Syl went to wake Zach, prompting Immanuel to attend to the speedboat. After untying it, he navigated it halfway up the ship, where Syl and Zach jumped down.
Zach, using his ninja suit as a blanket, rolled onto the floor of the speedboat to resume his sleep as Immanuel steered them towards the shore. Before they reached the pristine beach, Zach was sleeping again.
Immanuel walked back to the sea to fill over 25 bottles with water, storing them carefully. After ensuring their water supply, he gently woke Zach. "Can you find the stone structure?" he asked.
Zach, without a word, left his suit in the boat and ventured into the jungle.
“Wait, we have to hide the boat.” Syl said and she and Immanuel pulled the boat into the treeline and covered it with greenery.
The journey in the jungle was quiet, marked only by the occasional scurrying of wildlife and the perpetual hum of insects. Hours passed, and doubt began to creep into Immanuel's mind about Zach's ability to locate the structure.
As he caught up with Syl, who was a few steps ahead, Immanuel voiced his thoughts. "We need to determine if the navigator led us here, or if stumbling upon this island was a coincidence."
Syl, intent on their course, skillfully navigated under a canopy of overhanging green foliage, an obstacle that Zach, in his Lycan form and moving on all fours, effortlessly avoided.
“That’s a good idea,” Syl responded. “I was thinking, that weak bird Zach captured yesterday. You know it wouldn't stand a chance in the evermist forest.”
“The evermist forest?”
“The forests surrounding our sect,”
“Why do you think that?” .
“The bird was weak and any predator in the evermist would make quick work of it. Maybe everything here is just as weak.”
Intrigued, Immanuel maneuvered to walk alongside Syl, parting the dense vegetation in his path. “So, you’re suggesting there are regions of varying strength?”
“Exactly. It’s a theory I encountered in the journals of Veec Swed. Veec departed from our sect in pursuit of knowledge on blood purification. His diary was filled with such observations. He believed that when a dominant species invades a weaker area, they will reign supreme until there is nothing left, ultimately leading to their own death as well.”
Their discourse was cut short when Syl suddenly halted in a clearing. Immanuel joined her, and together they beheld the structure: a grand brown stone pyramid, towering into the sky with an air of ancient majesty. Each stone block was nearly as large as Immanuel himself, the first one reaching up to his nose.
"This is amazing," Immanuel exclaimed, marveling at the smoothness of the rock structure. He had never seen the pyramids, but the precision of the rock's cut struck him as too uniform, almost industrial, rather than the result of manual labor. Deciding to leave the mystery, he settled down, taking a deep, calming breath. He summoned three bottles of water, tossing one each to Syl and Zach. The warm liquid was refreshing.
“There's nothing quite like fresh water to quench a thirst,” he remarked, a contented smile playing on his lips.
Continuing their talk Syl remared. “Imagine a group of stage 4 predators; they'd effortlessly eliminate weaker competitors. A stage 1 or 2 wouldn't stand a chance in the same territory.”
“Unless the prey adapts with unique survival strategies like camouflage. You can be weak but nearly invisible.” Immanuel added.
“Or they could reproduce rapidly, like rats,” Zach chimed in, lounging on a flat stone in his human form, gazing up at the sky.
They took a moment to rest in the warmth of the afternoon sun. Around them, insects buzzed in a rhythmic, natural chorus. Suddenly, a peculiar monkey-like creature caught Immanuel's attention with its cooing sound from high up in a tree. He observed it, hanging by a single long, black arm.. At first glance, the creature seemed ordinary, but as it let go of the branch, two iridescent wings unfurled from its back, whisking it away into the sky.
"Let's get moving, if we're to scale this structure and return before nightfall, we have to hurry," Immanuel urged.
With a surge of energy, Immanuel ignited his core strength and leaped onto the first stone. Syl followed suit, her movements equally agile. Zach, in a display of his Lycan prowess, transformed mid-jump, seizing the next stone with a powerful grip, pulling himself upward.
They ascended rhythmically, surpassing the treeline. Zach bounded effortlessly far ahead. Syl executed a graceful turn mid-air and settled onto the next rock. "Smooth," Immanuel remarked, as he channeled energy into his legs and leaped, landing deftly beside her.
