I looked around the room once more.
The study looked just as serene as ever. A desk, a chair, a bookcase. Nothing had changed. It was as if everything that had happened was the most ordinary thing in the world.
But my gut feeling told me otherwise.
I had no business being here anymore.
I walked toward the door.
I stopped.
I took a breath.
And closed my eyes again.
The Ashen Wanderer's instinct wasn't screaming as loudly as before. But somewhere deep inside, there was still a clear sense that looking around was still a bad idea.
"Alright…" I said quietly. "So, blindly again."
I pushed the door open and stepped out.
The stone air of the temple immediately hit me with its cold and the smell of dust.
I reached out and felt along the wall.
Cold stone.
And I just walked along it.
Without a plan.
Without direction.
Just step by step.
At first I tried to count the turns. To remember where I turned. But I realized pretty quickly that it was useless.
The temple seemed to be mocking my attempts to understand it.
Sometimes the wall would suddenly end.
Sometimes it would turn into columns.
Sometimes I bumped into corners that, in theory, shouldn't have been there.
Once I walked through a narrow passage and only after taking a dozen steps did I realize that the air around me had grown noticeably colder.
Another time, sand appeared under my feet instead of stone.
I just kept walking.
Slowly.
Sometimes almost by touch.
Sometimes stretching both arms forward.
A few times I bumped my shoulder against the walls.
Once I tripped on a step and nearly sprawled out on the floor.
At one point, it seemed to me that I could hear those muffled sounds from the depths of the temple again.
But I didn't listen closely.
My instincts were silent.
Which meant-I could go on.
Time ceased to exist.
Minutes.
Or hours.
I didn't know.
Until suddenly my hand stumbled upon emptiness again.
I stopped.
There was no wall.
I took a cautious step forward.
Nothing.
Another step.
And at that moment, the toe of my boot met… an edge.
I froze.
Slowly, I stretched my leg forward.
There was nothing but emptiness beneath it.
I crouched down and ran my hand in front of me.
The stone crumbled.
It was as if there were a cliff in front of me.
But inside the temple?
I frowned.
My instinct stirred again.
Quiet.
Calm.
No anxiety.
More like… a gentle nudge.
Go ahead.
"Seriously…?" I muttered.
I stood at the edge for another second.
Then I exhaled.
And took a step.
The ground vanished from under my feet.
I began to fall.
At least… that's how it seemed at first.
My stomach clenched instantly.
My body tensed instinctively, bracing for the impact.
But a second later, I realized something very strange.
I wasn't falling down.
It felt as if I were being pulled upward.
As if the world had turned upside down.
As if gravity had suddenly decided it was bored.
The air around me began to whistle.
But the direction was wrong.
I felt as though my body was being pulled somewhere through a narrow space that obeyed no normal laws.
I felt dizzy.
My stomach finally rebelled.
At some point, I lost all sense of my own body.
Just a strange sensation of movement.
Upward.
Even higher.
And suddenly-a jolt.
As if someone had yanked me by an invisible string.
The world snapped back into place.
I opened my eyes.
And in the next second, I was literally spat out onto the ground.
I rolled across the grass, flipped over a few times, and came to a stop, breathing heavily.
My head was spinning as if I'd just spent an hour on a merry-go-round.
I tried to stand up.
And immediately doubled over.
I threw up.
Long.
Hard.
When my stomach finally decided it had had enough, I just sat down on the ground and wiped my mouth with my sleeve.
The world was still spinning slightly before my eyes.
I looked around.
Grass.
Rocks.
Scattered bushes.
No walls.
No columns.
No temple.
I spun around sharply toward where it was supposed to be.
Empty.
Completely.
I frowned.
I got to my feet.
I took a few steps around.
Nothing.
No entrance.
No ruins.
Not even a hint that a huge stone structure had once stood here.
Just the usual landscape.
As if the temple had simply…
been erased from reality.
I exhaled slowly.
My head was still buzzing.
My stomach had finally decided it didn't like this day.
