2025-01-16 00:19:24The forest was a maze of towering trees and tangled undergrowth, the faint light of dawn struggling to pierce the canopy. Kaiza led the way, his movements deliberate and cautious. Mina followed close behind, her eyes darting nervously at every rustle and shadow.
“Do you think they’ll come after us?”Mina asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Kaiza’s hand rested on the hilt of his sword. “If they know what we carry, they won’t stop. The blade’s power is too great a temptation.”
Mina shivered. The memory of the mermaid queen’s voice in her dream still lingered, a chilling reminder of the dangers they faced. “What if she finds us again? What if she…”
“She won’t,” Kaiza interrupted, his tone firm. “Not if we stay ahead of her. The queen’s reach has limits, even if her power doesn’t.”
They pressed on in silence, the forest growing denser with each step. The air was thick with the scent of moss and damp earth, and the distant call of birds added an eerie undertone to their journey. Mina tried to focus on the path ahead, but her mind kept drifting to the trials they had yet to face.
By midday, they reached a clearing where a stream wound its way through the forest. Kaiza knelt by the water, filling their canteens while Mina sat on a fallen log, her legs aching from the long trek.
“How much farther until we’re safe?”She asked.
Kaiza didn’t look up. “Safe isn’t a place. It’s a moment. And it’s fleeting.”
Mina frowned. “That’s not very reassuring.”
He stood, handing her a canteen. “It’s the truth. But we’ll rest here for a bit. You need your strength.”
As they sat in the clearing, Mina’s thoughts drifted to the hermit’s words. The blade’s trials would test every part of them, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that her own trial was drawing closer. She glanced at Kaiza, his expression distant and unreadable.
“Kaiza,” she said softly. “Do you ever wonder what life would be like if none of this had happened? If you hadn’t eaten the mermaid flesh?”
He didn’t answer immediately. When he finally spoke, his voice was low. “I’ve thought about it. But it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. All I can do now is try to make things right.”
Mina nodded, though her heart ached for him. She wanted to say something comforting, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, she reached out and placed a hand on his arm. He didn’t pull away.
Their rest was short-lived. As they prepared to move on, a sound broke the stillness of the forest. It was faint at first, like the rustling of leaves, but it grew steadily louder. Kaiza’s hand went to his sword, and Mina’s heart raced.
“Stay behind me,” Kaiza said, his voice tense.
The sound resolved into footsteps, and moments later, a figure emerged from the trees. It was a man, his clothes tattered and his face gaunt. He raised his hands in a gesture of peace.
“Please,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I mean you no harm.”
Kaiza didn’t lower his guard. “Who are you?”
The man hesitated. “My name is Oran. I’ve been wandering these woods for days. I… I was part of a group, but we were attacked. I’m the only one left.”
Mina’s heart softened at the man’s plight, but Kaiza’s eyes narrowed. “Attacked by what?”
Oran’s expression darkened. “Creatures. They came out of nowhere, their eyes glowing like embers. They tore through us like we were nothing.”
Kaiza exchanged a glance with Mina. “You’re lucky to be alive.”
Oran nodded. “I barely escaped. Please, if you have food or water… anything to spare.”
Mina stepped forward, reaching into her pack. “Here,” she said, handing him a piece of bread and a canteen.
Kaiza’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t stop her. Oran accepted the offerings gratefully, his hands trembling.
“Thank you,” he said. “I don’t know how much longer I would’ve lasted.”
As they continued through the forest, Oran walked with them, his steps unsteady. He spoke little, but Mina’s curiosity got the better of her.
“What were you doing in the forest?”She asked.
Oran hesitated. “We were searching for something. An artifact said to be hidden here. It was supposed to bring… great power.”
Kaiza’s eyes flicked to Oran. “What kind of artifact?”
Oran shook his head. “I don’t know. I was just following orders. But whatever it was, it wasn’t worth the cost.”
Mina frowned. “Do you think it’s connected to the blade?”She asked Kaiza.
“Possibly,” he said. “But we can’t afford to get distracted. Our priority is surviving the next trial.”
Oran’s gaze lingered on Kaiza for a moment. “You’re searching for something too, aren’t you?”
Kaiza didn’t answer, his expression hard. Oran didn’t press the issue.
As night fell, they made camp in a small clearing. The fire crackled softly, casting flickering shadows on the trees. Mina sat close to the flames, her thoughts restless.
“Do you think we’ll find what we’re looking for?”She asked Kaiza.
He looked at her, his expression unreadable. “We have to.”