"Do you enjoy the forest?" Immanuel inquired, glancing over at Syl. He noticed she had adorned her eyes with thin, black stripes to make up for her missing eyebrows..
"I've been reflecting on our travels together," Syl began, her smile softening her expression. "You're always sharing what you’re thinking."
"Is that a positive thing?"
Syl elaborated, "you do it constantly. When you see something beautiful, talk about your physical experiences. And you constantly ask what I’m thinking."
Syl paused, with a thoughtful frown as she searched for the right words.
"It makes me feel a sense of connection. Of togetherness," she finally said, her tone simple and unassuming, devoid of any ulterior motive or expectation of a response.
Looking up, Syl's attention shifted. "Oh, come on. Zacharashtra is almost at the top!" She sprang to her feet and leaped to the next stone. Immanuel followed, feeling light and agile under the burning suns, each jump propelling them higher.
Reaching the summit in the afternoon, they found themselves in a large square, dominated by an arc in the center. Engraved on it were inscriptions.
"Nebulore guides the trails, or test, maybe even experiment?" Immanuel mused aloud as he translated the text.
"You can read this?" Syl asked, surprised. The arc, carved from the same stone, appeared to have naturally emerged from the ground, its large capital symbols imposing.
"What is Nebulore?" Syl questioned.
"It could be a name, but I can't fully interpret it. Perhaps more context is needed," Immanuel answered. Meanwhile, Zach, reverting to his boy form, touched the arc with a small hand. As he walked beneath it, the arc shimmered, transforming the view of the rocky mountain on the other side into a short stone hallway leading to a double door.
Zach turned, his expression one of wide-eyed astonishment, the most pronounced surprise Immanuel had ever seen on his young face.
Syl hurried over, tentatively extending her hand towards the arc. It felt normal to the touch. Stepping through hesitantly.
Zach cautiously entered the hallway, his steps ginger as if the floor were made of mud. Shaking his head at their boldness, Immanuel followed suit.
They found themselves in a short stone corridor, ending in a massive double stone door, towering twice Immanuel's height and six times that of Zach. The door bore inscriptions, etched as though from ancient times.
Immanuel began to decipher the text aloud, "Three come to trial or test, one of those. To grow, or perhaps it means to die. 'To grow or to die.' Then there's the name Nebulore, followed by ready, waiting, or perhaps even completed?"
“Three? It says three?” Syl ask looking back to Immanuel. “How can it say three? A coincidence? It is written in stone!” She backed up standing closer to Immanuel, “Maybe the spirits. The spirits can do this? Do you feel any effects.”
“Effects?”
“On your mind?”
"I'm fine," Immanuel reassured, placing his hands on her shoulders in a comforting hug. As they embraced, Zach touched the doors. To their astonishment, the doors slid open silently, vanishing into the stone walls.
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Beyond the doorway lay a suspension bridge, leading to a castle of staggering scale. A cold wind, laced with flecks of snow, blew towards them, their clothes billowing in the gust.
Zach, poised to step forward, was halted by Immanuel. "Wait, Zach!"
Zach turned, his head tilted inquisitively.
“We can't just barge in there. Who knows what's inside? It looks absolutely terrifying,"
The wind howled as a silence enveloped them.
Zach, looking like a young boy with brown curls, took on a serious expression and turned to Immanuel.
"The beasts spared us at sea because we were merely small morsels, insignificant. They didn't harm me in the pack because they found it amusing. Do you think we'd stand a chance against others we might encounter? Or in the next city we find? Or the next sect we encounter? We’d lose everything."
After a pause, he added, "We need power.”
"There are other paths to power. We have plenty of cores; we could trade them for more powerful ones. We could arrive in a city and join an adventure team. Or, I don’t know, first investigate the threat level before barging in an ancient magical portal."
“You can’t buy power,” Zach stated softly..
“But you can! You can buy cores. There’s no need to fight,” Immanuel countered.
“That won’t work. It just won’t. Without defeating your enemies you'll eventually be defeated. You won’t possess real power,” Zach argued.
Immanuel, feeling the weight of their predicament, turned toward the open doorway and looked through. “What’s your take, Syl?”
“Zach has a point. The first person with real power we encounter will simply take what we have, if the beasts don’t get us first,” Syl concurred.
“Damn it! The world isn’t all like that. I've seen more of it than you two,” Immanuel protested.
