"Now we just need to find the tower," Tami said.
"I wonder where it is," Yuto replied, letting out a long, weary sigh. "Or how we’re even supposed to find it."
The words hung in the stale cave air.
The rush of finally obtaining the gem was already slipping away from him, draining as quickly as water through open fingers. Only monts ago, triumph had burned bright in his chest, warming him despite the cold stone surrounding them. Now that feeling was fading, leaving behind a familiar weight.
Reality.
Their mission wasn’t over.
Not even close.
They had secured the gem, but that was only half the task. Sowhere beyond these tunnels stood the tower they had been searching for, hidden in a world that seed determined to bury its secrets. And Shinto was still alive.
The thought settled heavily in Yuto’s stomach.
There was nothing stopping him from appearing again at the worst possible mont.
As Yuto sat against the cave wall, his thoughts drifting from one problem to the next, his gaze wandered across the chamber. Shadows pooled in the corners where the dim light couldn’t quite reach, stretching between jagged rocks and uneven stone.
Sothing caught his eye.
Partially hidden between two boulders was a narrow cylinder wrapped in faded cloth.
Yuto frowned.
"I wonder what that is."
Pushing himself upright, he crossed the cave floor. Loose gravel crunched beneath his boots. His muscles protested with every step, reminding him just how exhausted he was.
He crouched beside the object and pulled it free.
Dust puffed into the air.
A scroll.
The cloth wrapped around it felt old and dry beneath his fingers, as though it might crumble if he handled it too roughly. Carefully, he loosened the binding and began to unroll the parchnt.
The grin appeared before he even realized it.
"What is it?" Tami asked.
Yuto didn’t answer imdiately.
His eyes raced across the page.
Lines and markings spread across the parchnt in remarkable detail. Mountains, rivers, pathways, and landmarks had all been drawn with careful precision. Whoever had created it had known exactly what they were doing.
His pulse quickened.
It was a map.
And a good one.
His gaze swept over the markings until he found their current location.
A small symbol near the center.
Cave of Sadara.
The mont he found it, his eyes darted outward.
Then stopped.
Not far from the cave, marked in dark ink that seed bolder than everything around it, was another location.
Tower of Darkness.
For a second, Yuto simply stared.
After hours of uncertainty, after endless questions and dead ends, the answer had apparently been sitting in a forgotten corner of the cave all along.
He turned toward the others.
"I think we’ve gotten the answer to our questions."
Both Maya and Tami were on their feet almost imdiately.
Yuto held out the parchnt.
Tami took it first.
"So the tower is west of this cave."
His finger moved slowly along the route drawn across the map.
As he followed the path, the excitent on his face began to fade.
A crease ford between his brows.
"The path doesn’t look very friendly."
The route wound through unfamiliar terrain, crossing symbols and regions neither of them recognized. Even without understanding every marking, it was obvious the journey wouldn’t be simple.
"We’ll cross that bridge when we get there," Maya said.
Yuto nodded.
For once, he didn’t feel like worrying about tomorrow.
He was too tired.
Dropping onto a flat rock, he stretched his aching legs out in front of him.
"Let’s eat and rest first. Then we leave as early as possible."
Neither of them argued.
The cave soon filled with the quiet sounds of a al. Wrappers rustled. Water sloshed softly between containers. The tension that had followed them through the day eased little by little.
Tami remained beside Maya the entire ti.
Whenever she shifted, he adjusted her position. When she reached for sothing, he passed it to her before she could fully ask. The care ca so naturally that neither of them seed to notice it anymore.
Yuto watched the interaction from across the cave.
Normally , it probably would have made him jealous.
Now, he barely cared.
His attention was elsewhere.
Specifically, on the notification he had received after killing the cryptid.
You have been blessed by the blind god Sadara.
The words resurfaced in his mind.
Who exactly was Sadara?
And what was this blessing supposed to be?
Curiosity eventually won.
Yuto reopened the notification.
This ti, he focused on the text beneath it.
[Blessing: Inextinguishable Fla]
[In the thick darkness, two empty lamps stumble endlessly, until a bright fla lights the way.]
Yuto stared at the ssage.
Then read it again.
And again.
Each reading sohow left him more confused than the last.
What darkness?
What lamps?
Who was carrying them?
Were the lamps people?
Was the darkness an actual place?
Or was this one of those cryptic ssages that only revealed their aning after sothing terrible had already happened?
The thought lingered longer than he wanted it to.
Yuto rubbed at his forehead, trying to ease the dull pressure building behind his eyes. Every answer he uncovered seed to drag three more mysteries out of the shadows. Nothing in the Astral Realm was ever straightforward. It had an incredible talent for answering one question while creating five new ones, leaving him with the uncomfortable feeling that he was always missing a piece of the larger picture.
A silent groan escaped him.
At so point, there was no use forcing it.
Yuto leaned back against the cold cave wall and let his shoulders rest against the rough stone. The chill seeped through his clothes, grounding him in the present. Around him, the cavern sat in quiet darkness, the earlier tension fading into stillness.
Sowhere deeper within the cave, water dripped steadily into the darkness.
The sound echoed through the chamber, slow, hollow, and strangely calming. Each drop seed to mark the passage of ti, carrying the silence between them farther into the depths below.
Yuto closed his eyes.
The tower had been found.
For tonight, that was enough.
Tomorrow’s problems could wait until tomorrow.
User Comments
0 comments from readers