The world did not return in a flash of light, but in a slow, agonizing bleed of color. Kane found himself standing in a lush, emerald forest. The air was thick with the scent of pine and damp earth, a jarring contrast to the stagnant dust of the catacombs. Sunlight filtered through the canopy in golden shafts, illuminating a landscape that felt more real than the waking world, yet held an ethereal, haunting quality.
He knew this place. It was a memory-scape, a mental sanctuary unlocked when he had first touched the hem of his Aspect Legacy. It was a realm of trial and revelation, but it came with a heavy toll. To truly claim the power of his ancestors, he had been told he must eventually shed the weight of his current existence—his memories of his parents, his bonds with his allies, and the very identity of "Kane" as he knew it.
"Still clinging to the ghost of a life already half-lost?"
Kane turned. Standing beneath a willow tree was the woman he called Miss Black. She was a silhouette of obsidian silk and starlight, her face always partially obscured by the shifting shadows of the forest.
"Yeah," Kane replied, his voice raspy. "How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not throwing them away."
Miss Black stepped forward, the grass barely bending under her feet. "Because that isn't truly your life, Kane. You are a not eho are you. You need to understand that these 'bonds' are nothing more than anchors dragging you into the mud. How many times must I repeat myself?"
Kane snorted, the familiar weight of his sword manifesting in his hand. The obsidian blade hummed with a defensive vibration. "And if I do? I lose everything I actually care about. What's the point of being a god if you've forgotten why you wanted to be one?"
"What do you even have?" Miss Black's voice was like a cold razor. "Your parents are dead—dust in a forgotten grave. Your 'allies'… one has already stabbed you in the back, and the others? They are sheep following a star that will eventually burn them to cinders. What makes you think they won't betray you the moment the price of loyalty becomes too high?"
"Shut the hell up!" Kane roared.
The woman's eyes flashed with a dark, predatory amusement. "It seems a good beating is needed to bring you to your senses."
She didn't summon a weapon; she became one. The fight was short, brutal, and one-sided. In this realm, she was the monster. Kane fought with the desperation of a cornered animal, but her movements were a mathematical perfection of violence. A few moments later, he was facedown in the dirt, his strength spent and his mind reeling.
****
Kane's eyes snapped open. The lush forest was gone, replaced by the grey, oppressive sky of the Forgotten Shore.
He was lying on the muddy ground, his body feeling as though it had been put through a stone crusher. Shadows loomed over him—the cohort. Nephis, Sunny, Cassie, Effie, and Kai were all standing in a ragged circle, their faces weary and stained with ash.
Kane's first instinct was to dive into his soul sea. He found Missy there, curled into a ball of translucent mist, her essence dim and flickering. 'She played the main role,' Kane thought with a pang of guilt. 'She possessed a mountain of bone. She needs to rest.'
He looked around, searching for the silver-haired swordsman. He found him leaning against a nearby rock, his chest heaving. "Are we... out of the Dark City?" Kane rasped.
"Yes," Kai said, offering a hand to help him up. "We made it out of the catacombs."
Effie crossed her arms, looking from Kane to Caster with a mix of awe and suspicion. "How the hell did you two kill that monster? "
Kane looked at Caster. The "Legacy Boy," usually so composed, looked like he had been dragged through a briar patch. "Actually," Kane said, "Caster delivered the killing blow. I just held the door open."
Sunny's eyes narrowed. "While you guys were knocked out in the ash, I had to fend off a nightmare creature that crawled out of the cracks. You were easy pickings."
Kane managed a weak smirk. "I owe you one, I guess?"
Sunny didn't smile back, but there was a glint of something in his dark eyes. "Sure. Just remember that."
A few minutes later, Caster finally stood up straight. He looked at his hands, then summoned a new Memory. A flowing white cloak materialized around his shoulders, shimmering with a faint, pearlescent light. "We survived," Caster said, his voice unusually sharp. "And I got a Memory for the trouble."
"Well, good for you," Kane muttered, leaning on his own sword.
Caster turned to him, his usual mask of aristocratic calm finally cracking. "Next time you plan to fight a creature like that, count me out. You are a fucking madman, Kane."
