Thud!
A large spider shaped beast fell to the ground. Its legs grew lifeless and drooped down. Black blood flowed from the spider's head as it poured onto the ground below.
A young man with white hair, wearing an eye patch made from the same silky material as the spider's webs, stood there.
He flicked his scythe downward — all the blood on it hit the ground like a painting.
Leon stood amidst a dozen corpses of Iron Spiders as his body shivered slightly. He exhaled slowly as he checked his runes.
Name: Leonar
True Name: -
Rank: Dreamer
Resonance Core: Dormant
Resonance Fragments: [9/1000]
Aspect : Gaze of Unmaking
Leon sighed, dismissing his runes as he continued to walk forward — navigating through the corpses of the spiders he had slain.
"Three fragments. After one whole week."
He whined into the air.
More than a week had passed since Leon had been separated from the cohort. He had travelled around the place he washed up on, trying to find a variety of nightmare creatures to kill.
So far, he had only killed 3 unique creatures.
"I realize now how boring it is without others."
Noah said in a calm tone.
"I'd even listen to Cassie's whining and crying than watch you kill more beasts." He added.
Leon sighed.
"Yeah well, deal with it."
He climbed up from the hole he was in as he tried to reach a higher vantage point.
Traveling the Labyrinth, there was nothing else but corals and a cursed sea. Above, there were swarms of dreadful flying abominations hiding in the clouds.
Using some of the coral trees as cover, Leon mindlessly kept walking. Days of hunting and trying to find the wall had become exhausting. He just wanted to sleep at this point.
He yawned as he stretched his arms, but something caught the attention of his eye.
Ahead of him, there was a hole, leading underground. The endless muddy landscape got swallowed into the hole, with coral branching out above it.
Leon stared at the entrance for a while.
The entrance was eye-catching and mostly abnormal. It was almost as if the place called him inside, inviting him.
He summoned the crown on his head as he gripped the scythe and walked toward the entrance. His feet stepped on the mud, producing noises.
Leon approached the hole. The hole looked deep, with no end. The darkness looked nothing like the sea's true darkness. Using Sunny's aspect, he could see how far it went. He looked back at the sun, noting that he still had plenty of time before the sun set.
He took a deep breath. Then, he leaped into the hole.
Using his scythe, he killed his momentum, landing softly near the bottom.
The cave continued ahead, with paths big enough for a human, but too narrow for something like a Carapace Centurion.
"Here we go again." Noah said.
Leon looked at Noah for a second, then began walking.
As he kept walking ahead, the mud beneath his feet disappeared — as he stepped onto hard rock.
The cave led into a deep maze of twists and turns. The hard rock enveloped everything around, with a few coral protrusions here and there, like a plant clawing its way out.
His navigation wasn't fully conscious. He kept choosing turns based on intuition. It was the [Fated] attribute guiding him without him fully realizing it.
"This is a big maze." Leon said, trying to map out the different pathways in his mind.
Noah frowned.
"The... Pathways under the Forgotten Shore..."
He took a pause, before sighing.
"Let's just say they will take you to where the sea comes from."
"Riveting. Let's go say hi."
Noah's mouth gaped open.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed? Like, are you genuinely suicidal or something?"
The crown on Leon's head flared a little at the same time.
Leon shook his head.
"You guys just wanna have the safe and boring path."
Leon kept walking forward for a few minutes, before encountering a grand circular arch.
The arch was white... too white. He wondered how the arch remained mostly untouched, as though it had been built just a few months ago.
The arch sat in the middle of the passage, looking out of place compared to the gray stone all around it. Gold lines traced the arch, in thin beautiful patterns.
Except they weren't patterns.
'Runes?'
The runes were everywhere on the arch — almost forming multiple concentric circles overlapping at the edges.
Leon tried using the Gaze of Unmaking, but he still couldn't understand what the runes meant. He took out a small book from his satchel.
When Leon pulled the book from his satchel, it did not look like something crafted by scholars or legacies.
Its covers were layered sheets of dried seaweed, pressed flat and bound tight with thins strands of string.
The many spiders that had to die for Leon to finally make this, would not be remembered.
The surface was a dark-green, almost black in places with faint salt-crystals embedded in its texture like tiny stars. It felt stiff, but not brittle.
He then took out a white piece of bone. The spine was reinforced with a thin strip of polished bone, carved smooth and etched with shallow grooves.
The writing across the pages was not inked in ordinary pigment.
It was black.
The dried blood of spider beasts clung to the fibers in sharp strokes, absorbing into the page as though the book itself had a thirst for it.
He had proudly extracted the blood of the spider beasts as ink.
Proud... definitely not disgusted.
He then marked down the runes on his green book as he carefully traced along the pages, trying not to make mistakes. Afterall, his specialty was copying.
After noting down the runes. He moved forward.
Ahead, the cave opened up into a wider passage. Wide enough for multiple people to come in and go out. He soon found empty torches lined up against the cave's walls.
