Episode 15: Echoes Beneath the Ruins
The air was colder than before. Not the usual night chill—this felt like something crawling under the skin. Arin paused at the broken archway, his eyes fixed on the faint shimmer drifting in the distance. It wasn't light… it was movement.
Behind him, Lira tightened her grip on the old satchel they stole from the abandoned outpost. She still hadn't fully processed what they found inside—those strange sketches of the Fallen Kings, marked with symbols no one in their world had ever seen.
"Don't stop now," she whispered. "We're too close."
Arin nodded, though doubt gnawed at him. Ever since they stepped into this forgotten sector of the ruins, every step felt heavier, every breath sharper. It was as if the shadows themselves were watching.
The ground trembled softly.
Not an earthquake.
Not an animal.
Something deeper.
From the cracked floor, a thin line of black mist leaked upward, twisting like a living thread.
Lira stumbled back. "Is that—"
"Exactly what we're looking for," Arin replied, though his voice betrayed a slight tremor.
The mist stretched, forming the faint outline of a figure—tall, silent, unreal. And then, slowly, the shape leaned forward… as if listening.
Arin swallowed hard. "If it reacts, don't move."
But the figure didn't attack. Instead, it turned its head toward the satchel Lira was holding. Toward the page marked with the symbol of the Shadow Crest.
The moment the symbol was exposed, the mist recoiled violently.
A low hum rippled through the ruins.
Then—crack.
The stone beneath Arin's feet split open, revealing a staircase descending into pitch-black darkness.
"That wasn't here before…" Lira breathed.
Arin stared at the opening. The darkness pulsed, almost like a heartbeat.
"We go down," he said.
Lira hesitated. "And if this is a trap?"
"Then it means we're on the right path."
The mist figure slowly dissolved, drifting toward the staircase as if guiding them.
Arin exchanged one last glance with Lira, then stepped forward.
Into the unknown.
Into the place the maps warned about.
Into the heart of the secret behind the Fallen Kings.
And as they descended, the darkness swallowed the light behind them—quietly, completely.