A barrier of dark magic suddenly appeared in the middle of the doorway, instantly splitting the group in two.
The nameless young man and Kairav gasped as a glowing mist with a totem pattern of a cuckoo bird acted as a barrier, blocking their friends who hadn't yet crossed the threshold and leaving them trapped outside.
"Those cursed cuckoo bird tribes!" Casildo grumbled from behind the dark magic wall.
"Is that a magic formation?" Kairav asked, looking perplexed. He'd never actually seen anything like this with his own eyes before.
The nameless young man glanced briefly at Kairav. "It's dangerous. Move back," he said, his expression flat.
Hearing this, Kairav took a few cautious steps backward, listening to the faint commotion on the other side of the barrier and glimpsing the irritated expressions of his friends outside.
"Can't we just break through?" Trisha, losing patience, asked, frustrated by the endless obstacles blocking their path.
Casildo crossed his arms and approached her. "Go ahead, if you want to turn yourself into human mush," he retorted.
The burly young man kicked a rock at his feet toward the dark magic wall. The moment it hit the solid mystical surface, a bright flash scorched the rock to fine dust.
"Well? Still feel like trying, princess?" Casildo mocked, and Trisha's face soured.
"Maybe we could pass through if we destroyed this magic formation," Prince Arkana suggested thoughtfully.
But from the other side of the barrier, the nameless young man's voice cut in, forbidding it. "Don't. This Midnight Melody Tribe's dark magic formation is powerful. If we try to destroy it, the entire building could collapse with it."
"So, what should we do?" Casildo asked, clearly frustrated.
"We could split up," Arkana proposed. "The nameless young man and Kairav could continue down that hallway while we follow the river's path. There could be another way forward. What do you think?" He looked to the others for agreement.
"I don't think it's a bad idea," Casildo admitted.
"Is there no other option?" Trisha asked, visibly displeased.
The burly young man threw her a scornful look. "Unless you have a brilliant idea, Miss? Weren't you the one who got your men turned into soft-boned corpses?" He jeered, prompting Trisha to curse him under her breath.
Prince Arkana turned to his childhood friend. "Kairav, do you mind?"
Kairav simply shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, I'm fine with it."
"You're serious, Bro?" Gavin asked for confirmation.
The curly-haired young man waved him off irritably. "Tsk! Just go already," he muttered.
***
The wooden boat once again drifted down the chilly underground river, this time without the two who'd had to take a separate route. Even so, the orange glow from the Sunfire Gaze continued to light their path, even in the absence of its owner.
As they went further, the underground space grew dimmer and drearier.
The water flowed faster and faster, swarms of bats emerged from the darkness, and the air grew thick and heavy. A strange, negative aura cloaked the area, setting them on edge. It was as if something foul had purposely cast a shadow over the place.
"Why am I suddenly feeling so creeped out?" Zacky asked, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's stuffy and unsettling," he complained.
"What did you expect from this underground tomb? Fresh air?" Casildo grumbled irritably.
After venting his frustration at the bald man, Casildo continued paddling, his annoyed gaze shifting to Trisha, who sat across from him in a sullen daze. "Hey gloomy girl, why the sour face?" he sneered.
"Because she's missing her two sweethearts. Of course her expression's as dreary as the night sky," Gavin added, glancing away from his camera to join in on the teasing.
"Shut your filthy mouths before I decide to cut out your tongues!" Trisha fumed.
"Like you could touch us?" Baron retorted, smirking with contempt from his spot. "Crazy girl, you're so arrogant you don't even realize you wouldn't have survived this long without our help."
"You could go now if you're so confident in those old rifles of yours," Gavin mocked with a harsh glare. "Didn't all your fancy gear get wrecked by the first attack from the Asu Baung?"
Trisha remained silent, her expression seething with anger. Gavin's jab was painfully true: her high-tech equipment was reduced to scrap metal in the Asu Baung's initial onslaught, leaving her with a few barely functioning weapons.
"Our little boss is capable. If she wasn't hurt, she'd have protected us all completely!" Juna snapped, defending Trisha from the back.
"She also led your comrades to their gruesome deaths," Casildo smirked derisively.
But Trisha, too angry to accept anyone's defense, spun around to silence her most loyal follower. "Shut up, Juna!"
The large man fell silent, and Trisha's attention turned sharply to one of her men seated at the very back. "Andi, what are you doing?!" she barked.
The bearded man, Andi, briefly turned to face her but quickly turned away again, his gaze fixed on something floating in the distance down the river they had just passed.
"Miss, do you see that floating object?" He asked, pointing toward a spot in the water behind them.
Trisha squinted, clearly puzzled. "We already passed it. There wasn't anything there."
Andi squinted, trying to sharpen his focus on the vague, shadowy object, faintly illuminated as it drifted in the dim light, not quite within the Sunfire Gaze's glow.
Even with his flashlight, his eyes strained to make out the object.
"Forget it! Your poor vision's probably tricking you," Trisha scoffed.
Andi tried to heed her words, turning to face forward again, pushing the strange sight from his mind.
However, he couldn't resist whispering to Zacky nearby, which left the bald man bewildered. "It looked like a woven bamboo mat, floating off in the distance."
They continued on in silence after that, time passing swiftly like a breeze. Everything remained calm until the sudden appearance of bubbles breaking the water's surface shattered the peace.
"Aren't those spiny softshell turtles?" Gavin said, pointing at a cluster of creatures surfacing and revealing themselves as the source of the bubbles.
The others frowned in confusion, seeing the strange turtles with long noses and brown, soft shells swimming near their boat.
"Where did these creatures come from?" Prince Arkana wondered aloud.
Then another oddity occurred. The river flow suddenly slowed to a crawl, like a still lake with no current. And as they pondered this strange change, the spiny softshell turtles began to vanish, slipping back into the water one by one.
"Huh, why are they leaving all of a sudden?" Gavin asked, lowering his camera from his face as he watched the turtles submerge, disappearing from view.