The ground vibrated with every step the golems took.They didn't need to run — they were the terrain.Lihuen backed away again, eyes locked on their towering shapes, carved from living stone and moved by a logic as old as the place itself.
One of them raised a massive arm and brought it down in a vertical strike. The impact shattered a slab with a dull crash, flinging up a cloud of scorching dust.Lihuen rolled aside, caught his balance, and ran without thinking — Sen leaping at his side.
He darted between two stone legs, slid beneath a collapsed arch, rebounded off a wall in a desperate wall-run. One ledge. Then another.He wasn't fleeing: he was improvising.Every second bought was another second alive.
But the Domain didn't ease its grip.
A new sound rose behind him.Lighter.Faster.A spiraling rush of wind.
He turned just in time to see new entities emerge from a fractured wall.More slender.More fluid.
Silhouettes of fragmented stone, animated not by muscle, but by air — currents channeled through twisted mineral spirals.Their arms floated, disjointed, carried by invisible breath.With each movement, the air hissed like a blade.
One of them swept between two columns. The stone split cleanly.No warning cry.It lunged.
Ahead — a gap.
A low rupture, half hidden beneath a collapsed vault. Too tight for the giants. Too winding for the wind.But for him…
He dove.
Sen followed in the same breath.
The wind chased them — but broke against the shape of the passage.The golems stopped at the entrance.Not out of fatigue.But constraint.
Here, they couldn't enter.
And suddenly — silence.
Not the absence of sound — a deep calm. Stable. Almost natural.
Lihuen caught his breath.He was standing at the edge of a long, enclosed inner canyon.The rock here was no longer raw — it had been worn down, polished, smoothed by centuries of water.
A thin river snaked along the fault.Streams trickled down the walls in clear, glistening ribbons.A soft blue light glowed from fissures in the floor.Not bright. But enough.Soothing.
At the far end — a curtain of water.
Not a roaring cascade, but a slow fall, quiet, suspended in eternal motion.It flowed with no urgency.As if time itself moved slower here.
Lihuen sat against a warm slab of stone.His side ached — he touched a lump below his ribs. A bruise. Maybe a crack.
Not serious.But enough to force him to rest a while.
He closed his eyes.
Sen lay curled beside him. Calm. Watchful.
There was nothing left to do for now.No more running.No more dodging blows.
He exhaled deeply.
Here, the Domain did not attack him.
Not yet.
He fell asleep.The sound of the water was like an ancient lullaby.
And as he slept, the Domain breathed around him.
He woke without a jolt.Just that blurry moment when awareness rises slowly, as if the world were being gentle.
The light hadn't changed. It didn't need to.It bathed the walls like mineral vapor — steady, almost warm.The river still flowed through the fissure.Sen still slept, curled up against the stone, her breathing slow.
Lihuen inhaled deeply.
And instantly, he knew.
Something had changed.
Not a gift.Not a power from above.But a sensation.
Clearer.More fluid.His body no longer screamed as before. He still hurt — yes — but it wasn't pure pain anymore.More like a tension, ready to release.His muscles responded faster.He could feel their movement, their inertia.
He stood.
No dizziness.His breath steady.His leg — sore the day before — extended smoothly.
He took a few steps. Then, without thinking, shifted twice across a sloped rock.He found balance without effort.
He stood still for a moment. Then sighed.
— Well… either I'm dreaming, or I'm becoming a little less useless.
He looked at his hands. His palm.The rune glowed gently, as if breathing with him.
— So this is it, huh? The Nebulous Path…
He turned in place. Loosened up.Stretched.Every movement, no matter how small, seemed to settle better.More grounded.
He spoke softly. Not to be heard — but to arrange what he was feeling.
— I haven't learned to fight.Didn't get some miracle technique.But… it's like my body wants to understand.Like, after taking enough hits, it's learning how not to take them again.
He paused.Looked toward the waterfall at the canyon's end.
— Looks like serenity helps, after all.
He smiled — just a little, in spite of himself.
— Good. Because walking back out there to get crushed by giant statues wasn't on my to-do list.
He looked around.
The place was vast. Tranquil.Peaceful, yes — but not dead.There were places to shelter. To climb.Water, space, solid stone.
A training ground, in essence.
He bent his knees. Stretched. Touched the ground.No movement was perfect.But each one was just a little cleaner than yesterday.
He closed his eyes for a moment.Visualized a strike. A dodge. A throw.Just with his body.No magic.No help.
He opened his eyes.
— All right. If I'm going to earn this Title, it starts here.
He glanced at Sen.
— You up for training again?
She barely lifted her lids. Then stood.
Without a sound.
Ready.