Chapter 78: Black Sun
The cave entrance was dark. Deeper than he expected.
Kyle stepped inside
The air changed immediately — colder, drier, heavier. It smelled like old stone and dust.
He raised his sword and walked forward.
The tunnel curved slightly, then opened into a larger space. Not natural. Someone had carved this place out of the rock, but not recently. The walls were too smooth, the corners too precise and ancient.
Torches lined the walls. Unlit. But there was light coming from somewhere — a faint, pale glow that seemed to come from cracks in the walls themselves.
Nightmare followed behind him, hopping from stone to stone.
Then Kyle saw it.
On the floor, in one of the corners of the chamber, a small pile of bones.
He did not know whose the bones were because of her foot and their crumbling over time.
But next to them, a feather.
It was black, and glowing faintly.
Kyle frowned. He knelt down to examine it.
But before he could touch it, Nightmare rushed past him. The bird snatched the feather in its beak.
"What are you—"
Nightmare swallowed it.
Golden light exploded from the creature’s body. Its wings stretched wide. Its eyes—all of them—glowed bright. The smaller eyes along its wing roots opened wide, blinking in unison.
Then the light faded.
Nightmare convulsed once. Twice. Then it dissolved into golden sparks.
The sparks swirled around Kyle’s hand and sank into the mark on his skin.
The tattoo glowed for a moment. Then went dark.
Kyle stared at his hand.
"Great," he muttered. "Now I have lost my way out."
He tried to summon Nightmare back. Nothing. The mark was Silent.
`Just when I thought this night couldn’t get any worse.`
He stood up and looked around the chamber. The walls were covered in carvings—symbols he didn’t recognize, arranged in neat rows. Some looked like constellations. Others looked like warnings. Shapes that made his eyes hurt if he stared too long.
But one symbol dominated the far wall.
A black sun.
Kyle stepped closer.
It was painted. Or burned into the stone. Dark, almost invisible in the dim light. But once Kyle saw it, he couldn’t unsee it.
`What is this place?`
He looked at the other carvings. Some were faded, worn away by centuries of moisture and time. Others were sharper and clearer.
But none of them made sense. Symbols that looked like writing but weren’t any language he’d ever seen.
He traced one with his finger. The stone was cold. Smooth.
`Not made by Wendigos. I don’t think they carve.`
He walked along the wall, studying each symbol.
Some were beautiful. Intricate patterns that seemed to move when he looked away.
Others were disturbing. Figures with too many limbs. Faces with too many eyes. Shapes that didn’t quite fit in three dimensions.
Kyle felt a chill crawl up his spine.
`This isn’t a cave. This is a shrine... Or a tomb.`
He reached the far end of the chamber. The black sun was directly above him now, painted on the wall.
And beneath it, carved into the stone, a small alcove.
Inside, something rested.
`A card?`
Not like the Knight card Lilian had given him. This one was different. Darker. The edges were black, almost burned, and the surface seemed to drink in the light.
But the design was unmistakable. At the top, a black sun—like an eclipse, a dark circle surrounded by faint rays. And below it, a figure in a black robe. His arms raised toward the black sun, and his head tilted back.
Worshipping. Or receiving. Or begging.
But what made Kyle’s body shiver were the words written below:
Legendary Class - Eclipse Servant.
`LEGENDARY?!`
Kyle stared at the image, eyes wide. His skin prickled.
He tried to reach for the card — then stopped.
To the side of the alcove, carved into the stone, were words. Not in the symbols. But in plain script. The same language he spoke.
But the writing was... wrong. Hasty. Jagged. Like someone had carved it in a panic. Some letters were deeper than others. Some lines trailed off, then started again.
Kyle read them and his blood went cold.
"EVERYTHING WAS A LIE! THE WORLD, THE PEOPLE I KNEW! ALL OF IT! IT WAS A DREAM! A CAGE!"
Kyle read it again. Then again.
His heart pounded.
`Everything before was a lie... a dream?!`
He thought about his own memories. The faces he couldn’t see. The life he couldn’t remember clearly.
"No... Maybe he does not mean another world..."
But the words gnawed at him.
He looked at it again. He didn’t know who wrote it, but he had a guess.
`The Chronicler...`
He thought about Lilian’s explanation. The manuscripts were found across centuries. The same handwriting. The same mysterious figure.
`If he’s from another world... no. If he’s from MY world...`
Kyle shook his head. He didn’t have enough evidence. Not yet.
But the seed was planted.
He looked back at the card.
The robed figure is reaching toward the black sun. The eclipse at the top.
`What does this mean?`
He reached for the card.
His fingers stopped an inch away.
`If this is a trap...`
He thought about the Wendigos outside. The carvings on the walls. The way Nightmare had swallowed that feather and vanished.
`Something this well protected is either very valuable or very dangerous.`
But he hadn’t come all this way to walk away.
He activated his skill. Crimson glow in his eyes.
"If this harms me," he commanded himself, "remain calm. Assess the situation. Don’t panic."
Then he picked up the card.
But he hadn’t come all this way to walk away.
He grabbed the card.
The moment his fingers touched it, the world went silent.
No sound. No light. Just darkness.
Then the card crumbled into black dust. The dust swirled around his hand, then shot into his skin—into his veins, into his bones, into his mind.
Kyle gasped.
His vision blurred. His thoughts scattered. The system screen flickered in front of his eyes.
[Detected: Class Card - Black Sun (Fragment)]
[A Fragment has been found.]
[Initiating integration...]
[Warning: This card contains data from an unknown source.]
[Proceeding anyway...]
Kyle’s head pounded. The symbols on the walls seemed to glow. The black sun above him pulsed with dark light.
[Integration complete.]
[System update required.]
[Estimated time: Unknown.]
[System will now restart.]
Kyle’s eyes widened. "What?!"
[Restart in 3...]
"No, wait—"
[2...]
"SYSTEM!"
[1...]
The screen went black.
