A paper lantern hung from an iron hook embedded in the stone ceiling. The flame inside it was surely old, yet somehow resilient, casting a faint amber glow over the archway ahead. Ren stared at it for a few moments, unsettled by its solitary placement and wondering what purpose it actually served, when something suddenly pulled his attention away.
Something moved behind them. They turned toward the sound, but at first glance, nothing seemed to be there. Then, just as the stillness began to settle again, another sound echoed, but from the side this time.
Kagami inspected the area, moving her tail around like a secondary radar.
"Footsteps," she said quietly.
Ren checked around as well, unsure where the next sound might come from. Then, just at the edge of his Kindling's light, he saw something slide back into the dark. It looked like the hem of a gown. He caught a glimpse of it briefly in the glow before it vanished behind one of the stone walls.
"Yeah… she's following us."
"Or guiding us where she wants us to go," Kagami added.
"Or that…"
Kagami's ears lowered.
"We shouldn't have followed her, to begin with. It was foolish on our part," Kagami said, and the remark landed hard on Ren, who was, of course, aware of the fact himself.
But how could he have known she was a witch? He kept turning the thought over, trying to find the point where it should've been obvious.
More footsteps echoed across the hallway. Ren tried to track the direction, but the sound moved between the walls in patterns that followed no clear logic.
"We're not going to get ahead of her," he said after a few failed attempts at tracking. "We just keep walking. Wherever she's leading us… we'll probably end up there either way."
Kagami agreed to it without words. She simply stepped past him, moving through the lantern-lit threshold.
Past that point, the air lost some of the dense humidity their lungs had started to adjust to. The space felt less confined somehow, opening toward something still out of view. They walked a little further, then the light from the hallway's exit hit them full in the face.
When Ren opened his eyes and looked up, there was no more ceiling.
The environment around them had given way to an open and massive expanse of space, wholly unexpected. Ahead, small hills lay against what Ren assumed was some kind of false sky. Ivy and wild mosses clung to every surface, including remnants of pavilions and small bridges.
In the center of the valley, sunken slightly below the surrounding terrain, stood a structure that resembled an atrium. It had the proportions of a shrine, built in a traditional shape with a wide and long set of stairs leading to a shadowed entrance.
Ren stood still at the ridge with his eyes following the path that descended toward it.
"This is definitely not the pagoda structure anymore," he said in a low voice.
Kagami stepped up beside him, scanning the layout as well, but with different thoughts cluttering her mind.
"No. It's not."
The wind stirred faintly, catching on Ren's hair and Kagami's fur.
"You've seen anything like this before?" he asked her, tilting his head toward her.
But she didn't answer. Whether it was due to uncertainty or not, after a few moments, Ren accepted her silence as an answer in itself. Her gaze remained fixed on the structure below, distant and full of thought.
"What have you been up to, Reiji…" she said mostly to herself.
They descended slowly, step by step. The slope was long beneath them, with broken stone hidden beneath patches of moss and all sorts of other wild plants. Ren was amazed at how any of it had survived in a place like this.
All of it was unlike any trial they had walked through so far. There was no clear mechanic this time, no structure with rules or clues waiting to be solved. It was just a vast space, in a place that shouldn't have been able to exist at all. And perhaps because of that, he trusted it even less. Ren knew that, like every system in existence, everything had its pattern, and he was sure this was no exception.
Closer to the shrine, the architecture became clearer. Much of it had been carved from a resistant type of wood, standing tall among trees and ivy. The decorations it bore, still visible in some areas, had been crafted carefully and with elegance.
The entrance to the shrine was still intact, so they crossed it.
The main room stretched beneath a high ceiling lined on both sides by shrines similar to the ones Ren had already seen on the Sanctum's garden level. Each one held a single statue positioned in its center. But unlike before, these were everywhere... arranged in some sort of patterns across the floor.
He walked further in, careful not to brush any of them.
Most had serene expressions, but one detail struck Ren immediately. They all had the same golden irises with the black streaks of dark fluid running inside them.
Kagami moved quietly beside him.
"What is this place?" Ren asked, still analyzing the statues. "A tomb?"
"I don't think it's a tomb. These are... figures of station. Officials. Priests, those who once performed rites or passed judgment on them."
She paused, sniffing at one of the statues, then tapped gently at its base with her paw.
"This seems more political than anything else," she added.
"Why would they all be gathered here?"
"I don't know. But I can safely say this wasn't part of the original architecture."
Ren turned toward her.
"Is this something Reiji added?"
She hesitated a few moments before giving up her answer.
"If he had reason to rebuild after I was gone, yes. But I cannot know for sure since I wasn't around to witness any of it."
Ren studied the place more carefully, then, looking back at her, he felt like it was a good opportunity to press in for more details about it all.
"If he's still here, and his presence can affect things in such a way, read my mind and all that, why can't you sense it?"
The question, innocent as it was, struck hard for Kagami. For her, it meant acknowledging out loud what she could no longer be, but had been for so long in the past. She had once been the strongest among all the witches.
"Because I'm not what I once was. Right now, I'm not even as strong as an average witch. So unless Reiji were to speak through the Pact itself, I wouldn't be able to sense him at all."
She paused briefly, then added, "But yes. He can peek into it whenever he wants."