The last thing Auren saw before her consciousness faded was a tall silhouette standing amidst the black mist and broken stones.
Those eyes — cold, yet somehow familiar.
Before everything turned dark, her lips managed to form a single name.
Noxen.
---
When Auren opened her eyes, the world around her felt different.
The air was damp, filled with the scent of dust and half-melted candles. She was lying on an old, dusty bed inside a room she didn't recognize. The walls were cracked in several places, like a building long abandoned.
A few candles burned faintly on a small table, and the light from a large window revealed swirling motes of dust in the air. The sky outside was a dull gray — no sign of morning, no sign of night.
Only a silent world, without the pulse of life.
Auren slowly sat up, rubbing her temple that still throbbed heavily.
Her thoughts instantly returned to the moment before she lost consciousness — the monster, the dark power she couldn't control, and the figure standing behind the mist.
"...Noxen," she murmured softly, barely audible.
She hurried toward the door, stopping right before her hand touched the cold iron handle.
Her heart pounded fast. There was a strange feeling in the air, as if someone was waiting for her on the other side.
She opened the door slowly.
And there he was.
A tall figure, wearing a long black coat that swayed gently in the wind from the corridor. His eyes met hers — calm, cold, yet filled with meaning she couldn't understand.
Noxen.
Auren froze. Her voice caught in her throat.
For a few seconds, they simply stared at each other, until Noxen finally spoke.
"You shouldn't move too quickly," he said quietly, his voice deep and steady — like a whisper that could pierce through walls.
"This castle… hasn't fully accepted your presence yet."
The tone wasn't threatening, yet not entirely gentle either.
There was something hidden beneath his words — something that almost sounded like concern.
But before Auren could ask, Noxen turned away.
His shadow slipped silently into the darkness of the corridor, leaving her alone with a suffocating confusion.
His gaze lingered in her mind — too familiar, too human.
Auren didn't know why, but behind those dark eyes, she felt something like a memory.
Something that shouldn't exist in this world.
She stared down the dark corridor for a long time, but there was no sign of Noxen's return.
It was then she realized one thing — the Guidebook was gone.
Her body tensed.
She immediately searched the entire room — the table, the floor, under the bed — but the book was nowhere to be found.
"No…" she whispered, a quiet panic seeping into her chest.
The Guidebook was her only guide, even if it spoke only in riddles. Without it, she had no idea where to begin.
She decided to search.
Her footsteps echoed through the silent halls of the castle. The black walls stretched endlessly, lit only by faint candlelight that seemed powered by magic, not flame.
Every room she passed carried a different feeling — cold, empty, and somehow watching her from within.
Auren kept walking until she reached a room that made her stop.
She recognized it.
The walls that had once been shattered now stood whole again, as if they had never been broken.
Even the dust on the floor was gone, like no battle had ever taken place.
Auren stepped slowly into the center of the room.
Her hand brushed the smooth stone wall — cold, but real.
Yet her mind was clouded with questions. Was it all just a hallucination? Was the monster real?
She didn't know how long she had been unconscious, but her instinct told her that time in this castle did not flow like it did in the normal world.
The air in the room felt heavier than before.
As Auren tried to steady her thoughts, her eyes caught a faint golden glow in the corner of the room. Letters of shining light began to appear in the air, floating without a book — the symbols danced like glowing dust, forming a sentence:
> "Within your darkness lies the truth.
But to find it, you must first be lost."
Auren gazed at the words for a long moment.
A message from the Guidebook.
Though its form had changed, she knew the source was the same.
Her heart beat quietly. She swallowed the fear rising in her throat.
"...To be lost, in order to find the truth," she whispered.
The words echoed inside her mind, forming a strange calm amidst the confusion. She turned toward the window nearby — the gray sky stretched endlessly, and below it, a black forest stood still with twisted trees.
That forest seemed to reject every trace of life,
as if this world was never meant for anyone's happiness.
Auren exhaled deeply.
Inside her chest, fear, exhaustion, and curiosity wrestled for control.
But among them, one thing remained the will to understand.
She knew the road ahead would not be easy.
But as long as the Guidebook still spoke to her,
even through riddles,
she would keep walking.