The victory felt tenuous, as though the balance we had restored could shift again at any moment. The weight of the fight lingered on all of us, our breaths labored and uneven, the golden glow of our energy slowly fading back into the quiet valley. But despite the heaviness in the air, the oppressive presence of the void had retreated, leaving an undeniable sense of accomplishment in its wake.
Logan was the first to break the silence, shaking his head as he inspected the still-smoking mark left by the beast’s final attack. “So… is this how things are gonna be from now on? Just monster after monster until one of us messes up?”
“Hopefully not,” I said, though the uncertainty in my voice betrayed me. “But I think it’s a possibility we have to prepare for.”
Mal dropped onto a nearby rock, her knife slipping back into its sheath. She tipped her head back and stared at the darkening sky. “Prepare? I’m already running on fumes over here, Audrey. Whatever that thing was, it felt bigger-hungrier-than the stuff we fought at the Spire. Please tell me this was an outlier.”
“I wish I could,” I admitted, my gaze flicking back toward the faint glow of the Spire on the horizon. “But the void isn’t just attacking blindly. It has a purpose. A plan. And if we don’t figure it out…”
“We’ll handle it,” Logan interrupted, his voice steady and firm. “We have before, and we will again. We’re stronger than we look.” His confidence flickered briefly, replaced by a glimmer of something softer. “As long as we stick together, we’ll find a way.”
Liam ran a hand over his face, the toll of the battle evident in the slow, measured way he moved. “Even if we stick together, the Spire didn’t fully explain itself. We don’t know how deep this corruption runs or what caused it to start in the first place.”
I turned to him, nodding. “That’s our next step: figuring out where this imbalance started and how to stop it at its source. Otherwise, everything we’re doing here is just holding back the tide.”
“Okay, cool,” Mal said, raising a hand half-heartedly from her seat. “Next question-how? Do we… meditate? Try another vision quest? ‘Cause I’m all out of lightbulb moments right now.”
Liam frowned in thought, glancing toward the remnants of the village. “The Spire might not have given us the answers, but maybe the people here knew something. If the void was feeding on them before it came for us, there could be clues left behind.”
I swallowed hard, my stomach twisting as I took in the still-silent village. Mal’s skepticism mirrored my own. “And what if there’s nothing left but more of those shadow things?” she asked.
Logan looked between us, rolling his shoulders as if to shake off the tension. “Then we deal with it. Again.”
We gathered our strength and moved deeper into the village, navigating the now-cleared paths with caution. There was a hollowness to the place that felt unnatural-no sounds of life, no signs of struggle. Just empty homes, their windows like dark, accusing eyes.
It wasn’t long before we stumbled across something unusual. In the center of the village, partially buried beneath a mound of debris, lay a stone tablet etched with faint, glowing runes. Its presence felt purposeful, like it had been placed there long ago to guard-or perhaps hide-something important.
“What is that?” Mal whispered, crouching beside the tablet. Her fingertips brushed the glowing symbols, and for a moment, the light pulsed brighter, as though responding to her touch.
“Careful,” Liam warned. “We don’t know what it’s linked to.”
“It doesn’t feel like void energy,” I said, kneeling beside Mal for a closer look. The carvings were intricate, winding like a maze across the surface of the stone. But at the center was a symbol I recognized-a balanced scale, one side cast in light, the other in shadow.
“The balance,” Logan murmured, pointing to the symbol. “It’s the same as the one at the Spire.”
“Looks like it’s connected, then,” Mal said. “Which means… we’ve got more homework, don’t we?”
“Looks like it,” I said, though my mind was already racing. “This tablet must have been left behind for a reason. Maybe there’s something deeper underneath the village-something tied to the imbalance.”
“And maybe it’s a trap,” Logan countered, frowning. “Whatever left this here could’ve wanted to lead us straight into danger.”
“True,” Liam agreed, standing and scanning the quiet surroundings. “But danger or not, if we don’t follow this lead, we could be missing a key piece of the puzzle.”
We stared at the tablet in silence, the light from its runes casting eerie shadows on our faces. My gut told me this wasn’t just a clue-it was a doorway.
“I can feel it,” I said finally, my voice steady. “The balance is shifting again, and this is where it’s pulling us. We can’t ignore it.”
Logan stepped closer, crouching beside me with an annoyed yet resigned expression. “Then let’s open the thing. Together.”
Mal sighed, slapping her knees as she stood. “Here we go again.”
The four of us gathered around the tablet, placing our hands on its surface. The light beneath our fingertips flared, burning brighter until it filled our vision entirely. And then the earth beneath us gave way, collapsing into darkness.
When I opened my eyes, I was on the floor of a cavern, the air thick with humidity and the scent of damp stone. A faint glow lit the walls, revealing carvings much like the ones on the tablet above. Symbols and images danced across the surfaces, telling a story I could only partially understand.
We weren’t alone, though. In the center of the chamber stood an ancient pedestal, and atop it rested a crystalline orb pulsing with the same golden light we’d felt during the fight. But behind it, lurking in the shadows, was something else-something waiting.
A low growl echoed through the chamber, and I felt Logan’s hand grip mine instinctively. The others tensed as a pair of glowing red eyes blinked open, focusing on us with unsettling clarity.
“So,” Mal said, her voice trembling but still defiant. “Anyone else feeling like maybe we should’ve stayed home tonight?”