The cohort stared. It was the first time they had ever heard the polished, perfect Caster use such language. Kane's smirk widened into a genuine grin.
"Understood. I'll plan... better next time. I guess I've just grown used to the madness."
Caster sighed, the white cloak rippling in the wind. "Whatever. Let's just move."
*****
A while later, they were resting in the shadow of the giant statue. Every member of the cohort looked terrible—their clothes were bloodied rags, and their armor was dented and scarred. However, beneath the grime, their bodies were whole.
The Changing Star had healed them all. Nephis sat a few feet away, her face deathly pale. Using her white flames to knit such catastrophic wounds had taken a heavy toll on her soul. She looked fragile, a stark contrast to the warrior who had commanded them in the dark.
Sitting in the mud, Kane raised his head to look at the giant statue of the faceless woman. She remained as she had been the first time he saw her: slender, graceful, her light robe rippling in the wind as though made of silk rather than ancient stone.
The statue tilted slightly, her one remaining hand reaching toward the heavens. It felt like an age ago that Kane, Sunny, Cassie, and Nephis had taken shelter in her palm after escaping the Ashen Barrow.
'Nostalgic,' Kane thought bitterly.
The rest was short-lived. It wasn't even noon, but the trek ahead was daunting. The original plan had been to leave the Dark City through the south gates, but the detour through the Lord of the Dead's chamber had spat them out to the east. Now, they had to circle the entire ruins. Time was their greatest enemy; if they didn't reach a safe height before sunset, the flood of black water would claim them.
With a chorus of groans, the cohort assumed their marching formation. Walking through the thick mud of the colossal crater was a soul-sucking labor, but there was no other choice. To return to the city walls was to invite a slow death.
With Sunny's shadow scouting the ground and Kai watching the skies, they made steady, if slow, progress. The silence was broken only by the rhythmic slurp of boots pulling out of the wet dirt.
Eventually, the endless grey wall of the city began to drift away. They were finally leaving the ruins behind. Far off, the floor of the crater rose into a tall slope where the unassailable walls of polished stone stood firm. At its base, a flood of crimson coral swelled like a bloody tide, its sharp blades scraping uselessly against the stone. It looked as though the land itself was trying to devour the city.
Kane looked back one last time, searching for a specific silhouette. 'Harus… where is he? Did he assume we would just die in the catacombs?' The thought bothered him, but there were no signs of the Gunlaug's shadow.
The crater was so immense that its curve was almost imperceptible. They could have traveled along its floor for miles, but the open plain offered no defense against flying Nightmare Creatures. Nephis eventually made the call to climb the slope and return to the Labyrinth.
With Kai's flight and the golden rope, the ascent was easy. They walked the ridge for a time before turning west, diving back into the maze of crimson coral.
This part of the forest was identical in color but vastly different in inhabitant. There were no members of the Carapace Legion here. Instead, the dominant tribe seemed to be a breed of spider-like horrors. They had decorated every passage with endless sheets of grey, sticky cobwebs.
"Watch the walls," Sunny warned. "This isn't silk."
He was right. Upon closer inspection, the webs were composed of thin, metallic wires—tough as iron and sharp as razors. If a victim thrashed while caught, the web would simply slice them into segments. It was a labyrinth of wire-traps.
Their progress slowed to a crawl. Every few minutes, Cassie had to send her flying rapier ahead to whistle through the air, shearing the metallic strands to clear a path.
Suddenly, a voice resonated in Kane's mind. Missy had finally recuperated.
"Did we escape?" she asked, her voice faint but clear.
"Yeah," Kane replied internally. "How are you feeling?"
"Better. We left the city, right? It feels… quieter."
Kane smiled to himself. "Yeah. No attacks for a while. We're just dealing with spiders and—"
His thought was cut short as his Aspect Vision flared. The crimson coral didn't just hold webs; it held hunger.
A moment later, several massive, multi-jointed shapes burst from the cracks in the coral. The metallic spiders, their carapaces gleaming like rusted iron, leaped from the heights, their bladed legs aimed directly at the center of the cohort.