'Wouldn't the dark sea consume the torches?'
He soon entered a spherical room. The room was made completely out of black stone bricks. They were symmetrical and polished, with almost no sign of being damp from the sea every night. The room itself was huge. Big enough for six of seven elephants to fit in.
'Whatever an elephant is... is probably what Sunny would say.'
With a sad smile, he continued observing the room.
In the middle of the room, there was a statue. A statue made of pure silver, shining brightly, as though it never dulled. The statue looked like it was built yesterday.
A frail looking lady with a halo on top of her head stood at the center of the room. She had three eyes. Two were just like that of a human, with the third one situated above the other ones, right in the middle of the statue's forehead.
The lady was naked, her figure seemed beautiful and pure, untouched by the imperfections around her.
A small opening on top of the statue, let bright sunlight shine through onto the statue, lighting up the statue and the stone bricks around it.
Her arms stretched forward, clasped together, like she was receiving something from the heavens itself.
Leon observed the statue further as he tried to make sense of it.
"Know her?" He asked.
Noah stepped forward toward the statue before stopping a few inches away.
"She's..."
But his voice stopped.
Around the statue, there were countless... corpses?
Corpses of nightmare creatures that varied from scavengers to iron spiders. There even was a pile of soul shards in one of the sides.
He immediately positioned himself, gripping the azure scythe.
The corpses were fresh. Which meant someone or something was here.
Leon uses his eyes to scan the entire room, but he saw nothing.
'Weird...'
Right as he was about to relax himself, he was suddenly thrust back with great force.
Leon grimaced, feeling a sharp pain near his abdomen. He crashed into the cave's wall behind him as he immediately got back up.
He glanced down, only to find deep wounds. Three lines of flesh were carved out of his stomach, as though a giant claw had dug into it.
The claws had dug right through his armor.
Leon looked ahead, but saw nothing.
He furrowed his brows as he activated Shadow Sense.
That's when he sensed it.
A shadow was lurking right in front of him. A few meters away, Leon could make out the shadow of a creature that looked like a dog, or perhaps a wolf.
It was taking small, calculated steps as it continued to eye him.
The wolf seemed calm. It did not rush to finish him, neither did it retreat. It simply observed Leon as it walked forward.
'Invisible?'
Leon gripped the scythe tighter. He did not make any sort of move, because he could tell that the wolf was intelligent.
Too intelligent.
Normally, creatures would simply attack him mindlessly, without any pattern. The only exception so far was the Awakened Devil, and even that one Centurion he encountered twice.
Except, even they tried to kill Leon at every opening. This wolf, however, seemed to be patient.
Was the wolf connected to that statue?
He did not have time to answer those thoughts however, as the wolf seemed to stop.
The wolf slowly backed away.
'Smartass...'
Leon decided to swing his scythe mindlessly, trying to make the wolf think he was clueless. Of course, he did not swing too mindlessly.
He carefully eyed around, and sliced through the air where he thought he heard even the slightest noise.
He could almost see something. His mind was constantly trying to ignore the spot where the wolf was.
The wolf stopped backing away, and tilted its head sideways. It then gritted its teeth as it continued to approach him again.
'That's it... Come here boy...'
Leon swung around a couple more times before stopping. He then bent forward, faking being careful.
He sighed as he grew restless.
The damn wolf was too slow.
But he knew if he grew impatient, the wolf would just flee. Which was not an option, because he needed that resonance fragment.
After a few minutes of being clueless, Leon decided to summon the endless spring. He drank a few sips, letting small bits of water touch the ground near his feet.
The wolf stopped as it slightly tilted its head upward.
It then prepared itself and lunged forward at Leon.
'Dumbass.'
Leon let the endless spring vanish into sparks as gripped the scythe with both his hand and stepped aside, dodging the wolf's pounce.
Right before the wolf hit the wall, Leon slashed at its neck. The scythe dug into the wolf's neck, but failed to sever it.
The wolf's invisibility wore off, and he could now see it clearly.
A creature with black fur, with a muscular build overshadowing its fur. The wolf was the size of a horse, and had black horns on top of its head.
One of the horns was broken. Its eyes were a deep sapphire blue — it looked like stars on a night sky when matched with its fur color.
The wolf whined in pain as it launched one of its paws at Leon.
Leon let go of his scythe and jumped back.
The wolf slowly turned around to face Leon.
It bared its teeth against him as its face grew murderous.
Leon grinned madly.
"What's wrong little pup? Did I poke you too hard?"
The wolf growled in anger as crimson blood dripped down from its neck.
Its body went still, like a rock as its eyes continued to stare down at Leon.
The wolf's path back toward the statue was blocked by Leon himself, and the only other path was back toward the entrance of the cave.
Leon narrowed his eyes, as he too began studying the wolf.
The two foes continued to eye each other down.
