Advent of the Three Calamities

’The Great Sun is aware of my presence.’

That was the only conclusion I could come to as I stared at the open passage, feeling the faint current of air coming from within while the white formations lining the walls continued to glow.

"Human."

Owl-Mighty’s voice sounded more serious than before, its claws pressing faintly against my shoulder as it shifted.

"...I know."

"No. You don’t."

My brows furrowed slightly.

"You know that something is wrong, but you’re still planning on moving forward. That is not the action you would normally take."

"..."

I couldn’t deny that.

I could tell that there was something wrong with me.

And yet—

"Let’s keep going."

"Human."

There was nothing inside from what I could see.

There was no presence or obvious sign of an ambush, and regardless of how far I spread my threads or [Mana Sense], I couldn’t detect a single thing waiting for me on the other side.

And yet, I knew.

The Great Sun was watching.

A faint pressure formed inside my chest as I thought about him.

There was no point in trying to convince myself that I could somehow deal with him if things went wrong. I’d seen enough of his strength in the past to understand the difference between us. Even after everything I’d accomplished, even with how much stronger I’d become, I was still nowhere near his level.

If he appeared before me with the intention of killing me, there was very little I could do.

Perhaps I could escape.

Maybe.

But beating him?

’Impossible.’

My fingers slowly curled, yet despite understanding that much, my feet refused to move backward.

Noel was somewhere beyond that passage.

"Haa."

I drew a slow breath.

"If he wanted to kill me, he would’ve done it already."

"That doesn’t mean he intends to let you leave."

"...I know."

And then I moved forward.

The moment my foot crossed the threshold, a deep grinding sound echoed through the passage.

Krrrrr—

My head snapped around.

The door behind me didn’t close. Instead, another set of white lines had illuminated farther ahead, stretching toward the next section of the corridor as though responding to my presence.

"..."

Almost as if telling me where to go.

My lips pressed together.

’Fine.’

I continued.

The passage was considerably cleaner than the ones I had gone through earlier. There was hardly any dust along the floor, and the formations running across the walls looked properly maintained.

This place was used quite a lot.

That much was obvious.

What bothered me more was the fact that the deeper I walked, the less I had to think about where I was going.

There were no useless turns or dead ends. Whenever I reached an intersection, one passage would already be open while the others remained sealed beneath layers of white formations.

The first time it happened, I stopped and inspected everything carefully.

The second time, I did the same.

By the third—

I simply followed the open passage.

"Human."

"...Later."

The owl fell quiet again.

My footsteps echoed through the corridor as the temperature slowly dropped around me. There was something strange about the sound, and after several steps, I finally slowed.

Step. Step—!

I stopped.

The noise disappeared.

"..."

I moved again.

Step.

Then—

Step.

My body froze.

The second sound had come a fraction of a second after mine.

Slowly, I turned my head.

There was nobody behind me.

Only the narrow passage that I had come from, its white markings casting a faint glow against the stone.

My threads immediately spread backward, searching every corner and every gap that could possibly hide something.

Nothing.

"...I’m imagining things."

I moved again.

This time, nothing followed.

Still, the sensation at the back of my neck remained.

Eventually, I passed by a narrow opening in the wall and caught sight of something black from the corner of my eye.

"Hm?"

I stopped and looked inside.

At first, I thought it was simply another room that hadn’t been illuminated, but the longer I stared, the more I realized that the darkness wasn’t normal.

The darkness moved.

Thin black strands crawled slowly across the interior walls, pressing repeatedly against a transparent film of white light that covered the room.

Whenever one of the strands touched the barrier—

Tssss—

—it recoiled.

My expression changed.

’Outer energy?’

I knew that sensation all too well.

My body instinctively tensed as something within the darkness shifted.

For just the briefest of moments, I had the strange sensation that I wasn’t the one looking into the room anymore.

Something inside was looking out.

At me.

"..."

My fingers twitched.

Something whispered into my ear.

It wasn’t even a word. It sounded more like the breath someone took just before speaking, so close that the hairs along my neck immediately stood.

I pulled my gaze away.

[Outer Hand]

A thin white film spread around my body, and the sensation gradually faded.

"Haa..."

My chest rose slowly.

’So this place isn’t just meant to keep Noel contained.’

There was something else here.

Perhaps several things.

For the first time, I started to understand why Dawn had gone through such lengths to hide the underground structure.

But that wasn’t why I was here.

I continued forward.

Behind me, the black strands remained trapped within the room. For several seconds, I could’ve sworn that something scratched against the other side of the barrier.

I didn’t turn around.

***

Far above the passages beneath Karah Togg, a lone figure stood beneath the pale light of the second sun.

The streets around him were empty, washed in that strange golden-white glow as the heat rising from the stone distorted the buildings in the distance. Atlas remained perfectly still among it all, his golden eyes closed while the hot wind brushed quietly against his clothes, carrying dust past his feet without so much as making him move.