Oran’s voice broke the silence. “Whatever you’re seeking, I hope it’s worth it. The forest doesn’t give up its secrets easily.”
Kaiza’s eyes narrowed. “And neither do I.”
The tension in the air was palpable, but Mina’s exhaustion eventually pulled her into sleep. As she dreamed, the voice of the mermaid queen echoed in her mind once more.
“You cannot escape the abyss, child. It is a part of you now.”
She woke with a start, the fire reduced to embers. Kaiza sat nearby, his sword resting across his lap. He glanced at her, his gaze steady.
“Another dream?”he asked.
Mina nodded. “She’s not going to stop, is she?”
Kaiza’s grip on his sword tightened. “No. But neither will we.”
The forest loomed around them, silent and watchful, as they prepared to face whatever trials lay ahead.
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Tides Of Eternity Episode 9: Shadows of Betrayal
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Tides Of Eternity Episode 14: The Veiled Sanctuary
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Tides Of Eternity Episode 16: The Abyss Beneath
The tunnel stretched deeper, its walls growing tighter as they ventured farther into the heart of the ancient ravine. The air grew thick with the scent of rust and decay, mingling with the oppressive weight of centuries of silence. Kaiza kept the obsidian fragment close, its faint glow casting erratic shadows against the jagged stone walls. The battle with the serpentine guardian still echoed in his mind, but there was no time for reflection. They had only just begun to uncover the truths hidden beneath this forsaken place.Behind him, Mina’s cautious footsteps were barely audible, yet Kaiza could feel the steady presence of her gaze on him. He stole a glance over his shoulder, meeting her eyes. Her expression was resolute, but there was a flicker of concern in her gaze. She was worried about him; he could sense it. He couldn’t afford to let her down now."Stay close," he said softly, his voice barely a whisper. "Whatever’s ahead, we face it together."Mina nodded, her hand instinctiv
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Chapter 112: The Name That Should Not Be Spoken
The world cracked open.A heavy silence fell over the Hollow City, thicker than death, more complete than the void.For a heartbeat, even the Devourer appeared to pause.The name still lingered; it trembled with an unimaginable heaviness.Azelith.Kaiza barely registered the move before Mina, or whatever was inside her, stumbled one step back, and her blackened eyes widened.Something flared in her face: recognition, rage, fear.The figure in the hood stood still, their sword as dark as a starless night.The blade thrummed, the very air curving away from it as if trying to avoid its touch.Kaiza’s lungs felt like ash, his ribs howling as he pulled himself up from the rubble.The mind was still reeling, trying to make sense of what he had just coursed through.The Hollow King was gone.Eaten.Not dead. Not even erased. Just… unmade.The Unseen Devourer had not slain him.It had merely behaved how it always did, devour.A deity rendered null in mere seconds.And now it loomed, its impos
Chapter 111: The Unseen Devourer
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Chapter 110: Just Beneath the Surface
The sky split open.Not a crack, not a tear a WOUND.Reality itself screamed through jagged fractures slicing the Hollow City’s abyssal skyline.The eddying darkness distorted, pulling apart at the frayed edges, spiraling into something worse.Kaiza sensed it before he saw it.A pulse. Not of abyssal energy, not of flame, but something else. Something older than both.And it came from Mina.She was close.Her presence seared his senses, unrefined and unrefined. But something was off.Something within her that’s not supposed to exist.Kaiza gingerly gritted his teeth and sat despite himself.His body objected, the Judicator’s wound still gnawing on his being, but that was irrelevant.Nothing else mattered but reaching Mina.The Hollow King had stood from his throne.His golden gaze raged, but for the first time, it wasn’t trained on Kaiza.Their eyes were fixed on the fractured sky.On her."Impossible." The Hollow King’s quiet voice took on something, not amusement this time.Not with
Chapter 109: The Hollow King’s Judgment
Kaiza had little time to react.The blade arrived faster than was thought possible a silver line, a ribbon of flame and destruction, splitting the air. His instinct screamed to move, but his body, still bruised and raw from the chasm, was too slow.A stabbing pain detonated in his side as the edge of the blade tore flesh, the impact slamming him down onto the vibrating black streets. Blood spattered in all directions, sizzling against the living ground on impact.Not abyssal. Not shadow-forged. Something else.Kaiza ground his teeth, his breaths harsh and erratic as he shoved himself upright, glaring at his assailant.And there they stood.A gauzy figure, draped in silver and fire, their form rippling in the half-light of the Hollow King’s domain. Their armor was not solid but fluid, shifting like seeping metal, pulsing with sinuous lines of deep crimson. As was their sword the weapon that had shredded him, tauntingly, bloodless of the same stuff, swinging between solid steel and liqu