Immediately, Leon used the crown to cause an explosion toward the cave entrance. This was meant purely as a distraction.
"What happened to not using the crown?" Noah asked, completely unaffected by the tense situation.
Ignoring Noah, Leon lunged forward as soon as the explosion sounded. But to his surprise, the wolf didn't even bat an eye toward the explosion as it lunged forward at Leon.
The scythe disappeared into white sparks. and the wolf lost its balance due to the sudden removal of weight around its neck.
Leon used that second as he grabbed the bone dagger strapped around his thigh, and dug it into the wolf's eye.
The wolf however, barely flinched, and pounced at Leon. Before it snapped its jaw however, Leon had already let the dagger go and grabbed the wolf's jaws with both his hands, prying it open.
It was a battle of brute strength and although Leon was weak, the wolf was also weakened from its wounds.
Leon grunted as he struggled to keep the wolf's mouth open. One mishap and its mouth would snap on his neck.
The wolf's teeth dug into his hands, causing blood to pour out. Suddenly, his arms went limp, as though all strength was removed from it.
Leon widened his eyes as he kicked the wolf with all his strength.
He immediately rolled over and got up, trying to create some distance with the wolf.
'Crap...Poison?'
The wolf's fangs were poisonous. Leon immediately summoned the scythe back — but this time, gripped it with his teeth.
Taking a deep breath and tightening the scythe in his teeth, he sliced off both his arms near his wrists.
He grunted in pain, swallowed in by the grip of the blade. Leon turned back as orange flames wrapped around his arms.
'You little shit...'
The crown consumed a large amount of charge as flesh grew from his wrists, forming new palms.
Leon had just consumed all the charge he had farmed over the past week.
The wolf was right behind him, as it too, decided to kill Leon right then and there. Both of them recognized the threat the other posed if left alive.
But what the wolf had not expected was Leon to simply heal his arms.
The grip on his blade released as it fell into his palms.
Tensing his muscles, he slashed right at the wolf, who was too slow to change directions after watching Leon heal.
[You have slain an Awakened Devil Lykareth.]
[A new pattern has been completed.]
[Resonance Fragment acquired.]
[You have received a Memory.]
[You have received an Echo.]
Leon fell to the ground. His chest rose and fell as he took deep breaths.
He had nearly died to the wolf. If not for shadow sense, the wolf would have killed the very second Leon let his guard down.
The sudden surprise he had on the wolf, had let him injure it deeply.
A loud laughter echoed throughout the room, as Leon couldn't hold it in. He had just killed an Awakened Devil all alone.
He sat back up as he summoned the runes for his new memory.
Memory: [Stillmind Shroud]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Type: Garment
Memory Description:
[Woven from the pelt of a wolf that hunted without sound, without scent, without intent.
It did not stalk its prey with hunger — it erased itself from the world and let existence forget it was there.
The beast was not the strongest.
It was the one that survived.]
Enchantments:
Predator's Patience:
[The calmer the wearer's mind, the less the world acknowledges them.
Rapid thoughts, strong emotions, or killing intent weaken the effect.
Absolute stillness approaches near-total obscurity.]
Feral Intuition:
[Brief flashes of instinct warn the wearer when they are being watched.
The warning is subtle, like the prickle before prey notices a predator.]
A huge grin was plastered across Leon's face as he read the enchantments of the memory.
"Invisibility..."
It was a disappointment that the venom did not carry onto the memory, but it was still huge. The best part was that the memory type was a garment, which meant he could wear it over the Verdant Mnemosyne.
Leon summoned the cloak as white sparks materialized over his armor.
The cloak appeared dull at first glance, gray and almost colorless. But when light touched it, the surface shifted like mist over stone. The fabric was impossibly light, yet carried a faint chill.
He could feel his presence weaken as he draped the cloak. It even had a hood. As Leon began to calm his mind, his footsteps became soundless.
He smiled as he felt the fabric of the cloak.
Leon also realized he had gotten an Echo, but then, he heard something strange.
A loud murmur stretched across the cave.
"Shit."
He frowned as he began running back toward the cave entrance.
His presence was still masked, because Leon had not feared anything. He did not panic either.
His footsteps were silent as he began running through the narrow cave back toward the opening.
But he was too late.
The dark sea had already begun rising. Countless waves of dark water rushed through the cave, as Leon skid to a stop.
He narrowed his eyes as the water rushed through like a beast trying to cover everything.
Leon clicked his tongue and ran back. He was too far from the nearest high point even if he managed to get out of the cave.
But there was one small hope. The wolf.
The wolf was too cautious in nature to be dawdling around in a random cave, which meant that there must have been another exit inside the ruins.
Leon kept running back but the sea simply followed back at great speed.
Suddenly, Leon's leg grew still as he tripped over the white arch and fell. His leg was injured by the wolf, and because of the adrenaline, he had forgotten about it.
As he tumbled forward, Leon managed to stop himself and looked back at the sea.
Too late.