He pushed deeper into the uncharted edge, every sense sharpened, every muscle ready for the unseen. Above, the sky split itself between crimson and silver, shadows sliding over the land like a living veil.
The ground shuddered—a heavy, rhythmic pulse, as though the roots themselves were flinching. From a tangle of stone and twisted trunks, something vast dragged itself into view.
A golem.
It stood nearly his height, its frame plated in obsidian slabs threaded with living moss. Blue light pulsed beneath its surface like buried lightning, veins of mineral energy running through its body. Its eyes glowed a dim, poisonous green above a mouth that was nothing but a jagged crack of stone.
Noctis stilled as gravity warped around him. The golem's presence dragged at the world's weight—rocks and splintered branches lifted into the air, hovering in slow arcs before slamming down hard enough to crater the ground.
The creature advanced in slow, deliberate steps, but each one shifted the air like thunder.
Noctis darted to the side. The golem grunted, and a single swing of its arm sent gravity buckling; he felt himself hammered into the earth, limbs screaming under the sudden pull. He rolled, driving his blade into softer soil to gain leverage and tear free of the force.
The Echoframe shrieked an alert:
"Hostile entity: gravity and elemental manipulation. Strength: extreme. Agility: minimal."
His thoughts snapped into motion.
The golem swung again, ripping up a torrent of earth and stone and hurling them like a storm of boulders. Noctis jumped clear; one rock clipped his shoulder, sending fire through the joint. He landed behind the creature and slashed at the exposed bundles of vine and crystal running along its spine. Sparks burst, but the monster barely acknowledged the wound.
It turned, eyes burning hotter, arms lifting as gravity twisted once more. The air thickened, dragging trees in opposite directions, warping pressure until each breath felt like drowning.
Noctis forced his body into Predator's Calm and Bloodwake Reflex, stretching them to the limit. The monster's pattern clarified: each attack telegraphed, each movement slow, but every impact catastrophic.
He surged forward, feinting left as the golem's foot smashed down, shattering the ground. A tree toppled, crushed under a flicker of warped gravity. Echo of the Hunt kicked in; for a heartbeat, his steps matched the creature's ponderous rhythm. He used that beat to slip under a flying stone, roll, and cut deep into the joints at its knees.
Black ichor sprayed across roots and rock. The golem howled, moss along its arms writhing upward to form a living shield of thorns and soil.
It swung.
Noctis twisted aside, dodging the crude club of roots, and drove his sword into a thinner plate along its neck. Stone fragmented; more blue light spat into the air.
In fury, the golem slammed both hands into the earth. Gravity crashed down.
Noctis hit the ground, pinned. Muscles burned as he reached for the last crystal lance in his kit. Carrion Fortitude flared, forcing his blood to endure the crushing pressure. With a ragged breath, he hurled the lance.
It punched through the golem's chest.
Energy ripped outward, a crackling shockwave tearing through stone and moss. The creature staggered, its form leaking wild, unfocused power. The weight pinning him eased.
He forced himself upright, calling on Survival's Will. His battered muscles knitted just enough for one final attack.
He sprinted, leapt from a half-floating rock, and drove his blade into the glowing core at the base of the creature's spine.
Blue and green light exploded outward. The golem shuddered, then collapsed into dust, roots, and broken stone. Gravity settled. The trees went still.
The Echoframe's light blinked once.
"Trial Complete. Unique hostile neutralized. Reward: Unlocked memory fragment."
Light swirled. Vision blurred.
A new image rose through Noctis's mind—clear, yet remote, as if viewed from the other side of glass. A small figure stood in the ruins of a city, cold rain falling over shattered stone. Two adults lingered nearby, their faces lost to shadow, their eyes hard. There was no warmth in them, only the hollow weight of loss.
He watched them turn away.
The child—the younger him—clutched a broken toy beneath a dead tree while their footsteps faded into emptiness.
The memory let him go.
Noctis exhaled, the ache in his chest as heavy as gravity, but his eyes stayed calm. He stared at the dust where the golem had fallen, jaw locked, body trembling with pain and renewal.
He stood, steady despite the hurt, the new memory folded into his growing blueprint for survival. Around him, the forest sank into silence, as if it, too, shared his grief.
