The day passed in a surreal blur as a heavy silence replaced the camp's usual rhythm, each of us lost in our thoughts. Even as I busied myself preparing breakfast, the usual banter was absent. The sizzle of the fire was a hollow echo against the stillness that had settled over us like a shroud. The weight of their loss permeating the air.
Off in the distance, the thunderous echoes of explosions gradually faded, leaving a heavy silence that seemed to stretch on endlessly. But after some time, Amelia finally emerged from the tunnel.
Her face was streaked with tears and sweat, her hair clinging to her damp skin. But she said nothing, her expression unreadable as she carried the stone coffin into the clearing. With painstaking care, she placed it down, her hands lingering on its surface for a moment before she stepped back. Moving to a nearby tree, where she slumped against it, as though the weight of the day had finally drained the last remnants of strength.
Her gaze remained fixed on the ground, unfocused and hollow, her trembling hands resting in her lap. The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. She had no intention of talking to anyone or burying whoever it was here.
The hours crawled by as the sun's slow descent cast long shadows across the forest floor in shifting tones of golden hues as daylight shifted into the cooler tones of dusk, wrapping the camp in an uneasy stillness. Still, no one spoke. Even the rustling leaves seemed to hold their breath. Henry sat apart from the rest of us, his focus entirely on poisoning plants along the perimeter with mechanical precision, as if the repetitive action was the only thing tethering him to the present.
As the shadows deepened, exhaustion settled over me like a weight. My body ached, but worse was the fog in my head. My thoughts were sluggish, drained, like something unseen was pressing down on me, smothering every spark of focus and leaving only silence.
I drifted toward what was left of the fire, nothing more than cold ash and faint embers. Dropping down, I barely registered the uneven ground digging into my back or the chill of the earth seeping through my clothes. None of it mattered.
I drifted off without realizing it, my exhaustion overwhelming even the gnawing unease in my chest.
When I woke, the camp was cloaked in darkness. The air was still, the usual sounds of the forest muted. I sat up slowly, rubbing the stiffness from my neck and blinking away the haze of sleep. The faint embers of the extinguished fire cast a dim glow on the clearing, but something felt off.
Henry was the only one left, perched on a makeshift chair near the edge of the camp. His gaze was distant, fixed on the darkened woods beyond. "Where did everyone go?" I asked, my voice rough with sleep.
"In the tunnel," he muttered without looking up. "Ella said she couldn't stand being here any longer."
I sighed, glancing at the tunnel. "We should catch up."
Henry nodded reluctantly, rising to his feet. Together, we gathered our belongings and headed into the forest to join the others. The journey felt like an endless trek into a labyrinth of nature's chaos. The forest seemed to grow thicker with every step, the trees intertwining into an impenetrable wall of bark and branches. There were no gaps for sunlight to pierce through the canopy above, just a dark, oppressive cocoon of leaves and vines that twisted like they were alive. It was as if the forest itself were resisting our passage, tightening its grip the further we went.
The air grew heavy, damp with an almost suffocating humidity, and the distant cracks and booms of Amelia's power reverberated through the trees. Each explosion sent a faint tremor underfoot, a reminder of her relentless advance. The oppressive silence between those bursts was unnerving, broken only by the occasional snap of a branch underfoot or the rustle of disturbed foliage.
When we finally reached the others, it was clear that Amelia's frustration had reached a boiling point. Her form stood rigid, framed by the flickering glow of molten stone. Her shoulders rose and fell with labored breaths, and her hands clenched into fists, trembling with barely contained rage. The path she carved through the forest was a scar of devastation, trees reduced to splinters and charred stumps, the ground scorched black.
The forest ahead was unlike anything I had ever seen. The trees had grown so dense that they formed a seamless wall, their trunks fused together as though the forest had become a single, living organism determined to keep us out. The barrier seemed endless, an impenetrable fortress of nature.
Amelia's frustration finally boiled over. Her voice, raw and edged with desperation, carried through the suffocating stillness. "Enough!" With a motion sharp as a blade, she thrust her hands forward, summoning a torrent of molten stone. The ground beneath her rumbled violently, cracks spiderwebbing outwards as lava surged in every direction. A deafening roar followed as the volcanic force obliterated the forest wall in a final, explosive assault.