"Okay…" I muttered.
I looked at my hands.
Then at the sky.
Then around again.
And finally admitted to myself honestly:
"I have absolutely no idea what just happened."
As I stood there, mulling over what had happened, my Bond whispered to me.
You have lost your epithet.
Checking my Bond, I discovered that I was no longer a guest of Eliar.
"It's probably for the best. Actually, those Eliars really need to work on their hospitality…"
I just sat on the grass for a while longer, trying to clear my head.
The world gradually stopped spinning before my eyes. My breathing evened out. My stomach, too, seemed to have decided that I'd had enough adventure for today.
I stood up and slowly looked around.
Low hills.
Scattered bushes.
Tall, slightly faded grass that swayed lazily in the wind.
Somewhere in the distance, dark patches of groves were visible.
I spun around.
Once more.
And at that moment, an unpleasant thought slowly took shape in my mind.
"Great…" I said quietly.
I had no idea where I was.
The green wasteland was vast.
And without any landmarks, one could wander through it for weeks.
I looked around once more.
If the Citadel of Hope was anywhere nearby, I couldn't see it from here.
I exhaled slowly.
"All right."
I closed my eyes for a second.
And once again, I listened to that feeling inside.
To the Essence.
To the Ashen Wanderer.
To my instincts.
They were there again.
Calm.
Quiet.
But palpable.
I caught myself thinking a strange thought.
Why does this even work?
I frowned.
The essence is a reflection of the soul.
That information had forced its way into my head after I awakened.
But is everything I know the absolute truth?
I looked at my palm.
"How can my own soul… do all this?"
Warn me.
Guide me.
Sense danger before my mind even notices it.
Sometimes literally save my life.
If this is really a part of me… then it turns out that somewhere inside there's something smarter than I am.
The thought was both amusing and a little frightening.
I smiled.
"Great, Oscar. Congratulations. It looks like your own soul knows more about the world than you do."
I scanned the wasteland again.
I still didn't have an answer to that question.
And, to be honest, right now it wasn't the most important problem.
The main task was much simpler.
To get to the Citadel of Hope.
I closed my eyes.
Just for a couple of seconds.
Just to get my bearings again.
Somewhere deep inside, a faint pull appeared.
A light sensation.
As if my body itself were stretching slightly in one direction.
I opened my eyes.
I looked that way.
At first glance-nothing special.
The same hills.
The same grass.
The same wind.
"Well then…" I said quietly.
"Since you dragged me out of that temple…"
I smiled slightly.
"Then getting me to the Citadel will be a piece of cake, Ashen Wanderer."
My instincts remained quiet.
But that sense of direction hadn't gone anywhere.
And so I set out.
Across the Green Lands.
Toward the Citadel of Hope, which had to be somewhere beyond the hills and forests.
I walked.
Day after day.
My biggest problem turned out not to be dangerous monsters.
But food.
At first glance, life in the Green Eliar Space was bustling. Sometimes I saw flocks of small creatures in the distance-short, long-legged beasts with elongated snouts and sharp spines resembling lizard ridges. They moved in dozens, sometimes in whole waves.
They had one unpleasant trait. Like all other minion-class creatures,
they almost never traveled alone.
I tried once to approach a flock on the second day.
It ended with several dozen little creatures simultaneously turning their heads in my direction.
And at that moment, I realized it would be better to go without dinner today.
I quietly turned around and left.
And so began my little journey across the wasteland.
The first day passed quietly. I just walked, sometimes stopping to rest, sometimes checking the Spire map, though it wasn't much help right now.
On the second day, I caught a small creature-something like a bald rabbit with teeth that looked far too menacing for its size.
That wasn't enough to last long.
On the third day, I had to make do again with water and the occasional root I found among the grass.
On the fourth day, I began to realize that hunger is a rather dull sensation.
It doesn't strike you suddenly.
It just sits somewhere inside and slowly gnaws, reminding you of its presence.
On the fifth day, I arrived at a place I recognized almost immediately.
