Chapter 16 - Slumber
[Arc 1 - No Light Left For Us]
…
The raft came to a stop atop the lake.
A soft throb reverberated throughout the settlement, rippling in waves across the lake's surface.
Mist's eyes darted all the way to the towering structures, her mouth gaping in disbelief.
"Magnificent… just how were they built? Humanity has not reached this level of brilliance yet."
Looking ahead, the interlinked mounds felt more alive than back at the camp. And even more apparent was Time's despise, ravaging the decrepit remains with the lake's slow current.
The wooden roads in this open-gated settlement were riddled with holes.
As rickety as they were, the road-like platforms were the only way of accessing the main districts of the settlement— sort of like a bridge leading to a major city.
Raven and Archer parked the raft next to a nearby platform. They climbed aboard it, and suddenly, the platform wobbled unstably.
Water rose from the holes and gaps.
Archer frowned. "I don't think the bridge is going to last."
"You don't say." Mist rolled her eyes.
Racing against time, they bolted for the archway, a luminous stone-like entrance in the shape of a mystical diamond.
As they got closer to the archway, Raven drowned out his group's voices and lent an ear to his omen… listening and listening.
His senses spread far and wide, weaving through the darkness as it infiltrated every corner of the nearest vicinity. Flashes of information flickered into his mind demanding his urgent information, but Raven, empowered by his previous experiences, steeled his mind.
He filtered the omens, searching for signs of danger.
'Something's off.'
He could neither see nor hear anything. It was as though his [Seventh Sense] had been engulfed in a terrifying silence.
'Where are they?'
Everywhere so far has been riddled with monsters. From the plains to the forest, there was no escaping the inevitability of their appearance.
'No, I must have missed something.'
Raven dug deeper into his omens. He lifted the caps of his restraint.
Deluges of omens plunged into his mind, faster than he could even breathe. Blood began trickling from his ears eerily.
Raven fell into a collapse as his mind wandered.
Break through!
A splinter ruptured in his mind as more blood poured from his ear. Then, he heard it… no them.
In the dark shore that was his mind, Raven could feel cold breath lingering across his skin. He looked into the void and immediately, a chorus of beastly snores arose. Far away, an everpresent chime meshed with the snores— eerily delicate, eerily elegant, eerily acute.
"Raven!"
"Raven!"
"Raven…!"
Mist forced Raven awake with a mighty shake.
His eyes opened frantically and he gasped for breath.
Distraught, his head turned upwards, facing the mother moon. "Can it be…?"
"What is it? What did you sense, Raven?" Mist asked.
Archer helped Raven get to his feet.
Noticing Mist's casual demeanor, he questioned gently, "By any chance… is this related to the mysterious sixth sense? I have seen his file and the cited perilous backlash of his innate skills… but this seems too extreme."
"Yeah, his sixth sense is quite unique," replied Mist. " He's our trump card."
It was a weird experience to watch a person bleed from his ears.
Sure, she had seen Raven's omens before but it still never fails to startle her. The omens felt different every single time— a new alternation, a lesser vicissitude, a deeper severity.
It was as though the omens were perpetually new, each instance bearing a different meaning from the last.
So, that begged the question… what was the intent this time around?
Raven's voice came out in a trembling husk. "Do you hear that?"
"...hear what?"
Raven pointed to the sky. "You don't hear it?"
Archer asked, "What do you hear?"
Raven took a deep breath before he replied. "We have been so wrong."
He glanced at Mist. "You were right to suggest scouting elsewhere."
"Everything about this accursed world is twisted in the vilest of knots. Schemes upon schemes like layers of an onion. It may seem like it doesn't make any sense, but I get the feeling things aren't so banal," He said. "Mist, do you remember what we discussed when we first arrived at the forest?"
"Yeah…" Mist curiously stared at Raven as she spoke, "We were all so scared. As we got into the forest and noticed the ballich's strangeness, I began to wonder whether we were in a unique ecology. How is that relevant, Raven?"
"Look at the moon, what do you see?"
Raven reached out for the river water and washed his ears. The cold water slid across his face, causing goosebumps to rise all over.
'The waters are just as hellish as this realm. Well, what did I expect? I should be really surprised it didn't try to kill me.'
Raven gritted his teeth and wiped until the stubborn red vanished.
Once the blood was rinsed away, revealing his ashen face, Raven stood on his feet, picking up pace towards the archway.
"The moon? It—"
"Its pulsations!" Archer intervened with a thoughtful expression. "I believe they are acting strangely. That's weird. They seem heightened. I can't remember but were they always like that?"
Realization dawned on Mist. "Actually… no. The moon was definitely not that active. It was aesthetically pleasing before, but now it's just eerie. I never really understood what pick-me girls are, but the moon is definitely one."
They slowly reached closer to the archway.
Raven stopped and turned to the two of them.
"It's worse than that. Way worse."
He went on. "The pulsations are merely the tip of the iceberg… the moon, it sings. I can hear it. Like chimes of a zealous chorale. It's both disturbing and beautiful, almost as if its actually a—"
Archer shot a disturbed look. "Alive? You think it's alive? And you can hear it with your sixth sense?"
Raven looked away. "Something like that."
He said, "Mist, remember the pyramid theory? The whole concept of an ecology. We, humans, believe in apex predators. In a way, we are the apex predator of earth. But here… it is so different. The apex predator doesn't roam the accursed lands."
He led the group past the archway and into the settlement.
It was a beautiful sight. The ragged mounds intertwined and bent to form roads leading to every structure in the city.
Adorned on the stoneglass-tiled roads was a single file of transparent tiles that exposed the waters of the rivers beneath. Sapphire light escaped the thrums of the mounds, shedding clarity on the transparent tiles.
Raven guided the group to one of the tiles. Then, he urged them to peer through its glass.
"Tell me, what do you see?"
"What are we looking at?"
"Just look. I want to test my theory."
"I don't understand— Oh god!" Their hearts jumped as they jerked backwards, staring at Raven with horrified faces.
Raven let out a wry smile. "It seems I guessed right."
"What is that?" Archer asked.
Regaining her composure, Mist took one last look at the tile and sighed. "I think it's exactly what it looks like."
"That cannot be true." Archer shook his head. "There has to be some other explanation."
Mist said, "Shadows upon shadows upon shadows… all the way to the depth. What do you think that is, huh? Aquatic trees? Fishes?"
Shook, Archer distanced himself from the transparent tile.
Raven led the group across the ruins, all the while narrating.
"The apex predator doesn't roam the accursed lands. No, it is not so prosaic. It doesn't galavants across the earth with lesser monsters."
"Wicked Moon hangs in the sky, watching the smokes of despair spread wide."
"And when she sings, lesser spawns listen… or in their case, slumber."