"...Ossuary Valleys."
Zephyr nodded, already beginning to weave spatial aura between his fingers.
As we crossed through the portal, the entrance of the valleys, where the Wastelands came to an end, welcomed us.
The ground beneath us wasn’t solid earth or even that obsidian one - it was an endless carpet of bones. Femurs, ribcages, skulls of creatures both familiar and utterly alien. We didn’t walk over them so much as wade through them, each step sinking slightly into the macabre foundation with disturbing crunches and shifts.
"Are you really sure we can find the bone relics you mentioned here? There is nothing but bones here." I asked, trying not to think about what I was stepping on. It felt kind of... wrong.
What if... There are bones of...
"Yes," Zephyr replied, snapping me out of my thoughts. "We just have to look carefully. If not, we can always attract the monsters, and if we’re lucky, we’ll attract the ones that can drop them."
"I doubt I’ll be useful then," I muttered. "The monsters here are all Tier 3 and 4. There are even Elder beasts. We’ll be doomed if one finds us."
Zephyr actually chuckled at that. "Then just use your perception to the fullest. So we won’t end up encountering them."
I nodded, even without him mentioning, I was already using Discerning Gaze to its fullest.
Unfortunately, its status reveal effect didn’t work on these monsters or items - only on people.
Glancing at Zephyr, I used it to check his condition again.
General Health Status: Good (Minor shoulder strain)
Resonance Tier: Peak Tier 4
There was nothing new except the fact that he was already a peak Tier 4 Resonator.
He sure advanced fast in just a month.
Which meant he could now take care of the Alpha Tier monsters on his own. Having dual loci, space affinity, advanced saber mastery, teleportation, and a few other trump cards I didn’t know made him a monster, a formidable opponent even against the Elder Beasts here.
"Be careful of where you step," Zephyr warned me as he himself caused a small ’boneslide’. "We might even get sucked beneath."
"Ok," I replied, now also paying close attention to the bone floor.
As we kept venturing deep into the valley, the bone walls rose higher around us, creating both wide and narrow passages that branched off in multiple directions.
Some paths seemed to descend deeper underground, while others curved upward or continued straight ahead, forming a labyrinthine network that felt almost designed to confuse intruders.
The pale mist drifting between the structures grew thicker as we moved, and I noticed that some of the larger bone formations seemed to shift position when I wasn’t directly looking at them.
"The layout changes here," Zephyr murmured, confirming my suspicions. "The bone passages... They can change at random."
"Great," I whispered back. "A living maze of bones. That’s definitely not ominous. Not at all."
My Discerning Gaze swept continuously across our surroundings. That’s when I noticed something glinting between the ribs of what looked like a colossal creature embedded high in the wall.
"Is that what we’re looking for?" I asked, pointing toward the glinting object.
We approached cautiously, but as we got closer, I realized it was just a piece of a bone reflecting the dim light filtering from above. The disappointment was brief, however, because moments later, a massive shadow fell across us, plunging the area into darkness.
Both of our eyes widened as we looked up.
A massive creature hovered directly above us, its skeletal wings spanning at least twenty meters. Where its eyes should have been, black mist swirled in empty sockets, and its entire body was constructed from what looked like the fused remains of dozens of different creatures.
It landed on the bonewall with a thunderous crash, bone fragments raining down as it stared at us with those hollow eyes.
The sound was like grinding stone mixed with the screams of the dead. Immediately, bones began launching themselves at us from every direction - some torn from the monster’s own body, others ripped from the walls and floor around us.
"RUN!" Zephyr roared.
I activated the Interception Step just in time to avoid a massive bone needle that crashed into the ground where I’d been standing.
We sprinted at full speed, not even thinking about attacking it, channeling our aura to enhance our movements as the monster pursued us with relentless fury. Its breath attacks sent torrents of blackish fire after us, while bone projectiles of every size - small shards, large spears, massive chunks - flew at us with incredible speed.
"This way!" Zephyr shouted over the chaos, leading us toward a narrow passage that descended deeply underground.
It was a clever idea - that thing couldn’t chase us down there.
But the monster seemed to have realized our plan. With another bone-grinding roar, it launched a barrage of massive bone spears directly at the entrance of the passage, trying to seal us off or crush us before we could escape.
"Jump!" Zephyr yelled from a distance, opening a portal in my path that connected behind the entrance of the passage.
I leaped through it, finding myself inside the narrow passage. I stared down at the darkness, seeing through it thanks to the passive Night Vision effect of Discerning Gaze.
The floor beneath my feet was a single smooth bone that stretched far into the depths.
Another portal opened behind me, and Zephyr came tumbling out, his momentum carrying him straight into my back.
I staggered forward, arms windmilling as I fought to keep my balance and not fall forward into the descending tunnel.
The world exploded in heat and flames.
Blackish flames erupted from the passage entrance behind us - the monster angled its breath attack perfectly. The fire struck us both like a hammer blow, and suddenly, we weren’t standing anymore.
Tumbling helplessly down the bone smooth slope as the passage walls blurred past us, deeper and deeper into the unknown darkness below.