Crumbled columns.
Collapsed walls.
Cracks in the stone.
The Temple of Eliar.
I stopped.
A slight shiver ran down my spine.
Not fear.
More like… an unpleasant memory.
I looked at the ruins for a few more seconds.
Then I turned away abruptly.
"No, thanks. But maybe I'll come back here when I'm stronger."
And I simply quickened my pace.
The faster I got away from here, the better.
By evening, the ruins had already disappeared behind the hills.
On the sixth day, I heard the sound of battle for the first time.
Quiet at first.
The clang of metal against metal.
I stopped.
I listened.
Somewhere beyond the hill.
I slowly climbed the slope and peeked out cautiously.
And I saw a rather strange sight.
A guy was standing in a small clearing.
He was surrounded by creatures.
About a dozen of them.
Newborn minions, but of a completely different kind than the ones I'd seen before.
These were shorter in stature.
Almost waist-high to a human.
Their bodies were covered in dark gray skin, resembling old tree bark. Their long, thin arms ended in hooked fingers, and instead of normal faces, they had elongated snouts lined with rows of small, needle-like teeth.
But the most unsettling thing was their eyes.
Small.
White.
And completely empty.
The creatures moved jerkily, almost in leaps.
And in the center stood a guy. Probably a guy…
He was dressed in golden armor.
Not just gilded.
Real.
The plates softly reflected the sunlight.
In one hand he held a golden shield, in the other a golden sword.
He was fending them off quite confidently.
The shield absorbed the blows of the claws with a dull thud.
The sword found its mark from time to time.
But the problem was their numbers.
The minions attacked from several sides at once.
I sighed.
"Alright."
I jumped down from the hill.
The first of the monsters spotted me almost immediately.
It turned its head sharply.
That was enough.
I took two quick steps forward and sliced off its head with a single swing of my sword.
The rest of the creatures froze for a second.
You have killed a newborn minion, Wooden Martyr.
The guy too.
"To the left!" I said.
He reacted instantly.
His shield struck out to the side.
One of the minions was knocked away.
After that, it was all over pretty quickly.
Those creatures were fast.
But weak.
A couple of minutes later, the clearing fell silent again.
The last monster collapsed onto the grass.
I wiped the blood from my blade.
The guy let out a heavy sigh.
And suddenly, the golden light around him began to fade.
I blinked.
The golden armor began to dissolve.
The shield crumbled into light.
The plates vanished one by one.
A few seconds later, a completely different person was standing before me.
A boy.
Very young.
Sixteen, maybe a little older.
A blond guy.
His hair fell softly across his forehead, and his eyes… his eyes were a strange color.
Yellow.
Not brown.
Not golden.
Yellow, exactly.
And yet… incredibly bright.
I suddenly caught myself thinking that this guy was damn handsome.
Not just cute.
But the kind of beauty that immediately catches your eye.
Distinct facial features.
A calm smile.
And a strange confidence in his movements.
He looked me over for a few seconds.
Then he smiled slightly.
"Thanks for the help."
His voice was calm. Almost light.
He held out his hand.
"My name is Orpheus."
I stared at his outstretched hand for a few seconds.
Then I shook it.
"Oscar."
His grip was light. Not weak, but not tense either. As if he didn't consider what had happened to be anything serious at all.
He scanned the clearing.
The dead minions.
Then he looked at me again.
"You fight pretty well."
"Thanks."
I paused for a moment, then finally asked the obvious question:
"What were you even doing here alone?"
Orpheus thought for a second.
Then he shrugged.
"Just walking around."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Walking around?"
"Yeah."
He said it completely seriously.
I stared at him in silence for a few seconds.
"Here?"
"Yeah."
He gave one of the dead minions a light kick with his foot.
"It's pretty boring in the city."
I couldn't help but smile quietly.
Not maliciously. More like… with a touch of irritation.
"Boring, then."
"Very."
He said it in a tone as if he were complaining about the bad weather.