So he moved on, logic hardened, ready for whatever nightmares were left to test his claim on this world.
The night after the battle lay thick and heavy. Cold wind threaded through crystal trees, carrying traces of dust from the slain golem. Noctis sat beside a faint light—not fire, but the soft blue glow of the Echoframe as it hovered near him, casting a narrow beam across the dark.
His arm throbbed. Though healed, the ghost of crushing gravity still lingered in his muscles, a pain that felt like memory burned into flesh. He ignored it.
On the ground before him lay a flat black stone—his field record tablet, scarred with grime and claw marks from long use.
He began to draw.
Slow, deliberate strokes shaped the golem: thick limbs, a core of mineral light, moss layered over obsidian plating. When the outline was complete, he wrote beside it in small, precise lines, as if carving into the dark:
Class: Elemental Construct — Gravity-Type.
Height: 1.70m.
Strength: Extreme; capable of generating local gravitational fields.
Weak Points: Energy core behind the thoracic plate. Exposed during overexertion.
Tactics: Stationary bursts; direct combat discouraged.
Result: Neutralized after prolonged resistance—eight minutes forty-three seconds.
He leaned back and let his gaze drift over the earlier entries—every monster he had faced since arriving, preserved in glowing sketches and notes. The page itself seemed to shimmer with a strange, quiet life.
The first mark carried the label "Day 2."
Horned Beast — quadruped, massive, dark fur and bone horns. Aggression based on movement; mobility advantage recommended. Weakness: throat incision.
The crude drawing of its snarling face still glared up at him, all teeth and shadow.
Next was the Plant Predator, the first creature he'd learned to carve up for food—parasitic roots feeding off blood.
Weakness: core below central bulb. Avoid in clusters. Can transmit toxin on contact.
He underlined the warning once more.
Further down, the sketch of a half-ghost, half-wolf form marked the Mirage Wraiths from his second week.
Speed: unpredictable. Visible only through shadow distortion. Sound projection mimics prey.
The page edges were torn, stained by blood long since dried.
The fourth mark was worse—Serpent Shade, born of the twenty-four-hour wave.
Adaptive phase-shifting entity. Weakness non-biological. Record unclear—neutralized via overload feedback loop.
He remembered that one like glass shattering underwater, a night when thousands screamed and the forest itself recoiled.
His eyes returned to the newest entry: the golem.
"Different," he murmured. "Its movements weren't instinctual. It protected a perimeter."
The Echoframe blinked awake beside him.
"Observation: Multiple elemental anomalies exhibit defensive priority. Correlation probability: 78%. Possible pattern—territorial order or purpose."
Noctis frowned, lowering the stylus. "A system?"
The projection expanded above the tablet, blooming into a map of red points—each marking a recorded monster's territory. Thin arcs connected them in sweeping curves, forming a spiral that coiled inward toward the forest's center.
"None of this is random," he whispered. "They're sentries."
"Hypothesis valid," the Echoframe replied. "Recommend deeper exploration into sector origin. Energy trace similar to subterranean core. Unmapped structure detected."
Noctis studied the spiral, eyes fixing on the dark center that pulsed faintly in the display. A cold gleam lit his gaze.
"So this forest has a heart," he said. "And everything I've fought is guarding it."
He added one last line beneath the golem's data:
Behavior — defensive, not predatory. Power origin… unknown. Purpose: connected.
Closing the slate, he settled back and let his awareness drift to the forest's distant movements—creatures slipping between trees, shadows lengthening, the world never fully resting. His notebook lay like a small, ordered universe beside him, a history of war written with surgical calm.
Every page proved the same truth: he was no longer merely surviving this place. He was learning how it worked.
Deep inside, the newly unlocked memory of abandonment pulsed like an old scar—dull, but undeniable. A reminder that every world, even this one, eventually turned away from what it created.
He let out a slow breath, lifted his weapon to rest within reach, and looked toward the direction of the spiral's center. The next step presented itself without effort.
"Tomorrow, I start the descent," he murmured.
The night wind answered with a low hum through the branches, each note carrying a distant echo of something ancient waiting far below.