The silence dragged on until the three of them finally looked at me with matching doubt.

  Yeah… they clearly didn’t buy what I’d just said.

  “Asher, how old are you?”

  I smiled stiffly and glanced at Anny and Liber.

  ‘Back me up,’ my eyes practically screamed.

  But they averted their gazes. My face fell and smile crumbled at their open betrayal.

  Age was one topic I usually dodged, but right now there don’t seem to be many options for me to escape with.

  “I will be turning eighteen soon.” I muttered.

  Enzo's face hardened.

  “What did you just say?”

  Summer stepped closer, and I instinctively stepped back.

  “What?” I shrugged, feigning innocence.

  “Your age… if that’s true. You became awakened at such a young age?” Enzo whispered.

  Chris froze as realization seeped in.

  All three of them turned toward Anny and Liber standing side by side.

  “He is telling the truth… He ascended right in front of us.” Liber admitted with a hesitant look as if seeking permission from me to talk about it.

  I didn’t interrupt and let him speak.

  Liber, after a brief pause, continued, slower this time.

  “He became an awakener six months ago and a month later he ascended as an awakened. That’s real. If it happened once… it can happen again.”

  “This is so ridiculous I don’t even know how to react,” Summer groaned, dragging a hand down her face.

  My expression went stiff.

  Their reactions were way harsher than what I’d gotten before.

  Sure, I knew it would surprise them—but this much? Whatever. I could endure some staring.

  “I’d appreciate a little more trust,” I said dryly.

  I shook my head and walked ahead.

  "You come and say you have reached enlightenment. Obviously we will be like this!" Chris barked.

  I paused and turned my head to give him a dubious look. His voice was sharp, even strained but… excited, not angry.

  "Have you encrypted the enlightenment yet?" Enzo asked as we started walking again.

  The closer we got to the castle, the more my skin crawled. I bit my lip and shook my head.

  "No. Not yet. I have some ideas… but this enlightenment feels different to me."

  Summer snorted, kicking a pebble from the cracked path. "Different how? You're barely keeping it together—I can hear your teeth grinding from here."

  She was clearly annoyed.

  I had an inkling of what the reason behind it could be.

  With a sigh, I flexed my fingers, feeling the unnatural warmth pooling beneath my skin—like embers stirred by unseen winds. "Different because I didn’t chase it. It came to me, like something reaching out."

  The words tasted wrong coming out, and even Anny frowned at that, her brows knitting tight as if I’d just confessed to murder.

  I took a deep breath and felt several eyes digging on my back, telling me to continue speaking.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Maybe that’s normal for you guys. But my last enlightenment came out of nowhere, and I only understood it in a crisis. This time, I actually have the chance to study it properly.”

  This was also different from Anny, who, after getting hers, just acted on instincts. She didn't have time to understand it.

  I struggled to explain the feeling.

  I had been chasing enlightenment since the moment I became an awakened. But now that I had calmed those feelings and learned everything about my current abilities, healed my soul not long ago and had a path.

  Then it just… came.

  The thought flickered through my mind like a struck match—brief, bright, and almost laughable if it weren’t for the way my pulse hitched.

  The castle loomed ahead, swallowing the path in its shadow. Only then did I notice the silence behind me.

  Everyone was lost in thought.

  The path narrowed as we approached the castle's outer gates, ancient iron groaning under its own weight. Shadows stretched unnaturally long across the cobblestones, though the sun still hung high.

  As I stepped toward the open doorway, a cold shiver locked my shoulders.

  Boom!

  Boom!

  Loud noise that couldn't belong to humans could be heard from the inside.

  Something was inside.

  “Don’t tell me you actually want to go in,” Chris said.

  "I don't."

  I couldn't see what was happening inside but it couldn't be good.

  I just took one step forward, touching the boundaries on the crown-shaped building.

  Just then—

  Swish!

  Something lashed out from the inside.

  It was fast, too fast to be followed by mundane eyes. I tried to dodge, shock flashing across my face.

  "Asher!"

  Someone yelled, but it was too late.

  Thung!

  "What—?"

