The ground, once covered in hardened and chaotic mud, began to change its texture. It now seemed like a solid, flat stone surface, although it still had scattered cracks.
'What is this?' Grey wondered as he moved forward, carefully touching the walls beside him.
Indeed, things had shifted from chaotic to a smooth, though cracked, solid stone wall. Something odd, considering he was far below the surface, in a place where, Grey believed, no human had ever reached.
For a moment, he pondered what to do. Then, he extended his hand and summoned the fallen light, enveloping everything within a thirty-meter radius in darkness to see through it.
What he saw left him truly stunned.
On both sides of the tunnel, white stone walls rose all the way to the cavern's ceiling. They were marked by cracks that resembled worn drawings from ages past.
His gaze followed the flat floor, which inclined slightly downward, leading to a pair of imposing doors seemingly made of a steel-like mineral. These doors were adorned with runes of various shapes and sizes, black and white, exuding a sinister and terrifying aura.
'W-what's supposed to be in here?'
The doors were strangely… alluring.
'What? Why do I feel like I should enter? No, it must be because I've been down here so long. Have I gone crazy already? Or maybe… I am going crazy. Yeah, I would never go in there for anything.'
Uneasy with his thoughts, Grey turned around and began to walk away. The fallen light still covered a wide thirty-meter radius, allowing him to see clearly around him.
That's why it seemed strange when he suddenly stopped.
There was nothing in front of him. No monsters, no rocks, no visible obstacles. But his legs refused to move.
Something strange, a feeling he seemed to have experienced before, rooted itself in his mind like a persistent insect. That sensation was irritating him, weighing on his newly found madness.
Grey clenched his fists, and his gaze darkened slightly, causing the silver in his eyes to dim and the darkness of his pupils to stand out.
"Ah, damn it! Damn all of this crap!"
"Screw you and all the damn worms, damn it!"
Furious, Grey retraced his steps and, with a single push, opened the massive doors carved with inexplicable runes.
As the doors opened, a strong gust of air blew from within, causing Grey to stagger. That air carried an ancient scent and a feeling of sanctity he had never experienced before.
Grey looked with horror at the open threshold and what lay within; his face was a mixture of confusion and fear.
'W-what the hell did I just do?'
Inside, just a few steps away, was a wall engraved with terrifying scenes that chilled his blood.
Unable to look away from those murals, Grey observed their content with horrified delight.
In the first mural, directly in front of him, a majestic kingdom was depicted with faded colors. A magnificent castle stood atop a mountain, with the sun illuminating everything from behind its walls. In the shadow of that light, a bright city stretched out.
Though the mural was beautiful, the faded colors slightly dimmed its grandeur.
On one side, to the left of the central mural, everyday life in that prosperous kingdom was portrayed: festivals, parades, and traditions celebrated by its inhabitants and kings. All the images on the left showed a kingdom full of life, but the paintings to the right of the central mural told a different story.
'Is that…?'
Without realizing it, almost of his own accord, Grey started walking towards the dark corridor on the right.
As he moved, his mind tried to process what he was seeing.
In the first painting, the castle was still there, but the sun had disappeared, replaced by thousands of stars in the night sky. Darkness enveloped the once-prosperous kingdom, broken only by the lights of torches and candelabras.
Everything seemed like an ordinary night, except for one star that stood out among the rest.
As he continued, he noticed another star, brighter and more radiant, but much further away from the castle. The first star seemed to have grown, and the city, now in the midst of the night, appeared to be in chaos.
In the next mural, the star had fallen into the kingdom, creating a crater that spanned miles.
The painting showed scenes of destruction: a city in ruins, debris flying through the air, and a sky covered in ashes.
But it was the second part of the mural that made Grey stop and fix his eyes on a figure amidst the chaos, a figure radiant with pure light.
Something about it felt strangely familiar.
He had experienced that feeling twice before. The first time, at the academy, when he met Nephis, the last daughter of the Immortal Flame Clan, the Changing Star. The second time, when he saw the giant steel doors that led him to this place. That same sensation had made him open them.
His silver and black eyes locked onto the luminous figure as his mind processed all that he had seen and felt.
'A changing star and a star that fell from the sky, bringing chaos and destruction in its wake.'
His eyes widened as he realized a detail that all of them shared.
'They are Nephilims.'
Then, he understood. He grasped the fate that all of them were destined to cause.
His voice came out in a soft, silent whisper:
"Ruin. We only bring ruin."
I look at his runes, focusing on his true name.
'And I am the legacy of ruin, a Nephilim who will bring destruction to the world, just like him and possibly the changing star… the star of ruin.'
He remained motionless for a long time, maybe minutes, maybe hours; no one could say for sure, not even him.
After that time, he continued walking, driven by a burning desire to know what would happen next with that fallen Nephilim.
In the next mural, his worst fears were confirmed.
...
The radiant figure was surrounded by all the inhabitants of the kingdom on the hill and the city below. They watched from the edge of a small crater, their faces and postures reflecting awe at the figure of light.
But that wasn't all. Behind the Nephilim who had fallen from the heavens, a sinister figure, shrouded in an aura of malevolence, emerged from the shadows.
That figure, or creature—whatever it was—had managed to pierce the Nephilim's winged back with a spear, whose steel tip protruded from the creature's chest.
Nothing in that scene made sense. Who was that figure? Why would it attack a being of light? And most disturbingly, how had it managed to harm a Nephilim?
After all, that Nephilim had fallen from the stars, surviving the impact against the earth without a single scratch. So how had this sinister figure managed to kill it?
Grey understood that, although both were Nephilims, they were on completely different levels. He was barely a dreamer, one who would never have survived a fall of such magnitude.
But the Nephilim in the mural seemed like a being of power far beyond what humans could reach, perhaps a supreme existence, or maybe a being of the theoretical sacred rank.
'It doesn't make sense,' was all he could think.
Without answers, he let out a disappointed sigh and continued walking, observing the next mural with interest.
In this one, the being of light was shown with a wound in its chest. The figure that had created that wound was no longer there, and from the wound began to escape a terrifying darkness.
That darkness consumed the being of light, just as it consumed the starry sky, leaving the world in eternal darkness, one that had devoured the sun, the star, and the sky itself.
Finally, when all the darkness escaped from the wound and devoured everything, it began to flow out like the blood of the Nephilim, a black sea that filled the crater created by its fallen progenitor.
'The origin of the black sea… was born from the death or wound of a Nephilim.'
For a moment, Grey wondered if, in some distant future, he too would harbor a similar darkness within.
But he knew that, in reality, he already did. He had seen it; he had seen how sinister his soul was when he lost himself, and also the being of darkness that dwelled beneath his soul's sea.
Perhaps, if one day he became as strong as that Nephilim and his souls reached such power… would he unleash a similar catastrophe on the world when he was killed or died?
That thought sent a chill down his spine.
Then he kept walking to observe the three remaining murals.