Atheline looked down at the hollow then back to her.

"How much have you mined?" He asked.

She was quiet for a moment.

"I think I’ve already finished it," she quietly said.

At that moment, the shadows retracted giving them a clear view of the crater.

With the crystals removed, it had sunk deeper but not too deeply.

As if to show its anger, the ground shifted underneath them slightly, almost like a mini earthquake.

"Okay, it seems to be getting worse."

She didn’t look down. Her attention was on the edges of the crater and the ruins surrounding it.

"It’s connected," she said, almost to herself.

Atheline followed her gaze but couldn’t see anything different, except for a few still rolling stones.

"What is?"

She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she walked to one of the raised pillars and stepped on it, elevating herself.

Atheline watched her for a second then followed behind her. From that small elevation, the view changed. The crater wasn’t just a random dip, it sat at the centre of the ruin.

The broken pillars, slabs, and they weren’t just scattered randomly.

They all seemed to have been deliberately arranged, angled inward towards the crater.

"It seems they didn’t fall randomly," he said.

"Yes, I have a feeling that something organised it on purpose," she said.

Her vigilance had risen as she looked around. Lilith’s gaze stopped on the storm wall that was still terrorising those outside.

"Do you still think it’s safe?" He asked.

"Yes."

He looked at her, his lips curving.

"That was fast."

"The reactions were minimal at best," she said.

"For now."

She didn’t respond to that; instead, her eyes lifted past the ruins towards the other islands.

He followed her gaze.

"How do you propose we do that?" He asked.

"There," she pointed a few steps from the circle of ruins," a teleportation circle. "

He walked over, with her following him. The circle looked surprisingly well-kept.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, it leads to the dark island, " she said without any hesitation.

He let out a quiet breath, running his hand through his hair.

"Isn’t there a way to get to the top islands without an old circle?" He asked her.

She was quiet for a moment then shook his head.

"I can’t place the coordinates clearly since all the islands are shrouded, " she said.

A small chuckle slipped out.

"Figured it wouldn’t be that easy."

Silence lingered for a moment.

"The barrier is weakening, " she quietly said.

Atheline frowned.

"What barrier?"

He followed her gaze, to the storm. At that moment it was attacked. They could visibly see it tearing but it regenerated again.

"Let’s move before it bursts, I don’t want to know what will happen the moment the storm breaks."

The eye of the storm wasn’t as safe as most people liked to assume.

She stepped onto the circle, pulling her to him until their shoulders pressed together.

"Don’t let my hand go," she said.

He huffed lightly.

"Wasn’t planning to."

"I know," she said with certainty.

The circle activated on its own without any of them needing to direct it.

The space distorted then they were gone. Behind them, a crack barely visible appeared on the storm shield.

.

.

.

They landed surprisingly intact. The teleportation light faded, and what remained was them standing on a cold slab of stone with a dimly glowing pattern.

"That was better than expected," he said quietly.

They both stepped off the stone and onto the ground. Atheline noticed it immediately, the ground was worse than the last one.

Stones seemed to grow on it rather than just be there. Even the sky looked different. It looked as though it had been lowered and covered the whole island.

It felt as though they had entered an entirely different domain, a claustrophobic one at that.

Atheline steadied himself on the uneven ground then froze.

The difference hit him hard at that moment. The air smelled of something he was very familiar with.

Death and rot.

It was so oppressive that it was physically pressing down on him.

"This is worse," he muttered under his breath.

Lilith didn’t respond because she was looking outwards. The terrain that stretched before them was darker in almost everything.

Atheline exhaled softly.

"Annoying terrain," Lilith murmured, glancing at the jagged surface beneath her shoes.

A small chuckle left his lips.

"You are already complaining," he asked, a faint smile remaining, "we just got here."

She didn’t look at him. Her gaze remained scanning the horizon of broken stones stretching in front of them endlessly.

"I’m not complaining, " she said softly.

That earned a small chuckle from him.

He took a step forward and the chuckle carried further than he had expected.

A faint echo followed, a cracked scream of some sort, like it was responding to his sound.

He frowned.

"Did you hear..."

She glanced at him briefly.

"I did."

That meant one thing, they wouldn’t be alone for long. They moved quickly picking their paths between the fragmented rocks and shallow drops.

The terrain forced them to stay close, there was no room to spread out unless they wanted to jump onto the stones, and that meant they would be targets.

The place seemed to have one distinct road and they were following it. Branching meant going through more rocks.

"This is a really bad terrain for fighting, " he said under his breath.

"Yes, good for ambush."

Atheline didn’t respond because something had gotten his attention.

The first sign wasn’t movement but smell.

Faint, rotten but dry, not the usual kind that was fresh. Whatever was producing the smell was older.

He stopped.

"You smell it?"

"Yes."

Her voice was quieter now. They both looked ahead.

At first, nothing came into view, then the sound of rolling stones came.

Her head tilted slightly, as if listening to something he couldn’t hear.

"They’re here," she said calmly.

As if to prove her words right, a figure appeared. It didn’t come from behind a rock as expected but just kind of materialised on top of a stone slab ahead of them.

His eyes widened.

A man, or what he had been once.

His posture was wrong. Bent forward just a little, his arms seemed to have shortened while the rest of the body was just too rigid.

The more one looked, the more horrifying it became. There were cracks on its skin that seemed to have tried to heal but some parts had refused to.

Atheline’s hand shifted slightly, tightening around his bow. He carefully nocked an arrow.

"I’ve never seen this kind," he whispered under his breath just for her ears.

"It’s an elemental one," she said," extremely rare."

The corrupted head snapped towards them. It was too fast for something so rigid.

"Leave."

The voice that came from it was layered with multiple people speaking through the same mouth, but out of sync.

"Leave... leave."