  The attack never landed. The moment it drew close, it simply vanished—disintegrating into dust that scattered and recoiled at the same time, as if burned away by something invisible to my eyes.

  I fell to the ground, my heart pounding loudly behind my ribs and cold sweat sliding down my temples.

  The dust settled in eerie silence, leaving no trace of whatever had lunged at me—as if it never existed in the first place.

  No one could speak, as the shock was too great and too dreadful.

  The monster inside, the ruler of the central domain, didn't come out even after moments passed.

  We were supposed to be safe at this distance.

  But—

  "Enzo..." My breathing hitched.

  "Y-yes?"

  “…Try entering through the shadows.”

  I asked the same to the spirit of shadow.

  After a brief hesitation, they both agreed and vanished from my vision and then reappeared instantly.

  “I… I can’t,” Enzo whispered, face drained of color.

  The spirit melted near my feet, nodding. “It’s sealed.”

  My lips twitched.

  So my guess had been right.

  The ruler hadn’t come for us because it couldn’t

  It was sealed inside these walls!

  *

  “What are you going to do now?’

  Liber asked, sitting at the corner of a wall.

  We had left the central area of the lost city, retreating far enough to find some measure of safety and taking shelter inside another building. It took a long time to get here, but if it meant a night of sleep without monsters, none of us were in any position to complain.

  Though temporary, it was enough for now.

  My heart still hadn’t settled. My hands trembled nonstop.

  Ba… thump!

  Ba… thump!

  “Where did it go?” I muttered under my breath, searching through my storage bracelet.

  After seeing—no, finding—the Avenger location, another thought had brewed up inside me.

  “Hey? You listening?” Summer raised her brows and came closer.

  “Yeah… I am searching for something.” I mumbled, trying to focus on one thing.

  Then—without hesitation—I dumped everything out.

  “What—what are you doing?” Summer stumbled back as a full pile of junk materialized. Weapons. Clothes. Food containers. Monster hides. Shards. All the bits and pieces of my messed-up journey.

  Beside them there stood out one more thing—a jar—a bronze container, which held ashes.

  “I can’t find it!”

  “You can’t find what?”

  Chris and Liber came closer, followed by Anny. All surprised by my actions.

  “The shard… the glass-like origin shard of the avenger that had trapped me.”

  Enzo pursed his lips, not knowing what I was talking about, and asked in a deep voice.

  “Why do you need it?”

  I sighed and rubbed my temples.

  “I have a plan. and I need it for that.”

  Enzo raised a brow and looked at me with a dubious gaze.

  “A plan for your enlightenment?”

  I nodded.

  “Death is a good trigger… I certainly have some great guesses on what to do for my ascension.” I answered with a hasty voice, rummaging through my stuff.

  “I see.”

  He turned his head to look at others; I couldn’t see his face but he must have been making an odd expression for others to fall quiet.

  Then Summer whispered, “He’s lost it, hasn’t he?”

  “Probably,” someone replied.

  I could hear them loud and clear but chose to ignore them for now.

  “We will also need to visit the other Avenger in the south.” I murmured, turning several heads toward me.

  Chris went pale. “He… what? What did he just say?”

  I sighed, about to abandon my thoughts as I couldn’t find the origin shard.

  ‘Where could it go? I was sure the shadow had given it to me for this purpose.’

  Artifacts were born many ways. Origin shards of fallen beings were one of them. I knew this but didn’t know how it worked. I also didn’t knew if it was possible with this shard before; however, now everything was settling in.

  Just like my crystal sword and mask of penpoly were made from creatures of beyond. I could have gotten a strong tool in my arsenal with that.

  But—

  ‘Hmm?’

  I looked up in confusion as all the voices in the background scattered and vanished into nothing.

  My gaze fell on the bronze jar.

  The ashes of Eron village—everything I could gather.

  Now that I looked at it, an eerie and vicious feeling washed over me. My eyes rolled back, cold blood coursing through my veins as I reached out—only to recoil and push it away.

  Stars above... I groaned.

  Now I understood.

  I finally knew where the shard had gone.