The earth groaned and trembled under the sheer magnitude of her power. Smoke billowed into the air, mingling with the acrid scent of scorched wood and earth. For a moment, everything was chaos, a cacophony of destruction that left the world shrouded in an eerie haze.
When the smoke began to clear, the abruptness of what lay beyond was almost surreal. The forest's suffocating density gave way to a vast, circular clearing, its edges so sharply defined it seemed as though the world itself had drawn a line. The ground was unnervingly smooth, untouched by the chaos that had consumed the forest moments before.
And then it stepped forward.
The creature was colossal, its body a seamless weave of vibrant plant life, an awe-inspiring fusion of nature and majesty. Its smooth, emerald-green form resembled an elk, but its antlers stretched impossibly wide, glowing faintly with golden veins that pulsed like living rivers of light.
Its eyes held us captive. Deep and ancient, they radiated not malice but an overwhelming sense of compassion and sorrow, as though they bore the weight of a thousand tragedies, moving forward with deliberate grace, each step reverberating faintly through the ground, as though even the earth itself acknowledged its presence.
We froze, bracing ourselves for a fight, but the creature didn't charge. Instead, it bowed. Its massive golden horns pulsed with light as a tendril of golden energy extended past us.
My mark burned against my neck, vibrating faintly. I winced, pressing a hand to it as the golden light enveloped the coffin. A strange sensation overtook me, a flicker of recognition, a memory slipping back into place. My gaze shifted to the coffin, and for the first time, I saw him. Benjamin. His face, his features, all flooding back as if they'd never been gone.
Why had I forgotten…Benjamin? The thought was there, pressing at the edges of my mind, desperate to be understood, yet slipping further away the more I tried to hold onto it. It was as though a fog had rolled in, veiling something.
Before I could fully grasp the weight of my confusion, the creature dissolved into golden dust. The vibrant core of gold and green light it left behind pulsed gently, drawing my attention. My thoughts fragmented, my confusion blurring into nothingness. Even the question of why I had forgotten? Was pulled from me, leaving only the soft, mesmerizing glow of the core. It demanded my focus, and I willingly gave it, the unsettling void in my mind swallowed by the brilliance before me.
BANG. BANG.
The sound broke through the stillness like a thunderclap.
"Where the hell am I?!"
The muffled voice was unmistakable, and every one of us froze. My heart pounded as Amelia darted forward, her hands trembling as she began dismantling the stone coffin. Piece by piece, she pulled it apart until there he was.
Benjamin.
Alive and Whole. Sitting upright and shaking stone dust from his hair.
Amelia gasped, her voice trembling. "Y…You're alive."
Benjamin blinked at her, his expression a mixture of irritation and bewilderment. "Why was I in a stone box?" he demanded, his tone sharp but confused.
Ella was the first to find her voice, blurting out, "How... how are you alive?" Her voice wavered as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.
Benjamin furrowed his brow. "How would I not be?" he asked, genuinely perplexed by the situation.
Amelia didn't answer with words. Instead, she rushed at him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace as tears streamed down her face. "I... I thought we lost you," she choked out, sobbing into his shoulder.
Benjamin, clearly still trying to figure out what was going on, hesitated before awkwardly patting her back. "It's alright, I'm okay," he murmured, as if trying to convince himself as much as her.
Amelia pulled back, wiping at her eyes, still struggling to believe what was happening. The rest of us stood there, utterly speechless.
Benjamin glanced down at his legs, his expression growing more bewildered by the second. "Wait... I can stand?!" he muttered, staring at his legs as if they didn't belong to him. "Did... did I die? What's going on?"
"Well, yeah," I finally said, trying to fill in the blanks. "You were dead. I mean, you have been dead for about a day, Benjamin."
Benjamin's face twisted with confusion and a trace of shock. "And now I'm walking around like nothing happened," he murmured, almost to himself. He slowly stood, testing his legs like he couldn't believe they still worked.
Emily stared at him, her face pale. "Benjamin... you're supposed to be... paralyzed," she whispered.
