After shining his hand, with the left one, which was holding the flashlight, it became clearer.

Mathias’ hand was slowly melting, as if some kind of acid had been poured on it. At this moment, his bones and part of his muscles were visible. It was bleeding and oozing pus.

|||||||||||

“Huh?” said Alaya.

“There was no need for you to show that…” Eliah told me as she covered Alaya’s eyes.

“But if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have the true image to go with the description I gave,” I replied.

“I want to see!” Alaya protested.

“No,” said Eliah.

“You’re mean,” Alaya pouted.

“How am I mean? I’m protecting you from seeing something disturbing! Ugh!”

Alaya pulled Eliah’s hands off her eyes and saw Mat’s hand in the image I created.

“Eh, I’ve seen worse.”

“...W-what?” Eliah stammered.

|||||||||||

Back to the story...

“Hero!” TRX and Roundy exclaimed, frightened and concerned.

“Ah... Wait, it doesn’t hurt,” Mat said.

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“W-what?” TRX said, still worried. “But your hand is... horrible...”

“I’m serious, it doesn’t hurt,” Mat replied. “Although I was scared when I saw the wound. Haha... Uh, even if I touch it, it doesn’t hurt, but it’s a real wound…”

He was really touching it.

How strange... Mat thought.

“Hey, Roundy, can you heal me?”

“Y-yeah, of course.”

Roundy went to heal her. But... he noticed something and froze, dumbfounded.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?” TRX asked Roundy.

“Y-you…”

“Huh? Oh. You’re melting too,” Mat told her.

“Huh? Really?” TRX asked.

“Yeah. That thing of yours, that orange beak-like thing, it’s gone... and you’re bleeding…” Mat said.

“Huh? Oh…”

She fainted.

“W-whoa, Trixxie!”

A little while later, after all three had been healed…

“Well... So... if we stay here too long, we’ll end up like those skeletons over there... Wait, they’re gone…” Mat said.

“Yeah, it seems so,” TRX replied, still not feeling great.

“We need to hurry and get out of here,” Mat said.

“And we need to find the artifact too,” TRX added.

They continued exploring the area, staying together. Every now and then, they healed themselves, but… Mat’s clothes were also slowly melting. He already had several holes and tears in them.

“Damn... Another set of clothes ruined,” Mat muttered.

At that moment, Roundy approached Mat. TRX was walking ahead.

“?”

“Well… I noticed there are invisible walls in some places.”

TRX heard him from the front and rushed back.

“And why didn’t you say so earlier!?” she scolded him.

“S-sorry…”

“Alright, but... what do we do about that?” Mathias asked.

“Well, it’s obvious! The artifact in this place must be for those things!”

“Oh, then let’s find it!”

“Yeah!” TRX and Roundy chimed in.

They continued exploring the area, now following Roundy, who knew the location of one of those walls.

“This is the place,” Roundy said.

Mat hit the air with his right hand, and sure enough, he managed to touch something solid.

“Ah, I see. And what do we do with this?”

“...I don’t know,” Roundy replied.

“...Me neither,” TRX added.

“Eh.”

He turned to “look” at the invisible wall. Beyond it, the path continued, with more ruined houses around.

“So... let’s try this.”

He touched the wall with his left hand, the one with the mark.

“...Nothing’s happening,” TRX said.

Roundy healed them again as they were getting injured once more.

“Then we have to find that artifact no matter what,” Mat said. “Wait…”

“?”

“And if... what we’re looking for is in one of those unique buildings over there?”

“Oh…” Roundy replied.

“Let’s each search one,” TRX suggested.

“B-but…” Roundy hesitated.

“Nah, nothing’s gonna happen to us. There’s absolutely nothing here, except that we’re melting, but that takes a while, so it’s fine,” Mat said. “Don’t worry.”

“...Okay.”

“Well, let’s go.”

They split up, each going to one of the buildings. Mathias headed to the spiral one, while Roundy and TRX went to the other large buildings.

The spiral building had invisible walls. Mat couldn’t get in, so he went to the others.

TRX couldn’t get in either, so she went to where Roundy was.

Roundy... managed to enter. Inside, almost everything on the first floor was corroded. He climbed to the second floor. Everything was the same here. He climbed again, now to the third floor, from where he could see through the window that there were more buildings in the distance, with similar architecture. Roundy ignored all of that, as everything was the same here too, but…

“Huh?”

He had found something that caught his attention. It was some kind of sling, a huaraca.