The world returned in fragments. First came the cold bite of the hard earth beneath him, then the dull, throbbing ache in his bones.
Adam’s eyelids fluttered open, his vision swimming in a haze. The last thing he remembered was the white light of the portal, and the desperate grip he had on the small boy.
A trembling weight pressed against his shoulder. Someone was nudging him.
Adam forced his eyes to focus. Kneeling in the dirt beside him was the boy. His face was smeared with ash and grime, and large, heavy tears were tracking clean lines down his pale cheeks.
"M-mister?" the boy whispered, his voice hitching violently. "Are... are you awake? P-please don't be dead..."
Adam let out a ragged breath and slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position. He instinctively pulled the boy a little closer, checking him for injuries. "I'm alive. Are you hurt?"
The boy shook his head rapidly, rubbing his wet eyes with the back of his dirty sleeve. "N-no. I'm okay."
"Good." Adam exhaled, pushing himself to his feet.
He looked around, and dread instantly dropped into his stomach. The dense, suffocating canopy of the ancient pine forest was completely gone. They were standing in a sprawling, desolate expanse of rocky terrain, surrounded by jagged stone formations and sparse, dying brush. There was no smoke. There were no screeching beasts. And worst of all, there was no sign of Lian Mei, Renn, Voss, or Sable.
They had been teleported far entirely outside the forest. The party was broken.
Adam rubbed the back of his neck, trying to force his heart rate down. He looked back down at the trembling boy.
"My name is Adam," he said softly, crouching down to be at eye level with him. "What's your name?"
"Z-Zeren," the boy stuttered, wrapping his thin arms around himself.
"Zeren, that’s a nice name", putting his palm on Zeren’s head. "And, how old are you, little one."
"I... I'm thirteen."
"It's going to be alright, Zeren. Were you a resident of that village? The one with the big Cathedral?"
Zeren nodded, a fresh wave of tears welling up in his eyes. "Y-yes. I lived there."
"Do you know what happened to it?" Adam asked gently. "Why was everyone gone?"
Zeren’s breathing grew frantic, his small shoulders shaking. "I... I don't know! I was upstairs in my room. Everything was n-normal. Then... then everybody started screaming outside. It was so loud. I ran down the stairs to find my mom and dad... but they weren't on the first floor. The front door was wide open, and the house was just... empty."
Zeren broke down, burying his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably. "And then everything went dark! Where are my parents?!"
Adam’s chest tightened. He reached out and pulled the boy into a firm embrace, letting him cry into his coat. "I've got you," Adam whispered, his voice steady despite the chaos in his own mind. "I don't know where they are, Zeren, but I promise you, I will do my absolute best to protect you. You aren't alone. We will find them!"
As he held the boy, Adam's mind raced. Lian Mei. Renn. Sable. Voss. They were scattered, possibly fighting for their lives, or worse. The guilt gnawed at him, but he forced it down. Panic wouldn't save them. He had to think logically. Finding them in the wilderness was impossible, but they all shared the same ultimate objective.
The City of Gold.
If they survived, they would inevitably continue the mission and head toward the capital. I just have to get there too.
But as he looked out over the vast, unforgiving rocky landscape, a grim realization settled in.
Without the giant moths to cross the immense distance, the journey is going to be excruciatingly difficult.
Adam pulled back, giving Zeren an encouraging smile. He grabbed the boy under the arms and lifted him to his feet. "Come on. Everything is going to be fine," Adam comforted him, dusting off the boy's shoulders.
We need to find a settlement, Adam mapped out his next move internally. A town, an outpost, anything. If we can borrow or buy some horses, we can make up for lost time.
A sharp, tearing sound sliced through the quiet air.
Ten meters in front of them, the fabric of space ripped open. A massive Black Portal materialized.
Adam’s instincts flared. He grabbed Zeren by the collar and violently yanked him backward, putting distance between them and the void.
From the black depths of the portal, a figure walked out.
It was a man, but the sight of him made Adam’s blood run cold. Heavy, rusted iron chains were wrapped around his arms and legs, but they weren't just bound to him, the metal links were brutally engraved and pierced directly into his flesh, weeping dark blood. His face was a horrific display of torture; his lips were sewn completely shut with thick, jagged, black stitches that stretched his skin tight.
What is this? Adam thought, his eyes widening. Is the ambusher capable of storing actual humans inside the black portals too? No... wait.
Adam felt the heavy, suffocating pressure radiating from the chained man.
This isn't a normal human. He possesses an Eldritch heart!
The Mouthless man stopped. He looked at the ground, and a muffled, agonizing murmur vibrated from his throat, the sounds impossible to decipher through his stitched lips. Tears began to stream down his scarred cheeks. Suddenly, he raised his chained hands and began to madly, frantically scratch at his own face, tearing at his skin as if driven completely insane.
