Chapter 646: The ruins

The sun had just risen above the distant mountains, its incandescent glow casting a warm light across the lake as the group began taking down the camp.

Dew and fading mist clung to the grass around their feet, and the clearing was soon filled with the quiet sounds of folding canvas, clinking cookware, and Yaana’s increasingly displeased complaints.

"Ahhhhh...! My butt is so stiff," she grumbled as she bent to pick up the blanket she had been using.

The movement seemed to make things worse, and she straightened again with a small wince, pressing one hand against her lower back.

"That’s what you get for sleeping on the ground," Mayumi replied, pulling a peg free before moving to the next one.

"I was sitting down. I didn’t intend to sleep there!" Yaana protested, giving the offending tree a sharp glare. "Besides, we were all sleeping on the ground!"

"Some of us had bedrolls," Mayumi pointed out, crouching to gather the loosened pegs. "And pillows. You decided a tree would do."

Yaana opened her mouth, then closed it again when she failed to find a suitable response.

Instead, she shook out the blanket and began folding it, her gaze peering toward Elion as he emerged from his tent.

"By the way, why didn’t anyone wake me up?" she asked, walking over to hand him the blanket. "I was supposed to take the last watch with Mayumi."

"You’d only just fallen asleep," Elion replied, accepting it and putting it away. He gave a smile and a small pat on the head even as she pouted. "I was still awake, so I took your turn."

"You could have woken me." She complained, closing her eyes a few times as Elion’s hand landed on her head a few times.

"I could have," he agreed, pulling his hands back before bending to loosen one of his tent ropes. "But you seemed quite comfortable, and I didn’t need the sleep."

Yaana looked as though she wanted to argue with that, but after a moment, she simply let out a quiet breath.

Her fingers moved to her lower back again, and she glanced toward Mayumi, who was still watching their interaction with a faint smile.

"Well, I wasn’t as comfortable as I looked!" she muttered, stepping forward to help Elion pull the canvas free. After a brief pause, she added, "Thanks for the blanket, though, brother Elion!"

Elion smiled and gave her a small nod before returning his attention to the tent.

Between the two of them, it took little time to fold everything away, and by then, most of the others were finishing up as well.

Maya put out what remained of the fire while Nora checked that none of their cooking supplies had been left behind.

Cole stood near the edge of the clearing, adjusting his gear and watching the path, with Uta waiting a short distance away.

Once everything had been stored, they made one final check of the campsite before gathering beside him.

The flattened grass and the stones around their fire were almost all that remained, though Elion’s broad stone slab still stood where they had examined the maps the previous evening.

Elion took that as his cue to leave with the other guys. The ladies needed to freshen up, after all.

So they wandered around for a few minutes, until eventually, they heard Yaana’s caw, which sounded almost like that of a bird.

"Everyone ready?" Maya asked, looking around the group. When they nodded, she turned toward Cole and gestured for him to lead the way.

’Seems everyone got their gear ready.’

They left the lake behind and followed the narrow path between the trees, with Mayumi occasionally pointing out places where the ground was loose beneath the grass.

Elion glanced back once through a gap in the branches, catching a final glimpse of the blue water before the greenery hid it from view.

The descent began gently enough, but it wasn’t long before the path narrowed and started winding between larger outcroppings.

Here and there, the remains of old steps appeared beneath the dirt, their edges worn smooth or broken away entirely.

Cole slowed at the first steep section, testing the ground before stepping down.

The others followed at a careful pace, avoiding the loose stones that occasionally shifted and rolled away beneath their boots.

Elion found himself looking more closely at the steps now that they were right in front of him. Seeing them through the World’s Eyes had been useful, but standing on the weathered stone made it much easier to appreciate how delicately the route had been made.

Someone had put a considerable amount of effort into cutting a path up this mountain.

Whether they had been travelling to the lake or to something that no longer existed near it, he had no idea.

"What are the chances that the ruins are a trial ground?" Cole asked after they reached a wider stretch of the path. He glanced back toward Maya, though he continued watching where he placed his feet.

"In that case, we’d be very lucky to have appeared so close to one," Maya replied, stepping over a thick root that had grown across the stone. "It’s possible, but let’s have a proper look before we get our hopes up."

"Well, the steps must lead somewhere worth visiting. I doubt anyone would bother making all of this for no reason." Uta commented.

"They might have had a perfectly ordinary reason," Mayumi said, brushing a low branch away from her face. "People still needed paths before everything became ruins."

"I’m trying to be hopeful," Uta replied, giving her a sideways look. "You should try it sometime."

A quiet chuckle passed through the group, mostly because it wasn’t often that Uta joke around like this.

Elion continued walking beside them, his gaze occasionally moving beyond the path as he tried to match their position with what he had seen the previous afternoon.

If the ruins did turn out to be a trial ground, then their unpleasant arrival would have led them somewhere useful rather quickly.

However, after the incident at the lake, he wasn’t particularly eager to assume that anything here would be straightforward.

Just like the previous day, monsters were incredibly scarce, and they didn’t run into any along this particular route.

As they descended, the trees grew taller and closer together, their branches filtering the morning sunlight into scattered patches across the ground.

The air felt warmer beneath the canopy, carrying the smell of damp earth and leaves instead of the cool breeze from the mountaintop.

Eventually, Cole raised a hand and slowed, drawing everyone’s attention forward.

Through the trees ahead, a stretch of pale stone stood above the undergrowth, its straight edge partly hidden beneath hanging vines.

Elion moved a little closer, looking past the wall toward the broken shape rising behind it. From this angle, the remains of the tower looked larger than they had from above.

"That’s the place, alright," he said, resting one hand near Kurogoroshi as the others gathered behind Cole.

Maya stepped forward beside him, her gaze moving over the wall before settling on the dark gaps between the stones, while everyone else followed behind them.

As they moved closer, the trees began to thin, revealing far more of the ruins than Elion had been able to see from above.

Beyond the fractured outer wall lay an immense courtyard, its pale concrete floor almost hidden beneath a luxuriant carpet of moss, creeping vines and wildflowers.

A couple of dozen pillars stood around the tower in a grand, broken colonnade, their weathered shafts rising like the remnants of some forgotten palace.

Some remained whole, crowned with elaborate carvings of unfurling leaves and winged creatures, while others had been reduced to jagged stumps, their fallen sections lying among the greenery like the bones of ancient giants.

Morning sunlight streamed through the gaps between them, illuminating traces of gilded filigree beneath centuries of dirt.

Wherever the wind stirred the overgrowth, more of the floor appeared, revealing graceful patterns worked into the concrete, their sweeping lines converging upon the tower at the centre.

The structure itself was magnificent despite its ruin, its narrow windows climbing in a spiral toward a shattered crown.

Delicate arches connected the lower walls to several surrounding pillars, and beneath the curtains of hanging vines, pale stone gleamed with a subdued lustre that time had somehow failed to steal.

For a moment, they all forgot to speak.

Elion could only imagine what the place must have looked like before its upper floors had collapsed and the forest had begun reclaiming it.

There was something almost reverent about the way the sunlight rested upon the broken stone, lending the abandoned courtyard a beauty that made its refreshing silence feel strangely fitting.