Chương 77: The Eastern Boundary

The symbol remained on the wall long after the creature had disappeared, its thin red ring glowing against the black stone with a steady pulse that was unlike the unstable flashes produced by the fragments.

Leo stood before it without touching the surface, studying every line and curve with the same patience he would have given an unfamiliar martial technique, because there was a difference between something being mysterious and something being incomprehensible, and he had never accepted the latter as an excuse to stop observing. The symbol was clearly connected to the mountain, yet unlike the fragment markings, it did not seem designed to guide someone toward a location.

It looked more like a designation, a mark placed upon something that already existed. Rin approached from behind, while Kaien remained several steps farther back.

"Can we leave through the passage now?" Leo glanced toward the dark corridor leading upward.

"We can." Rin looked relieved for only a moment before his expression changed.

"And the silver-eyed man?" Leo turned. The man was still standing beneath the symbol. He had not moved since the creature disappeared.

"You recognized it," Leo said. The man's gaze remained fixed upon the wall.

"I recognized the pattern."

"That is not what I asked."

"No." His answer was quiet. Leo waited. Eventually the man turned toward him.

"I saw something similar before the third door opened two hundred and eleven years ago." Kaien looked at him sharply.

"You never mentioned that."

"I did not remember it until now." Leo studied his face.

"That is convenient."

"It is not convenience."

"Then explain." The man hesitated before answering.

"There were six of us when we entered the third door. We believed we were investigating an ancient research facility beneath the continent. We had found records describing the five power systems and evidence that people from different regions had once studied them together. We thought the mountain was one of their laboratories." He looked toward the symbol.

"We were wrong." Rin folded his arms.

"What was it?"

"A boundary station." Leo's attention sharpened.

"Between what?" The man looked at him.

"That was the question we could never answer." He walked closer to the wall and pointed toward the red ring.

"The researchers believed the boundaries were places where the five systems interacted naturally. Magic could influence Aura. Aura could affect Chakra. Chakra could interfere with Resonance. Resonance could alter Internal Energy. They believed the systems were separate only because people had developed them independently." Leo considered the idea. It was plausible.

Not because the five systems were secretly the same, but because the world could contain multiple methods of interacting with the same underlying physical reality. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"What did the researchers discover?"

"That the interaction was not random." The silver-eyed man touched the stone.

"They found specific locations where the systems became unusually responsive to one another. Those locations were called boundaries. The mountain was one of them."

"And the eastern boundary?"

"I do not know where it is." Leo glanced toward the symbol.

"Yet you recognized the mark."

"I recognized what it means, not where it leads." Rin stepped forward.

"Then tell us what it means." The man's expression became serious.

"It means the mountain has established a connection with another boundary." Kaien frowned.

"Established a connection?"

"Yes."

"Why?" The man looked toward Leo.

"Because someone activated it." The chamber became quiet. Leo immediately thought of the fragments scattered across the eastern region, the mercenaries collecting them, the broker Marrek, the symbol carved onto Kaien's metal plate, and the people who had been disappearing around Mount Shinkai. Someone had been moving pieces across the continent. But the question was no longer simply who. It was why. Leo looked toward Kaien.

"You said you came here three years ago." Kaien nodded.

"What happened when you first entered?" Kaien's eyes lowered.

"I followed the symbol."

"Why?"

"Because of the letter."

"What letter?" Kaien reached inside his damaged coat and pulled out a folded piece of paper. The edges were worn and stained, but the writing remained visible. He handed it to Leo. The message was short. If you find the mountain, do not search for what was buried here. Search for what was connected to it. Leo read the words twice. Then he looked at Kaien.

"Who wrote this?"

"I don't know." Rin stared at his brother.

"You never told me about this."

"I never had the chance." Kaien looked toward the passage behind them.

"When I returned three years ago, I tried to tell people what I had found, but nobody believed me. Then the people searching for the fragments arrived. I realized they already knew more than I did."

"Who were they?"

"I never learned their names."

"Did they know about the boundary?" Kaien nodded slowly.

"One of them did." Leo folded the paper.

"What did he say?" Kaien's expression hardened.

"He said the mountain was not important because of what was beneath it." He paused.

"He said it was important because of what was waking somewhere else." Leo's eyes narrowed. That sentence sounded dangerously close to the kind of vague statement he had heard repeatedly throughout the mountain, but Kaien's expression told him there was more behind it.

"Did he mention the eastern boundary?"

"No."

"Then what did he mention?" Kaien looked toward the newly revealed symbol.

"The coast." Leo remained silent.

"The eastern coast," Kaien continued.

"He said they were preparing something there." Rin looked confused.

"What kind of preparation?"

"I don't know." Leo turned toward the passage.

"We leave." Rin blinked.

"Now?"

"Yes."

"But the mountain—""We have already learned what we came here to learn." Rin looked at the seven doors.

"You are leaving all this behind?"

"For now." The silver-eyed man looked at Leo.

"You understand that the eastern boundary may be more dangerous than this place."

"Yes."

"And you still intend to go."

"Yes."

"Why?" Leo looked toward the darkness leading upward.

"Because my journey was already taking me east before I ever heard about this mountain. I am not going to let an ancient structure decide where I go." There was no hesitation in his voice. That answer seemed to surprise the silver-eyed man more than anything else Leo had said. Rin looked at Kaien.

"Can you walk?" Kaien gave a faint smile.

"I walked here."

"You nearly collapsed twice."

"I was tired."

"You were bleeding."

"That too." For the first time since they had entered the mountain, a small amount of warmth entered Rin's expression. Leo turned away before the exchange could continue. They began climbing. The passage seemed longer on the way out than it had been on the way down, although Leo suspected the mountain was changing its internal structure again.

Several corridors that he remembered were no longer there, while new openings had appeared along the walls, exposing empty chambers containing broken instruments, collapsed shelves, and fragments of old writing. The deeper they climbed, the more the air changed. The cold underground atmosphere gradually gave way to dampness. Then came the smell of soil. Finally, after nearly an hour of climbing, they saw daylight. Rin stopped beneath the opening. Kaien stood beside him. Neither spoke. They simply looked.

The outside world appeared almost unreal after the darkness beneath the mountain. Trees covered the slopes around them, their leaves moving beneath the wind, while the late afternoon sky stretched above the eastern mountains in a pale blue-gray expanse. Kaien closed his eyes. For several seconds he breathed deeply.

"I thought I would never see this again." Rin placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You are home." Kaien opened his eyes.

"I don't think I am." Rin looked at him. Kaien turned toward the mountain behind them.

"Not after what I saw." Leo stepped out of the passage. He looked across the eastern horizon. Far beyond the mountains, beyond the forests and settlements they had crossed, the land eventually descended toward the coast. Somewhere beyond that horizon was another boundary. And somewhere between the mountain and the coast were people who had been collecting fragments, searching for symbols, and following information that had existed long before any of them were born. Leo adjusted the strap carrying his belongings.

"We will rest tonight." Rin nodded.

"And tomorrow?" Leo looked east.

"We continue." Kaien stared at him.

"You really are going there." Leo glanced back.

"I was going there before I knew it existed." The three of them began walking down the mountain. Behind them, deep beneath the earth, the seven doors remained silent. But the symbol Leo had seen before leaving continued to glow. And far to the east, beyond the mountains and forests, something answered with a single pulse of red light. End of Chapter 77.