Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 92: Run

Hard cobbled ground materialized beneath Chance’s feet. His knees buckled as he slammed into it with far more force than he had expected. Chance’s training kicked in and he rolled forward with his momentum, rising to his feet. His left foot caught on the edge of a cracked tile that stuck up at an angle, and he pivoted around it to avoid injuring his ankle.

The movement carried him straight into Bella’s path. Chance caught her as she stumbled, keeping her from falling over. The last vestiges of the golden mist peeled away from Chance, and they exchanged a silent glance for a few moments.

“Thanks,” Bella said, taking a step back and pushing a strand of curly hair behind an ear. She turned, taking in the courtyard. Chance scanned it as well, searching for strands of Karma or anything that would indicate another cultivator was already here.

He found nothing. Large purple vines covered in dense thorns wound around the edges of the stone walls that ringed the courtyard. They wove clean through the stone rather than around it, and piles of rubble laid beneath where the vines had punched through.

Brilliant yellow flowers dotted the vines, their huge petals shaped vaguely like lightning bolts attempting to free themselves from the borderline golden, antennalike stamens. The faintest traces of a sweet scent tickled Chance’s nostrils, a mixture of distant honey and bitter fruit.

Several other tall stone buildings stood beyond the walls, but Chance couldn’t see most of them over the vines. Far above everything else, the cracked spire cast a shadow over the courtyard and a large portion of the island.

“I don’t see anyone else here,” Chance said, speaking softly. Even though the island looked empty, something about it made him hesitant to speak loudly. Unease prickled at the back of his mind and made the hair on his arms stand on end.

“Neither do I,” Bella replied in the same tone. She glanced over her shoulder and wrapped one of her arms around her chest, frowning. “I don’t see any way off the island. There’s no pattern in the courtyard.”

“We’ll have to find it, then.” Chance’s expression changed to match Bella’s. He looked back, half hoping that she’d just missed a rune circle somewhere, but Bella was right. All that greeted him was plain, cracked stone. “Do you feel a bit…”

“Uneasy?” Bella finished. “Yeah. It feels like I’m somewhere I’m not supposed to be.”

“Like my hand’s caught in the cookie jar when I’m on a diet,” Chance said with a nod. Bella raised an eyebrow at his analogy and Chance scrunched his nose at her. “What? It’s a perfectly good way to describe it.”

“Sure. I guess the only way to move is forward, then. Should we get over the wall and head toward the tower? It’s tall, so I figure anything important is going to be over there. That’s how these things work, right?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

They approached the wall in the direction of the spire. Chance hopped up, grabbing onto the lip of a jutting stone with one hand, and pulled himself up to a hole in the wall with a grunt. He wedged his other hand into it and, swinging once, launched himself for another protruding stone.

Golden mist gathered at his fingertips and the stone creaked beneath his weight, but it held strong. Chance pressed his feet against the wall and swung his body up, reaching the lip of the wall. He swung his legs over it and then turned to extend a hand down to Bella.

She took several steps back, then charged at the wall with all her speed. She leapt as she grew close, launching herself at an angle and using the first handhold that Chance had grabbed as a boost to vault upward.

Chance slammed his urumi into the body of a thick, thorny vine beside him as leverage and leaned down as far as he could. His hand slapped against Bella’s wrist. For an instant, he felt her start to slip. Chance’s tightened his fingers around her wrist and Bella did the same to his. Chance leaned back, pulling Bella over the edge of the wall.

Bella rolled to her feet and lifted Chance to his, and they turned away from the courtyard. The top of the wall was actually the roof of a flat, rectangular building that ran along the edge of the courtyard. An open doorway led into the darkness across from them, and taller buildings rose up all around them, blocking off the way to the spire that loomed over all.

“Unless we want to do a whole lot of climbing, it looks like the way forward is in,” Bella said. She didn’t sound happy about it, and Chance couldn’t help but agree. He almost wanted to suggest sticking to climbing and using his luck to make sure it didn’t go poorly, but the back of his neck prickled violently just at the mere thought.

“In it is.”

Chance kept his urumi at the ready as they approached the entrance. Bella took the lead, her skin shimmering with a translucent layer of protective Essence. She poked her head into the darkness, looking in both directions before stepping further. Chance kept close behind her, searching for any signs of Karmic threads.

There were none. Dim light illuminated the empty hall that stretched out before them, somehow illuminating every single part of it without any actual light source in sight. There were no windows or doors anywhere along the path – it simply ran straight until it hit a sharp turn.

Their faint footfalls echoed ominously down the hall as Chance and Bella headed down it. Chance kept tossing glances over his shoulder at the entrance as they walked away from it. He wasn’t sure if he expected it to suddenly slam shut or a horrifying visage to appear in it, but at this point, the unease was so strong that he would have preferred if something happened.

Instead, all they got was nothing. The bend of the hall led down another bend. Bella looked back at Chance, and they exchanged a silent understanding through the glance.

