Sunny cleared his throat. "There seems to be a Soul Shard just lying there. By the entrance to the pit." He paused, then added, "I don't sense any other creatures or monsters nearby. No corpse either."
Cassie's brows knitted together. "Do you think it's a trap?"
"I don't see anything else nearby," Sunny repeated. "Living or dead."
Nephis frowned, genuine confusion creasing her features for the first time Sunny could recall. A Soul Shard unattended was strange enough. One sitting openly at the mouth of an underground structure, in a city this ominous, bordered on absurd.
Sunny and Cassie gave her space to think.
Nearly a full minute passed in silence, broken only by the low whisper of wind through the ruined streets. Finally, Nephis lifted her head.
"Alright," she said. "Let's go check it out."
Sunny blinked in mild surprise.
"But," she continued, her voice turning crisp and commanding, "Sunny, report the slightest movement. Anything at all."
He nodded. "Understood."
"Cassie," Nephis added, turning slightly, "hold onto the rope tightly. Be ready to jump backward the moment something emerges."
Cassie tightened her grip on the golden rope and nodded once. "I'm ready."
Sunny rolled his shoulders and exhaled softly. "Alright."
With everyone in agreement, the trio advanced together, steps slow and measured, toward the dark pit and the faintly glowing Soul Shard waiting at its edge.
They advanced almost like turtles, every step slow, deliberate, and measured. Each of the three pushed their senses to the limit—Sunny through his shadow, Cassie through sound and intuition, Nephis through raw awareness and instinct sharpened by endless battle. And yet, there was nothing.
No shifting air.
No distant footfalls.
No heartbeat that didn't belong to one of them.
Not above.
Not below.
Not behind.
Not ahead.
The absence itself gnawed at Sunny's nerves.
As they rounded the last stretch of broken stone, the pit finally came into full view. Nephis saw it immediately, her gaze sharpening. Cassie, guided by the rope and Sunny's subtle adjustments, stopped just short of the edge.
Still, no ambush came.
"Maybe someone dropped it here?" Cassie offered quietly. "Sunny, you said it's a pit leading underground, right? Maybe when they climbed up or jumped down, it fell out of their pocket."
Sunny considered that, his shoulders loosening a fraction. "Yeah… it's possible. Not likely, but not impossible." He glanced at Nephis. "What do you think, Neph?"
Changing Star studied the pit in silence. Her silver hair stirred faintly in the wind as she stepped closer, peering down without crossing the edge. After a few seconds, she shook her head.
"I don't have a better explanation," she admitted. "But that doesn't make it safe." Her grip tightened slightly on her sword. "Stay ready."
With that, they closed the remaining distance.
The pit itself looked less like a natural sinkhole and more like a wound torn into the city. The black stone around its rim had been fractured outward, jagged and sharp, as though something massive had burst up from below—or been driven down with tremendous force. The opening was wide enough for two people to descend side by side, but the darkness beneath it swallowed all light after only a few meters.
Cold air wafted up from below, stale and faintly metallic, carrying with it a scent that Sunny couldn't quite place. Old stone. Dust. Something else… something deeper.
Near the edge lay the Soul Shard.
It rested innocently on a slab of broken stone, its irregular crystal facets glowing softly, pulsing with that familiar inner light. Untouched. Unclaimed. Almost inviting.
Sunny crouched a little, careful not to get too close. "If this is bait," he muttered, "it's the laziest bait I've ever seen."
Cassie tilted her head toward the pit, her expression thoughtful. "Or the most confident."
Nephis didn't respond immediately. She scanned the surrounding rooftops, the alleyways, the shadows pooling between ruined buildings. Only when she was satisfied that nothing was watching did she speak.
"I don't like it," she said flatly. "But leaving a Soul Shard behind feels wrong too."
Sunny snorted softly. "Yeah, my soul would never forgive me."
Cassie almost smiled.
Silence stretched again as the unspoken question hung in the air: do we go down?
Nephis was the first to voice it. "If we descend, we lose mobility and visibility. If something powerful is waiting below, it will have the advantage."
"And if we don't," Sunny countered, "we leave behind a resource and possibly answers." He scratched his chin. "Also, knowing my luck, whatever's down there will come find us later."
Cassie tightened her grip on the rope. "I… don't sense immediate danger," she said carefully. "But my visions are unreliable when it comes to specifics like this."
Nephis exhaled slowly. "Then we don't all go down."
Sunny looked at her, already guessing where this was headed. "You want me to scout, don't you?"
She met his gaze evenly. "You're the best suited."
He sighed dramatically. "Of course I am."
