Chapter 464: Black Stones Beneath the Snow

Chapter 463: Black Stones Beneath the Snow

The Day Before Sophia Regained Consciousness

A quiet breath passed through the room.

"They were wearing strange clothing, at least the ones we could identify," Jeffrey continued. "The clothes were not anything we recognised. Not from our pack or anywhere else. At least, none that we know about."

Daniel’s gaze dropped briefly to the table.

"The buildings themselves were gone," Jeffrey said. "Collapsed. Buried. Eroded. But the layout... you could still trace it."

Orion finally spoke.

"The shrine outside the pack is already enough evidence that people lived in Nirvana before us."

They had met the shrine when they came to Nirvana, after all.

"Even if it was a very long time ago."

Sam nodded slowly.

"That is true." She hesitated before she continued, a frown on her face. "But that’s what confuses me."

Everyone turned to her again.

"I don’t understand why the shrine was built where it is."

Her fingers tightened together.

"The ruins we found were... far."

She lifted her head to look at Orion.

"Extremely far. It’s not a place one could take a stroll from to get here. So why was this shrine built here?" she asked. "Just outside the pack?" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Couldn’t it be that we missed something and there might be other ruins around us?" Mary asked aloud.

The question hung there.

Orion and Caspian exchanged a brief look.

Orion turned slightly.

"We should check," he said quietly. "Just to be sure."

Caspian nodded once.

"I agree."

Before either of them could say more, Daniel spoke.

His voice cut through the room with quiet authority.

"I understand the question, but honestly, don’t you think that if there were ruins around this area, we would have noticed before we settled in?"

"We scouted this territory thoroughly before the pack ever settled here," Daniel continued. "Every accessible range. Every stable route. Every viable shelter point. I doubt we’ll see ruins, but one can never be too sure. We will check again."

Orion nodded.

Then Daniel turned fully toward Sam, Helios, and Jeffrey.

"How far did you actually go into Nirvana? I know the mission was to go to the Heart, but it sounds like you all went further than we thought possible. The things you speak of—none of us have witnessed them. I doubt we’ve ever gone that far," he told them.

Sam hesitated.

Her expression faltered.

"I..." she exhaled slowly. "I don’t know."

Daniel frowned.

She lifted her hands slightly.

"Not exactly. I only know we went farther than anyone from the pack has ever gone. Places that shouldn’t even be habitable to people, but showed evidence that people lived there," she told him.

Jeffrey nodded beside her. "I told you before how the terrain was, and even the snowfall... that’s how deep we went."

"Sometimes the snow was so dense that we couldn’t even walk," Helios added.

Caspian’s jaw tightened.

Jeffrey leaned back slightly.

"When we reached the ruins," he said, "the ground was littered with skeletons. Numerous ones. With every step we took, our boot touched a bone. And another thing—the bones we saw, none of them were from a recent kill. They’ve been dead for years. And I don’t mean a mere ten or twenty. Gregory was of the opinion that we were walking amidst some people’s forefathers."

That earned a laugh from most of them in the hall.

Though funny, if Gregory had said something like that, then there was every probability that it was the truth. He would have studied those bones before reaching a conclusion like that.

"There were other things too," Helios said quietly.

Daniel glanced at him.

Helios rubbed a hand over his jaw.

"Things that didn’t sit right."

Orion’s gaze sharpened again.

"Explain."

Helios hesitated.

"There were moments when it felt like someone was watching us."

Helios didn’t flinch.

"Not in the way you feel when a predator is nearby," he clarified. "This was different. It was more like..." He paused, trying to think of the right word.

"Like when you are in a competition and you are so close to winning, but the opponent doesn’t want you to," Jeffrey said.

Helios and Sam looked at him, then back at Orion and the others.

"Something like what he said," they said at once.

"It was like the feeling of someone trying to stop you from discovering something," Sam said with a nod.

"Was it a beast or something else?" Brynhild asked them.

They shook their heads.

"We never found out. After finding out the enclave was there in the Heart of Nirvana, I’m inclined to think it was them," Jeffrey supplied.

"No," Sam and Helios said at the same time.

"It was different," Helios said, and Sam nodded.

"Honestly," she told them, "I’m more inclined to think it was the beast in the cave—but I’m also not sure."

"Why would you think so?" Brynhild asked her.

She shrugged. "It’s just a feeling. We never saw any tracks of a beast trailing after us. We never saw anyone, but the feeling of being watched... it stuck. It felt like it wasn’t just a mere beast watching us, like it was guarding its territory. It felt like it was something else—something stronger than even the Trihydra or Skylur. And the beast in the cave, just from hearing that sound, I’m almost certain it’s the one. It sounded strong enough to be able to even call beasts to fight for it."

Helios nodded. "Now that I’m listening to this, it makes sense. It could really have been the beast watching us."

Orion was quiet as he listened to them. Honestly, instead of the answers he sought, he was finding more questions.

"But that wasn’t the most unsettling thing," Helios spoke up. "I mean, it was unsettling—but there was something more. Something more unsettling and even confusing."

The way his voice dropped made Orion straighten.

Helios drew a slow breath.

"The most confusing and unsettling thing we saw..."

Everyone waited.

"...was the rocks. Blackened rocks with strange inscriptions on them."