Chapter 305 - Past and to the future
As the world around them twisted, Scarlett felt the air thicken, as if bracing for some profound upheaval. The stone chamber where they had stood began to dissolve at the edges, its walls bending, splintering, and re-forming until an entirely new landscape stretched out before them. They now stood atop a tall hill, overlooking a vast valley with a sprawling city at its heart.
The city was a labyrinthine array of towering buildings carved from white marble and cold grey stone. Arched bridges spanned wide spaces, while spires reached skyward with a near-audacious elegance. It was a metropolis of staggering scale, at least by this world’s standards, its architecture reminiscent of the ancient designs of the Rising Isle and the grand edifices of the Ascendant Court in Elystead.
In other words, a Zuverian city.
White rifts dotted the streets and surfaces, hovering like open wounds in reality, their edges faintly shimmering. Although the city appeared solid, nearly tangible, these fractures gave it an eerie quality, like fleeting glimpses into an unsettling void that gnawed at its fringes. No signs of life moved within its walls.
A deep, thunderous hum filled the air, resonating through the ground beneath their feet. Scarlett’s gaze lifted. Above the tallest buildings, that same indistinct form from before loomed — an enormous, shifting grey mass, impossible to fully perceive. It coiled and unfurled, emerging from a web of rifts that tore the firmament asunder.
Its sheer scale almost defied comprehension. The entity’s form pulsed with disturbing energy, warping the landscape around it as though poised to devour the city below.
Beside her, Scarlett heard several sharp intakes of breath.
“A Zuverian city…” Gaspar murmured, his tone low and full of disbelief as his wide eyes scanned the ancient cityscape. “How can this be?”
Scarlett didn’t respond. Her attention was fixed on the being above. While she disliked admitting it, there was a primal part of her that clawed at her to turn and flee, that screamed that this being was nothing like facing her ‘counterpart’. She could feel, in her very core, that it was truly something aberrant.
“Are we…supposed to fight that?” Allyssa’s voice wavered, the tremor in her words betraying the fear and uncertainty.
Scarlett watched as tendrils of dark grey energy spiralled from the Anomalous One, crashing across the city with the force of a thousand meteors. Where they landed, the dark shapes twisted and writhed, morphing into new forms — some resembling real creatures but distorted, others entirely unrecognisable. These monstrosities began slowly prowling the streets.
There was something about this scene that seemed…familiar. Her eyes narrowed.