Chapter 108: The Devouring
Silence.Thick. Absolutely.Not even breath, not even motion, not even time: just a vacuum.Kaiza fell through it.Or maybe he stood still as the rest of the world went on.He couldn't tell.There was no ground, no sky, no up, no down only the suffocating embrace of nothingness collapsing around him like a coffin lined with whispers.Mina was gone.The last thing he heard her make wrenched from her throat, guttural and pained, as the gullet of darkness devoured her.He had reached for her. Clawed at the darkness.But his fingers had encountered only empty space.And then Nothing.Now he floundered in that nothingness, the remnants of his corpse aching, the wounds raw and open.Where the masked figure had touched him, his chest still smoldered, as if something had been clawed out of him or ripped from him, something that was inside him and had been a piece of him, something vital.Was he dead?No. That would have been a mercy.A movement in the void something shifted.A shake, gentler
Chapter 107: Unleashed
The void roared.Black flames licked at the ground, devouring the creatures of the abyss as embers at the end of life are sent out upon the wind.The wails of the damned rampaged ever and ever, ringing in the desolate void, as the horror of noumenon mixed and knotted, their forms rotting in the gluttonous conn.And at the heart of it, standing in the inferno, was Mina.But she was no longer only Mina.Kaiza could hardly stand, his body bruised and bleeding, but his breath caught when he saw her.The fragility of the girl he had vowed to protect was gone.The trembling voice that had called his name in the dark was gone.What was left is something older. Something raw.Her form was still human in outline mostly but the air around her hummed with something worse than abyssal corruption.An ultraviolet light burned behind her eyes, cosmic and blistering, crowded with something incomprehensible to my feeble flesh.Her dark hair lashed in the wind, the energy circling her limbs, a moving t
Chapter 106: Dark
Kaiza barely had time to respond before the form of the abyssal entity washed over him like a tidal wave of pure void.It felt as though an avalanche of darkness was going to consume him whole.The shadows wound tighter, binding themselves around his limbs like living chains, burrowing into his skin and burning with cold fire; his ribs screamed their protest.A cough tore from his throat, thick and wet. Blood trickled down his lips, red on infinite black.His vision swam, fading in and out of consciousness, but his fingers still tightened around his sword.He wasn’t done. Not yet.The figure towered above him, the mask cocked slightly as if in amusement.“Still fighting?” Its voice gliding along, the sound of a thousand voices crawling into his skull.“Pathetic. “Your void does not give, Kaiza. It does not bargain. It only devours.”With a flick of that wrist, a spire of obsidian-black tendrils burst from the ground to skewer Kaiza through the shoulder.He hardly had time to register
Chapter 105: The Eclipse of Hope
The void crackled in unnatural, eerie silence. It was a heavy weight, cold, suffocating in the air. The blue flame of Kaiza’s sword flickered in the stifling dark as his chest rose and fell with every ragged breath. It had been the blast from Mina that very titan that had devoured her that had slammed him down onto the broken earth, the impact leaving him aching from the force of the attack. A single thought raced through his mind.She’s still in there. She has to be.The darkness writhed around him, beating with an unstuck beat. He climbed onto his knees, fighting back the weight of the bottomless well. His gaze darted back to Mina no, no longer Mina but the monstrous, void-soaked shape she’d taken on. Her body shimmered with dark matter, her movements sickly smooth, as if she were a piece of the shadow itself.Her armor, once silvery, was now a collection of black and shadow, a jumbled mess of the power of the void. Her eyes were sick with ancient hunger, a lust for destruction, but
Chapter 104: The Fallen Star
The sky was torn asunder.Mina no, the titan now occupying her body stood in the distance like a dark star. Her once glowing golden armor tarnished a dark, devilish red, and her eyes glistened with a void-like hunger that devoured the very light around her. With each movement, every breath, it was as if she was remaking reality itself, with the void creeping up and crawling from within, claiming her for itself piece by piece.Kaiza stood, frozen, his heart breaking bit by bit. His breath labored; his hand shook on the hilt of his sword. He knew this wasn’t Mina anymore. His praise for the girl who had stood by him, he counseled, the girl that first had shown him the light, was lost. The girl he’d battled tooth and nail to protect was something else now something terrifying, something beyond his comprehension.And yet… her voice Titan’s voice, but still Mina’s still rang in his mind.“The girl is gone, forsaken one. Now, only I remain."Kaiza’s sword shimmered with a ghost of blue flam
