"I have something to show you." Neila took Isolde into the sea of candles. They arrived before a candle with writings on the stone.

Isolde gently went on one knee, dropped her spear, and looked at what was written.

This city was once known as the City of Gold. A domain of prosperity and love. Its people were protected by the Golden Fate Weaver, the Mother Elf, an elf that took in all races and treated them with love.

From a small town, it grew into a small city and this small city became a vast metropolis, the only place in the universe where all races were treated as one, a place of peace.

But the creeping darkness came. A curse that turned this city into a place of sacrifice. Many had tried to rid this city of its curse but their light always failed.

No light was bright enough, resistant enough, persistent enough to expel this curse and so every few years people were brought to the slaughter.

The city itself selected its victims. I came to seek the cause of this and I found it. A conspiracy brought the fall of the Mother Elf, a knife in the back and an ancient god fell. She was killed by... her treasures. Few who know the truth of this dark politics say this is punishment for such atrocities and after our futile resistance, I have come to light my candle of death.

And to testify... their saying is the truth.

Doom befalls all who shall find themselves in this city. If peradventure, you find yourself here, pray that you don’t end as a damned in the Afterlife World for your journey has reached its end. There is no hope.

Light your candle as I have in this city of endless sacrifice, for our sacrilege has doomed us.

Isolde slowly rose to her feet with a heavy heart.

"Others have tried, Isolde. How sure are we that this light will be greater than its predecessors?" Neila’s voice rang behind her.

"When I took the memories of one of those dragons, I saw what happened to it in the Afterlife World. The Fate Weaver is one of the wardens of the damned. She sent those dragons, she cursed this place. Her hate and anguish made her fall into the realm of the damned; her curse sealed the fate of the city she built."

Neila looked away. "Hate can’t be that deep if you’ve never loved. What we’re facing is a broken goddess’s curse. This isn’t my place, as powerful as I can be, this is beyond me. As it is for you. We walked into the jaws of death and I don’t think there’s any light at the end of the tunnel to lead us out."

With that, Neila walked away while Isolde remained, staring at the candle of the writer in silence.

At that moment, she heard screams and shouts, forcing her to turn. People were running toward the statue in great numbers.

Far away from the statue, two brothers sat in an underground cellar, where they thought would be safe but the earth began to tremble, not from beasts but people.

It was the sound of people running.

At first, they stayed put but after a while, one of them swiftly climbed up and the other had no choice but to follow.

When they came out of the medieval building, their eyes widened as they saw a woman running in their direction but dark tentacles latched onto her feet, forcing her to fall and pulling her as she screamed.

Her scream died out the moment she vanished into the wave of darkness that looked like fog. The wind howled and the fire on the torches was blown off.

The brothers ran in the opposite direction, unleashing their summons and mounting them. Though they ran, the creeping darkness wasn’t slow. It moved like it was being blown by the wind.

Tentacles of shadow latched onto the summon of one of the brothers, forcing him to leap off as he activated Retrieve but his summon couldn’t be retrieved.

It vanished into the dark as he crashed and rolled on the ground. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Take my hand!" His other brother made a swift turn, racing for his brother. "C’mon, run! RUN!!" Veins bulged along the length of his neck.

He screamed at the top of his lungs but his brother couldn’t fight it. It latched onto the young man’s body as his eyes reddened with tears.

In the next moment, he was gone.

"Argh!!" Mad with rage, the other one made his summon unleash fire at the darkness but the fire simply vanished into it.

A hand made of darkness shot out, grabbed the young man’s face and pulled him in.

Back at the statue, everyone shivered as the wind howled. Their numbers increased by the second but there were several thousand more who would not be able to make it here.

But the question was... what would happen when whatever was causing everyone to run toward this place got here?

All eyes went to Isolde who stood before a candle, her hair fluttering in the restless wind as she gripped her spear tight.

She turned.

"Who amongst you has a summon with an innate skill related to light?" Her voice echoed but... no one stood.

Not one.

***

Both sides of the huge metal door collapsed into golden-red liquid and Solstice stopped breathing sunfire.

All they saw was pure golden light that refused to exceed the doorframe. It looked like some kind of portal.

Mountain held his shield before him and charged through the doorframe and the golden light engulfed him. Others followed swiftly.

Mountain found himself in a large hall. At the center of this hall was an armoured being clad in glowing golden armour and a lion-shaped helmet that had lion ears.

He held a sword with a massive blade with one knee on the floor, his head hung low as he faced the floor.

There were torches placed in strategic places around this hall and high above it, at a height of about a hundred meters, floated an object made of stone emitting a soft golden light.

The Rune of Golden Light looked like a jagged piece of dark mountain stone shaped into a sharp crystal. Cracks spread across its rough surface, and from those cracks flowed a warm golden glow like sunlight trapped inside rock. At its top rested a glowing golden mark, while faint streams of light rose from it like heat from burning metal. Though its body was dark and uneven, the rune shone brightly in the darkness, carrying the light and warmth of the sun itself.