The sun was up again, glaring down at the world with an intensity that made Savin feel like an ant under a magnifying glass. He had barely taken a few steps before realizing just how unbearable it would be to travel in this heat. His throat already felt dry, and his soaked clothes from the night before were quickly turning stiff with dried sweat and dirt.
If he tried to move now, he'd be thoroughly cooked before he even made it anywhere.
With a frustrated sigh, he turned back toward the hole. As much as he hated it, staying here was his best option. At least it provided shade from the merciless sun. But that also meant another long, grueling day of doing nothing.
And just like that, boredom became his companion once more.
***
Hours passed, and once again, the sun dipped below the horizon, giving way to the cool embrace of night. But now, Savin was worse off than before. His stomach twisted in painful knots, and his throat burned with dryness. Hunger and thirst gnawed at him, making every movement feel heavier, every step more sluggish. He was running on fumes, but stopping here wouldn't change anything.
Crawling out of the hole, he stretched his stiff limbs, groaning as his muscles protested. But something else caught his attention—something unexpected.
The sky was different.
Above him, not one, but six moons hung in the darkness, scattered in haphazard positions across the heavens. Some were large and glowing silver, others smaller with a faint, eerie hue. The sight was surreal, almost dreamlike.
'What is this?' His breath hitched for a moment. 'It's beautiful…'
But now wasn't the time to admire the sky. Gritting his teeth, he turned in his original direction and forced his legs to move, shaking off the drowsiness that clung to him.
'Damn it, I'm exhausted even though I slept all day. This is no kind of experience for a sixteen-year-old.'
He stretched his arms over his head, feeling his back crack as he walked. The soreness from spending an entire day cramped in a hole didn't feel like it was going away anytime soon.
Savin spent the night doing everything he could to avoid testing the so-called power of the branches he had taken. But with Enigma lurking nearby, that was looking less and less like an option. Every shadow, every whisper of movement in the dark, sent a shiver down his spine. He had no choice but to keep moving, hoping he could make it through the night without an encounter.
Then, he stepped onto a stretch of land that made his heart sink.
A vast, open field stretched before him, flat, barren, and offering no cover. The hills that had dotted the landscape before were gone, leaving him completely exposed under the night sky. But that wasn't even the worst part.
The ground was riddled with holes. Not small burrows, not cracks—holes. Dozens, maybe hundreds of them, each one large enough to fit Uncle Randall with room to spare. Deep, gaping maws in the earth, their blackness almost swallowing the moonlight.
Savin's breath hitched. His grip tightened on the sharpened branches strapped to his back.
'What the hell?'
He considered going around the cluster of holes, but after glancing to his right and left, he realized the field stretched endlessly in both directions, disappearing into the night. There was no telling how far it went—or how long it would take to walk around.
Frankly, the fastest way past this Enigma minefield was straight through it. But that was also the most dangerous choice.
Savin hesitated, his pulse quickening. His fingers twitched toward the branches on his back.
'Should I just go back?'
The thought crept into his mind like a whisper, but he knew better. There was nothing waiting for him behind except more exhaustion, more hunger, and—sooner or later—death. No, the only way was forward.
Still… one wrong step, and he might not even have the chance to regret it.
'To hell with this! To hell with everything!'
Savin exhaled sharply, steeling himself as he stepped forward. The expanse before him was nothing short of a waking nightmare—a vast minefield of holes, each one yawning open like the hungry maw of some unseen predator. He moved cautiously, his body tensed like a drawn bowstring. One misstep, one slip, and he might find himself plunging into the unknown depths below.
He forced himself to keep his breathing steady, though his heart pounded like war drums in his chest. The sharpened branches strapped to his back felt heavier now, a constant reminder of how little he had to defend himself. If something emerged from those holes, he wasn't sure whether his makeshift weapons would be enough. But they were all he had.
As he weaved through the labyrinth of burrows, his mind raced with uneasy thoughts. What kind of Enigma had made these?
Two possibilities surfaced, each more horrifying than the last. The first— massive insectoid creatures, armored and grotesque, with too many legs and a burrowing instinct that allowed them to carve through the ground like soft clay. The second— shapeless, unknowable monstrosities, their forms twisted by whatever hellish logic governed the Nether World, capable of tunneling through the earth with unnatural ease.
