Chapter 48: The Watcher’s cabin
"[Soul Energy: 75%]"
Ash exhaled slowly, his gaze sweeping over the land before him.
The desert was behind him, but this place—this was something else. The sand had vanished, replaced by a wasteland of cracked, blackened stone. The ground felt dead beneath his feet, brittle and dry, like it had been drained of life long ago. Jagged rocks jutted from the earth, twisted and sharp, the remains of something ancient and broken.
A cold prickle ran down his spine. The air here was wrong.
Above, the sky loomed heavy, its stars dim, struggling against a thick, unseen haze. Even the moon, once his guide through the dunes, looked faded—its glow weak, as if something was feeding on its light.
Then he moved.
Ash stop and look.
At the far edge of the wasteland, nestled between shattered rocks, sat a cabin.
The structure leaned to one side, half-buried in the fractured earth. Its wooden walls were warped, blackened, scarred by time. The roof sagged, weighed down by years of neglect. A single window faced him—dark and hollow, like something was watching him from inside. The door hung ajar, swaying gently as the wind whispered through the gaps.
Every instinct screamed at ash to leave.
But Ash stepped forward.
"[Activating Skill: Phantom’s Stride]"