NOVEL NEXT Chapter 67 - Forbidden
The air rushed past me as I plummeted through the darkness. For a good few seconds, there was nothing but black. I couldn't even see my own body. My arms and legs seemed to hang in an endless void, weightless and disconnected from anything familiar. The wind roared in my ears, carrying with it a strange, metallic tang, like ozone after a storm. I could feel my stomach lurch as my body hurtled downward, every nerve alight with the realization that this was not an ordinary fall.
But then my eyes adjusted.
I was falling through a sky. A strange one. Not a sky like I had ever known. Clouds of dark fog rolled across a vast, endless ceiling, thick and uneven, occasionally lit by strange glimmers of luminescent rock hidden deep within. The ceiling stretched as far as my eyes could reach, yet I could make out the vast expanse beneath me, like a world carved out of impossibility. My body punched through the fog, slicing through layers of darkness, and the landscape far below revealed itself, sprawling and alien.
Extending all around me, as far as my vision could reach, was a desert of sand darker than the deepest night. Vantablack, almost unreal in its depth, as if light itself had been swallowed whole. The dunes rolled endlessly, and the shadows between them were so profound that it felt like they could hide entire armies, or worse, entire creatures whose forms I couldn't even begin to imagine.
Like an entire layer of the planet's crust had been hollowed out. Above was rock, solid and ancient; below was sand, stretching infinitely. And nothing supported it. No pillars, no walls, no visible edges. Just open air, sandwiched between ceiling and ground, hundreds, perhaps thousands of meters apart. The sheer scale of it made my stomach twist and my mind reel. Gravity felt relative here, somehow crueler, somehow amplified.
And as I fell through this impossibly vast sky, a single, burning question pierced my panic:
How the hell is anyone supposed to survive this fall?
The thought clawed at my mind, threatening to twist into terror, but I forced myself to push it aside. I still had assurance in the life-saving effect of my Title. Still, I scanned the terrain below for any sign of difference, any detail that might break the uniformity of the endless black desert. That's when I noticed it.
Directly below me, the sand wasn't matte and unyielding. Instead, atop the black expanse, a shifting, glimmering sheen caught the faintest traces of light. A shimmer of liquid, perhaps water, though darker than anything I had ever seen. Its surface seemed alive, moving subtly, like it was aware of my presence.
The wind continued to rip past me, tugging at my hair, drying my eyes, parching my throat. My mouth was clear of saliva, dry as if the air itself had absorbed it. And yet, the closer I fell, the more detail the land below offered. The shimmer grew into a distinct shape. A lake, perfectly circular, its waters somehow seeming even darker than the surrounding sand.
The whole thin was strangely reminiscent of the pit I'd jumped into.
I braced myself. Logic screamed at me that no matter how dark or strange the water, landing at these speeds would be like hitting concrete. Perhaps even worse, given its unnatural quality. I tightened every muscle, set my shoulders, and prepared for impact.
I crashed straight in.
And yet… instead of the body-flattening pressure I had anticipated, the water yielded. It molded around me like a thick, viscous sludge, swallowing me whole yet easing my fall in moments. I felt the tension in my limbs loosen, my senses dampened by the strange medium. The moment I became fully stationary, the liquid returned to its previous, ordinary state, rippling as if I had never disturbed it.
Even submerged, the lake was crystal clear. I could see my arms, my legs, my body floating within it, yet every detail appeared magnified and distorted by the strange physics of this place. I tried to swim upward, pushing against the water instinctively, only to find it thickened again under exertion, resisting every motion. Movement slowed to a crawl, then to a frustrating halt.
I couldn't move, but with two minds grinding away at the phenomena I'd just witnessed, the logic clicked into place quickly.
Slower. I need to move slower.
A lesson in patience, instinctively learned. I tried again, this time pushing the water past me in slow, deliberate strokes. The liquid thickened slightly, resisting, but allowed forward motion. Inch by inch, I forced my way toward the surface. Each stroke was laborious, each breath a measured intake of the air I could see just beyond the surface.