Neither option brought him comfort.
But if he had to choose?
Savin swallowed hard.
He'd rather face the insects. Even if it meant a gruesome end, at least he'd understand what was killing him. The alternative? The thought alone sent a shiver crawling down his spine. He tightened his grip on one of the branches, his knuckles turning white.
'Just don't fall. Don't even slip.'
And step by step, he pressed forward.
Just like a miracle, Savin found himself halfway through the maze of death in what felt like only a few minutes. The ground, treacherous and riddled with yawning holes, had tested his every step, but he had made it through without incident. He could almost allow himself a small smile of triumph.
The tension in his muscles eased for a moment, and he looked around, taking in the eerie stillness of the field. No Enigmas, no ambushes, no sense of imminent danger pressing down on him. The silence stretched before him, almost serene.
It was too quiet.
His gut twisted. He had no idea why, but the absence of threat seemed... wrong. In fact, it felt downright unnatural. The Enigmas were everywhere—ferocious, relentless, and driven by an insatiable hunger. So why weren't they here now?
'Now this was just too weird.' Savin frowned, his thoughts churning. But what was the point of worrying? His logical side scoffed at him. 'Fool, you should be thankful there are none here. Are you really praying to see them?' He shook his head at his own paranoia. If luck was finally on his side, he wasn't about to start questioning it.
With that, he pressed forward, and before he knew it, he was nearing the end of the strange, silent minefield. Step by careful step, he crossed the last stretch, making it through without a single problem.
'Haa... I almost jinxed myself. He exhaled, feeling the weight lift from his shoulders. Luckily, nothing happened.'
The best explanation he could come up with was that these creatures—whatever they were—had abandoned their burrows as soon as night fell. Probably nocturnal. That would explain the eerie emptiness of the place. But if they were capable of driving off other Enigmas, they had to be something truly dangerous. Something that even those monsters didn't want to tangle with.
He shuddered at the thought but pushed it aside. It didn't matter. He was about to be out of this wretched place in a few more minutes, and that was all that counted.
Letting his gaze wander from the countless holes he had been so fixated on, Savin finally looked ahead, only for his thoughts to come to a screeching halt.
What lay ahead wasn't just more open land. Instead, in the distance, he saw a strange formation—clusters of six stone peaks jutting toward the sky like the fingers of some buried titan. At first, they seemed like any other rocky spires—until he noticed something deeply unnatural about them.
At some point, all the peaks bent, converging toward a single point in the distance like something had pulled them all in.
But that wasn't what took him by surprise. Savin had been too focused on maneuvering through the treacherous field, too preoccupied with avoiding the holes, but he was sure—so sure—that those twisted stone spires had not been there a second ago.
Had they really appeared out of nowhere? Or had he simply not noticed them until now?
No. That couldn't be it. He had been scanning his surroundings the entire time. He would have seen them.
Taking a mental note of the holes around him, Savin turned to face the peaks and cautiously took a few steps backward. He moved slowly, using his legs like a makeshift cane, feeling for the ground before placing his weight on it. The last thing he wanted was to stumble into one of those gaping pits.
Then, right before his eyes, the stone peaks vanished.
The vast, empty land returned—rolling hills, stretches of grass, and the ever-present dark clouds looming above.
Savin froze. His heart skipped a beat.
He hesitated, then stepped forward again.
Like a shifting mirage, the peaks reappeared, replacing the landscape that had momentarily taken their place.
His mind snapped to a single conclusion.
'An illusion.'
No. Not just a guess. He knew it with certainty.
'Is this the work of a Seeker or an Enigma?'
The thought lingered, sending a ripple of intrigue through him. If it was an Enigma, then what kind? He had never heard of one capable of warping reality in such a way. But if it was a Seeker… then things were even more complicated than he initially thought. Why would someone want to blindfold others from something that could potentially save a fellow Seeker's life?
Still, curiosity alone wasn't enough to make him step toward those strange, contorted peaks. No, there was something else—something far more important.
'Monument.'
As far as he knew, Monuments were supposed to be structures formed by human hands, remnants of something ancient and it was thanks to them that Seekers could come and go from the Nether World. Looking at those peaks—at the way they bent and converged—they didn't seem like the work of an Enigma, did they?
A slow smile crept onto his face.
'Time to get the hell out of here.'