into the darkness and heard the stone hit a wall before falling.

As much as Nico was curious to find out what was down there, he knew that whatever was down there would be horrible and likely kill them. Leaving the tunnel alone, Nico tailored himself some legwear and a tunic.

Gen was casually cooking some of the meat, wearing a black bodysuit, his armor back in his soul sea. Nico packed two sacks with rations and water in skin flasks. They couldn’t leave tonight, but Nico planned to leave early in the morning.

Neither of them spoke to the other, preferring to silently work. Despite the lack of communication, both of them decided to stay together. As great as their accomplishment was, they were still just sleepers in a Death Zone.

A low mist blanketed the mountains, turning the sun into a distant, dim white ball. Nico felt refreshed and had a full stomach, making quick progress through the valleys and peaks. The thick and unrevealing mist lay low in the depressions between the mountains. The fog hid the possible horrors from them while simultaneously keeping them hidden. It made Nico uneasy to only be able to see a few meters ahead, unaware of what resided on the other side of the mist.

Long after his body was slick with condensing water, Nico broke through the height of the mist and escaped the watery cage.

Beyond the Hollow Mountains hung the Chained Isles, still far from their reach. Yet, with hope getting closer, they silently despaired. There were three ways to escape the dream realm: find a human citadel, a nightmare gate, or an undiscovered citadel. Nico and Gen despaired because before them, down the slopes into a colossal mountain basin, was a forest stretching in a massive circle. The forest was surrounded by slithering rivers that drained from all around it, pointing to the temple standing at the center of the forest.

The temple was massive enough for Nico to make out the weathered stone and the numerous vines and roots coiling in, around, and through the walls. At the top of the temple rested a tree that put any tree in the waking world to shame.

‘If that isn’t a prominent landmark, I don’t know what is.’ To reach the Chained Isles, they must brave hundreds of kilometers of untrodden and unknown mountains or pass through the forest basin. What horror would guard the citadel if the Basin was the region’s landmark?

Nico smiled wryly at the twist of fate and glanced at Gen’s stoic face. He returned Nico’s look with a deadpan expression. Nico raised an eyebrow.

“What? It’s just the Hollow Mountains.” Nico foolishly started down the mountain with a self-satisfied hum, eager and worried about what the future would unleash on them.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.