Chapter 46
Hoku swiftly set his course toward the lantern.
He had found himself struggling ever harder to quell the fatigue in his own limbs.
Upon locating the object, he knelt to retrieve it.
However, as he rose to his feet, a strange odor crept into his nasal cavity.
Initially, it passed for nothing more than a faint trace in the air, masked by the soil and moisture.
But the longer he remained, the more he deciphered its corrosive, metallic tang, like copper, trailing across his tongue and scraping relentlessly at the back of his throat.
'...Blood?'
After a brief moment of consideration, Hoku let his gaze sweep the tunnel, seeking its origin.
'Could it possibly have come from that figure just now?' he inwardly contemplated.
As he reluctantly walked forward, a brittle crunch came from beneath his boot.
Followed by a—
SNAP!
Hoku halted, holding the lantern aloft.
Silver wisps of light revealed a tangle of massive vines sprawled across the floor, each thick coil bristling with thorns that resembled malicious fangs.
They brought to mind the unsettling recollection of being ensnared by thorn-covered vines that had torn through his flesh mere moments ago.
However, the coarse fibers of these vines appeared torn and chewed, as if whatever they once constrained had torn itself free in blind desperation.
Driven by both dread and perplexity, Hoku leaned closer.
His eyebrow arched when the thorns caught faint glimmers of something dark and wet, lacquered in the weak light.
With trembling caution, he extended a finger and grazed the surface.
A slick residue clung to his skin.
As Hoku brought it next to the lantern, his pupils contracted, and veins rose in his palm as his hand stiffened.
Fresh blood.
Hoku's pulse quickened as he studied the trail of blood staining the plants beyond the thorned contraption.
His thoughts pieced together the signs of something having dragged itself away, leaving him with a silent conclusion: 'There was a struggle here… Something about this place is wrong.'
Mars urged him on from the other end of the passageway.
Thus, Hoku gathered himself and walked back in their direction.
The damp ground gave a sticky squelch beneath his boots, and scattered droplets, smaller now, traced the path from where he had first landed.
As he drew nearer, the fog began to thin under the combined glow of Li's vial and Mars' pendant.
The moment he glimpsed the outline of an indistinct figure, his focus on the trail faltered, and a suffocating veil of fear settled over him.
It was immense.
Yet something in its silhouette felt inwardly familiar, as if the aberration weren't wholly unknown.
Li cautioned him to slow down the moment he drew within a few paces.
Hoku obeyed and continued forward as steadily as he could, though every muscle quivered with involuntary tension.
A low resonance echoed through the underground chamber.
Though not forceful, it suffused every dark corner like a creeping tide of anguish, an imperceptible wave pressing upon his mind and bones.
Only when the noise escaped again did he stumble back, realizing it wasn't an isolated incident.
One layer sounded like a hollow moan that stretched interminably.
The other merged with a despairing hiss and a grating cry.
Hoku's hand trembled as he raised the lantern higher.
The feeble light illuminated forward and peeled back the fog to reveal the creature's towering legs that were partially entangled by a long sweep of its tails.
Hoku didn't have the presence of mind to count them.
However, a cursory glance was enough for him to observe that there were no fewer than nine.
They were long and whip-like, swaying elegantly on their own, even in a tattered state.
The instant his gaze locked onto the conjoined heads, dread churned in his gut, as if his entrails were being hauled into an abyss.
Two stag‑like faces emerged, with broad antlers forking and weaving like a grotesque crown beneath translucent skin.
It was evident that someone could easily misjudge their statures for those of immense elk. Yet, every unusual distinction revealed that these beings were far beyond the realm of ordinary creatures.
An array of eyes adorned each head, their sclerae gleaming white.
As light struck them, they shimmered like floating shards of prismatic glass.
Blood streamed freely from deep gashes along its flanks and legs.
One of its hind limbs remained ensnared, with massive thorned vines still sunken into the flesh.
Hoku's throat tightened. His mouth went dry.
'This… this is what Mars was looking for? I can think of a hundred ways this thing could wipe us out before it even stands…'
He bit his lip as he waited for someone to suggest their next move.
There was no recourse left but the absurd hope that they had not stumbled upon an unknown monstrosity.
He finally leaned back and inquired, "Is this… the Nymareth?"
As Mars responded, "Yes," a lump rose in Hoku's throat.
"I thought… I thought it had to be summoned… through a ritual…"
A corner of Mars's mouth curled into an uncertain smile. "Perhaps it did," he murmured calmly. "Or perhaps there was never any point in summoning her here."
He pressed his fingertips against the lantern's jagged rim, as if grounding himself with the object.
The handle was unnaturally short, leaving it awkward in his grip, as if part of it had been torn away.
"Then… what was it for?" he finally managed to ask.
Li spoke at length, his wrist draped over his cloak as it was held aloft by the covered hilt of his sword. "It summoned the two of you. That's why you're standing in the wrong passage."
The Nymareth's myriad eyes shifted sluggishly.
Hoku's mind raced: 'If this wasn't the right passage, why was the creature they hunted here? Could those injuries on its body be from thorn punctures, arranged in a pattern as if it had torn itself free? Perhaps it had not come here of its own volition.'