A tense silence fell over the group.
“Fuck. Zach, would you go alone if we don’t?” Immanuel asked, a hint of desperation in his voice.
Zach looked genuinely taken aback. “No, we stick together as a pact.”
‘So now it’s my responsibility again,’ Immanuel thought, his mind flashing back to Naia’s brutal demise at the start of her journey. ‘At least the ship is relatively safe. Safe enough that we could return to civilization.’ Despite the looming dangers, a part of him was intrigued: Who had built this thing?
Immanuel retrieved his navigator, channeling energy into the device. Syl approached, watching as it unfolded like a blooming flower. The small arrow within spun continuously, offering no clear direction.
"It is possible we reached our destination. So the big bird provided me with this navigation tool that leads to certain death? Probably not.”
Faced with yet another critical decision, and overwhelmed by uncertainty of the possibilities, Immanuel resorted to a familiar resolve. "Fuck it. We can always run. Let’s go."
-----
The biting cold struck them immediately upon entering. Immanuel instinctively ignited his core, generating energy to combat the chill. Meanwhile, Zach, in his Lycan form and walking upright, sniffed the air.
Crossing the drawbridge cautiously, they observed the river below, its surface frozen solid. Tiny snowflakes danced through the air; Syl reached out, attempting to catch one, only to watch it melt upon contact with her warm skin.
Glancing back, Immanuel noticed the door had sealed shut behind them. "Fuck. The door is closed," he remarked.
Syl, observing the same, nodded and then, with childlike curiosity, asked, "What is this?" as she again tried to capture the falling snow.
"It's snow. Frozen water," Immanuel explained, his attention shifting to the castle. Its dark, cold, and formidable structure loomed ahead. He thought he could discern shapes moving in the shadows of the castle's protrusions.
The cold was intensifying, seeping into Immanuel's bones. Zach had already reached the front door, struggling to push and pull it open. That's when the attack started.
Shadowy beings, more ethereal than physical, swooped towards them from the castle's openings. Zach quickly retreated to their side as Immanuel drew his sword. Syl's claws extended.
They were severely outnumbered by the shadowy figures with sinister dark red eyes. Immanuel leaped into action, his sword slicing through one, but it passed right through without effect. A sharp pain in his back signaled an attack; he spun around, slashing futilely at his assailants. Another clawed at him, its touch drawing blood.
“I can't hit them, but they can hit us!” Immanuel cried out in frustration, leaping at the elusive shadows. Syl moved with a dancer's grace, spinning and striking at the air around her.
"We need to get back to the door!" Immanuel shouted, panic edging into his voice as another shadowy figure stabbed at his neck.
Then, in a moment of triumph, Syl's claws connected with one of the shadows as it lunged at her from behind. The creature screeched, disintegrating into nothingness with a satisfying shatter.
"Focus on them when they attack!" Syl commanded. Immanuel, seizing the opportunity, intercepted a shadow about to strike Zach, tearing it apart with a swipe above Zach's head. Zach, in turn, leaped onto Immanuel's shoulder, sinking his claws into him unintentionally as he bit down on another ghost-like attacker. Syl positioned herself back-to-back with Immanuel, and together they fought.
Despite their efforts, wounds began to accumulate, the beings relentless in their assault. More of the beings swarmed out of the castle, joining the fray.
"We have to retreat," Immanuel gasped, cutting down another shadow. “Syl, you—" He faltered, wincing as a sharp stab pierced his side.
"Scale the walls! We can get in through the openings where these creatures are coming from!" Syl shouted, eyeing the high openings in the castle walls.
Zach, in a burst of agility, bounded up the wall, rapidly scaling it. Immanuel, moving with lightning speed, slashed through two ghosts attacking Zach from behind.
"Syl, you too!" Immanuel urged. Syl, transformed by the intensity of the battle, her claws now as long as her arms, fought with a ferocious energy, her face twisted into an almost demonic expression.
Launching herself at the wall, Syl ascended with incredible agility, her right claw retracting to grasp the stone while her left tore through several ghosts. The majority of the ghosts now converged on Immanuel, their menacing red eyes a sea of hostility. He surged forward, drawing them away from his companions who were making their ascent.
Immanuel then ran and leaped onto the wall, using it as a springboard to launch himself in a high arc towards a small opening. At the apex of his jump, he flashed, but missed the window. Falling, he flashed again, correcting his trajectory and landing in the opening.
