Dry leaves and branches fell from the sky as the strength of the thuds increased exponentially... Astor realised that the sound was coming from something walking towards them — something big and dangerous.
"Turn back!" Dawn screamed as he started running back towards the bonfire
A heartbeat later, Astor heard another deafening sound, one coming from behind — something much more eerie than a roar.
A high-pitched, chittering shriek momentarily deafened him and everyone around, as the creature responsible for it finally stepped into the light. It was only after that he slowly turned and looked at what was behind him...
[You have encountered an Inferno Invoker]
The creature created another loud THUD! as it fully stepped into the light, revealing its uncanny body.
How dreadful... Those were the only words that came to his mind as he stared up at it.
That thing is at least twice the size of the wolf... Astor thought as he looked closer at the beast.
At first, he mistook the creature for a deer after seeing its skull-like face beneath its enormous rack of antlers. But that illusion shattered once its tall, guant body stepped into the light. The creature was most definitely not a dear, as its hunched body stood unnaturally upright on two long, swiny legs, rather than four.
After taking another step, the creature lifted its elongated forelimbs, which it was using to balance on and pointed its claws at something beyond Astor.
Regulus...
Seeing this, the wolf unleashed a thunderous roar once again — and the bony beast responded to it with a shriek just as loud. They both began sprinting towards each other, and their claws clashed right above the place where Astor was standing.
"What the hell am I supposed to do here?!!" Astor screamed as he threw himself backwards in a desperate attempt to put distance between himself and the two Beasts.
However, it was pointless — Mountains of dirt were being thrown around as creatures, the size of houses, wrestled with one another. And unfortunately, Astor was flung meters into the air alongside the boulders and dirt.
Instinctively, Astor braced his back against the ground and rolled to absorb the shock of the impact... not that it helped much.
After he stopped rolling, Astor lay motionless on the ground, with his vision blurry and his ears ringing. He simply stared at the two Beasts, lost in thought, until, suddenly, a large branch fell right beside him, creating a loud slam! bringing him back to his senses.
Astor gasped as he stood up once again. Pressing his bleeding head with his left hand, he looked around, orienting himself until he found Dawn's distant silhouette.
Damn you, Borealis! I'm going to survive! No matter what! Astor took slow steps in the direction of Dawn, slowly accelerating, until he was running as fast as he could.
But as he was dodging the falling branches and flinging rocks, he felt something, or rather someone, grab his feet, almost making him trip and fall on his face...
"P-Please h-help me..." It was the red-haired girl he had talked to on the beach, now covered in blood and dirt.
"W-What?! No! Let go of me!" Astor took a step forward, but the girl didn't let go.
"P-please!"
Astor stared down at the girl for a second with a pitiful expression. Everyone banished here was a heinous criminal, deserving of their crimes — that included the girl. He couldn't trust her.
But still... perhaps the girl truly needed his help.
Damn it all... Fine! He picked her up in his arms and ran towards Dawn as fast as he could.
However, just before he reached Dawn, the Inferno Invoker unleashed a powerful attack, launching the burning Regulus towards a tree, creating a large quake, almost making Astor fall.
Dawn stood still at the edge of the chaos, waiting for Astor to reach him, and when Astor did, they both began running away as fast as they could from the clash of two giant beasts.
"So, why are we going East?!" Astor asked once he got close enough to Dawn.
"The Shadow Mountains! There is a land bridge connecting Borealis to Mytherra!" Dawn responded.
"Huh!? What the hell do you mean by the Shadow Mountains?!"
Borealis was determined to be uninhabitable because of a wave of monsters coming through Portals that destroyed all human settlements on the continent around a thousand years ago, the Centurial Tide.
The Beasts that come through the portals, now in Mytherra, and during the Centurial Tide in Borealis, nearing the end of the Lost Age, are from the Shadow Mountains...
And just like Borealis, the Shadow Mountains are also a part of the Unknown... one to the east of Mytherra, and the one known as the most dangerous Unknown.
Dawn planned to traverse through that region.
Astor gritted his teeth, ready to curse at Dawn, but he calmed down. He understood they had no other choice...
No, he's right. It is better to die in the Shadow Mountains, trying to return to Mytherra, than to die here without purpose. However, Astor forgot one simple thing.
'Astor...'
A voice echoed within the chaos of the burning forest as an ethereal golden thread faded into existence, leading north. Astor slowly came to a halt, turning to his left and staring at the thread.
Being captivated by the beauty of the golden thread once again, it made him remember the thoughts he had back on the beach... Maybe the reason he was sent here wasn't simply to return to Mytherra.
"Astor! What are you doing?! We have to run!" Dawn stopped after he realised Astor wasn't following him.
"Hey! Follow Dawn! What are you doing!" The girl whom he was carrying in his arms said, as she pointed at the silver-haired man.
Well... what am I to do here? Although he would have loved to explain what he was feeling to Dawn. There was no way not to sound insane while trying to do so. He looked north before taking a step towards the golden thread.
Sorry, Dawn... Astor thought softly as he glanced at Dawn once, before looking back north.
"What the—" Dawn cursed, but Astor had already begun sprinting north.
"Hey! Follow Dawn! Where are you going!?! Hey!" The girl screamed, but Astor didn't respond.
It was hard to see anything in the depth of night, but as long as he followed the weaving golden thread, he knew he wouldn't run into any obstacles and would be able to sprint at full speed.
Astor had decided to fully trust his decision to follow the golden thread — even though it led him in the opposite direction from home, north.
The distant echoes of chaos slowly faded as light began to pierce through the dense canopy, scattering the ground in shifting patterns. Something lay ahead, and the golden thread was leading him straight towards it.
He pushed his body to its limits, and right as he began approaching the final line of trees, a pale radiance illuminated the world at the heart of midnight.
Astor slowed himself down right as he stepped beyond the forest, and he began to wonder what the source of the light could be.
And why did the forest abruptly cease to exist, as if there was an invisible force that didn't allow life to blossom?
The answer to this odd phenomenon was right in front of his eyes.
The large clearing in the forest suddenly gave way to a wall... A few hundred meters away from him was a swirling wall of colour that rose kilometres into the sky, stretching east to west for as far as the eye could see, painting the world in its shimmering, ever-shifting colours.
For a moment, he believed he had reached the estuary of the golden thread, but then he realised he was wrong...
The golden thread continued to guide him beyond this shimmering veil — into the secrets that it hid. This was not the end of Astor's journey, perhaps only the beginning.