Chapter 119: Roots of the Self
They moved forward in silence, the tunnel curving low and wide around them. With each step, the roots grew thicker, tighter woven into the walls and floor like muscle cords pulled taut. The air felt denser now. Not just heavy with dust or age, but pressure. Like something vast was breathing, and they were inside its lungs.
No one needed to say it. They were close.
The glow pulsing through the floor and the base of the walls wasn’t just light. It was rhythm. Like veins beating with something old and buried. The roots shimmered faintly green every few seconds, and they followed the pulses like breadcrumbs.
The deeper they moved, the stranger it became.
Echo’s fingers twitched lightly beside his head. "There’s sound here," he murmured. "Not random. It’s patterned. Like a heartbeat with too many valves."
"Still coming from one direction?" Jin asked.
"Yeah," Echo said, voice lower. "And it’s getting stronger."
The tunnel sloped down again, the incline sharper now. They stepped carefully, boots crunching over soft moss and slick patches of root-skin. The ground beneath them began to shift in color paler in places, almost translucent, like the outermost layer of something alive.
Joon’s orbs floated in tighter now, the glow casting sharp-edged shadows.
Then the path opened wider, barely. Enough for them to spread out slightly as the roots arched above them in thick, woven layers.
Jin slowed.