“You will die.”

Luna's breath hitched as the words seared into her mind. Her pulse quickened, her heart thudding painfully in her chest. The weight of the words 'You will die' hung over her like an executioner's blade, sharp and inevitable.

She read through the characters again, hoping that it was an illusion or a misinterpretation. But to her disappointment, no mistake was made, and no illusion was conjured up by something.

These characters were indeed ancient Mandarin and the haunting message behind them was meant for someone like her or Len since very few people bothered to study versions of such languages.

Who cared about maintaining cultures in a post-apocalyptic world?

“So…what does it say?”

She snapped back to reality and opened her mouth to give a quick explanation.

“The writings are not of this world.” She murmured, her voice tight. “These characters… it's Ancient Mandarin. From our world.”

Snow frowned, disbelief flickering in his eyes. “That’s…impossible. Are you saying someone from our world was already here?” he paused then shot a quick glance back to the writings and remembered his original question. “What do they translate to, Luna?”

After regaining her composure, she translated the words with a balanced tone:

“‘You will die’ The words translate to that. It sounds like a warning from whoever was here first.”

She wasn’t sure who could’ve walked into the divine realm and delivered this message. However, she was sure that person was from the same realm and that someone knew that someone like Luna or Lena would find this place.

….A secret message warning them of their deaths.

‘But why?’ Luna gritted her frustration. This message wasn’t enough, she needed more context. Was this coming threat avoidable? Was it connected to the shadowy figure that was watching them? Or to the True Celestials?

After searching the altar, she found nothing else craved on the black rock.

Much as she didn’t want to imagine the worst possible future for them. Death wasn’t something she was ready for at the moment. Gods…just when she thought they stood a chance.

“I’m done here,” Luna straightened herself and turned away from the both statue and the altar. They both made her skin crawl in a way she didn’t want to describe.

Unlike her, Snow remained weirdly composed for someone who has been exposed to such information. Well…his Aura was the Concept of death, to begin with.

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“I think it's a warning for something. But I’m pretty sure we can handle a Cursed General,” he sighed while staring at the characters on the surface. “We’ll have to inform the others.”

Out of curiosity, he brought his face closer to the black surface and touched the altar abruptly. The rock was mirror-like and the light devices gave it a shiny appearance.

Snow’s eyes suddenly widened as he leaned closer to the altar, the reflection warping.

The version of him staring back was broken—haunted. It looked as if this reflection had aged a thousand years in mere seconds. Fear danced in his eyes, fear that mirrored something deep inside him, something he kept buried. He pulled back abruptly, breaking the connection and clearing away the reflection.

But the image of his reflection lingered, a ghost in his mind.

“Is this your doing…Death?” he murmured weakly.

Meanwhile, Luna had her mind somewhere eyes as she did her best search for any clues left behind by the person who wrote the message.

‘Ugh…this stone can block my ability to sense qi. I can’t even spread it out. What is this place, exactly? Where did she get something like this?’

Losing her ability to sense was enough to spell bad news for Luna. For once in her life, she actually felt handicapped.

“I don’t like this place. We should leave,” she suggested. Also, the statue of Everlight made her very uncomfortable. This was her holy place, anything could happen.

The deity could just strike them with lightning at this point. If she desired.

If her inevitable fate was linked to Everlight, Luna wanted to delay it for now. After all, ignorance is bliss.

So, knowing that she might never get any chance like this, she commanded her suit to scan and capture the statue.

Maybe she will study it when she’s back in the mortal world. Which was much safer than this place.

***

By the time they returned to the surface, Len and everyone else were already awake and at work while briefing and making strategies on how they were going to go against the Undead king who ruled this city and guarded the portal.

And as a king, the Cursed General happened to have an army of his own. It was rare for mindless creatures to join forces, but the Undead King appeared to possess the power to control the cursed creatures with ease. Because of that, the scouts had given it the title of King.

The Undead part was obvious.

With the help of Rita, whose ability let her share sight with other creatures, especially with her summon who happened to have the ability to fly at supersonic speeds and dive into shadows.

When sight-sharing with the sparrow-like summon, the Ascender’s ability wasn’t limited by distance, making her the best for spying and collecting information.

Through her, the scouts had managed to make out a rough map of the city. They mapped the danger zones of the city where the cursed beasts' ranks started. There, the monsters had formed a ring wall around the territory as the first form of defense against anyone who tried to attack. These abominations were weak and lacked abilities so they were best suited to play as a wall.

The Undead king was smart enough to create such a stable hold that got stronger the deeper you ventured. The first ring of defense was made of mindless cursed beasts and undead while the second was filled with powerful cursed soldiers with unknown abilities.

The Cursed General was controlling everything from a red tower in the city center where its powers were most effective.

Luna studied the map again. The rough sketch was made on a wooden board the red zones marked by red stones. She was trying to keep her mind here, but that was unsuccessful since her thoughts kept on drifting back to the warning left on the ancient stone. Was it directed to her? Lena? Or everyone here? She shook away those thoughts, but fear lingered like a shadow, creeping at the corner of her mind with the rest of the things she had come to fear while on this mission.

“Well the numbers don’t seem to be in our favor,” Lena heaved out a sigh. “The ascenders might be more but if we’re counting…there are about two hundred cursed creatures.”

“I suggest we wait for backup. We’re twenty-seven in total. Fifteen ascenders, thirteen mundane. Of those fifteen ascenders, only around ten are powerful enough to go straight into battle. Sure, only three don’t have Auras. But we can’t underestimate the undead king.”

Luna cut in abruptly. Among the three captains, she was the least experienced. However, after reading that message, Luna wanted to proceed with everything with caution.

“We don’t have time to wait for backup, and Rita would have to travel back to guide them.” Snow retorted.

Luna turned to her sister, expecting her to say something. But to her disappointment, she didn’t.

“And besides, these are only cursed beasts and soldiers. I'm confident they can hold their ground if we fix the mundane soldiers' armor and lend them some forged weapons. Each of them has shown that they’re the exception, isn’t that right, Lunaris?”

His sharp gaze fell onto her, and she suddenly lost words. “Maybe…but…”

“You and Valentine will be in charge of the mundane soldiers,” Snow added. “We will offer parts of our nano suits to help fix those whose suits are critically damaged.”

“Valentine? Who’s Valentine?”

Snow paused his strategizing and looked around. When he noticed that one of the scouts was missing, he frowned. Then sighed with frustration before asking the two present scouts, a pair of identical twins with long brown hair and small noses.

“Where the hell is Artemis Valentine?”

'What is an Artemis doing here?'