"Aren't you having too much fun?"
The voice of the Usurper rang in my mind, coiling around my thoughts like a snake.
"...After all you've done?"
A pause.
Something twisted in my chest. A memory clawed at the edges of my mind, half-formed, half-forgotten.
"What do you mean by that?"
I asked, though something deep inside already knew the answer.
"You know full well what I mean… Well, we'll see what fate holds for you."
And just like that, he was gone, leaving me as the only soul awake beneath the dark sky. But his presence lingered—an aftertaste of something rotten.
Dawn did not wait for me. Its golden rays stretched across the horizon, warming my skin. Soon, the others stirred, and our journey resumed.
The blonde girl made an unusual effort to stick close to me. I wasn't sure why—she had nothing to gain from it. But I wasn't about to complain. Her presence was… pleasant. Familiar, in a way that unsettled me.
The monoliths grew denser as we traveled, towering like petrified trees in a forest of stone. Wind howled through the holes and cracks in the rock, filling the air with a haunting wail. It sounded like voices—whispers carried on the wind.
A flicker of movement. Just a trick of the light.
The knight's voice cut through the eerie atmosphere.
"This sound could drown out any noise from a potential ambush. Stay on your guard."
The girl beside me shivered slightly.
"Creepy, huh? Feels like we're walking through a graveyard."
I glanced at her.
"Have you been through here before?"
"Once. Didn't stop to admire the scenery, though."
She hesitated before adding,
"But I've heard stories. You?"
"First time."
She looked at me sideways.
"Really? You don't act like it."
"How am I supposed to act?"
"Like a normal person."
She gave a lopsided grin.
"You don't gawk at the scenery, you don't complain, and you don't look scared. You just—"
she gestured vaguely
"—exist. Like someone who's been through all this before."
I smirked.
"Maybe I have."
Her expression flickered. Not surprise—something closer to recognition. A shadow passed through her eyes before she covered it with another grin.
"See? That's what I mean. You talk like a man with too many secrets."
"And that interests you?"
"Of course it does."
She nudged me lightly with her elbow.
"I like figuring people out. You're either the world's calmest mercenary or…"
She trailed off, studying me.
"Or what?"
She hesitated, just for a moment.
"Nothing. Just… reminds me of someone."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Someone good or someone bad?"
A smirk, but her eyes didn't match it.
"Haven't decided yet. But I will."
I chuckled.
"Good luck with that."
Her smirk widened, but before she could say more, the knight raised a hand, signaling a halt.
Something moved between the monoliths.
A shadow, shifting unnaturally.
Before I could react, a blade erupted from my chest. A sharp, searing pain followed.
Blood dripped from my lips as I turned my head, catching a glimpse of the attacker—a man cloaked in dark robes.
He twisted the blade, sending a fresh wave of agony through me, then planted his foot against my back and kicked me to the ground.
A scream.
"NO!"
The blonde girl's voice, raw with emotion.
The clash of steel rang through the air.
And then—darkness.
No… not the darkness of death.
The sky itself had vanished.
The monoliths pulsed with a sickly glow. The wind stopped.
A murmur of confusion. Even the assassin seemed bewildered. His hurried footsteps faded into the distance as he fled.
I was being carried.
The girl's voice trembled.
"Fuck… I won't let you die on me. Not another one… Not again…"
Tears. Why was she so worked up? Did it really matter?
A deafening roar erupted behind us, shaking the ground.
And then—I slipped into unconsciousness.
Then—his voice.
"See? This is what I told you."
The Usurper.
My vision swam, then slowly cleared. The flickering glow of embers. My body ached.
The girl lay beside me, asleep. Blood stained her face. Her right eye was… gone, like it had been clawed out.
Across the fire, the rough-looking mercenary sat on a log, his head in his hand. His other arm—missing.
The knight stepped out of the darkness. His eyes widened at the sight of me.
"How are you up?"
He hesitated.
"No, scrap that… how are you even alive?"
I didn't have an answer.
"...I don't know."
He exhaled sharply, running a hand over his face.
"...Rest up. We'll talk tomorrow."
The noble's butler handed me a bowl of soup, his expression unreadable. I ate in silence, my body too weak to care for anything else. Sleep soon followed—I had no strength to stand, let alone defend the noble.
Yet even in unconsciousness, there was no peace.
The Usurper loomed in the depths of my mind, his presence pressing ever closer. Every moment of rest was a battle to keep him at bay.
A voice pulled me back to the waking world.
The girl.
She must have heard from the knight that I was still alive. A look of relief crossed her face as she saw me awake, but something in her gaze had changed. Beyond her, I spotted the noble sitting on the steps of his carriage, staring into nothingness. His once-arrogant expression had been hollowed out by trauma.
We couldn't linger. The knight made it clear—we had to reach the gate before another ambush. If we were attacked again, we wouldn't survive.
As we traveled, he explained what had happened after I blacked out.
When my blood splattered onto the monolith, it ignited with an eerie glow, and the sky darkened. Then… something appeared. A creature unseen. Spikes had erupted from the ground, and in the chaos, the rough-looking mercenary lost his arm. The knight barely deflected an attack as the girl was lifted into the air, her eye clawed out.
By all logic, they shouldn't have survived. The attacks were relentless, yet the creature showed no real interest in them. It did not pursue them. It simply… left.
The noble had seen something—though he refused to speak of it. He was still arrogant, but now it felt more like an act. Fleeting. Hollow.
The knight demanded answers about my unnatural recovery. I gave him as little as I could. I told him it was tied to something beyond me, but I could not speak of the Usurper.
The blonde girl caught up to us, her hair now covering her missing eye. She spoke little, a stark contrast to her lively self from the day before. Yet every now and then, she glanced at me, as if searching for something.
As we continued down the road, a silhouette formed on the horizon—a tower, piercing the sky.
We had arrived at the gate.