A Background Character’s Path to Power

I glanced at Zephyr as we tumbled through the air and watched him teleport mid-fall, reappering upright and landing gracefully on his feet. He continued sliding down the slope in a controlled manner, using the bone surface like a natural slide.

Show off.

I activated Interception Step, copying his move perfectly. My feet were just about to touch the smooth bone when-

WHAM.

An overwhelming pressure crushed down on me. My aura vanished, devoured by something unseen, and I crashed back-first onto the slope.

"Agh!"

"Aman!"

Above me, Zephyr tried to leap over my falling body, but the same invisible force slammed into him mid-jump.

His eyes widened in shock as he plummeted straight toward my head.

I rolled desperately. If his aura was sucked as well, he couldn't use teleportation.

Thud!

His body hit the bone surface where my skull had been a heartbeat before.

"The aura!" I gasped, the pieces clicking. "It's devouring our aura!"

Zephyr's face went grim. Without a word, we both retracted our aura completely. The crushing weight lifted slightly, though something still pressed against us.

"Stay down," he said, flattening himself against the surface.

We slid like that for what felt like an eternity, two figures lying prone on an endless bone chute, the darkness rushing past us in a blur.

At least it's fun.

When we finally came to rest, I pushed myself up slowly.

"That was..." I paused, looking at our surroundings. "Definitely not in the escape plan."

We had ended up in a vast underground chamber, its ceiling lost in shadows above. The walls were lined with the same bleached bones as the valley, but these were arranged in deliberate patterns - spirals, geometric shapes, almost like some twisted work of art.

Zephyr was already on his feet, his gaze observing the darkness.

Wait, can he even see in the darkness?

"Aura suppression field," he said grimly, before I could ask him anything. "I've experienced them in Virion's domain but never encountered one in real life."

"And it nearly turned us into pancakes," I muttered, testing my aura flow. It felt sluggish, like trying to move through thick mud. "How strong is the suppression here?"

"Strong enough that teleportation is impossible," he replied, his hand instinctively moving to his saber tilt. "We only have our physical abilities to rely on here."

I nodded.

But that didn't fully apply to me. Some of my abilities didn't rely on aura. However, Virion's blessing and Glacia Sinfonia were completely unusable here, along with a few other Resonance Arts.

Though I still need to check it out.

Hmmm, the Discerning Gaze is working well.

Pulse of the Unseen is working perfectly fine, too.

Then, let's check out a skill.

I quickly activated Shared Burden, forming a connection with Zephyr, and activated the Empathic Resonance effect.

"Hey, can you see in the dark?" I asked. If he didn't, I could lend him the glasses; they were practically useless for me now anyway.

"Yes," Zephyr replied shortly.

His night vision was likely another product of his rigorous training.

"So, what's the plan now?" I asked. "I doubt we can climb back up without using aura."

Zephyr gave a nod, his gaze settling on the only path available. A tunnel leading away from the base of the slide, its mouth even darker and foreboding.

"We don't have another choice. We either move forward or we wait here till Master finds us." He finally glanced at me. "How many hours do we have left anyway?"

"Just one," I raised a finger.

Nine hours had passed in a flash - a chaotic, violent flash.

"One hour, huh..."

Both of us fell into deep thought, weighing our options.

"Let's explore this place for the next half hour, and return back in the remaining time," I spoke up. "If we're lucky, we'll find something. If not, we would've at least tried."

Zephyr considered it for a moment.

"Agreed. It's better than sitting here doing nothing."

With that, we set out into the tunnel, our footsteps echoing softly against the bone-lined walls.

With my luck, I doubt we'll find any treasure, I thought as we walked. However, since Zephyr is a main character, we should discover something useful at this point.

But I also knew that in scenarios like this, dangers usually came hand-in-hand with opportunities. The greater the risk, the greater the potential reward. But of course not always.

Let's just hope for the best.

The tunnel seemed to stretch endlessly ahead, twisting and turning through the underground network. The bone patterns on the walls grew more intricate as we progressed, and I noticed that some sections seemed to pulse with a faint, almost imperceptible light.

After about ten minutes of walking, we finally reached what appeared to be another chamber - this one smaller than the first, but filled with an eerie blue glow emanating from crystalline formations embedded in the walls.

And there, in the center of the chamber, stood something that made both of us stop in our tracks.

It was a pedestal of woven, fossilized ribs, and resting upon it was a single, flawless bone that resembled a saber blade but more curved - almost like a scimitar carved from pristine ivory.

The weapon gleamed with an inner luminescence that seemed to pulse with some unseen heartbeat. It even made my own bones vibrate in response.

It was definitely a relic! Both powerful and... alive. Just like... Aeron's.

But between us and the pedestal, the floor wasn't made of bone. It was a patch of pure blackness, a pool of solidified shadow that seemed to drink the light from the glowing crystals. And as we watched, the surface of that darkness rippled.

A single, skeletal claw tipped with obsidian talons emerged from the black pool and dug into the bone floor with a sound that grated worse than any we had heard yet.

The obsidian talons scraped against bone, and from the pool of absolute darkness, a void where not even light escaped, a second claw emerged, followed by the slow, terrifying rise of a horned skull.

Two pinpricks of violent violet light ignited in its sockets, and the relic on the pedestal gave a sympathetic, hungry thrum.

...We're screwed.