A few slow, controlled movements later, I broke the water. Air filled my lungs with a harsh gasp. I coughed, sputtered, and shook my head to clear the water from my eyes. My gaze swept the shoreline for the man who had leapt before me.
And sure enough, there, standing at the distant edge to my right, was Intisak. Hands folded across his chest, silver eyes piercing and calm, long white hair whipped by some unseen gust of wind. He seemed untouchable, a fixture in the impossible landscape, as if he belonged to it. He watched me carefully, unblinking, assessing.
I stared back for a moment, unsure whether I should approach or remain where I was. Then I began to swim toward him, maintaining those same measured strokes that the lake demanded. Every movement was deliberate, every pull calculated to push through the thickening waters without triggering their resistance beyond a manageable degree.
When I finally reached the shore and climbed out, the strangest thing happened. I was not wet. Not a single drop clung to my skin or clothes. The water seemed to slide off me, returning to the lake all on its own. It was as if I had passed through a barrier, not a liquid. My mouth fell slightly open in awe.
Intisak noticed. His expression softened just slightly, an almost imperceptible acknowledgment of my astonishment.
"The Lake of Hindrance," he said.
"As you've figured out by now, its waters grow thicker the faster something moves through it. It is a complex enchantment, placed by one of the Shavrak's earliest Ancestors. But… that is a discussion for another time."
He turned, looking out toward the endless black landscape behind him. "For now, all you need to know is what this place is." His silver eyes scanned the horizon, and I followed his gaze to the dunes stretching farther than I could comprehend. "You stand in the Black Sand Caverns. No one fully understands this place. It is not accessible by any means other than the pit we entered through. Our Clan has attempted to venture far deeper underground from other locations many a time, but never did we come across anything like this place. And yet, right in our homes, was that pit that emptied out into an impossibly large cavity. Structurally illogical by every measure, as you see. Yet it exists. And after all these centuries exploring it, learning best we could, it has become Sacred to the Shavrak. Our personal hunting grounds, meant only for the strongest of our people…"
Intisak's eyes returned to me. "…And for those with potential enough to become one of those people."
"This is where you will prove yourself, boy. The beasts in these Lands can grow to wield immense power. Some use the sands as cover, some for traps, some for their homes. But make no mistake, the strongest… roam the surface. There will be no camping. No fires. No rest. You must be alert at all times, or you will die here."
I looked out into the endless black desert, the vastness stretching into the horizon like an ocean of shadows. My pulse quickened, anticipation flooding my minds.
"But there is some structure to this danger," Intisak continued, his gaze resting on the lake beside us. "This lake we stand beside is a center-point, we believe. The farther out you go, the stronger the beasts get. Every ten kilometers from this lake, lie creatures a stage stronger than those in the preceding ten kilometers. Layers. Concentric circles. This is your map. The First Ten Kilometers contain only Squall Class beasts. The next ten, Tremor Class, and so on."
"I see…" I replied, still scanning the dunes that seemed endless, the black sand swallowing all sense of scale. Then, turning back to face the Chieftain, I asked, "You said I must prove myself here… what would you have me do?"
He looked back to me, silver eyes gleaming in the dark. "Bring me the Core of a Crisis-Class Blacksand Scorpion."
My eyes narrowed at that. He knew I was capable of that much. It wouldn't prove anything he didn't already know. I sensed it...There was a catch.
He smiled. "Using your gift… is forbidden."
My eyes widened as the man reached for the knife at his belt, slicing his palm open with a precise motion before holding it out to me. Blood trickled freely, a stark contrast against the black sands behind him.
I swallowed hard. This was precarious. My gift…wasn't what this man thought it was. And agreeing to a blood-pact to enforce this promise meant it was my regeneration that would be sealed.
That...was dangerous.