Chapter 63: 60: Raum.
It was with a couple of low wheezes that Aria finally started to stir, by which Edward was already starting to feel a migraine catch on.
He was still feeling disoriented, like there was something he was missing.
And the name, Raum, he still couldn’t find out how he had come to know that name.
It was almost like... someone had planted it there.
A slow chill ran down his spine.
Shaking the befuddlement away, he turned his focus back onto the world.
Aria fluttered her eyes open, immediately brandishing her sword as she came to, almost hitting Edward with it.
Then her eyes registered the four of them sitting in front of her, and they widened in surprise.
"What happ—Where are we?" She looked around in confusion.
It was Rowan who responded first.
"I think something tried to eat us, that’s just a guess though."
Aria shot him a look, and turned to the rest of them.
"Is everyone okay?"
They all nodded.
Edward winced as another pulse of pain throbbed behind his eyes. He pressed a palm to his forehead, trying to keep the world from spinning.
Aria rose fully now, shaking dirt from her hair, eyes sharp as she surveyed the cavern.
"This isn’t where we should’ve ended up," she muttered. "I felt something—some kind of spatial displacement."
Rowan pushed himself upright with a grunt. "Yeah, no kidding. Last thing I remember is... some kind of backlash, then everything went black."
Selene steadied herself against a crystal pillar, her face pale, expression tight. "There was a creature. The illusion beast. It lashed out when the illusion collapsed."
Calen nodded. "It must’ve dragged us underground before dying. These kinds of beasts are territorial—if it was cornered, it might’ve pulled us in with it."
Edward blinked. "Wait—dying?"
Aria turned toward the far end of the cave.
Edward followed her gaze.
Only then did he see it.
Or... what was left of it.
A massive, twisted carcass lay half-buried in rubble—the shattered remains of something vaguely insectoid, vaguely reptilian, and wholly monstrous. Its body was collapsed inward, like it imploded from the inside out. Cracks spread through its chitinous hide, leaking faint traces of mana that fizzled uselessly into the air.
Edward’s blood ran cold.
"That thing... that was chasing us?" he whispered.
"Not exactly chasing," Rowan corrected. "More like stalking. And waiting."
Selene crouched beside the body, inspecting the cracked carapace with a small frown. "This kind doesn’t die easily. And the pattern of these fractures..." She brushed her fingers over the surface. "No blade did this. No spell either."
Aria’s brows furrowed. "Then what killed it?"
Silence.
All eyes slowly drifted back toward Edward.
His stomach dropped. "H-Hey, don’t look at me! I passed out just like you guys!"
They kept staring.
He felt heat rise in his chest—not power, just panic. "Seriously! I don’t know what happened! All I remember is... something slamming into my head and—"
A name surfaced in his mind like a bubble rising from deep water.
Raum.
His breath hitched.
Aria noticed immediately. "Edward?"
"I..." He swallowed. "I just... remember a name."
They all went still.
"A name?" Rowan echoed cautiously. "Whose?"
Edward hesitated. The memory felt foreign. Planted. Like something whispered it into his mind and then fled.
"...Raum," he said quietly.
The air in the cavern seemed to tighten.
Selene’s eyes widened the faintest bit. "That is not a native word. Not in the common tongue, nor in the ancient lexicons."
Calen exhaled slowly. "So whoever... or whatever... intervened wasn’t the beast."
Aria’s posture shifted, alert again. "Intervened?"
"Someone saved us," Calen said simply. "And moved us."
Selene nodded, her voice a whisper. "If the beast did drag us here, something else finished it off. Something powerful."
Aria sheathed her blade with a sharp snap. "And we have no way of knowing whether it’s still close."
That got everyone moving.
Rowan stood fully, shaking off lingering dizziness. "There has to be an exit. This cave isn’t natural."
Calen rolled his shoulders, testing his injuries. "I’ll check for airflow. There should be a draft leading upward."
Selene moved toward the crystals. "These formations are reacting to outside mana. If I channel a light pulse, they should resonate and map the chamber."
Aria turned to Edward. "Stay behind me. If anything appears—"
"I know," he muttered.
But even as he followed her, he kept glancing back at the far wall. At the shadows beyond the crystals.
The dead creature didn’t frighten him.
The cave didn’t frighten him.
Being underground didn’t frighten him.
It was the feeling that something had stood here moments ago—
something vast, alien, intelligent—
and wiped itself cleanly from the world before they could see it.
Only leaving him a single name.
Raum.
He didn’t know why he remembered it.
He didn’t know who or what Raum was.
But every time he thought about the name,
a cold whisper crawled down his spine
and the air felt just a little too heavy.
Rowan called out from ahead. "Found something!"
Everyone hurried over.
A narrow tunnel sloped upward, a faint draft of fresh air drifting down from somewhere above.
Aria exhaled. "Good. We move now."
Selene nodded and strengthened a barrier around them.
Calen took point. Rowan followed.
As they stepped into the tunnel, Edward paused just once—one last glance back into the chamber.
The crystals dimmed for a heartbeat.
Like something deep in the darkness was blinking back.
Edward hesitated for a moment longer than the others, the small hairs on his arms prickling as the chamber seemed to hold its breath. Shadows pooled strangely around the corners, as if reluctant to let them go. The air felt heavier now that they were leaving it behind—denser, like something unseen pressed in on his lungs.
He rubbed his arms, trying to shake off the odd sensation.
"Edward," Aria called softly from the tunnel entrance, "don’t lag behind."
He quickly nodded and forced himself to step away from the cavern. But the moment he turned his back, a faint tremor rippled through the ground—so subtle he might’ve imagined it. He glanced over his shoulder, heart thudding in his chest.
Nothing moved.
Nothing changed.
But for the briefest instant, he could’ve sworn the dead creature’s cracked shell twitched. A tiny pulse, like a dying muscle firing its last signal.
Edward swallowed hard.
No. He was imagining things. He had to be.
He faced forward again, hurrying after the others, trying to match their pace. Yet even as he stepped into the narrow tunnel, he felt eyes on his back—heavy, ancient, and impossibly distant.
The cave seemed to whisper after him.
And the only word echoing in his mind was the one he didn’t remember learning:
Raum.
