Luke and Adrian traveled west. Not because they knew what waited there, but because every other direction felt worse. The mountains of Skysea Island stretched endlessly beneath the pale morning light, layered upon one another like the broken spines of sleeping giants.
Jagged ridges carved through the clouds while narrow pathways twisted along cliff faces high above the abyss below. Every step demanded attention. One mistake here did not mean injury.
It meant disappearance.
Luke quickly learned that the mountain range itself was as dangerous as the creatures inhabiting it.
Loose stone shifted beneath their feet constantly. Thin sheets of frost hid across shaded surfaces despite the warmth of the rising sun, while powerful winds screamed through narrow passes hard enough to throw a person off balance. Sometimes the mountain groaned beneath them...a deep, ancient sound that echoed through the cliffs like something enormous turning in its sleep.
And there was always constant movement below them. The valleys beneath the mountains were death.
Dense forests of blackened trees stretched across the lower regions, their twisted branches forming tangled canopies thick enough to hide entire ecosystems beneath them. Luke occasionally sensed shapes moving through those woods with his darkness perception—massive things slithering between trees, winged creatures perched silently among cliffsides, entire packs of predators roaming together through the mist.
'... well what do you know, there are tress after all.'
There were far too many creatures below, too much for two mere Commonalities to handle. So, they stayed high. They made sure to remain careful and patient, surviving through avoidance.
Luke hated how quickly he adapted to that reality.
It was strange really, when he arrived, there weren't so many creatures roaming around. He could not even see a single tree at that time. And now, hordes of abominations were looking up at them from below. It made very little sense, but not entirely senseless either. He had regained his senses on the other side of the island, in front of the Skysea to be exact. He had zero idea where Adrian had entered Subterranean Cavern, but it had to be on the other side too.
Even though Luke was starting to get a grip on reality, there were still other things that did not make sense to him. The entire landscape being unfamiliar and different every time he saw it. For example, the mountains. From the beginning, it already made no sense how the jagged mountains were able to stretch infinitely into the distance, on an island no less.
As if that was not enough, Luke was pretty sure there wasn't any silver mist on the mountain peaks, but when they began scaling the mountains at sunrise, there it was. At first, he thought it was because it was morning, but he was not prepared for what he saw after a few hours of transversing the mountains. The silver mist nestled on the valley below the mountains as well. He suddenly had a bad premonition.
Wanting to distract himself from all the uncomfortable thoughts, he pulled on the Trace Rune and summoned his runes.
Familiar symbols appeared in front of him.
Host: Luke
Title: The Architect
Rank: Commonality
Tier: 5
Potential: [Thamaturgy]
Attributes: [Scarred] , [Noiseless] , [Null Reverie]
Abilities: [Ontokinesis]
Affinities: [The Void]
Soul Core: Dormant
Essence: 100/2000
Vigor: 22%
'Mhmm.. 100 huh, not bad at all...'
He suddenly stumbled on the uneven terrain, tripping on absolutely nothing.
"100?! What the hell..?!"
Adrian noticed and gave him a dubious look.
"What's wrong with you?"
Luke regained his composure shortly after. He cleared his throat and spoke in an unconvincing tone.
"Nothing. I just... I didn't know the Weave could be this generous..."
#
By midday, the sun hung higher above the endless mountain range, casting long golden streaks across the cliffs as they traversed another narrow ridge.
Adrian walked ahead silently, his movements steady despite the uneven terrain. Luke had begun noticing small habits about him now. The way he scanned shadows before stepping into them. How his gaze always lingered briefly on elevated positions where predators might wait.
He survived like someone who expected the world to betray him constantly.
Luke supposed that made sense.
"Stop looking down," Adrian said suddenly.
Luke blinked. "What?"
"You keep checking the valleys."
Luke frowned faintly. "Because there are monsters in them."
"There are monsters everywhere."
Luke knew that Adrian was right, but still... He couldn't help but glance downward from time to time.
To time...
Far below, thick silver mist drifted between the cliffs and forests. Occasionally something enormous moved beneath it, disturbing the fog for brief moments before vanishing again.
Luke looked away quickly.
"…Do you think help will arrive?" he asked quietly after a while.
Adrian snorted softly. "It has only been a single day, you've had enough already?"
Luke remained quiet.
"Sure," Adrian admitted. "I hope they arrive at least, because from what what I've heard, we won't survive three days in this place."
He remained quiet for a few moments, then suddenly added in an even tone.
"But wishing for something is pretty much useless. If we want to survive, we have to do something about it."
The ominous tone in his voice made Luke shiver a little. A cold chill suddenly ran down his spine. Not because he was afraid of dying, but something told him Adrian knew at lot more than he let on...
#
It happened hours later.
At first, Luke thought the sound was distant thunder. A slow, rhythmic vibration echoed faintly through the mountain path beneath their feet. Subtle enough to ignore at first.
But then it came again, closer and louder this time.
THOOM.
THOOM.
Luke stopped walking.
"…Do you feel that?"
Adrian's expression sharpened immediately. The vibration came again.
THOOM.
Small pebbles shifted along the mountainside. Then suddenly, shadow passed overhead. Both boys looked up instantly. Luke's breath was caught up in his throat. Something massive crawled across the cliff face above them.