And dead… but hey, we can talk about his legs.
He ran a hand through his messy hair, eyes distant. "This… doesn't make sense." Then his gaze drifted to the pulsing core lying in the grass nearby.
He stared at it.
And the moment he acknowledged it, the core reacted.
In a blur, it shot upward without a sound, slamming into his chest with a crack.
Benjamin gasped sharply, eyes wide as his body jolted backward. He collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud, lying flat on his back as if he'd been shot.
"Benjamin!" I dropped to my knees beside him, heart pounding, unsure if he was breathing.
Then, as if unsure himself, he sucked in a deep breath.
"What… what just happened?" Henry finally managed. "Was that a core?"
Benjamin looked down at himself, still unsure. "I... think it was," he said slowly, as if processing the reality of what had just occurred.
Then, with a strange sense of calm, Benjamin glanced at us and said, "I'm level one now. All my stats seem normal, but... I've got two skills. And a title."
We blinked at him in disbelief. "A title?" Henry repeated, incredulity creeping into his voice. "What does that mean?"
Benjamin took a breath and explained, "The title is called Miraculous Savior. It's for killing an Apocalypse creature without a core."
Amelia and I exchanged looks of shock as Benjamin continued, "The effects are... well, pretty intense. It gives me gratitude from Light-affinity creatures, a core upgrade to unique rank at level 25, +10 stat points, a 5% boost to all stats, and +2 stat points per level until level 20."
We stared at him, our mouths agape. "Wait... you're telling me you get all that for killing an Apocalypse creature without a core?" I asked, still trying to wrap my head around it.
"Seems like it," Benjamin said, his tone almost casual, but there was a hint of disbelief in his voice, too.
Emily, still looking a bit pale, chimed in, "And... your skills? What are they?"
Benjamin glanced at her, his expression softening. "The first is called Saint's Blessing," he said, "and the second is called Nature's Protection." He paused, thinking it over. "I think... Saint's Blessing might be a healing skill."
At that, my thoughts immediately turned to my missing arm. A flicker of hope ignited inside me. Maybe, just maybe, that skill could heal my arm.
Henry, still dazed by everything, threw his hands up in the air. "I'm losing it… You were dead like two minutes ago, and now you're standing here, with titles and skills. What is even happening?"
Benjamin gave a small, rueful smile. "Believe me, Henry, I'm just as confused as you are." He shook his head, glancing around at all of us. "But hey, I guess I get to walk around with all of you again."
As Henry continued to rant in the background, his voice rising with increasing incredulity, the rest of us began to explore the place we had found ourselves in.
"I mean, seriously, there's no way this is real. We're probably still back on Mars, right? I'm hallucinating from lack of oxygen! This is just some fever dream where Benjamin has come back from the dead with a core," Henry rambled, throwing his hands in the air for emphasis.
I couldn't help but smirk as I tuned him out, focusing on the sheer beauty of the place. The trees surrounding us were unlike any I had seen before, tall, majestic, their bark shimmering faintly as if catching the last rays of a setting sun. Their branches reached toward each other, forming a canopy overhead that created a natural dome, the light filtering through the leaves casting soft, dappled patterns on the ground. The air was thick with the scent of moss and earth, the kind of smell that brought a strange sense of peace. It was as though this space had been untouched by the chaos of the outside world.
In the center of the clearing, my eyes caught sight of something nestled in the underbrush. As I approached, the dense foliage parted to reveal the still forms of three smaller creatures that, at first glance, resembled the elk we had encountered earlier. Their bodies were curled together in a way that suggested they had sought comfort in each other, but the blackened scorch marks on their fur told a different story.
Emily's soft voice broke the silence, pulling me from my thoughts. "It's heartbreaking," she murmured, crouching down beside the creatures. Her eyes filled with empathy as she gently touched one of the lifeless bodies. "To think that it lost its offspring, yet still fought to protect them even after they were gone..." Her voice trailed off, heavy with sorrow.
The whole place, this dome of trees, this sanctuary, had likely been created to protect these creatures, to shield them from the outside world. But even here, they had fallen.