Quickly, he reached out, pulling Syl up with one hand while Zach clung to her robes. The ghosts swarmed upwards, but the trio leaped down the other side of the wall, landing with a heavy impact. Zach tumbled off the robes, landing on his back. The ghosts, for reasons unknown, did not pursue them inside.
In the eerie interior of the castle, Zach sprang to his feet. Before them lay a staircase leading to an upper level, with hallways branching off to either side. From the staircase, they heard ominous sounds and soon saw headless bodies approaching, their limbs long and black looking like steel.. They were many.
“To the hallway!” Immanuel yelled, leading the way to the left. They sprinted past a massive black door. As they reached the end of the hallway, more than a dozen of the headless creatures rounded the corner.
Immanuel infused his sword with more energy, preparing for combat. Zach leaped against the wall and pushed off, colliding with one of the creatures. Syl's claws extended in readiness. Immanuel skillfully blocked a black limb, then transitioned to fend off another. The creatures seemed to have a hard, carapace-like exterior. He parried rapidly, but more of them were closing in from behind.
"Get on the walls!" Syl shouted, dodging an attack and leaping up to grasp the wall. Zach followed, scaling higher. Immanuel flashed moving further down the hallway, and managed to stab one of the creatures from behind, causing it to shudder and collapse.
The creatures nearest to Zach and Syl paused, seemingly patiently waiting for them to get off the wall again. Immanuel, spotting an opportunity, yelled, "There's a room at the end of the hallway; I'm heading there!" As he ran, he blocked two pincer attacks, but a third pierced his chest. Grimacing in pain, he flashed away and continued his desperate dash towards the room.
Immanuel burst through the hallway and into a grand chamber that was quickly becoming overrun with more of the grotesque creatures. With swift reflexes, he parried an incoming strike, used a burst of core energy to propel himself forward, and plunged his sword into the black body of one the beings. It shuddered violently before collapsing to the ground.
Jumping onto a table to gain a brief respite, Immanuel cursed as he saw the creatures flooding through the door. He leapt off the table and sprinted away, only to be stabbed in the calf by a pointed limb. He tried to flash away, but couldn't.
Struggling fiercely, he blocked one arm and attempted to intercept the other with his hand, but it pierced through him. Pushing his energy output to the maximum, Immanuel brought his sword down hard into the creature's body, ending it. He rolled over it, narrowly avoiding another attack from behind, and swiftly removed the pincer from his hand. His flash ability worked again.
Flashing to the far side of the room, Immanuel ran at top speed into another hallway. Feeling his core draining rapidly and panic setting in, he ducked under an archway and entered an inner square. Spotting a room with double doors, he dashed towards it. The doors were massive, towering over twice his height. Gritting his teeth and summoning his strength, Immanuel began to push them open.
"FUCCCCCKKK!" Immanuel gasped for breath, exerting every ounce of strength to close just one half of the massive double doors. Spittle flew from his mouth, his muscles straining visibly. The door began to move, gaining momentum before finally slamming shut with a resounding crash. Panting heavily, his face slick with sweat, he turned to secure the other door, but the creatures were already forcing their way through.
One of them lunged at him, and he parried, pushed back from the door by the force of the attack. Panic surged through him as he realized his core was starting to get dangerously close to depletion. He fought back desperately, blocking and stabbing at the creatures now crowding the doorway. Suddenly, he felt the sharp pain of another creature stabbing him from behind. In that agonizing moment, he ducked aside, ripping the appendage out of his body and tumbling to the ground in a roll.
Seeing more of the dark beings approaching from the opposite side of the room, he bolted, leaping over them in a desperate bid for escape.
Reaching the other side of the room, Immanuel darted into another chamber, finding himself at the base of a towering staircase that spiraled endlessly upwards. He started to ascend rapidly, passing floor after floor, each marked with large doors. Pausing briefly, he noticed the creatures beginning to climb the stairs, but nothing was descending from above. With renewed urgency, he resumed his ascent, his core energy burning low.
The cold of the castle was relentless, yet the intensity of his exertions left him sweating profusely. With each step, he pushed himself harder, climbing higher and higher, hoping to find some respite or advantage in the tower's upper reaches.
.