They moved through the alley ways, In the view of the setting sun the city glowed golden. They passed through various houses and rooftops littered with flesh and bones.
Because they were so exhausted, they decided to not bring the mysterious egg with them and leave it behind
When suddenly their eyes darted around and landed on the main peak of Ishtara Mountain range.
Past the rooftops of the abandoned inner-city, across the yawning valley, the Main Peak rose like a wall of god-forged stone.
And upon its lower slopes sprawled another city,
far larger, far grander.
White marble structures terraced around the mountain in massive circular rings.
Bridges of pale stone arched between towers.
Colossal statues of forgotten warriors lined the cliffs.
And above
A Black Fortress. A castle rose beyond the golden clouds
Jagged.
Massive.
Clinging to the summit like a parasite.
Above it, the eerie, mysterious mist flowed within.
'The castle...
Is this the castle described in the description of the winged beast?' Sol thought for a moment.
Everyone saw the magnificent kingdom basked with golden light, but instead of being in awe, they became more anxious.
Solace was still relatively calm.
Yes he was afraid of dying, and yes he was anxious about the cohorts' health too. In the time in this mountain, there were many times he saved Nolan's mother, and they had formed a bond, There was a distinction. It was clear that she looked after Nolan the most and that's understandable, After all this was the first time she saw her own child in a decade. But she was also very caring of others in the cohort.
Lily and I were not the best friends, but we were certainly not strangers. And to be honest, I don't think anyone would die. In the back of my mind, I still think that we would make it out alive, simply because I was with the main characters of this world. The most I am worried about is Veyra, she wasn't an important character in the novel.
Sol felt conflicted in his mind about all this, In his heart he didn't want to reduce the people in this world to simple characters. He wanted to see them as real people. Cause deep down he noticed that if continues to degrade them then one day he will not care even for his family and will become some psycho who thinks others are less of a person than him.
He exhaled a sharp breath and decided to stop his train of thought. The sun had set below, and the moon was climbing the sky, But the golden rays of the sun were still radiating the whole place.
It is said that it takes 8 mins for the light to travel to us, And seeing the moon this were the last rays of the sun.
They were moving towards the front of the mountain, towards the other end of the peak.
Currently, they were moving along the broad paved roads that were circling the outer slope of the mountain, Towards the far terraces which led to the cliff on the other side.
If they kept the pace, they would reach the other end in 6–7 hours.
In short, they would reach the other end before the night ends.
As soon as the last ray of sun extinguished, Something started to rise from the depth of the valley. Something sinister and Evil.
At first, a sound of waves crashing reverberated through the mountain. Then, after a moment of silence, the dead bodies and rotten corpses that were littered around them started to bleed.
One by one, every piece of flesh became alive.
Everyone froze.
A faint, wet drip… drip… sounded behind them. Then ahead. Then everywhere.
Sol looked down.
A pale hand severed at the wrist trembled on the stone beside his boot. Blackened tissue writhed. Veins pulsed faintly.
Then the hand curled into a fist.
"… Oh hell no," Sol breathed.
All around them, the corpses strewn across the marble streets began to jolt. Rotten beasts. Shriveled human soldiers. Fragments of flesh. Disembodied limbs.
Every piece of dead matter bled.
Thin streams of thick, congealed blood slithered along the stone, pulled toward the valley in a single direction
Sara staggered backward, hand over her mouth. "Oh gods…"
A corpse of a long-decayed elk heaved itself upright, its spine snapping into alignment, ribs cracking like old wood. Its skull turned with a creak, empty sockets staring directly at her.
Veyra's voice sliced through the thickening dread.
"Form up! Do not let yourselves get surrounded!"
But it was already too late.
The entire street ahead stirred—hundreds of corpses sloughing across stone, as if dragged by invisible strings.
Lex cracked his knuckles, bone reinforcing his arms.
"Alright," he said.
The elk-limb corpse lunged first.
Sol blocked with chains, jerking back at the smell of mold and cold sewage. Phoebe slashed with her sword, cleaving through two more. Lily and Lex went back-to-back, cutting and smashing with sharp precision.
But
There were too many.
For every corpse they broke, three more rose and staggered toward them.
A tidal wave of rot.
Veyra's chain split a street open with force, crushing dozens, but her breathing was already strained; the poison had crawled deeper into her veins.
"WE CAN'T STAY!" Nolan yelled over the chaos. "There's no end to them!"
Vivi dashed to Sara's side, healing thread glowing faintly as she tried to keep the woman's breathing stable.
A massive, houndlike corpse—a thing with three fractured jaws and bones jutting from its spine—charged, forcing Sol and Nolan to shove it back together.
Sol gritted his teeth, muscles straining. They couldn't fight an endless mob of dead corpses. The corpses were fragile, But their power lied in numbers.
So they ran.
The pristine terraces blurred under their feet. The golden glow of the city had turned into a nightmare mosaic white marble, splattered with crawling shadows and veins of blood.
Every alleyway churned. Every plaza pulsed with movement. The dead converged on them from every direction.
Lex carried Lily for a stretch—she was too poisoned to sprint without stumbling.
Phoebe threw icicles over her shoulder, shattering skulls chasing them.
Nolan used shield bursts to knock away corpse-piles collapsing toward the group.
Vivi kept flicking her thread of Heal to keep Nolan's mother conscious, even as exhaustion painted her face white.
Hours blurred into one long sprint.
By the time they reached the far terraces, their legs felt carved from stone.
And still the dead came.
Suddenly, a shadow loomed ahead
A towering structure loomed ahead—a narrow watchtower built into the slope, its marble surface cracked but intact.
"Inside!" Veyra shouted.
They bolted.
The door had rotted away centuries ago, but the interior stairwell spiraled upward sharply.
Sol, Nolan, Phoebe, and Lex jammed fallen marble chunks into the entrance while Vivi helped Sara up the stairs.
Corpses slammed into the blocked threshold, wet thumps. Sickening cracks. Claws scraping stone.
But the barrier held.
For now.
The group staggered up to the second floor—a large chamber with shattered windows overlooking the valley and the city's darkened rooftops.
Everyone collapsed.
Even Veyra slid down the wall, clutching her side as the poison gnawed at her strength.
Vivi immediately kneeled beside Sara, channeling another burst of healing.
Sara's eyes fluttered open weakly.
"Thank you… sweetheart."
Vivi forced a smile. "Just… stay with us, okay?"
Lily dropped onto her back, breathing in shallow, pained gasps. Phoebe sat beside her, inspecting the purple streak climbing Lily's arm.
Sol leaned against a broken pillar, listening to the muffled sounds of corpses below.
Veyra finally spoke.
"Three hours. Maybe four before sunrise." She looked around, exhausted but steady.
Veyra exhaled, leaning her head back against the cold stone.
"We'll be close to the far end of the peak when we continue. If we push hard… we can reach it by tomorrow afternoon." Her voice softened. "So rest. Eat nothing. Drink nothing. Just breathe."
Sol nodded.
His stomach felt like a hollow crater, but he didn't argue.
Outside the window, the moon hung over the black fortress across the valley.
He shivered.