"That's just... sad," she said quietly, her gaze lingering on the fauna surrounding the small creatures. "This whole place, it was meant to keep them safe, wasn't it?"
We stood there for a moment longer, paying our silent respects to the fallen creatures. Without saying a word, we gathered some nearby stones, stacking them in a makeshift memorial. It was a simple act, but it felt like the least we could do.
Meanwhile, Henry's voice continued in the background, now muttering something about "cosmic coincidences" and "guardian angels." No one really responded, too absorbed in the solemnity of the moment.
"I mean, seriously, who's writing this script? I mean, that's some lazy writing if I have ever seen any." Henry threw his arms up dramatically as if trying to get the attention of some unseen deity.
As the group finished the memorial, I spotted something off to the side that looked a lot like a tunnel, partially hidden in the side of the dome. It seemed to lead out, its entrance covered with vines and moss, almost like it was waiting for us to notice.
"Well, we've done what we can here," I said, nodding toward the tunnel. "Looks like there's more to explore."
Amelia wiped her eyes and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's see what's on the other side," she said, her voice still thick with emotion but steady.
Henry, seemingly snapping out of his existential rant, perked up at the mention of the tunnel. "Finally! Something new! Let's see where this dream takes us next," he said, eyes gleaming with curiosity as he moved toward the entrance, ready to leave.
"Benjamin, so what was it like being dead, like did you see the afterlife?" Henry's voice echoed in the tunnel, breaking the silence.
Benjamin glanced at him, his expression troubled. "I wish I could offer more insight," he admitted. "But it's all a blur. One moment, I was drifting into sleep, and the next, I awoke within the cramped confines of that stone coffin."
Henry nodded, undeterred by Benjamin's lack of detail. "Did you see anything? Feel anything unusual?" he pressed.
Benjamin shook his head. "No, I just felt as if I was asleep and just woke up to the feeling of being extremely cramped."
Ella, who had been listening, spoke up. "What about the creature?, Did you feel anything when it basically resurrected you?"
Benjamin paused, as if considering the question. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "Now that I think about it, there was something... I guess I did feel a slight buzz."
"A slight buzz, that's all?" Henry sighed, unimpressed.
"Hey, while we're on this topic, do you think you could test your powers on me?" I asked, a mixture of curiosity and apprehension dancing in my voice.
"Sure," Benjamin muttered.
He raised his hands, and I could see the strain as he struggled to activate his skills. His brow furrowed as he focused, jaw tightening as if he were reaching for something just out of grasp. Moments passed. Nothing happened. A bead of sweat slid down his forehead, and his hands began to tremble with the effort.
Then, as if asking for permission, he muttered, "Saint's Blessing."
For a fleeting instant, I thought I saw something move beneath the skin of his forearm before it vanished entirely. A golden glow gathered around his hands, then spilled outward, slowly enveloping me in a warm, soothing light.
I watched, mesmerized, as my skin began to ripple and fold over the space where my arm had once been. The sensation was strange, almost as if my skin had gained a life of its own. Soft vibrations stirred beneath the surface as I felt bone begin to form underneath.
But before the transformation could continue, Benjamin's hands fell, his face etched with exhaustion.
"Are you okay?" Amelia asked, a bit concerned.
"I'm fine," Benjamin said between ragged breaths. "Didn't expect it to drain me like that... but I'll be alright. Just a little worn out."
"Take your time," I said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't push yourself. It's just good to have you back."
Benjamin managed a tired but grateful smile as we gave him a few more moments to recover before pressing on.
As we resumed our path through the tunnel, the atmosphere subtly began to shift. The walls around us, once solid and confining, started to fade, like mist unraveling in the breeze. We exchanged glances, unsure of what was happening.
Then, almost without realizing it, we stepped forward, and the darkness vanished.
The tunnel behind us was gone.
In its place stretched an open field, vast and quiet beneath an open sky. The sudden change stole the words from our mouths. One moment, we were surrounded by intertwined wood, and the next, we stood in the middle of an open expanse, the world around us unfamiliar and wide.
