oli and the boy reached the village. It was a cluster of several dozen shacks, all different sizes and shapes, but they had one thing in common: their roofs and walls were completely covered with leaves streaked with a deep, dark blue, as if it were the place's signature look.
Soli stopped in his tracks, his eyes scanning the area in silence. He was clearly stunned… but the scowl on his face was even more pronounced. Because what lay before him wasn't the peaceful, natural scene of a tranquil village.
The ground was littered with rivers of lapis lazuli, stretching like glowing cracks between the huts, mixed in with the tracks of predatory creatures—tracks just like the one from the lizard he had fought only minutes before.
Huts were smashed to pieces…but—
No bodies.
The boy gestured for Soli to follow. They weaved through the narrow paths between the huts, trying to avoid the lapis lazuli, but it was useless… The stuff was everywhere, as if it had completely overrun the village.
Before Soli could ask him what had caused this destruction, a strange cry echoed behind him. A distorted, unintelligible sound, but one dripping with fury.
Soli spun around—
To find two men standing just a few paces away.
They looked like the boy;the same grayish skin, the same black eyes with that glowing lapis lazilla iris, and the same long hair pulled back into a tail.
But their clothes…
They were far finer,cleaner, and more modern—as if these two belonged to a higher class, or held some kind of rank.
Both men held long wooden spears, each tipped with a sharp blade made of the same veined obsidian as the boy's dagger.
There was no mistaking it:these were the guards.
Their faces were twisted with rage; they were grinding their teeth, their voices rising in a stream of incomprehensible words, closer to screaming than speaking. They raised their spears, pointing them threateningly at Soli and the boy—a clear demand for the outsider to back off… or die.
The boy tried to step closer, raising his hands in an attempt to calm them, and uttered a few words in their language…
But one of the guards snapped at him sharply,shoving the spearhead toward his chest, almost touching him.
The boy froze in place before taking a nervous step back,his eyes wide with fear.
Out of the corner of his eye, Soli glanced at the dagger hanging from the boy's waist, careful not to draw attention.
A basic plan…but it would work.
He'd let them get a little closer.
Then,at the right moment, he'd snatch the dagger from the boy's waist and strike from below.
He was never any good with traditional weapons—swords, spears, bows… they were never his thing.
But weak points?
He knew those like the back of his hand.
After all,he was a former superhero, used to facing villains who wielded every weapon imaginable.
Sure,a lot of time had passed, and he was exhausted now… but some moves are probably like riding a bike.
The guards moved closer.
One step…
Two steps…
But not enough.
Not yet.
The boy's face grew paler as the guards argued in front of them, his shoulders trembling.
It was clear he was silently begging Soli not to do anything reckless…
But Soli's world had narrowed down to the distance.
The space between him and the dagger…
and the necks of the men approaching with lethal confidence.
Soli moved his hand to hover beside the boy's dagger, a light and carefully concealed motion so the guards wouldn't notice.
The two men came close enough…His eyebrows tensed, that familiar signal his body knew all too well:
Now.
In one swift motion, he snatched the dagger from the boy's waist and lunged at them.
The guards immediately raised their spears,but Soli dropped low at the last second, sliding beneath their attack, putting himself right under their spears… and outside their line of sight.
He fixed his eyes on the nearest guard's neck.
Gritting his teeth hard,he ignored the exhaustion and the stinging pains shooting through his body.
Then,he surged forward with every ounce of strength he had left, the dagger aimed for a quick, clean kill.
But—
It stopped.
The blade froze just centimeters from the guard's throat.
One more hair's breadth…and he would have ended him.
The guard collapsed to the ground, his body shaking from the shock,
he felt two small hands grabbing him desperately from behind.
The boy was screaming words he didn't understand,but their meaning was perfectly clear:
"Stop!"
Soli turned toward the boy, but that turn was a mistake.
The other guard seized the moment, lunging with his spear straight for Soli's neck, his battle cry slicing through the air.
But before it could connect—
A powerful voice rang out, an angry shout laced with unintelligible words.
The guard froze instantly,his eyes wide with fear.
The newcomer was one of the gray-skinned villagers…
but completely different from the rest.
He wore richer clothes with long sleeves, ornate guards on his forearms, and jewelry that seemed to be made of polished bone.
On his face and hands were twisting white patterns,like ritualistic markings.
Everything about him radiated an aura of authority…
the aura of a chieftain.
He spoke to them in an angry voice, shouting at the two guards, who replied with short, tense words.
Then he turned to the boy,and they exchanged a rapid conversation, the chieftain occasionally looking sharply and appraisingly at Soli.
Soli didn't understand a word… but he knew they were talking about him.
About the stranger who had almost killed one of their men.
When the conversation ended, the two guards bowed their heads slightly in respect to the chieftain…
Then they stepped back,retreating and leaving Soli and the boy alone to face the man who was clearly the final authority in the village.
The chieftain approached Soli, his face etched with disgust. He stared at him for a moment, then shifted his gaze to the boy and uttered a few short words that made the boy lower his head anxiously. With that, the chieftain turned and walked away with slow, deliberate steps.
The boy kept his eyes fixed on the ground, his expression gloomy, but he soon motioned for Soli to follow him.
