The clear hiss of the wind through the clouds carried across the sky as the blazing sphere above blessed everything under its sight.

  Atop fluffy but unstable ground, three women carefully searched for someone precious to them.

  “There’s really no one else apart from us.”

  Stella scratched the back of her neck.

  “This wasn’t how it was supposed to go…”

  Feeling partially perplexed, she clenched her fists.

  “It’s nothing to worry about. We know Orion and the others are safe, so all we need to care about is finding where we are.”

  May approached, running her fingers through her hair.

  “Do you see anything, Deveralna?”

  Lifting her head, she caught sight of her lamia friend hovering high in the air.

  “Besides white clouds and weirdly shaped pieces of what I could call ‘ground,’ there’s nothing else.”

  Deveralna frowned, scanning the horizon for any clues about their whereabouts.

  “Is there anywhere you feel is worth investigating first?” Stella asked.

  “Getting off this unstable floor sounds better than not. Why don’t we head toward the nearest solid ground?”

  The other two nodded at May’s observation without question. Deveralna pointed east.

  “Let’s move this way, then.”

  All three faced the same direction before carefully making their way across the cloudy land.

  An hour later, they reached the nearest landmass.

  Deveralna landed close to her companions, her tails curling on far more stable ground.

  With caution, May and Stella followed suit, their boots sinking into what appeared to be dirt.

  “Isn’t this strange?”

  Stella crouched, one knee on the ground.

  “This is dirt. If this area had been rocky terrain, I’d understand.”

  Both May and Deveralna paused, quickly realizing what she meant.

  “Right. We’re so high up that it doesn’t make sense for it to be dirt,” May agreed.

  “If it were a mountain peak, it would make more sense.”

  Collecting a small sample of sediment in her hand, Stella nodded.

  She scanned the surroundings carefully.

  “No grass or trees either… as if this place isn’t meant for life.”

  She frowned, thinking aloud.

  “Usually, even near mountain peaks, you’d see some vegetation.”

  “Not a single blade of grass is unusual,” May admitted. “There’s not even snow… just dead dirt.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Crushing the blackened soil between her fingers, Stella stood abruptly.

  “I get that this place is strange, but can’t we just chalk it up to this world’s setting?” Deveralna asked.

  May countered with a sharper tone.

  “I think even in another world, some rules would be the same.”

  “It’d be strange to suddenly find ourselves upside down, wouldn’t it? Same with breathing—we’re still breathing air.”

  To prove her point, she inhaled deeply. Reflexively, Stella and Deveralna copied her.

  Then, they all winced.

  “What a disgusting scent.”

  May brought the back of her hand to her nose.

  “Rotten flesh… and flowers. Actually disgusting.”

  The air carried a sickly-sweet stench, death wrapped in perfume.

  “How did we not notice it until now? We’ve been here at least five minutes.”

  Deveralna closed her eyes, fighting the urge to gag.

  “Is it the earth itself that smells?”

  Unlike Orion’s wives, Stella seemed more intrigued by the process that could produce such a bizarre odor.

  “Stella, stay on guard. This scent doesn’t mean anything good. Don’t let your mind wander too far.”

  Grabbing her slender shoulder, Deveralna’s tone grew stern.

  Frozen in place, Stella grimaced.

  “Orion already told us to be careful with you. Bad habits die hard, don’t they?”

  Smiling, May walked past them.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she caught Stella sighing in resignation.

  “You’re right. I still haven’t broken this habit, even though Orion keeps warning me…” Her frown softened into a smile—then twisted into a grimace. “But this smell is truly atrocious!”

  Seeing her cover her nose with tears in her eyes, the other two couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “All right. I’m not Orion, but I’m confident he’d investigate this smell anyway.”

  “Why don’t we follow it to the source and deal with it?” May suggested, her general’s voice returning.

  “There’s nothing better to do right now. With no idea where everyone else is, we can’t stay idle.”

  Both Stella and Deveralna nodded.

  “Let’s move.”

  With determined steps and swift serpentine movement, the three crossed the ghostly land floating in the sky.

  It took barely ten minutes to find the source of the stench.

  They froze at the sight before them.

  A spike rose from the earth like the vertebra of some colossal, buried beast, its dark-purple surface dulled by dirt yet faintly aglow—too dim to light the ground, yet enough to deepen the surrounding shadows.

  Around its base sprawled a mountain of human skeletons, bones sun-bleached yet somehow clinging to the memory of flesh. Every figure was frozen mid-reach, bony fingers stretching toward the spike, jaws locked open in silent wails. They seemed caught in the instant before touching something they should never have desired.

  Threaded through the charnel heap bloomed pale flowers as white as fresh snow, each petal veined in black. They pulsed faintly, as if drinking from the marrow itself, feeding on lives long since taken. The air here was sweet—not rot, not dust, not earth—but a hollow stillness that pressed into the lungs like the weight of the grave.

  Something about the scene warned of a mistake—a trespass. The spike did not move or speak, yet its presence gnawed at the mind, whispering in wordless hunger. It felt as if the ground waited for one more body to join the rest.

  “What… have we gotten ourselves into?”

  Deveralna’s voice broke the silence.

  With shallow, careful steps, Stella moved forward under the watchful eyes of the others. She forced her curiosity to stay contained and began examining the area.

  May followed closely, one hand on her blade.

  Deveralna took to the sky, scanning for movement.

  Crouching before the nearest patch of flowers, Stella frowned.

  “These flowers… I’ve never seen them before.”

  “Are they unusual?” May asked, glancing over her shoulder.

  Stella nodded faintly.

  “I can’t say for sure, but they’re not naturally occurring. Someone—or something—created them for a purpose.”

  Her Remnant power confirmed what her instincts suspected.

  “Can I have five minutes? I want to understand their function.”

  May sighed but relented.

  “Five minutes. No more.”

  Deveralna nodded from above.

  “Do your thing. We’ll keep watch.”

  “Thanks!”

  Stella plucked a bloom from its stem, analyzing it with her power.

  Her expression shifted immediately. Focused. Sharp.

  Muttering to herself, she worked quickly—after plucking three petals, she pierced its secrets.

  “No way…”

  “What did you find?”

  Standing, Stella turned to May, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. The sigil in her pupils pulsed faintly, still feeding her information.

  “These flowers, whatever their name or origin, are part of a larger system.”

  She pointed at the blooms behind her.

  “They feed on the marrow of those corpses. They only bloom once they’ve consumed an entire person’s worth of bone marrow.”

  “Then the energy they collect is sent straight to that… thing.”

  She glared at the towering spike.

  “It absorbs—and probably emits or transfers—that energy somewhere else.”

  May’s gaze hardened.

  “Or worse… it could be used to empower something.”

  Silence fell heavier than before.

  The spike’s slow pulse continued—steady, patient, utterly indifferent to the three women standing before it.