I stopped in my tracks, blinking against the sudden brightness. There were no trees, just rolling hills stretching endlessly in front of us, bathed in a soft sunlight. I turned, expecting to see the dense forest we had just come from, but it was gone. Completely. No trees, no tunnel, just the same endless field in every direction.
"What. Just. Happened?" Henry asked, utterly in disbelief as he spun around, trying to make sense of the landscape. "Where's the forest?"
"Am I losing it?" I muttered, running a hand through my hair as I turned in a slow circle. There wasn't a single tree in sight, nothing to suggest we had been in a dense forest mere moments ago. "There were trees... right? We didn't imagine that?"
Amelia squinted toward the horizon, scanning the distance as if expecting to find some clue to explain this strange transition. "There had to be…" she breathed, though I could start to see the doubt clawing its way to the surface. "Right? We weren't imagining it all, were we?"
Ella, usually the first to offer some kind of explanation, was just as baffled as the rest of us.
Henry, standing a little off to the side, shrugged casually. "You know what? At this point, I'm not even gonna ask questions." He waved his hand dismissively, accepting the strange situation with a resigned sigh.
Meanwhile, the rest of us weren't so quick to brush it off.
As we stood there, still reeling from everything that had happened, a sudden gust of wind swept across the open field, stirring the tall grass into waves. The tension that had gripped us seemed to lift with it, carried off like dust on the breeze.
Then Ella suddenly stilled, her eyes lighting up.
"Wait," she breathed, then pointed toward the horizon. "Look!"
Far off in the distance, a jagged silhouette broke the line between land and sky, faded towers and spires just barely visible through the shimmering haze.
"That's a city!" she shouted, her voice full of giddy disbelief. "We've actually made it!"
Before anyone could react, she took off running, laughter trailing behind her like a song in the wind. Her hands brushed the tall grass as she sprinted ahead, hair wild and untamed as it billowed in the breeze, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground as she danced along.
"Hey, Ella!" I called after her, but she didn't slow down. She was already a blur of motion, the wind practically pushing her forward, as if the whole world had tilted just to carry her there.
The rest of us exchanged stunned glances, but then almost without thinking, we ran too.
The field became a blur of green and gold as we chased her, the sunlight breaking through scattered clouds above, casting dancing shadows across our path.
Ahead, Ella twirled once as she ran, arms outstretched, soaking in the moment like she was made for it. Her joy was contagious.
By the time we reached the edge of the ruins, we were breathless and grinning.
The city wasn't whole, not anymore. Half-toppled buildings leaned against one another like tired giants, cloaked in vines and swallowed by time. But even in ruin, it was a beautiful sight. Ella skidded to a stop, eyes wide with wonder. "Look at that!" she said, pointing to a large building that still held most of its shape. "It might still be standing inside. Come on!"
She didn't wait for an answer. With a gleeful laugh, she bolted across the cracked stone path, boots thudding softly against the overgrowth. We trailed after her, barely keeping up as she darted through a gaping archway and into the hollowed-out building like a kid tearing into a birthday gift.
The place had a strange charm to it. Ivy clung to the outer walls like nature's patchwork, and the sagging roof let warm light spill through in angled beams. Dust swirled lazily in the air, catching the sunlight and dancing like tiny golden spirits. Time had done its damage, metal beams slumped, old furniture lay in broken piles, but the stone bones of the building still stood strong.
"It's perfect!" Ella spun in a slow circle, arms stretched out as she soaked in every cracked brick and cobwebbed corner. "We could explore the whole thing! There's gotta be a second floor still intact, and look, that doorway leads somewhere!"
She was halfway to a side corridor when Amelia stepped over the threshold behind us, gave a brief, thoughtful look around, and said the one thing Ella hadn't expected.
"This is a good spot to set up camp."
The words hit like a splash of cold water. Ella froze mid-step.
"What?" she said, blinking.
Amelia dropped her pack with a dull thump and stretched her arms overhead. "You heard me. We're staying here for the night."
Ella spun around. "But–wait–what? Aren't we going to explore more?"
"Nope," Amelia said, already unrolling a blanket. "You made us run all the way here, so now we're taking a break."
Ella's jaw dropped. "But… but we just got here!"