They walked a short distance until they reached a gathering of villagers.They had been wailing and crying loudly before Soli arrived, but some fell silent the moment they saw him, staring at him with sharp, piercing glares.
The chieftain moved through the crowd, and the people parted to make way for him, allowing Soli to see what they had been gathered around.
Three bodies lay there, covered with the streaked leaves. Their faces bore white markings, and their hair was cut and tied around their necks.
Beside them knelt a gray-skinned woman. In one hand, she held a leaf smeared with a white substance, and in the other, a small, ornately painted white bone. Silent tears streamed from her eyes.
An old woman and a young boy stood beside her,holding identical items in their hands.
Small children cried and tried to push forward toward the bodies, but the other villagers held them back, preventing them from getting closer.
When the chieftain approached them, the three—the gray-skinned woman, the old woman, and the young boy—bowed. They then slowly stepped back, leaving the items they held beside the bodies. The chieftain took a step forward and knelt by the three bodies. His eyes, steady and intense, scanned the white markings on their faces, as if he were trying to read the story of their deaths in the painted lines.
He raised his hand and pointed to one of the men. The man immediately stepped forward, carrying something wrapped in leaves, and bowed as he presented it to the chieftain. The chieftain placed the bundle before him and carefully unwrapped it, revealing three small, pale yellow balls, each about the size of a golf ball.
He took one, then opened the mouth of the first body and placed the ball inside, closing it in silence. With each ball he placed, the three who had painted the symbols let out a soft moan or a stifled sob… as if the ritual itself was stabbing at their memories.
When he finished, the chieftain rose slowly. Several men emerged from the crowd, lifted the bodies onto wooden planks with translucent sections, and carried them away. The rest of the villagers followed, one after another, their muted sobs hanging in the air.
The chieftain turned his gaze to Soli and the boy. Their eyes met for a moment before the boy nodded at Soli, signaling him to move.
They followed in silence. The walk continued for about ten minutes through a forest that grew denser with every step, until the path finally opened up before them.
Ahead was a small cave. Its entrance was fronted by a calm lake that stretched into the interior, its surface reflecting the dancing shadows of the cave's mouth.
The men placed the bodies on the water's surface, where they floated calmly, as if awaiting the final rite. The chieftain approached, muttered a few words Soli couldn't understand, then stretched out his hands and pushed the wooden planks into the mouth of the small cave.
The moment the bodies crossed the dark threshold, the planks beneath them glowed with a soft light before the darkness completely swallowed them whole. The bodies vanished into the depths of the cave as if the water itself had consumed them.
The villagers kept their eyes fixed on the entrance for a long moment, silent, then began to head back toward the village, one after another.
Soli returned with them, but his eyes remained locked on the streaks of blood staining the ground.
How had three dead bodies bled so much?
The question gnawed at him more than anything else,and the boy stayed by his side.
The sky began to darken, and the village prepared for nightfall. Soli could hear the voices of mothers calling their children, hurrying them inside the huts, tightly closing the leaf-covered curtains as if the night carried something to be feared.
But no one came for the boy.
The boy stood quietly beside Soli. No one called his name… no one was waiting for him. After a few moments, he gestured for Soli to follow and led him to one of the tents. It had no door; just a curtain made of the same streaked leaves that had covered the bodies The leaves cover the curtains from the outside.
Inside, there were four sleeping mats made of fur, along with a piece of wood in the center carved from the glowing trees. In one corner of the hut, more fur was piled up in what seemed like a random heap.
The boy pointed to one of the mats, and Soli sat down on it, while the boy took the one next to him.
But Soli wasn't really focused on sitting; his eyes were scanning the tent's walls. On them were drawings of four people: two adults and two children.
Four Fur mat… four people.
Soli's suspicions were confirmed.
The boy was an orphan.
He'd had a sibling—it wasn't clear from the drawing—a mother,and a father… all gone, leaving him completely alone.
It was only then that Soli understood why the boy clung so tightly to that old, worn-out dagger.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
A tapping sound from outside… followed by heavy footsteps.
Soli's eyes snapped open—how had he forgotten this?
He nearly rose, readying himself for a fight, but the boy placed a hand over Soli's, put his other hand to his own lips, and looked at him with hard, serious eyes.
Be silent…
That was the message Soli understood immediately.
***
Some time passed…
The boy had fallen into a deep,peaceful sleep.
How could he sleep so soundly,surrounded by killer creatures?
But that wasn't what shocked Soli the most…It was that the creatures themselves never entered. They stood outside the leaf-curtain, then left again without taking a single step inside.
Soli finally lay back down.
He was alone now.
He summoned the screen.
He was baffled—and wondering—why had it activated when he killed the creature?What was its connection to him?
He kept staring at it… reading its words over and over, hoping some meaning would reveal itself. But he understood very little.
He focused on the words"Final Verdict," guessing it referred to the end of something.
For a moment,he even thought it might mean the end of immortality.
And his mind kept circling back to the subject of Ascension…
How did it happen?
What was it,exactly?
And what was"the Material"?
Did the blood that was drained from him count as that Material?
He remained lost in thought the entire night.
By morning, the boy woke up, while Soli hadn't slept a wink.
The boy was rubbing his eyes sleepily and yawning.
Soli looked at him and offered a faint, tired smile.
But a sudden, piercing scream cut through the air, sharp and high-pitched.