'How the hell am I supposed to get across?'
The city sat like an island, surrounded by darkness that seemed endless. The only thing connecting the ash desert beneath his boots to those gray walls was a bridge.
A bridge that defied any notion of subtlety.
Wide enough to let entire armies march side by side, it stretched across the abyss like a scar of black stone. Iron posts rose at regular intervals along its sides, each crowned with pale orbs that pulsed with a sickly glow. Between the posts, patches of dense shadow pooled like spilled ink.
The sight of that passage made his stomach tighten. It was the black knight's corridor all over again, a single unavoidable path that screamed trap to anyone with half a brain.
But was it really unavoidable?
'No, wait...' Rodolph always said not every path was the one that jumped out at you. He could try the shadowed bridge, or he could turn back, explore whatever lay east of the cathedral. The possibilities were endless.
He started biting his thumbnail, an old habit that always came back when the pressure hit. The metallic taste of blood mixed with ash on his lips.
'So what? What am I supposed to do without supplies?'
The problem was brutally simple: wandering through a desert under constant ashstorms was a recipe for getting lost and starving. And the thought of dying alone right after becoming an Oathbounder was more bitter than any defeat in battle.
At least on the bridge, if something killed him, it would be in a fight. Not from thirst and despair in the middle of nowhere.
'And besides... Who says there's anything better in the other direction?'
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
He spat out a bit of nail on the gray ground and stared at the bridge again. The pale lights blinked in a hypnotic rhythm, as if calling him closer. Or maybe it was just his imagination.
'Having to choose between facing hell or the unknown is exhausting...'
He took a deep breath, feeling the ashes burn his lungs, and stepped onto the bridge that connected the desert of the dead to the city of the golden tree.
The sound of his boots changed the moment they hit the black stone. It echoed hollow and dry. His body no longer sank involuntarily, which was an immediate relief.
But the bridge was even more imposing now that Kayden stood before it. The lights flickered irregularly and buzzed like angry insects.
As he walked across the bridge, the silence that dominated that place made his mind work twice as fast. This town was not a ghost town; he could sense something bad inside it, just as he had felt when he was in the cathedral. There were Djinns there.
So, confirming his almost certain suspicion, should he really try to sneak through the war-torn city? He was good at stealth, but was he good enough for this? He took a deep breath, forcing his thoughts into order.
At that moment, it wasn't just a question of whether or not he would be able to cross the city. But what he would gain from it. What would be his destination that would make it worthwhile for him to risk so much?
The human world was divided in two ways: the outsiders and the people of the wall, a safe place of convergence, where they put up walls to prevent other humans from entering, claiming overcrowding. And the collision zone, where he lived.
There were two ways to enter the walls: pay a fee that was impossible for those living in the collision zone to afford, or... become an Oathbounder.
It was obvious that those inside the walls wanted the Oathbounders for themselves; after all, they were the pinnacle of human strength. And now that Kayden had become one, he could join the high society he had always dreamed of being a part of.
Both the nearest outsider city and the entrance to the walls lay beyond this macabre city, and the lack of supplies also knocked on the door to dispel any thoughts of looking for another route. And that brought the bitter decision.
'I need to get to the other side.'
The hum of the lights was the only sound he could hear. The void beside him never seemed to change as he walked forward, until the massive gate finally came into view.
Twisted black iron rose in a mesh of bars as thick as tree trunks. Decades of rust had painted its surface the color of dried blood, and the metal groaned softly with the wind slipping through its gaps. The gate was far too grand for its purpose, more a declaration of power than an actual barrier. Between the bars were man-sized openings like toothless mouths, as if the city itself were inviting fools to step inside.
Before slipping through one of the openings, he pressed his face against the cold metal and peeked through the bars.
What he saw made his heart pound like a war drum.
The city was crawling with dead movement. Dozens of empty suits of armor patrolled the stone streets in precise military formations. Their metallic steps echoed in a sinister symphony of iron on stone. Some carried spears, others dragged long swords that scraped the ground, throwing golden sparks into the air. All moved with terrifying purpose, as if following orders from some unseen general.
His blood turned to ice. He threw himself back, pressing his spine against the gate wall, out of sight. One of the armors had stopped too close. He could hear the groan of corroded metal just meters away.
He clutched his chest with one hand and covered his mouth with the other, trying to stifle any sound. He waited for the burning of his Oathbound contract to flare, commanding him to charge into battle and fight to the death.
But the burning never came.
Kayden's worst fear ended with that accidental experiment. Not retreating didn't mean he had to attack every enemy he saw. That was a relief he clung to with all his strength.
But the relief lasted all of three seconds before reality struck.
'More knights?! What on earth? Djinns aren't just knights. Why are there so many of them in this place?'
Normally, Djinns had wilder forms, but everyone in this place was a knight, even the ball of flesh turned out to be a rotten knight at the end of the battle. That place was much more dangerous than a normal Djinn domain.
He waited until the metal footsteps faded, then slipped through one of the openings in the gate. The cold metal scraped his clothes, pulling out a nearly inaudible grunt.
'Please let no one have heard that...'
His boots touched the city stones, and he noticed the difference immediately. The sound was muffled here, as if the air were heavier. And there was something else, a constant crackling, like wood burning in a distant fire, that grew louder with each step.
The tree. It had to be the tree.
He pressed himself against the nearest wall, a dark stone building rising at impossible angles. The architecture was bizarre, windows that led nowhere opened in the middle of walls, spiral staircases climbed entire facades for no reason. It was as if the city had been built by someone following the logic of a fever dream.
A patrol of three armors marched down the main street, their spears striking the ground in a hypnotic rhythm. Kayden held his breath until they vanished into a side alley.
'Okay, they have fixed routes. I can use that.'
He moved from shadow to shadow, always keeping a wall at his back. The sound of the burning tree grew louder, no longer distant crackles but a low roar that made his bones vibrate. It was like the city itself was breathing fire.
The closer he got to the center, the stranger the buildings became. Towers curved like swan necks, bridges linked buildings in midair forming a web of stone, and everywhere were windows glowing with pale light from no visible source.
Then he turned a corner and almost ran into a motionless suit of armor.
His heart stopped.
The creature was less than two meters away, its back turned to him, apparently watching something down the adjacent street. Kayden could see every detail of the armor, the cracks in the metal, the rust stains like dried blood, the way the hollow helmet moved slightly as if breathing.
'Hide. Now.'
Without thinking, he dove into a narrow gap in the wall, a space between two stones barely wide enough for his body. The armor kept turning, its head passing right over where he had been seconds earlier.
The sound of the burning tree swelled to a deafening roar, drowning out his rapid breathing.
The armor stopped. It stayed there, unmoving, its helmet aimed directly at Kayden's hiding spot. Seconds stretched into hours. Cold sweat slid down his back, mixing with the stone dust as he pressed himself tighter against the wall.
'Did it see me? Didn't it? Why isn't it moving?'
Slowly, painfully slowly, the armor took a step toward his hiding place.
Kayden's chest began to burn.