The Sleeping Star

It had been a long time since Lisbel had entered a ruin at Hendrick's side, and the tension of it made her swallow dryly.

To cross the threshold, he would have to draw his blood again and carve the Red Mark into her wrist. Before he could demand it — or seize her by force — she took the initiative and held out her arm.

"......"

That composed, almost detached compliance made Hendrick's eyes narrow. He sliced his thumb open with the dagger in his hand and smeared the crimson across her pale wrist. The strange energy that bloomed from the pulse point and unfurled through her entire body was both unfamiliar and deeply unsettling after so long. Lisbel couldn't bear to watch. She turned her face away.

"Let's go."

By then the ritual was already finished. The Red Mark had settled into the skin where her heartbeat lived. With that single clipped word, Hendrick stepped across the ruin's boundary.

"Hah......"

Lisbel scrubbed at her wrist with her palm, as if she could scrape away the vivid imprint of his touch. Then she clenched the pouch she had brought, gripping it so hard it might burst.

Please. Let this be of some use.

She murmured it like a prayer, then hurried after him.

"Wow......"

The maze, seen up close, was far more overwhelming than it had been from a distance. Stone walls soared to a height that would easily dwarf two grown men, and vines had twisted themselves into grotesque tangles across the ancient faces of the rock, as if the years themselves had taken root there. The effect only deepened the labyrinth's eerie mystique.

The real problem was how they would pierce this colossal maze and reach the inner depths where the inscription lay. Raised in antiquity, the ruin could be hiding any number of deadly traps or brutal trials.

"The imperial family already mapped a safe path through here years ago. Just keep up and nothing will happen to you."

"Ah."

Hendrick tossed the remark out with complete indifference, as if he had already guessed at her scholarly anxieties. Lisbel, who had spent the entire night mentally rehearsing every known method of navigating an ancient maze, let out a short, deflated sound as the wind went out of her.

"The forest darkens faster than you'd think. We need to hurry."

Hendrick, who could not have cared less about her private sense of anticlimax, added the words coolly and stepped into the maze. His back was already receding into the dark. Lisbel scrambled after him.

Thud. Thud.

The maze felt utterly cut off from the world outside. Aside from the sound of their two pairs of footsteps, a suffocating silence filled every corridor.

The oppressive, almost claustrophobic atmosphere — and the unchanging scenery no matter how far they walked — was slowly drowning Lisbel's scholarly curiosity in a more primal fear.

"This way."

Hendrick, however, seemed genuinely untouched by the damp, creeping dread. He consulted the map he had brought with complete composure and pressed on in silence.

Walking beside a man that unflappable did take the edge off her fear, at least a little. But a faint mist had begun to gather, and the tension of not knowing what might lunge out the moment they rounded a corner made it impossible to match his calm.

Ssskkk. Shhhk, shhk.

And of course, Lisbel's fear soon became reality.

The deeper they went, the more strange sounds rose from every direction — something crawling along the stone walls, something slicing through the empty air. Sure enough, the straight path ended, and the instant they turned the corner, a massive shadow began to take shape in the mist beyond the newly revealed corridor.

"Hhk......"

Drawn by their presence, it lumbered toward them with heavy, booming steps. The shadow buried in the fog resolved into a monster in the shape of a gigantic mantis.

Its carapace was a perfect camouflage against the stone. Dozens of split, nauseating eyes stared out. It raised a pair of scythe-like forelimbs, blue-green and sharp enough to shear through anything in a single stroke. Lisbel's breath stopped in her throat.

"It's a trial the ruin planted. Nothing special. Don't be afraid."

Hendrick faced the enormous creature without so much as a flicker of unease. Then again, he had once carved through a monster the size of a hill in a single stroke. This one might not even register as a threat to him.

"If you can't stand to look, close your eyes."

But to Lisbel, this thing was far more horrifying than the monster that had tried to devour her only days ago.

"Ugh."

She hadn't let it show, but while they were cutting through the jungle she had wished she could simply faint — dozens of times over. The reason was insects. Lisbel had loathed them since she was a small child. Mantises, in particular, made her recoil so violently she wouldn't even look at them.

And now here was a giant mantis, twisted into that grotesque form. Following Hendrick's advice, she squeezed her eyes shut, unable to bear the sight.

"Kieeeek!"

The monster's shriek tore at her eardrums, and gooseflesh raced across her entire body. A sound of something ripping through the air was followed by the crash of the maze's stone walls collapsing.

