Tom walked slowly, dust crunching beneath his boots. His body still ached, but the wound was healing well thanks to Vera's herb.
When he crossed the border wall earlier, he had expected more ruin, more sand, more choking air. Instead, the land ahead looked different.
The ground wasn't as broken here. The air didn't carry the same heavy grit. A few patches of grass stretched out of the soil, pale and weak but alive. It wasn't beautiful, not yet, but it felt like a step into a softer place compared to the wasteland behind him.
He sat on a flat stone, pulled out the half loaf of rough bread he had saved. His teeth sank into it, and even though it was dry and tasteless, it kept him moving. As he chewed, he let his eyes wander across the horizon.
What should he do now?
The map in his menu glowed faintly, pointing toward the distant black mark of the Endless Black Ocean. But his stomach twisted with unease. Should he rush straight there? Or should he gather strength first, maybe search for other survivors? Every choice weighed like a stone.
Tom leaned back, staring at the half-broken moon above. He exhaled slowly.
"One step at a time," he murmured.
One hour later....
Tom trudged onward, the rough bread gone from his hand, his mouth dry again. His steps sank deep into the sand, leaving trails that the wind quickly began to erase.
The map on his screen pulsed faintly, a small marker glowing.
[ Endless Black Ocean ]
[ You have arrived ]
He frowned. "Arrived? Here?"
He stopped and turned slowly in place, scanning the barren stretch of desert. Nothing.
Just endless dunes rolling into each other like sleeping beasts. No waves, no water, no ocean. Only silence. The sand shimmered faintly under the dim light of the half-broken moon.
He walked further, then backtracked, trying to find a hidden passage or sunken entrance. The map still insisted: Location Reached.
"Did someone tamper with this?" Tom muttered, jaw tightening. His heartbeat quickened. Was this another cruel trick from the system? Or worse? Had someone stolen his chance to claim the Face?
Frustration boiled in his chest. His hands balled into fists. He pressed his fingers into the sand, scooping up a handful and letting it slip through. Just sand, nothing more.
Tom's breathing grew heavier. He looked around again—dunes, silence, wind. That was it.
"Where… is it?" he whispered.
The idea clawed at him: maybe the map was broken, maybe this entire journey had been pointless. He thought of Grace, of Elior, of everyone still fighting to survive back in the plaza. If he failed to find a Face here, then he'd remain powerless.... an easy prey for the horrors that the Night Hunt promised.
His chest tightened further. He wanted to scream, to curse the sky itself. And so he did. He tilted his head back and shouted, voice hoarse, "WHERE IS IT?!"
His eyes widened, mouth still open. Above him, high above the desert sky, a vast, endless mass hovered.
It wasn't clouds. It wasn't shadow. It was water.
An ocean. Black as obsidian, stretching far beyond his sight, suspended in the heavens. Its surface rippled faintly, shimmering with an eerie, ink-like sheen. The broken moon's light touched it, but no reflection came. The water simply swallowed the glow whole.
Tom's throat ran dry. His body trembled as he took a stumbling step back.
The Endless Black Ocean.
It wasn't on the ground. It wasn't across any horizon. It was above his head, hanging like the ceiling of another world.
He tried to focus, to pierce the surface with his eyes, but there was nothing—no fish, no light, no shape within, only infinite darkness. The silence around him deepened, pressing on his ears like he had fallen underwater already.
Tom's heart pounded. This was no ordinary ocean. This was something that defied the world itself. Something wrong. Something sacred.
The map flickered again, as if mocking his disbelief.
[ Location Confirmed: The Endless Black Ocean. ]
Tom's hands shook. "Above me… all this time…"
And as he stood rooted to the sand, his skin prickling, a single drop of black water fell from the sky. It landed in the sand before him. The ground made a fizzy sound where it touched.
His eyes never left the massive ocean hanging above. The single drop that fell had burned the sand into glass. His chest rose and fell in sharp breaths.
He thought of climbing, of somehow reaching it, but how? And even if he did… what if the water shredded his body the moment he touched it?
"This can't be normal water," he muttered, voice shaking. "It's something else…."
His hand went to his item slot. A familiar glow caught his eye. The Soul Mantis Flower.
He pulled it out carefully. Its petals shimmered faintly, casting golden light that felt gentle against the dark sand. The flower pulsed, almost as if it was breathing. Tom stared at it, confused. Why now? Why would this flower react to the ocean above?
He turned it over in his hand, watching the glow intensify. "You're trying to tell me something… aren't you?"
The glow stretched, faint threads of light floating upward, drawn toward the endless waters overhead. Tom's scratched his jaw. It was reacting to the ocean—no, to something within the ocean.
The Soul Mantis Flower trembled in Tom's palm, its petals peeling open with slow, delicate grace. At first, it was just a glow.... soft, golden, like a dying ember. Then suddenly, the light burst outward, radiant and alive.
The desert sand around his boots began to quiver, and from the dry, lifeless grains sprouted tiny blossoms in blue, violet, crimson, and white flowers that could not exist in this broken wasteland. They bloomed in seconds, unfurling as though centuries of life had been compressed into a single heartbeat.
The ground shone with living color, each petal dripping with a light that hummed like faint music. Tom's breath caught. The barren desert, which moments ago was nothing but dust and silence, now shimmered like a festival of stars that had fallen to earth.
Above, the Endless Black Ocean blending. Its surface rippled, black waters pulling and pushing as if answering the flower's call. Threads of light from the blooming petals rose upward, weaving into a luminous path that reached for the sky. It wasn't a staircase, not exactly but an ethereal bridge, a ribbon of shimmering blossoms that seemed to lead straight into the heavens.
The Soul Mantis Flower itself glowed brighter, almost too bright to look at. The warmth on Tom's fingertips grew sharper, like it was binding itself to him.
A notification cut across his vision,
[ Do not let the Flower leave your fingertips. ]
[ Failure to comply will result in immediate death. ]
Tom froze, staring at the words until they burned into his mind. The flower pulsed as if agreeing, tethering his life to its fragile glow.
He swallowed hard, tightened his grip, and stepped forward. The glowing blossoms beneath his feet lit with each step, carrying him higher, closer, toward the impossible sea above.
His chest pounded, fear and awe twisting together, but one thought roared through him as the world of sand fell away beneath:
This is it. My path into the Endless Black Ocean has begun.