I looked at the creatures' bodies scattered around.
Then back at him.
"And you decided to have some fun by letting the minions almost eat you?"
"They couldn't have eaten me," Orpheus replied calmly. "They're just newborn minions."
He paused for a second.
"Although… maybe they could have. If there had been more of them, but as you can see, there weren't."
I shook my head.
"A brilliant plan."
He suddenly smiled.
He wasn't offended.
If anything… he seemed amused.
"And you, as I understand it, aren't the type to seek entertainment in fights?"
I looked at my sword.
Then at him.
"No."
"Strange," he replied, surprised.
"Why?"
Orpheus shrugged again.
"Usually, people who come here start enjoying all this pretty quickly."
He gestured toward the clearing.
Minions.
Blood.
Traces of battle.
"Adrenaline, danger, heroic victories… all that stuff."
I snorted.
"To be honest, I don't see anything interesting in this."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Not even a little?"
"Not even a little."
He looked at me a little more closely.
Then he suddenly nodded.
"I see."
Pause.
"So you're one of the new ones."
"New ones?"
"Yeah."
He lifted his head and looked off toward the hills.
"One of those who just arrived in Spire."
I frowned.
"And you?"
Orpheus smiled a little wider.
"And I'm one of those who was born here."
He said it so calmly, as if he were talking about the most ordinary thing.
"I'm one of the children born in Spire."
I was silent for a couple of seconds.
I'd heard about people like that from Kairon.
"So how old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"And you're just wandering around here alone?"
"Well…"-he tilted his head slightly-"not alone anymore. Besides, aren't you the same age?"
I sighed quietly.
He clearly didn't see anything strange about the situation.
Or dangerous.
Or even worth paying attention to.
Orpheus suddenly looked at me more closely.
"You're trying to get to the Citadel of Hope, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"I thought so."
He scanned the horizon again.
Then he looked back at me.
"Do you want me to walk you there?"
"That would be nice," I said, even though I thought I could make it on my own; help from someone who already knew the way was very welcome.
"Then let's go."
He said it as if we were talking about a walk down the next street.
"I'm heading back anyway."
A brief pause.
Then he added, sounding a little more cheerful:
"Besides, the journey's usually more fun when there are two of us."
I looked at him.
At his calm face.
His yellow eyes.
Then at the hills and trees.
And I chuckled quietly.
"All right."
Orpheus smiled immediately.
"Great."
He turned and pointed toward the distant hills.
"Then let's go."
"The Citadel of Hope is over there."
And without waiting for me, he calmly set off, as if walking along a familiar path.
I watched him walk away for a few seconds.
Then I sighed.
"Well, of course."
We walked on through the hills and forests.
With Orpheus, the road suddenly began to feel… different.
Not easier.
But faster.
He walked confidently, hardly ever stopping. Sometimes he changed direction, sometimes he went around hills or small groves, barely even looking at the sun.
As if he had landmarks in his head.
We walked in near silence for several hours.
Then he suddenly stopped and raised his hand.
"Stop."
I froze.
"What?"
Orpheus was looking off to the side.
A second later, I saw them too.
A pack.
Far ahead.
A couple dozen humanoid figures. They felt like minions. But clearly not newborns. Most likely fully matured, maybe even nightmarish.
They were moving slowly across the lowland.
I was about to suggest we go around them.
But Orpheus just calmly turned slightly to the right.
"Let's go this way."
"Aren't we even going to try?"
He looked at me with a hint of surprise.
"Why?"
I shrugged.
"Just asking."
"If a fight can be avoided, it's better to avoid it."
I smirked.
"Funny."
"What?"
"Weren't you the one who recently told me about the adrenaline and the thrill of battle?"
He frowned slightly.
"Oscar, maybe you misunderstood me. I'm not an idiot. I'm not going to get into a fight I'm not sure about."
After saying this, he clearly fell into thought, then sighed loudly and said,
"Never mind, let's go."
We set off again.
After a while, he suddenly asked:
"What's it like down on Earth?"