Before either of them could argue further, Sunny straightened slightly and rolled his shoulders. "Tell you what. Let's not risk actual limbs yet." His lips curled into a thin grin. "I'll send Gloomy down first."
Nephis nodded at once. "Do it."
Cassie turned her face toward him. "Be careful."
Sunny closed his eyes briefly, then extended his senses, feeling the familiar weight of his shadow shift and stretch. Gloomy peeled itself away from his feet, thinning, elongating, and then slipping soundlessly over the pit's edge.
As it descended into the darkness below, Sunny's expression grew intent, every scrap of his focus narrowing to what his shadow would find.
Gloomy slid down into the darkness like spilled ink, soundless and obedient, carrying Sunny's senses with it.
At first, there was nothing but black stone rushing past—then the pit widened, opening not into a cavern, but into something far more deliberate.
A hallway.
The shadow's descent ended barely two meters below the surface, its amorphous form pooling onto a stone floor. From there, the world unfolded—and Sunny's eyes constricted sharply as the information slammed into his mind.
The walls were not walls.
They were columbaria.
Every vertical surface was carved into countless narrow niches, stacked with methodical precision from floor to ceiling. Inside each recess lay bones—skulls placed forward like mute sentinels, long bones arranged beneath them, ribs stacked, femurs crossed. Some were orderly. Others had slumped, spilling fragments outward as time gnawed at whatever structure once held them in place.
The floor was worse.
Bones carpeted it entirely.
Skulls rolled against one another when Gloomy shifted, teeth clacking softly in a sound Sunny felt rather than heard. Tibias and ulnae formed uneven ridges beneath the shadow's weight, thousands upon thousands of remains crushed into a pale mosaic that stretched endlessly forward.
Tens of thousands.
Maybe more.
Sunny's stomach tightened.
There were no fresh corpses. No signs of recent death. The bones were old—bleached, cracked, worn smooth by time and footsteps that had long since ceased. The air down there was dry, stale, and heavy with the faint mineral tang of dust and decay.
No movement.
No monsters.
No lurking presence brushing against Gloomy's senses.
Sunny pushed his shadow farther, forcing Gloomy to stretch thin and wide, extending his range to its limit. The hallway went on and on, straight as an arrow, a funereal corridor of the dead. At the very edge of Sunny's perception, far ahead, a dim light flickered—steady, artificial, and unmistakably deliberate.
An opening.
Something waited beyond it.
And then—
That was it.
The strain snapped taut. Sunny reached the limit of his control and pulled Gloomy back, the shadow recoiling instantly and flowing back into his feet as if nothing had ever left.
Sunny exhaled sharply.
When he relayed what he'd seen, Nephis didn't interrupt him once. Her expression grew increasingly cold, increasingly focused, until by the time he finished, there was no hesitation left in her eyes.
Without a word, she stepped forward, bent down, and picked up the Soul Shard.
The crystal dissolved into silver motes as she absorbed it on the spot.
Sunny blinked. "That was… decisive."
Nephis ignored the comment and stepped to the edge of the pit, peering down. "How far down is it?"
"Huh?" Sunny stared at her, momentarily thrown. "Oh. Uh. Just two meters or so."
She nodded once.
Then bent her knees and hopped down.
"Neph—!" Sunny's eyes widened.
Cassie turned her head sharply, confusion flickering across her face. "Nephis? Where did you go? Sunny, did Nephis go in?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Yeah. She did."
Before he could say anything else, Nephis' voice echoed up from below, calm and steady.
"Well? Are you coming or not? Don't worry, Cassie. I'll catch you."
Cassie hesitated, tightening her grip on the golden rope. "Sunny…?"
Sunny grimaced, then snorted. "Of course." He looked down into the hole. "What about me?"
There was a pause.
"…if you want," Nephis replied.
Sunny choked on his breath. "Wow. Just—wow."
Still muttering under his breath, he guided Cassie carefully to the edge and lifted her by the armpits. She was light—alarmingly so—and even with his malnourished frame, the effort barely registered. He lowered her slowly, muscles tense, listening intently.
"I have her," Nephis called up.
Sunny released his grip and leaned closer, heart thudding despite himself. He listened for the sound of impact—
—but instead, Cassie's calm voice floated up.
"She has me, Sunny. You can come down now."
Sunny closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and stared into the dark pit, jaw tightening.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Guess I can."
Sunny hopped down without ceremony, bending his knees as his boots struck the uneven floor. The impact still rattled him; a dull shock ran up his legs, and his bones went briefly numb.
He winced.
If only Blood Weave also strengthened my bones, he thought sourly. Like some sort of… Bone Weave.