For a moment, there was nothing but the wind.

Then his lips parted.

"...He should be almost there."

Atlas’s voice carried softly through the empty street as his eyes slowly opened.

"Tharvek didn’t disappoint me either."

The Dune Conqueror had always been rather simple to understand. Greedy enough to covet what wasn’t his, yet cautious enough not to reach for something that might cut off his hand.

Giving him Noel’s hand had never been about helping him locate Noel.

Tharvek had realized there was something suspicious about the opportunity almost immediately, and so he’d done precisely what Atlas expected him to do.

He found somebody else to follow the trail.

And of all people—

he chose Julien.

"...Another expected outcome."

Drawn by the blood, and with Tharvek distributing it, it was only natural for him to try making a connection.

Atlas’s gaze lifted toward the pale sky.

Perhaps Tharvek believed that he was using his new guard.

Perhaps Julien believed that he was using Tharvek.

Neither mattered.

They had both moved exactly where he expected them to.

"Emmet was always the difficult one."

His expression slowly faded.

But the current Emmet was not the same Emmet of the past. He had yet to let go of his obsession. No matter how much he tried to convince himself that he had, deep down, it was still there.

Everything was proceeding exactly as he expected, his gaze slowly drifting downward.

Towards a lone figure crossing the street below, her robe concealing most of her form as the pale sun stretched across the stone.

For a moment, nothing else seemed to move.

Then, beneath that washed-out light...

White hair entered his vision.

***

I didn’t know how much time had passed.

Five minutes?

Ten?

It felt considerably longer.

The passage continued downward, and the deeper I went, the denser the formations became. At some point, I stopped bothering with [Mana Sense] altogether.

There was no point.

It only showed me what whoever controlled this place wanted me to see.

That realization should’ve been enough for me to stop.

It didn’t.

I continued to head down, my heart pressing tighter and tighter against my chest.

Then—

Krrrrr—

Another door opened.

The moment it did, I froze.

The air that drifted from beyond it was different, a metallic scent hitting my nostrils almost immediately.

My heart tightened further.

My feet moved before my mind could even come to the decision.

I crossed through the doorway.

A large chamber appeared before me, its walls covered almost entirely in white formations that stretched toward the center of the room.

That was where a single figure sat with his head lowered.

Chains wrapped around his arms, legs, and chest, digging into his skin as faint white light pulsed through them every few seconds.

My breathing stopped.

"..."

For a moment, everything else disappeared from my thoughts.

The Great Sun.

The trap.

The visions.

Leon.

None of it mattered.

My eyes remained fixed on the figure before me.

His hair was longer than I remembered, and his clothes were torn in several places. His skin looked abnormally pale beneath the light, with several marks visible along his arms.

But I knew him.

How could I not?

"...N-oel."

The words came out almost in a stutter. But as if sensing me, the figure shook.

Slowly, his head lifted.

His eyes looked tired.

So tired that for a moment, he seemed incapable of understanding what he was seeing.

Then his pupils constricted slightly.

"...Br..."

Something inside my chest collapsed.

"H-ha."

A strange sound escaped my mouth.

I didn’t know whether I wanted to laugh or cry.

After everything I’d gone through...

I finally found him.

My foot moved forward.

"Human."

Owl-Mighty called out from my shoulder.

I ignored it and took another step.

Noel’s expression remained fixed on me.

Eventually—

"Y-you... fool."

***

Kiera moved alone through the lower streets of Karah Togg, her hood pulled low enough to keep most of her face hidden.

She still didn’t know where Julien had gone.

"...That bastard."

She clicked her tongue and tightened her grip beneath her sleeve.

Something had been wrong with him even before he disappeared. The way he’d spoken to Leon, the look in his eyes when he was speaking to him...

He wasn’t thinking straight.

And if nobody stopped him, he was eventually going to do something he couldn’t take back.

Kiera exhaled through her nose.

"Fucking hypocrite."

He was always the one forcing his way into everyone else’s problems.

Now that it was his turn, he vanished.

Typical.

She turned into another street.

’I’ll find him.’

She didn’t really have an idea of where to find him, but the last time she recalled, he was supposed to be some sort of guard.

If she could find something, good.

If she didn’t...

"Ugh. Fucking sun."

Kiera had only taken a few more steps when the light above her suddenly changed.

The pale sun brightened.

It wasn’t by much, but just enough to bleach the color from the buildings around her.

Kiera stopped.

"...?"

Heat pressed against her almost instantly.

She raised an arm to shield her eyes.

"It’s unbearable. How do people even live here?"

This damn heat.

Her gaze lifted toward the pale sun.

For a moment, her eyes lingered over the two suns that hovered in the sky. She could see them clearly, unlike when she had been in the lowest floor.

Her breath caught.

A hand pressed against the back of her neck.

"...!"

A voice whispered right after.

"That’s one."

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