Chapter 28: Storm on the Horizon

In a world shrouded in darkness, with only a small corner illuminated by faint light, a curled figure was revealed. A young girl trembled and hid herself in the dimly lit recess.

All around her, there was nothing but the void and an endless abyss. She recalled how she had been marked by the void after using her latent ability for the first time.

Only her mother's comforting voice had managed to provide her with some solace during that frightening period.

Now, though, as she looked around and saw lifeless bodies collapsed by the liminal boundary where light met darkness—even without looking closely at them, their forms jumped out. She was intimately familiar with the bodies, those of her father, younger brother, elder brother...

Another body, ethereal and fading, lay further out, almost entirely shrouded by darkness. Was that her mother? The young girl didn't dare dream of it.

She curled more tightly into herself. It felt as if she had been thrown back into that filthy, grim prison. This time, however, there was no one who would burst in, bloodsoaked, to unshackle her chains.

Loneliness wrapped around Avia like bindings of steel. The formless bindings were loneliness and misery made manifest.

Avia was a strong and unyielding girl, but that didn't mean she wanted to suffer loss.

Having experienced the joys of companionship and precious, worry-free days, she didn't want to, didn't dare to, lose them again.

But now, the absence of hope, the isolation—it weighed on her like a flood of sorrow that choked the breath from her lungs.

In this surreal space, as she sank deeper into despair, she found herself plunging down toward the depths of darkness.

"Tap, tap, tap!" A sound rang out.Rhythmic knocks echoed throughout the stillness, like slivers of light illuminating the void.

Cracks splintered the air as thin lines of light carved through the pitch-black void.

The world of her ethereal nightmare, perhaps a remnant of the mindflayer's lingering grip, slowly vanished.

In some sense, mindflayers chased after and thrived on chaos, and their nightmares embodied the same principles.

Those nightmares were amplified and distorted in those with particularly strong affinity to the void.

Perhaps they represented some corrupted, chaotic vision of the future ahead.

Rubbing her reddened eyes, Avia pushed herself off her workbench. Her hands brushed over a few scattered drops of moisture, seemingly tears from when she had drifted off into slumber.

A small, unfinished knife lay on the table, carefully carved with intricate magical circuitry.

Because the blade was small, the precision of the runes was even more remarkable. The engravings were detailed beyond belief.

Outside, the sun was gradually sinking below the horizon.

The landscape blazed with the burning hues of sunset, the colors vivid but ominous, as if the blood of the heavens themselves was being set aflame.

"Thunk, thunk, thunk," came from the window. Wang Yu had been striking a tree outside the cottage with his sword bound in cloth. The tree trembled from each blow, its bark riddled with dents and scars from his relentless training.

It must have been the sound of his drills that had stirred Avia from her nightmare. She watched him from the window.

Just seeing him brought her an unexpected sense of calm. The fear that had gripped her mind began to vanish.

At least she wasn't alone.

Suddenly, Wang Yu stopped mid-swing.

His body tensed as he stared into the distance.

Avia sensed it too—a shift in the air. Wang Yu was alert, his posture rigid with caution. Avia's heart skipped a beat. Anxiety flooded back into her body.

"What...?" She felt the ground tremble beneath her feet.

A low rumble reverberated through the air. From where she stood, Avia couldn't see what was happening outside, but the sound continued to filter in.

It was like the clattering of bones, ceaseless and hollow.

It sent a chill down her spine, as if countless bones were being ground together, skeletal remains colliding over and over again, merging into an endless cacophony.

Avia's heart pounded. Something terrible was coming.

Unable to remain inside, she hurriedly got up. Wang Yu, standing like a sentinel, continued to gaze toward the horizon, alert but calm. Was he always this way?

Avia grabbed the half-finished knife from her table and rushed out of the workshop, heading straight for Wang Yu.

Wang Yu's shadow, stretched by the setting sun, gave Avia an odd feeling.

"Wang Yu..." she began, her voice faint. Wang Yu, however, had long since noticed her advance.

He narrowed his eyes and pointed at the horizon. Avia looked over. Her breath caught in her throat.

What was that? A massive figure loomed on the horizon, mowing through the landscape with overwhelming force. It flattened everything in its path—trees, rivers, even hills.

The setting sun bathed the enormous creature in a blood-red glow.

It was a colossal monstrosity made entirely of bones, a haphazard mess that was nevertheless somehow orderly. Countless skeletons—human, beast, elf, even dragon—had been fused into a single grotesque form.

Avia's mind reeled. Its swollen, serpentine body, undulating like a mountain ridge, crept across the land and left naught but ruin in its wake.

To Wang Yu, it looked more like a train of bone, carrying passengers who were never to disembark.

At the head of the massive entity was a skull so large it was the size of a small hill.

Its hollow eyes were like a void of darkness, an endless expanse within which countless stars twinkled.

Just what was this existence? A giant, a titan? Divinity?

Who could have killed such a formidable foe?

The massive, skeletal creature ignored everything around it as it snaked its way toward its destination.

It vanished over the horizon, leaving nothing but a trail of ruin and destruction behind.

"War has begun," Wang Yu murmured. His expression was more severe than Avia had ever seen before.

Whenever he grew this serious, something terrible was bound to happen. Last time, he had recklessly attempted to kill Beran at the cost of his body and life.

"War? How do you know?" The girl was confused. How had Wang Yu linked such a horrific creature to the onset of war?

