God's Tree

Chapter 64 A City Frozen in Time

Before setting out, they made something fast and simple to eat.

Argolaith pulled out some of the dried meat from his storage ring, mixing it with finely sliced Luminara Root and some soft blue fungi they had picked earlier from the cavern walls.

The meal wasn't fancy—just roasted strips of War Beast meat, lightly seasoned with the heat-resistant herbs they had gathered during their travels.

Kaelred took a bite and chewed thoughtfully. "Not bad. Has a good kick to it."

Argolaith smirked. "That's the Luminara Root. Helps with stamina. Figured we might need it."

They ate quickly, keeping their weapons within reach.

After finishing, they cleaned up and stepped outside into the underground city once more.

The strange creatures still roamed, moving about with purpose yet ignoring them completely.

Kaelred exhaled. "I don't get it. It's not like they don't see us. But they don't care. Like we're just... background noise."

Argolaith narrowed his eyes, watching the creatures move. "It's like they're living in a different time than us."

Kaelred frowned. "What do you mean?"

Argolaith gestured at the structures around them. "Look at this place. It's old—really old. And yet, these creatures don't seem like survivors. They act like this place is still thriving."

Kaelred scanned the city again, realization dawning on his face.

"These ruins should be... well, ruined. But they're not."

Argolaith nodded. "Exactly. It's as if the city itself never fell."

The more they walked, the more unsettling it became.

The streets were clean—no overgrown vines, no rubble, no signs of decay aside from the natural wear of time.

Despite being deep underground, the buildings still stood strong, their stone foundations untouched by collapse.

Even the creatures themselves showed no signs of age—as if time had never moved for them at all.

Kaelred let out a slow breath. "Something's really wrong here."

Argolaith agreed, so they dug deeper.

They searched for anything—carvings, symbols, anything that could tell them what this city once was.

But no matter where they looked, there was nothing.

No written records, no murals, no engravings, no names, and no history.

Kaelred slammed his fist against a stone wall. "This doesn't make any sense! Every civilization leaves something behind—records, art, stories—but this place has nothing!"

Argolaith was silent for a long moment before saying, "Maybe it was erased."

Kaelred turned to him, confused. "What?"

Argolaith's voice was calm but laced with unease. "What if this place wasn't just abandoned? What if someone—or something—deliberately erased its history?"

Kaelred's expression darkened. "You mean, like what happened to those other ruins we found?"

Argolaith nodded. "Yeah. But this time, it feels different."

Kaelred exhaled, his voice quieter. "This time, the people are still here."

Argolaith glanced at the creatures that still moved about their day, unchanged, unaffected.

Were they truly living?

Or were they just echoes of something long gone?

From the shadows of a high stone archway, Malakar observed.

His skeletal fingers tapped lightly against the hilt of his sword, a quiet smirk playing at his lips.

"They're starting to notice," he murmured.

The city was wrong. But even he wasn't sure why.

And that intrigued him.

Malakar's violet eyes gleamed, his curiosity deepening.

What was this place?

And why did time refuse to move forward here?

As Argolaith and Kaelred continued their search, Malakar remained close behind them, watching.

Because somewhere within these ruins, an answer existed.

High above, hidden within the darkness, Malakar observed in silence.

His violet eyes flickered, taking in every detail of the grand formation.

A smirk played at his lips.

"So, they finally see it."

He had noticed the formation long before they did, of course. But he had been waiting—watching to see if they could uncover it themselves.

And now, they had.

The question was—could they understand it?

He watched as Argolaith and Kaelred continued studying the runes, their faces tense with concentration.

Malakar chuckled to himself.

"Good. Let's see how far you can take this."

And with that—

He disappeared into the shadows once more.

The air in the underground city felt heavier than before.

A slow, burning warmth pulsed through the cavern walls, a silent reminder that the city was alive in ways they didn't understand.

Argolaith and Kaelred stood before the glowing, shifting runes, their minds racing as they studied the intricate, moving symbols.

The formation stretched across the entire cavern, its complexity far beyond anything they had encountered before.

Kaelred pulled out the ancient tome Vaelthion had given him.

The pages crackled as he flipped through them, his eyes scanning the text for anything remotely resembling the rune on the ground.

"There has to be something in here," he muttered, his fingers trailing over half-decayed pages, some of the runes within them faded beyond recognition.

Argolaith, meanwhile, stepped back from the rune, his gaze shifting across the cavern wall where more runes had been carved.

And that's when he noticed it.

At first, all the moving runes had seemed to follow the same shifting pattern—a never-ending, flowing script that looped through the formation in a delicate balance.

But now that he was paying closer attention, Argolaith realized that not all the runes were identical.

Some of them shifted faster than the others.

Some lagged behind, their symbols moving at a sluggish pace compared to the others.

And then there were the broken ones—runes that should have been part of the flow but instead remained fragmented, their shattered forms flickering in and out of existence as if they were slowly fading from the world.

Argolaith's brow furrowed. "Kaelred."

Kaelred glanced up, still flipping through his tome. "Yeah?"

"These runes aren't all the same."

Kaelred's expression hardened. "What do you mean?"

Argolaith pointed. "Look closely. Some of them are... incomplete. Like they're failing."

Kaelred's eyes followed his direction, and almost immediately, he saw it too.

"...You're right." He stepped closer, flipping through his tome with renewed urgency.

Argolaith turned back toward the runes, a deep unease settling in his chest.

"If this is a formation..." he murmured, "then a broken formation is dangerous."

Kaelred let out a slow breath. "Very dangerous."

But before either of them could say anything else.

Across the stone streets, standing near a glowing pool, one of the creatures looked at them.

For the first time, it truly looked at them.

Not with fear, not with malice, but with hope.

It watched silently, its bulging eyes wide with something ancient and desperate.

Its long fingers curled slightly, as if resisting the urge to reach out.

The light from the runes reflected in its gaze, making it appear almost human for a brief moment.

But Argolaith and Kaelred did not see it.

They remained focused on the runes.