As he held himself together on the surface, Hoku finally asked, 'If this is the wrong place, why is it here with us?'
Li's brow furrowed faintly.
Though he maintained a composed exterior, Hoku sensed a subtle undercurrent of unease or confusion beneath his calm façade.
Li answered thoughtfully:
"Speculatively… given what we know of permitted and forbidden rites, maybe your lantern was an anomaly from another passage. Including it in your ritual may have triggered a recalculation error."
Mars took a step back and studied Hoku's lantern before bringing a hand to his chin,
"I suspected something similar. There was a destruction-divination sigil at the original site. I assumed the passage keeper planted it to mislead us. But seeing where this ended, I now wonder if that was truly the case."
Mars halted before speaking again. "Aside from how we wound up with you, what makes you suspect tampering from another passage?"
Across from him, Hoku listened intently, piecing together his understanding of their situation. The conversation reinforced certain fundamentals of where and when they stood.
Since the passages would change according to the keeper's conditions, it was most likely that the misplaced relics had thrown them off course, thus casting them into a branch of the second passage.
'He doesn't seem to recognize the lantern,' Hoku thought. Perhaps it belonged to the fourth passage Mars mentioned. But does that tether us closer to its origin? How accurate is this environment's mapping?
Li drew a breath. "Juno and I encountered a swarm of Oliverou's mimicry puppets in our passage."
Hoku's limbs stiffened, and his mouth hung slightly open as he struggled to frame a question.
The Nymareth suddenly let out a drawn-out, guttural groan.
From its nostrils billowed an unnatural torrent of white fog.
As it drifted into the chamber, the haze turned black, congealed around their ankles like tainted mist.
'This is no ordinary pollutant…' Hoku thought. 'It feels deliberately toxic.'
The creature entered a heavy‑breathing posture and recoiled its legs slowly.
Mars shifted without hesitation, refocusing their course. "We need to discuss this as we go. There will be more anomalies ahead. For now, let's hold our theories and focus on temporarily earning her trust."
Li, stepping forward, offered an analogy: "Ever heard of the mouse removing the thorn from the lion's paw? The creature in pain may be less hostile if we remove the root cause and perhaps offer a gentle healing charm. It may soften its aggression."
"That's a promising method," Mars admitted, "but how are we even meant to touch it, let alone affect any healing? I wield Divination, Hoku serves as Navigator, and you're no healer in the conventional sense."
Hoku had already steered the conversation toward Oliverou, as he mentally re‑evaluated the impact of his earlier divination.
He recalled the moment of confrontation distinctly. Had the effect persisted, he'd have devised a viable plan or uncovered something useful in time.
'It only lasted a moment. If it were still active… I might have already found an advantage.'
As Hoku pondered, a subtle motion betrayed his body's initiative before his mind fully registered what came next.
His hand drifted cautiously toward his coat pocket.
Inside, though, he found only the locket he'd retrieved from his corpse.
'Damn!' Hoku cursed inwardly. 'I had forgotten that it slipped.'
He frowned. 'I didn't see it when I grabbed the lantern… perhaps it veered off in the opposite direction.'
Hoku lifted his gaze but quickly acknowledged the futility.
Beyond the swirling black mists of Nymareth, nothing could be discerned, even with light.
The darkness was too oppressive.
Then, he recalled that Li and Mars had come from that very direction, and he jolted to catch Mars by the sleeve.
"By any chance, did you pick up a compass while coming this way?"
Mars raised an eyebrow, shaking his head. "...Did you lose your elixir?"
An awkward, rueful smile crept across Hoku's face.
Mars paled, placing one hand on his hip and pressing the other to his brow in a mocking gesture of distress.
Li, meanwhile, appeared faintly amused by Hoku's predicament.
He crossed his arms, cocked his head slightly, and observed in a bored, dry tone, "Losing things already? Honestly, I'm surprised you even still grip that hilt."
Hoku's jaw twitched irritably as he glanced at the sword in his left hand.
"It wasn't intentional, I lost it as I was fleeing."
Li pursued taunting, "Seems like it was a useless measure."
'I chose to leap off that cliff, damn it.'
Hoku swallowed the thought before it left his lips. He didn't trust Li to even interpret that kindly.
Li clicked his tongue as he sized him up.
Before he had the chance to speak again, Mars exhaled and lowered both of his arms.
"We'll search as we proceed," Mars said. "But first, we need to move this creature. Only then can we summon the Archivist's Garden."
Hoku hesitated, glancing between the two.
Given that the compass was his only viable idea, it lay just ahead.
He cleared his throat, drawing himself upright. "I need my compass," he said quietly. "It may help."
"In what way?" Li sharply interjected.
"I was getting to that… I can use divination."
At his words, both Mars and Li changed expression in unison, as though their beliefs had just been unbalanced.
Before Hoku could continue his explanation, a hand seized his coat by the collar and dragged him forward.
"Hold on—" Mars began, only to find Li already confronting Hoku.
Suspicion had alighted in his pale irises as he considered Hoku intently.
"All this while, you've feigned ignorance, and it appears your companion was equally unacquainted with this discussion. So, tell me: Where did you come to learn this term? Unfortunately, the abundance of illusions here makes it impossible to dismiss this new revelation of yours."
To be continued…