Its body resembled a grotesque fusion between a centipede and a crustacean, nearly twenty meters long, covered in thick black plates layered like overlapping armor. Dozens of hooked limbs dug effortlessly into sheer stone as it moved upside down across the mountain overhang.
Its head was the worst part.
It was flat, pale and almost human. Clusters of cloudy white eyes twitched across its face while long sensory tendrils dragged along the rock beneath it, searching.
Luke's stomach tightened immediately.
"What the hell is that?"
Adrian's voice lowered.
"…Cliff Maw. That's what they call it at least. Very few know its name though, because very few have managed to kill it."
The creature stopped moving. Then slowly...its head rotated downward toward them. The tendrils twitched violently. Then, the entire mountain shook. The creature screamed. The sound that escaped it maw wasn't animalistic. It sounded like grinding stone mixed with distorted human shrieking.
Luke immediately reached for Ontokinesis instinctively.
"Don't," Adrian snapped sharply.
Luke froze.
"If you distort space on unstable terrain," Adrian said quickly, already backing away, "the mountain might collapse."
Right, of course it would.
The Cliff Maw moved. It was fast, far faster than something that large should've been capable of moving. Its hooked limbs slammed against the stone as it descended vertically toward them, the entire cliffside trembling beneath its weight.
"Run," Adrian said calmly.
Then immediately sprinted.
Luke followed without hesitation.
The narrow mountain path became chaos instantly. Stone cracked beneath them while the Cliff Maw barreled after them from above, its limbs puncturing deep into the cliff face with explosive force.
THOOM.
THOOM.
Massive chunks of rock shattered loose behind them. Luke glanced back once, and regretted it immediately. The creature's face had split open, more like opened its maw actually. Not horizontally though...
Its pale skull unfolded into layers of grinding teeth rotating endlessly inward like a living tunnel.
"…Nope."
Luke ran faster. Ahead, the mountain path narrowed dangerously near a steep drop. Adrian's eyes flicked across the terrain instantly.
"We kill it here," he said.
Luke almost stumbled.
"Kill that?"
"We can't outrun it forever."
Right again. Luke hated when Adrian was logical. The Cliff Maw lunged suddenly...
One massive hooked limb slammed into the stone beside Luke hard enough to crack the path apart. Luke jumped instinctively, barely avoiding the collapsing edge as loose debris vanished into the abyss below.
Adrian moved instantly. Two additional limbs tore outward from his sides again while azure skin spread rapidly across his body.
Then he charged. Luke still wasn't used to seeing the transformation happen.
It looked painful every time. It actually sounded painful too, like his body had not gotten used to mutating like that. Adrian slammed directly into the creature's descending limb, flaming fists colliding against black armor plates in an explosion of sparks and fire.
The Cliff Maw screeched violently, but its armor held, barely.
"Luke!" Adrian shouted. "The joints!"
Luke focused immediately. The creature's armor plates overlapped heavily, but thin flexible gaps existed where its limbs connected. Those were the weak points he could exploit.
He inhaled sharply, then forced space to bend. This time not around himself, but around the creature. The world distorted violently for a fraction of a second as the distance between one of the Cliff Maw's limbs and the mountain abruptly compressed unnaturally.
CRACK.
The limb folded the wrong way instantly. The creature screamed in pain, so did Luke. He nearly collapsed afterward, blood rushing from his nose again as pain stabbed through his skull. But it worked.
Adrian capitalized immediately.
His four muscles contracted as he leapt upward with terrifying force, all four arms slamming repeatedly into the broken joint. The armor finally shattered. Black fluid sprayed across the cliffside.
The Cliff Maw convulsed violently.
Its remaining limbs thrashed wildly, smashing apart sections of the mountain in blind agony.
"Move!" Adrian shouted.
But it was already too late. The mountain cracked beneath them, and a massive section of the path gave way instantly. Luke's stomach dropped. Stone collapsed beneath his feet as the entire cliffside began falling apart. For one horrifying second, everything disappeared beneath him.
Then Ontokinesis reacted instinctively.
Space folded violently, and Luke reappeared several meters higher up the mountain path, crashing hard against solid stone. Adrian wasn't far behind.
One of his azure arms had embedded itself directly into the cliff face, anchoring him long enough to leap upward before the collapse swallowed the rest. Below them, the Cliff Maw disappeared into the abyss. Its screams echoed through the mountains for several seconds before fading completely.
Silence followed.
Broken only by falling debris.
Luke lay there breathing hard, staring upward at the sky while his heartbeat thundered violently inside his chest.
"…We survived," he muttered weakly.
Adrian retracted his two extra arms and groaned from the pain as two gaping holes were left where they had been. Blood gushed out instantly, but he healed himself before he lost a significant amount.
"…Yeah," he replied.
Luke laughed weakly despite himself. He was expecting him to say 'barely', or something close to that. He chucked some more, then winced immediately afterward. Everything hurt, his body, mind and soul. Perhaps something even deeper. The world around him was spinning, but still...
"Can we rest for a while longer?"
...they were alive.
Which meant they could keep moving west.
Toward whatever waited beyond the mountains. Toward the other side of the Skysea.
Adrian lay on his back as well, looking at the abnormal sky above with a distant expression on his exhausted face.
"Sure."