This place is creepy.

They continued onward, following the second hall. The faint light accompanied them everywhere they went, making sure every step of their path looked borderline identical to the last. The only mercy was that there were no options to take. There was only a single hallway and no way to divert or get lost.

At least it’s not a maze, I guess. It’s kind of like the Old City, if everything was in a straight line and there weren’t any dogs trying to kill me. Or Yamish. Or the Old City itself. Actually, it’s not very much like the Old City at all.

Just as Chance was almost starting to get used to the walk, falling into the comfort of his thoughts, the hall abruptly ended. They emerged into what had probably once been a room, but enormous vines had wound through it and ripped the roof clean off, suspending it in the air above them.

Chance craned his neck back to stare up at the roof, then through the gap between it and the walls into the darkening night sky. A streak of light flitted through it. If Chance hadn’t known better, he would have guessed that it was a shooting star.

“Look,” Bella whispered, pointing across the room at the far wall. A heavily reinforced metal door stood, embossed with glittering tiles depicting an armor-clad warrior standing against a horde of enemies.

His armor was fashioned from purple gemstone, and vines of a matching color writhed at his feet, frozen in time as they reached out for the warrior’s foes. Chance stared at the mural in mute appreciation. It was hauntingly beautiful.

“Something tells me things didn’t go too great for the red guys considering the state this place is in.”

“Probably not. I don’t think they would have put up something this beautiful for someone who was fighting against them. The background doesn’t look like this island, though.”

“Maybe it was one fight of many?” Chance mused. “A part of his legend or something.”

“Then what happened here?”

“He met something he couldn’t beat.”

Bella gave him a somber look. “I guess I shouldn’t have asked that. Should we try to get through the door?”

“It’s not even the spire yet. We’re supposed to be looking for stuff, so we should probably at least give it a try,” Chance said after several moments of deliberation. “Want me to go first with my luck?”

Bella nodded and he stepped forward, wreathing himself in a cloak of golden Essence. Chance pressed his hand to the door. There was no doorknob, which meant it was either a push door or it needed Essence to activate.

Chance braced himself for an attack or a trap. The door swung inward silently, moving without resistance. It thudded against a wall and the sound bounced through the room before escaping out the gap between the walls and the ceiling.

“Oh. Well, that wasn’t what I expected.” Chance lowered his hand. The room behind the door was small, with no other entrances or exits in it. A single, solitary wooden chest sat in the center of the room, unlocked but closed.

“Think it’s a trap?” Bella asked.

“At this point, I kind of hope it is,” Chance muttered. He and Bella approached the chest cautiously. Chance knelt before it and Bella shifted, watching him like a hawk as he slowly lifted the top of the chest back.

Chance made sure to move as slowly as possible, and he paused after just an inch to check if there was some sort of wire trap set up. All that greeted him was darkness. After glancing at Bella and receiving a shrug, he called on his Essence before pushing the top of the chest up the rest of the way.

It opened without complaint and Chance leaned it against the back wall as gently as he could to avoid making any more sound than he had to. Sitting in the center of the chest was a single ring, made of three strands of woven, silvery wood.

Chance shifted to look at the ring from other angles, but he couldn’t see anything connecting it to the chest or otherwise impeding them from removing it.

“Should we take it?” Chance asked.

“I mean, someone left it here. It’s not even in a grave or anything,” Bella replied. “I originally though this would be grave robbing, which is always a little bit morally questionable, but this… well, it kind of seems like somebody left it out for people to find. Should I pick it up since my Essence should protect me?”

“I think luck would probably be more relevant here,” Chance said. He dug through his pockets and pulled out a handkerchief. “Luckily, I’ve got this backup.”

“You think a little piece of cloth is going to protect you if that’s somehow dangerous or evil?”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

Chance wreathed himself with Essence and reached into the chest with the handkerchief. He draped it over the ring and picked it up. Nothing happened. He blinked, then shrugged and lifted his hand out of the chest.

“Well… we got a ring. No idea what it does. If it does anything.”

“That’s a problem for later,” Bella said. “If it’s not doing anything, maybe I should hold onto it. I’m keeping myself protected, but who knows how long luck will protect you if it’s actively malicious.”

Chance nodded. He made sure the ring was completely covered with the handkerchief and handed it to Bella, who tucked it into one of her pockets.

“I guess we’ll have to climb onto the roof and head toward the next building, then,” Bella said.

They turned away from the chest, looking into the vine-ravaged room.

Into the hallway that they’d come through before.

A tall, gangly limbed figure made entirely of black stood, hunched over so severely that its body nearly formed an upside down u shape. Its limbs hung long and spindly, no thicker than a single bone, and its face was featureless.

Freezing cold raced down Chance’s back and into his spine.

The figure vanished.

Chance’s heart hammered in his chest and goosebumps erupted over his body.

“Did you see that?”

“Yeah,” Bella whispered. “I have no idea what it was. We need to run. Now.”