I was surprised by his question. But I soon realized that Earth was to him what the Spire was to me.
"Well, it's pretty mediocre, but at least the whole world down there doesn't want you dead."
Orpheus chuckled.
"Well, I've heard from others that you have different continents over there. I met a girl who said she was… let me think… from Asia. Yeah, I think that's what it's called."
That's when it hit me-I couldn't have imagined that people entering different spires on Earth would end up in the same dimension. That meant my sister could be here, too.
"I'm from the European part of the world," I replied without enthusiasm.
"I see," he replied, just as unenthusiastically.
The conversation clearly wasn't flowing. Accustomed to having no communication with anyone but myself, I began to feel uncomfortable with the silence for the first time.
We climbed another hill.
The wind was stronger here.
I looked at him.
"How many of you are there, anyway?"
"Who, us?"
"Those born in the Spire."
Orpheus paused for a moment.
Then he replied:
"Fewer than we'd like."
I frowned.
"Why?"
He walked in silence for a while.
Then he finally said:
"Because not all the children survive."
I looked at him.
He spoke calmly.
Without any drama.
Just stating a fact.
"People change in the Spire."
He waved his hand through the air, as if searching for the right words.
"Transformation. You felt it yourself as soon as you got here. Your body adapts to your soul and your future Essence."
"Does this happen even to newborn babies?"
"Yes."
He nodded.
"And children…"
"Children have a harder time with it."
He said this calmly.
"Many simply… can't handle it."
"What about monsters?"
"They're no exception, at least those who appear naturally. It's just that among them are those who appear out of nowhere. They're usually the most terrifying."
The wind swept through the grass.
I was silent for a few seconds.
"And those who can handle it?"
Orpheus smiled.
"They usually become quite remarkable."
"Remarkable?"
"Yes."
He looked at me with his yellow eyes.
"Spire doesn't like the weak. Neither humans nor monsters."
A brief pause.
"But those who survive, he makes very… interesting."
"Interesting?" It was a rather strange way of putting it, but I decided not to comment.
We walked down the hill.
A few hours later, the sun began to fade.
And then Orpheus suddenly stopped.
"Look."
I looked up.
At first, I didn't see anything.
Then I noticed it.
Far ahead.
On the edge of the horizon.
Tall walls.
Towers.
Stone reflecting the fading sunlight.
And it.
A massive structure looms over the castle, but it doesn't stand on the ground as I'd thought-it hovers high in the sky, as if gravity itself were merely a forgotten rule to it.
Beneath it lay a stone castle with towers, walls, and inner courtyards, but compared to this creature, the fortress seemed like nothing more than a tiny detail against the backdrop of the colossal figure. The construct's shadow slowly glided across the walls and roofs, obscuring half the castle with its silhouette alone.
Its body is assembled from massive stone and metal slabs, joined by ancient rings and seams of glowing runes. A soft bluish-purple glow flows between them-magic that holds this colossal mass aloft. The stones do not touch completely: in places they are slightly apart, and light flows between them, as if energy were replacing the joints.
He hangs motionless in the air, like a still moon above a fortress. Slow rings of magical symbols swirl around his body-an ancient mechanism that keeps him suspended in the sky.
His arms hang down, heavy and long, like siege towers. If he were to stretch out his palm, it could cover an entire castle tower. His fingers slowly bend, and at that moment a dull, stone-like grinding sound is heard, as if entire layers of rock were shifting somewhere deep within.
The construct's head is tilted downward, toward the castle.
Two cold fires burn deep within its eye sockets, and it seems as though it is constantly watching everything happening below.
Clouds and gusts of wind swirl around it.
Sometimes the fog passes through the gaps between the stone slabs, and then it seems as though the giant's body is partly made of the sky itself.
It was the Citadel of Hope, and he was its guardian, protecting the people who had found refuge here from the horrors of this world.
I exhaled slowly.
Orpheus looked at me and smiled slightly.
"Welcome to my home."