Chapter 129: Ch127. It’s you...
The path before them was clear, a corridor of stillness carved through the sea of Revenants. The creatures stood motionless on either side, their twisted forms illuminated by the eerie glow of their fractured cores. They did not growl, did not lunge.
Beyond the mass of monsters, the Last verse loomed above the world, a monolith that defied reason, reaching so far into the heavens that its peak was swallowed by the storm-choked clouds.
It was neither entirely of metal nor wholly of flesh, yet it pulsed as if alive. Its surface, a shifting lattice of dark steel and chitinous plating, shimmered with a dull luminescence, veins of unknown circuitry glowing faintly beneath the layers. The material was seamless, as though the structure had grown rather than been built, its foundations lost in a twisting web of roots, wires, and ancient stone.
It exhaled a deep, reverberating hum that resonated in their bones. Whispers rippled through the air, indistinct voices trapped within its walls, or perhaps emanating from another time, another world – or worlds.
Lights flickered across its surface. Some steady and artificial, others like bioluminescent creatures swimming beneath glass. The spire’s outer shell occasionally shifted, revealing swirling inscriptions that vanished the moment one tried to focus on them. Tendrils of lightning crawled up its length, not random but moving with intent, as if conducting some grand and unknowable ritual.
Above, at impossible heights, jagged spires branched outward like branches on a tree, or the fingers of a god grasping at the void.
Strange formations, part antenna and part crystalline growths, pulsed with energy, drawing in whispers from distant stars. Time itself seemed to warp in its presence. A step too close and shadows bent unnaturally, breaths lingered too long in the cold air, and echoes of footsteps arrived before the feet that made them.
And before the Last Verse, the Revenants watched Miles and Kurt as they walked, as if waiting for a command that never came.
Miles swallowed, his grip tightening on his scythe. This surely was unnatural.
Revenants were never still. They existed to devour, to destroy, to reproduce. Yet... There they stood, parting as if granting permission.
"Yeah. That’s not ominous at all." Kurt let out a low whistle.