Amelia gave her a look, one of those slow, raised-eyebrow glances that spoke volumes without a word. "Exactly. You just got here. And I haven't sat down in hours."
Ella looked genuinely offended, hand to her chest like she'd been betrayed. "I didn't run that fast..."
"You were practically flying," I chimed in from the corner, already rummaging through my bag. "I thought you were about to break the sound barrier."
Ella groaned and threw her head back with theatrical agony. "This is actual torture."
Amelia chuckled. "You'll live."
With an exaggerated huff, Ella dropped her bag to the ground and flopped onto it.
CRACK!
The sharp sound cut through the moment. Ella froze. Her expression shifted instantly from dramatic to horrified.
"No… no, no, no—"
She spun around and tore into her bag, hands moving frantically. The moment she pulled out the radio, we all saw it: cracked casing, a bent antenna, and pieces barely hanging on. Some components had even fallen loose inside the bag.
She laid it all out carefully on the ground, trying to piece it back together. But the damage was obviously too much to repair.
Henry leaned back with a sigh, watching the scene unfold. "Yeah... that's toast."
Ella didn't argue. She just stared at the mess, clearly trying to will it back to life.
But she didn't have the tools.
With a deep sigh, she slumped to the ground, the weight of it all draining out of her.
Amelia crouched beside her, inspecting the radio briefly before huffing. "Well… that's disappointing."
Ella blinked, confused. "Wait—you're not mad?"
Amelia shrugged. "No. I mean, it sucks, sure. But we've already got the direction from the last signal, and we found this city. That was the hard part." She paused, then smirked. "Still… there will be consequences."
Ella flinched. "What kind of consequences?"
"You're on dinner duty." Amelia clapped her hands. "Come on, it's getting late. Get off your butt and help me."
Ella groaned again but dragged herself up. Eventually, she resigned herself to the task, though helping might've been a stretch. She hovered nearby, stirred pots that didn't need stirring, and kept glancing back at the broken radio like it might fix itself if she looked long enough.
As the night settled over the ruined city, the fire crackled inside the shelter, casting warm, flickering light across the walls. Shadows danced gently, and for a while… it almost felt like peace.
I lay back and stared up at the sky. Without the haze of Earth's light pollution, the stars looked impossibly sharp, as if someone had taken a fine brush and painted each one onto a canvas of velvet. Galaxies spilled overhead in sweeping arcs, ancient and silent.
Across from me, Ella had finally settled, legs tucked under her, a blanket draped haphazardly across her shoulders. But her gaze was still fixed beyond the firelight, drawn to the silhouette of the forgotten city.
I followed her gaze.
The ruins stretched out before us, silent and haunting in the moonlight. Vines coiled around old walls, and stone arches stood like the ribs of some long-dead beast. But even in decay, the city had a strange kind of beauty, like a secret waiting to be told.
What stories did it hold? Who had lived here? What had they built, and why had they abandoned it?
Lying back, I let the weight of the day sink in, the questions swirling in my mind like a storm. The ruins were a mystery, but something else was gnawing at me, something bigger than just the city. How had we even ended up in that field?
It felt almost too surreal to believe. One minute, we were moving through the dense, oppressive forest, the trees crowding in on us from all sides, and then, nothing. The tunnel walls vanished, and there we were… standing in an open field, the forest gone as if it had never existed. Was it some kind of teleportation? The thought gnawed at me. But if it had been, wouldn't we have felt something? A pull or a shift? It had happened so seamlessly, so naturally, that it made me question if the forest had even been real to begin with.
Had we been walking through an illusion the entire time? A trick of the land? Or had something truly extraordinary happened, transporting us to this place without us even realizing it?
The mystery clung to me as I tried to make sense of it all. The sheer abruptness of it made my head spin. Was the forest a lie? A construct to lead us here?
I sighed, my body finally succumbing to the exhaustion of the day as I lay back against the makeshift bed. But the questions still circled in my mind, refusing to let go. My thoughts slipped between forgotten cities and the strange field we'd emerged into, and even Ella's uncontainable excitement couldn't pull me from the confusion. Slowly, my eyes fluttered shut, the mysteries of the day still lingering as sleep finally claimed me.