KWAANG. KWAANG! The successive explosions of sound were anything but ordinary. The assault was fiercer than she had expected, and Lisbel couldn't stand the anxiety — she opened her eyes.

"Your Grace!"

What she saw was the worst possible sight: the monster's scythe-like arm locked against Hendrick's sword, the two of them straining in a contest of raw power.

The creature was dozens of times his size, bearing down with crushing force — but Hendrick wrapped his blade in crimson aura, held the line, and then, with a wet shearing sound, sent the monster's arm flying.

"Don't open your eyes!"

Whether he had heard her cry or not, Hendrick shouted the command and lunged at the monster once more. A deeper, richer aura soaked into his blade. The sword-light he drove upward from below split the creature's torso clean down the center.

Kugung. Thud!

The monster's hardened shell split as cleanly as a block of wood under that single stroke. It never even had time to scream. Its body, severed into two precise halves, slammed into the maze wall and collapsed.

"Tsk."

Hendrick flicked the beast's fluids from his blade and clicked his tongue, the sound cold. Not a single breath was out of place. The arrogance of it was absolute.

The grotesque pressure that had filled the ruin only moments ago had been completely erased, crushed beneath the overwhelming killing intent he now radiated. He sheathed his sword and looked back at Lisbel, who was still frozen in place.

"Close your eyes."

"...I— I'm sorry?"

"I don't want to watch you dither because you can't walk past that thing. Close your eyes."

"What on earth is that supposed to— kyaah!"

Lisbel was still trying to parse his baffling words when he suddenly scooped her up. Her arms went around his neck on instinct.

"I'll get us past it quickly. If you want to see what that thing's insides look like, be my guest."

Before she could even reply, Hendrick strode toward the monster's corpse. The hideous silhouette loomed closer by the second. Lisbel squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face deep in his shoulder.

The closer they drew, the thicker the nauseating stench became. A grotesque twisting, writhing sound reached her ears — rigor mortis, perhaps — and her arms tightened around him. Without the shelter of his embrace, she would have collapsed on the spot.

"We're here. You can get down now."

How far they walked after that, she couldn't say. Lisbel waited endlessly for Hendrick's signal, having no idea when it would be safe to open her eyes.

They had surely already passed the monster's side, and she was beginning to wonder why he still hadn't said so — when her body tilted gently and her dangling feet touched the ground.

"Huh......?"

Her vision, black from being shut so long, gradually brightened. She looked around at where she was standing.

"What's under your feet is the inscription that appeared at this ruin. Originally, this was just bare floor. Nothing there at all."

At his words, she looked down. A vast mosaic composed of hundreds of stone fragments was inlaid into the floor. Shells, colored stones, and shards of porcelain had been meticulously cut and set into place. It was breathtakingly beautiful — and, from an archaeological standpoint, magnificent.

Filled with wonder, Lisbel examined the work slowly. The images were divided into five sections, each seeming to depict a chapter of ancient history. A border ran around the pictures, and within that border she could make out characters she had seen on previous inscriptions. Her scholar's heart began to pound.

"Awaken the sleeping star in the mountain range where the blood of the gods once flowed......?"

In the image framed by that inscription, a mountain range glittered with light, and below it people knelt in prayer, gazing upward in reverence.

"Ugh."

But in that instant, something strange occurred.

"Professor Belloc?"

The Hendrick standing right beside her was calling her name, puzzled — but the agonized voice echoing inside her skull was far more powerful.

"Lisbel Belloc!"

It had only been a memory, a fragment that brushed past her — and yet the despair that swallowed her whole made her legs give out. Hendrick, who must have been watching her, snatched her by the arm and shouted her name.

"Ah......"

"What's wrong? Is it the curse?"

"N-no. I'm still all right."

It certainly wasn't the heat curse. But the sensation had been as vivid as if she had witnessed it with her own eyes, and the despair had felt like her own. Her heart hammered in her chest.

Lisbel shook off the hand that had seized her arm and forced herself back to the translation, refusing to be swept away by the lingering shards of that emotion.

"Mortal fire alone is not enough, so do not forget to pray......"

The next section showed a massive furnace in the background, and figures who appeared to be blacksmiths receiving what looked like a baptism, kneeling in reverence before a priest in ancient vestments.

The images on the floor seemed to form a sequence, a single process unfolding step by step — and just as she felt the first glimmer of a decisive clue—

"Hh......"

The heat paralyzed her limbs in an instant. A helpless moan escaped her, and she sank to the floor where she stood.