Then, he stopped. His hollow, bloodshot eyes locked dead onto Adam and Zeren.
He let out a muffled, terrifying scream through his nose and exploded forward.
He's incredibly fast! Adam realized as the man dashed at them.
The Mouthless man leaped into the air, bringing both chained fists down in a brutal slam aimed exactly where they stood. At the absolute last second, Adam scooped Zeren up and dove to the side.
The man's hands went deeper. Hands and fingers into stone, driving through it, fracturing the ground in a widening circular pattern, and then he wrenched upward and a boulder came with him, ripped clean from the foundation, and he turned and threw it in one motion. With a monstrous roar, he hurled the giant rock directly at Adam.
What? How did he…
It was moving too fast. Dodging wasn't an option, if Adam stepped aside, the boulder would crush Zeren, who was cowering just a few feet behind him.
Adam planted his boots and launched himself forward, directly at the incoming projectile. He channeled his physical strength, throwing a devastating punch that smashed into the center of the boulder, completely shattering it into a cloud of multiple, high-velocity shrapnel.
Before the debris could fly past him and hit the boy, Adam pulsed his gravity. For exactly two seconds, a crushing gravitational field flared around him. Every single piece of jagged rock instantly plummeted, slamming aggressively into the earth in a harmless pile.
As Adam's boots hit the ground, he had no time to breathe.
The Mouthless man was already sprinting at him, wielding a long, jagged spear of solid rock he had pulled from the debris. He thrust the spear forward, aiming to skewer Adam’s chest.
Adam weaved under the strike, throwing a heavy counter-punch that the chained man barely deflected with his forearm. They exchanged a furious flurry of blows, the Mouthless man wielding the stone spear with terrifying, erratic precision. After dodging a sweeping arc, Adam found himself a fraction of a second too slow. The sharp tip of the rock spear rocketed straight toward his face.
Adam, at the last second, managed to pulse his gravity directly in front of him. The immense, concentrated pressure slammed onto the tip of the spear, snapping the piercing head completely off and pinning it to the ground.
But the Mouthless man didn't flinch. Using the momentum of his broken weapon, he dropped incredibly low to the ground, flanking Adam's side. As he moved, he hovered his bare hand over the shattered earth. A stream of fragmented rock pulled upward, magnetically binding to his flesh to form a jagged, heavy stone gauntlet.
With a brutal, twisting uppercut, he slammed the rock gauntlet into Adam’s side.
Adam managed to cross his arms to block, but the sheer kinetic force launched him off his feet. He was thrown through the air, hitting the dirt and tumbling aggressively before digging his boots in to arrest his momentum.
This guy knows how to fight.
He instantly scrambled to his feet, raising his guard, ready to intercept the inevitable follow-up charge.
But the Mouthless man wasn't looking at him anymore.
Adam's heart stopped.
The chained man had pivoted completely. Letting out a muffled, bloodcurdling shriek, the Mouthless man dashed with terrifying speed in the opposite direction, straight toward the terrified Zeren.
“No…”
Adam lifted his trembling hand. He violently pulsed his gravity.
The invisible, crushing weight slammed into the Mouthless man mid-dash, exactly three meters away from where Zeren was cowering. The chained man crashed into the dirt, pinned flat against the earth. But his sheer, unnatural physical strength was terrifying. Almost instantly, the Mouthless man roared a muffled, gargling scream through his stitched lips and started resisting the gravity, his muscles bulging against the iron chains as he slowly, agonizingly forced himself upward to continue his charge.
Adam held the power, gritting his teeth. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
A sickening crack echoed from Adam’s outstretched wrist.
No, I can’t afford breaking my arm now, Adam thought, the pain shooting up his forearm. There is no way to heal it like last time without Zoe here.
Adam abruptly canceled the gravity. Released from the crushing pressure, the Mouthless man lunged forward with explosive speed as soon as the weight disappeared. Adam moved faster. He jumped forward with all his strength and snatched Zeren by the collar, diving violently out of the way in the absolute last fraction of a second.
The Mouthless man’s chained hands drove into the exact spot they had just occupied, shattering the bedrock into a crater of flying debris.
That was close, Adam winced, gripping his right hand tightly as a dull, throbbing pain radiated from his knuckles. It’s not broken yet, but it hurts like hell. Probably some bones cracked.
The Mouthless man stood up slowly from the dust. He turned to face them, his wet eyes carrying that same intense, unhinged look. Large, heavy tears were streaming continuously down his scarred face, pooling against the black stitches sealing his mouth.
Behind Adam, Zeren was shaking uncontrollably, his small hands clutching the back of Adam's coat as he cried.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you," Adam yelled over the wind, "but I can’t let you hurt this kid! If the user of these black and white portals did this to you, then go settle, ”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.