Jun immediately sat up, his expression changing the moment he realized Red Eye was nowhere in sight.
"...Red Eye?"
The tree was still there. The river still flowed nearby. The cold morning light still spread quietly across the ground. Everything was exactly where it should have been except her.
Jun quickly got to his feet, though a faint pulse of pain still throbbed through his chest. His eyes moved sharply across the area once, then again, searching everywhere, every branch, every patch of fog. But there was no sign of Red Eye anywhere.
For a brief second, a strange tension rose inside him. It was unfamiliar subtle. Then Jun slowly closed his eyes. Instead of looking outward, he looked inward into the Soul House.
The quiet inner world opened before him like a sealed chamber hidden behind his own consciousness. It was silent, dim, and still. And there, standing calmly as if nothing had happened, was Red Eye.
Jun let out a slow breath,"...So that's where you went."
The tension inside him eased, though not completely. Without wasting another second, he raised his hand and summoned her back out. Mist slowly gathered in front of him.
The shape of a body began to rebuild itself piece by piece. First the outline, then the faint red lines, then the two eyes one glowing deep crimson, the other almost human. Her body finished forming, half-fog, half-solid, carrying the same quiet and slightly unnatural beauty she always had.
She looked at him and said in her usual calm voice,"Good morning, Master."
Jun stared at her for a second before replying,"...You disappeared"
Red Eye blinked once, then answered without any urgency,"Actually, Master, your energy ran out during the third phase of the night. Perhaps you were dreaming, or perhaps your energy became unstable while you were asleep. Either way, I had no choice. I was automatically pulled back into the Soul House."
Jun stayed silent for a few moments. He didn't answer immediately, but the explanation made sense. And that meant one thing clearly his body still wasn't fully stable yet. He turned his head toward the direction of the shelter.
His chest still hurt. His muscles still felt weak in places. But compared to before, his leg was far better now. He could walk properly again. More importantly, he could move without feeling like his body would collapse at any second.
After a few seconds of quiet, Jun finally said,"...Let's go"
Red Eye tilted her head slightly,"To the shelter?"
Jun nodded,"I'm healed enough. And I want to see that place properly."
This time, neither of them wasted words. They began walking toward the structure Red Eye had found the previous night. In daylight, the place looked even stranger than before.
From the outside, it still appeared to be nothing more than a broken, half-collapsed structure. A ruin which is small, old, and Unimportant. Nothing about it suggested danger, mystery, or scale.
But the deeper Jun stepped inside, the more that illusion started falling apart. At first, it was just one room the another then a staircase, a corridor, a wider hall, more doors, and more pathways. Jun slowed down without even realizing it. The structure on the inside made no sense.
He and Red Eye continued moving deeper into the shelter, checking room after room. Some were completely empty, filled with nothing but dust and old stone. Some had broken furniture scattered across the floor. Some had walls covered in strange claw marks and old scratches. A few rooms were sealed shut entirely, their doors covered in strange metallic locking systems that looked far more advanced than anything else in the place.
The contrast was unsettling. From the outside, this should have been a tiny ruin and from the inside, it was beginning to feel like a hidden underground complex.
As they walked, Jun glanced sideways at Red Eye and asked,"By the way… when I didn't send you back… how did you return on your own?"
Red Eye answered immediately, as if she had expected the question,"As I said, Master, your energy was depleted. When your energy falls below the stable threshold, I'm automatically pulled back into the Soul House."
Jun stayed quiet but that confirmed it, If his energy dropped too far, he couldn't even rely on Red Eye staying outside consistently. That was dangerous.
After walking a little farther, he asked again,"Where are those rabbits? And where's that statue?"
Red Eye looked ahead and replied,"We need to go lower."
Jun forword, then he asked the question that had already started bothering him,"How many rooms does this shelter even have?"
Red Eye actually seemed to think before answering,"I didn't count exactly... but there should be at least six hundred plus."
Jun stopped walking and turned toward her,"...What?"
He looked around her again, this time with sharper attention.
"Around Six hundred or more than it?"
The disbelief in Jun's voice was obvious now,"But from outside this place looks tiny."
Red Eye nodded calmly,"Yes, Master. It looks small from the outside. But underground... it goes very deep."
Then she added, almost casually,"I also found a bathing pool. And a very large arena. There are many rooms inside that are still completely locked."
Jun went silent. His expression changed in a way even he didn't fully notice. This wasn't a normal shelter. Something about this place felt intentionally hidden, like it had been built to disguise itself. And the deeper he looked, the less he understood. Who built something like this? Why was it buried here? Why abandon it? And more importantly what exactly were those rabbit-type aliens doing inside it?
Before Jun could think too far ahead, Red Eye said,"Master, The rabbits and the statue were on the lower floor."
Jun looked at her, then nodded once,"...Fine. Let's go."
The lower they went, the colder the air became. Not just colder but heavier. The atmosphere itself felt dense, like the underground levels had trapped years of silence inside them.
The light also changed. Above, a few broken ceiling gaps had allowed daylight in. Down here, there was almost none. Only faint illumination from old blue strips embedded in the walls, many of them half-dead or flickering weakly. The corridors felt tighter. The silence felt thicker.
And then Jun heard a faint scratching sound. Like claws or nails lightly scraping over stone somewhere deep inside the dark. He didn't say anything, but his hand naturally moved closer to his blade.
Eventually, they stepped into the floor Red Eye had mentioned. And yes the rabbits were there. Long ears. Small compact bodies. Sharp yellow eyes glowing faintly in the dark. Their movements were quick, twitchy, and nervous, like prey animals that had learned how to survive in dangerous places.
Some were huddled together in clusters. Some moved along the edges of the room. A few froze the moment they noticed Jun and Red Eye. But Jun's eyes narrowed almost instantly.
He slowly looking the chamber again and again then looked at Red Eye,"...Where's the statue?"
Red Eye stopped moving. She actually looked confused,"Master..."
She turned her head and looked around as well,"It was here."
Jun's expression hardened. Red Eye continued, her voice still calm but now carrying a trace of uncertainty,"I saw it here myself."
A strange silence fell over the room. The rabbits were still there and chamber was still the same. But the statue was gone. And for some reason, that felt far more dangerous than if it had simply stayed where it was.
Jun slowly stepped farther into the room. The floor beneath his boots was old stone, cracked in places, covered in a thin layer of dust. Yet something about that dust immediately bothered him. He crouched slightly and touched the ground. Then narrowed his eyes.
A very faint but wide trail cut across the floor, as if something heavy had been moved through here not very long ago.
Jun stood back up,"It moved"
Red Eye looked at him,"You mean someone took it?"
Jun didn't answer immediately. His gaze shifted across the dark chamber. The rabbits had started acting even stranger now. Some of them were retreating toward the far corners. Some were trembling. One of them let out a small, uneasy clicking sound before quickly hiding behind a broken slab of stone.