"It's the Ossuary," Wang Yu said. "One of the oldest monsters of this continent. It's been around since the start of human history, and has only grown in size since. That skull, though... that skull has always been the same."

Wang Yu had spent the last few months diligently learning more about the history of the world. Every strange legend, every historical event, had been engraved in his mind—or recorded within the Endless Pages. In some ways, his understanding of these legends had matched Avia's.

"Some scholars believe that it's a living curio. It's ridiculously strong. Nothing can truly harm it. There were kingdoms that tried to stand against it, but they all failed. Their armies were all absorbed and transformed into part of the Ossuary itself...

"There was once a legendary necromancer who attempted to study the Ossuary, but the moment he activated his soul-sight, he went mad. As he howled, his body twisted and broke. His own skeleton ripped away from his flesh and ran into the Ossuary to join the mass of bones within. The last thing the necromancer left behind was a painting, the canvas of which was his own flesh and bones. He drew the Ossuary as a mountain of bones, with spectral figures trapped in their own skeletons, screaming in endless agony."

The Ossuary gathered not just bones, but the souls that were forevermore chained to them, imprisoned within the bones they once animated. This had influenced Wang Yu's conception of the Ossuary as a train of passengers never to disembark...

"It disappears for centuries at a time. No one knows where it goes when it vanishes, but whenever it reappears, perhaps after centuries, perhaps after millennia, death will follow..."

"Does it bring about death?" Avia's voice trembled. If this monstrous thing was the source of destruction, what could possibly keep it at bay? Surely nothing less than a god!

"No." Wang Yu shook his head. "It doesn't cause death. Strange as it might seem, it isn't dangerous. It doesn't attack anything, and all the bones in its body are only from the dead it collects. If you stand in its way, it won't strike back. It'll roll over you and crush whatever lies in its path. It never strays from its course, and doesn't tend to appear in populated areas.

"It appears for one reason only: to gather the bones of the dead. No one knows why, or what it does with them, but its presence must mean that countless have already died. It only shows up wherever death has bloomed."

Wang Yu turned to Avia, his eyes dark. "And what does that tell you?"

Avia, ever sharp and perceptive, understood his implication immediately.

A terrible premonition gripped her. Her voice quivered with doubt.

"War must have already begun... and on a massive scale at that."

Wang Yu nodded grimly. "I think so."He hated war. He truly loathed it.

War was like quicksand, pulling everything into its chaotic depths and leaving nothing unscathed.

It was a whirlpool that would drown everything in its wake.

If it were up to him, Wang Yu would want nothing more than peace, to explore the world at his leisure, to plumb its secrets, and to grow strong at his own pace.

Perhaps one day, he would be able to find a powerful enough mage to help him return to his own world. Even if that weren't possible, he wouldn't dwell on it too much.

But the winds of war were something he couldn't stop. It had been nine months since he and Avia had met. In three more months, his journey would begin anew.

Wang Yu stretched. He felt the strain of standing still for too long. His muscles ached; his eyes stung from staring at the fading sun.

The Ossuary had vanished, disappearing beyond the horizon, leaving only its ruinous trail behind.

There was no point in dwelling on things any longer, Wang Yu supposed. Worrying never helped. He would have to take action to survive what was to come. What he needed was strength.

Only by becoming stronger could he face what was coming. Only through power could he protect what mattered.

Wang Yu wasn't one to wallow in indecision. He believed that, when the time came, the way forward would reveal itself. For now, his focus was clear. He had to grow stronger so that he could take on whatever the future threw at him.

Avia watched his expression shift from grim determination to calm acceptance, and then to optimism.

She was struck by how natural the transformation had been. Such was Wang Yu, after all. No matter the scale of the problem, he always faced it with calm stoicism.

"Avia," Wang Yu suddenly began. "When do you plan on returning home?"

"Home?" Avia repeated, surprised. She hadn't thought about home in quite a while—but as the word sank in, she realized that it was time.

She needed to go back "home," a place that had become so foreign to her. The familiar castle, the people she had lost—but her mother was still there, and as long as her mother was alive, that was home enough.

"It's time," Avia sighed. These past few months had been too peaceful, a stretch of idyllic calm all the more valuable for its rarity. She couldn't afford to stay here for much longer.

War was brewing. The turmoil in the capital would only intensify.

She couldn't be a burden to her mother any longer. She had to stand on her own and deal with her own battles. She couldn't cower in a corner as she had before.

After all, there wouldn't always be a bloody, half-crazed stranger who would burst into her life and save her.

"I have to return and help my mother. The struggles among the nobility will only intensify. Though we've lost our title and our lands, the wealth and resources we've accumulated through the years will make us a target for many."

Avia's voice carried a note of worry. Deep unease gnawed at her, a premonition of worse things to come.

"Let me escort you back, then," Wang Yu said, his tone casual but firm.

His "growth spurt" would end in just a few months. It was time to double down on his training; there was no time to waste.

Picking up his sword, Wang Yu continued to attack the trees. His strikes resumed with practiced precision.

As he trained, Avia pulled out the knife that she had been crafting from the strange material Wang Yu had given her.

The blade gleamed in the fading light, its surface shimmering with an otherworldly hue. The intricate, though yet incomplete, magical circuitry engraved on it pulsed faintly.

She had made her decision. She would finish this piece of magical equipment, and then return home.

A storm was brewing. War rose over the horizon.