After a brief rest, they moved again.
They walked until leather split and soles came apart, fed themselves on whatever crawled, slithered, or failed to escape, drank water boiled over crude fires that barely held together. Hunger hollowed them out. Exhaustion sank its claws deep, gnawing at bone and will alike.
Time unraveled inside the Misleading Woods. One stretch of struggle blurred into the next, seasons shifting without warning. Silence pressed down like a weight, until even a thought felt like noise.
What had started with assassins lay far behind them, buried under countless marches and blood-soaked camps.
They no longer counted days.
Only the fact that they were still breathing mattered.
One morning, Raul froze mid-step, his eyes narrowing. "Look."
Arin followed his gaze, and his breath caught.
Far ahead, beyond the tangled roots and endless green, something broke the monotony of trees. A shape. A silhouette. Stone, fractured and gray, rising like a ghost from the earth.
A statue.
They rushed toward it, hearts pounding. It took days, days of crawling through roots, hacking through vines, sleeping under broken skies, to reach that point. And when they did, their jaws dropped.
Before them stretched a ruin.
An ancient city, shattered and silent, its bones jutting from the earth like ribs. Crumbled towers clawed at the sky, their spires broken. Streets lay buried under moss and ash. And in the center, looming like a god of stone, stood a temple, vast, unknown, its gates yawning like the mouth of a beast.
Victor broke the silence. "…Holy hell."
Raul didn't take his eyes off the ruins. "Didn't expect this."
Arin studied the shattered skyline. "Doesn't matter what it is. It's our only way forward."
Victor hesitated. "You think it leads to the exit?"
Raul was quiet for a moment. Then, "Only one way to know."
They started walking.
They stood at the edge of the dead city, silence pressing down like a weight. The temple loomed in the distance, one and a half days away on foot. Its silhouette was jagged, crowned with spires that pierced the clouds.
Arin spoke first. "Should we head for the temple?"
Victor hesitated. "I don't know, bro… it gives genuine horror vibes."
Arin's voice stayed steady. "We've been running for months. If there are any clues, they might be there."
Raul smirked faintly. "Or death."
Arin met his gaze. "We've faced worse."
Victor groaned. "That's debatable."
Raul's grin sharpened. "Fine. It's only one and a half days. Let's see what kind of ghosts live there, if any."
They entered the city at dusk.
The air changed, thicker, heavier, tasting of dust and old stone. Buildings loomed like broken teeth, their walls cracked, their windows hollow eyes staring into nothing. Moss crawled across shattered streets, roots splitting cobblestones like veins.
And then they saw something completely out of place.
Statues.
Scattered across the ruins, standing silent in the gloom. Human-shaped, uncannily so. Knights in armor, swords raised. Mages with staffs frozen mid-chant. Archers with bows drawn, arrows poised to fly. Their faces were carved with eerie precision, eyes blank, mouths set in grim lines.
Victor stopped dead. "Okay… that's creepy as fuck."
Raul's voice was flat. "They look too human-like, something feels off."
Arin frowned. "Something does feel weird here. Let's get out of here."
I've read enough light novels to guess what's happening. I'm getting out of here, Arin thought to himself.
Raul's gaze lingered on a statue, a knight with a blade half-raised, its stance too lifelike. "Yeah, let's go."
Victor shivered. "You think these were… people?"
Arin shook his head. "Stop thinking and start moving."
They ignored the statues, or tried to. But their presence clung like cobwebs, crawling under the skin. Every shadow felt like eyes. Every silence felt like breath.
___________________________
Darkness fell like a curtain.
They found shelter in a building that wasn't destroyed, a hall with half a roof, its walls cracked but standing. The floor was littered with rubble, but it was dry, solid. Good enough.
Victor dropped his shield with a groan. "Finally."
Raul scanned the corners, daggers ready. "Don't relax."
Arin nodded, setting his sword within reach. "We'll take turns as usual. Two sleep, one watch."
Victor flopped onto a slab of stone, muttering. "If a statue kills me in my sleep, I'm haunting you."
Raul smirked. "You'd make a terrible ghost."
Victor glared. "I'd throw bricks at you."
Arin chuckled softly, leaning against the wall. "Quiet. Listen."
They did.
The city was silent. Not the silence of forests, alive, breathing, but the silence of graves. Heavy. Hollow. Waiting.
Victor shifted uneasily. "You think anyone's been here… recently?"
Raul's eyes were sharp, scanning the shadows. "No footprints. No fires. No life."
Arin's voice was low. "Then why does it feel like something's watching?"
Victor swallowed hard. "Because something probably is."
Hours passed. The fire burned low, its glow painting the cracked walls in shades of gold and blood. Raul sat near the entrance, daggers resting across his knees, eyes fixed on the dark beyond.
Victor broke the silence first. "You ever wonder… what this place was?"
Raul didn't look at him. "A city?"
Victor rolled his eyes. "Thanks, genius. I mean… who built it? Why?"
Arin's voice was quiet, thoughtful. "No idea, but it's at the opposite edge of the forest."
Victor spoke in a low tone. "I don't know why, but I'm not feeling too optimistic about this."
Raul's lips curved faintly. "Same. I don't know why, but this ruin feels more eerie than the forest."
Victor stared at the cracked ceiling. "Let's think happy thoughts."
Arin's gaze lingered on the temple's silhouette through the broken archway.
Raul's grin was sharp. "Let's hope we all get out of here."
Victor followed. "Yeah… let's just hope."
They sat in silence after that, listening to the wind whisper through the broken streets. Somewhere far off, a stone cracked, a sound soft, sharp, like a breath.
Raul's fingers tightened on his daggers.
Victor swallowed. "That was… nothing, right?"
Arin's eyes narrowed. "I really hope it was nothing."
Victor muttered, "Fuck this."
Raul smiled faintly, eyes gleaming in the firelight. "Don't think too much. Just rest, while we still can."