Chapter 53: Eyes, Shadows, And The Light
The moment I touched the final symbol—the eye split by flame—the world tilted sideways.
Everything vanished.
No flash. No sound. Just absence.
I opened my eyes to a place where nothing existed.
No sky. No stars. No wind.
Just an infinite stretch of ash-colored sand beneath my boots, a horizon that bled into nothingness, and a grey fog so thick it strangled even my thoughts. There was no color here. No time. Even my own shadow seemed unsure whether to follow.
This was the Underworld.
And unlike the first two trials, there was no welcome. No godly figure. No dreamlike beauty. Only silence. Endless, heavy silence.
I walked.
I don’t know for how long—minutes or years. My boots left no prints. My breath made no mist. I felt nothing but the pressure of something watching.
Something hungry.