The City That Defied Time

Day 9 – The Mural's Clue

By the time they returned to the shelter, exhaustion had won over curiosity. They had postponed any discussions until today.

As the morning light filtered through the cracks in their shelter, Eris pulled out ruined parchments—maps she had been using to track Eterna's shifting streets—and began sketching. Piece by piece, she reconstructed the mural from memory. Dark figures, jagged spires, a ritual lost in distortion.

Ash studied the drawing, frowning. "It's only one shot of a larger story."

Eris nodded. "Then let's find the rest."

Mapping Eterna was already dangerous, but now, they had a goal beyond it.

The city had a story, and if they could piece it together, they might understand what went wrong here.

---

Days 9-11 – Searching for the Truth

For the next three days, they searched.

Mapping Eterna with more precision—marking shifting streets, testing known paths. The shelters gave them reference points, helping them track distortions in the landscape.

The murals weren't just displayed. Some were buried beneath debris, others hidden behind crumbling walls or tucked into alleyways where the city twisted unnaturally. Three of them triggered traps—collapsing floors, sudden attacks, walls shifting to cut them off. They barely escaped, forced to rely on strategy over brute force.

They discovered two more shelters, carefully hidden beneath ruins, places where past survivors must have once rested.

Mastering Their Powers

Finally,they were making more progress. They were adapting.

Ash stopped burning energy wastefully, refining his techniques. His movements became precise, deliberate—efficient.

Eris' sigils grew stronger, more stable, lasting longer before fading. Her control sharpened.

They no longer reacted to Eterna's shifting traps. They anticipated them.

---

Saria's Notes:

Finally, they are treating this like a real battle instead of only survival training.

The Complete Mural

By night on the eleventh day, they sat in one of the nearby shelters. Dimly lit embers illuminated the shelter into glowing warmth. Between them, ten parchment scraps lay arranged across the ground, rough sketches of the murals they had found—some whole, others pieced together from fragments.

Eris dragged a hand through her hair, studying the jagged spires and eerie figures she had drawn. "Alright… we know Eterna wasn't always like this." She traced a finger over one of the first murals. "This—this is a city. A real city. Look at the streets, the towers. It was alive once."

Ash leaned in, squinting at the carvings. "And then something happened." He pointed at the next section. The lines grew sharp and chaotic, figures hunched and desperate. At the heart of the scene, a grand altar loomed, surrounded by robed figures. "A ritual."

"More than that," Eris murmured. "Look here—these lines. They aren't just bodies. They're bound. Sacrifices."

Ash exhaled sharply. "So, what? The rulers of Eterna tried some massive blood ritual?"

Eris frowned. "Not just blood. Look at the way the energy flows upward. They were taking something… drawing it toward this point." She tapped the altar. "If they were trying to achieve something—maybe immortality? Or power over time itself?"

Ash made a low sound of agreement. "Well, whatever they were aiming for, it backfired. Hard." He traced the next mural, where divine figures emerged, their hands stretched outward, sending a freezing storm into the city. The moment of judgment. "The gods saw what they did… and punished them."

Eris nodded. "The murals don't show a clean destruction. This wasn't just fire raining from the sky or the city crumbling into dust. This was… different." She pointed to the distorted streets, the people locked in place, some mid-motion, some caught in loops. "The city didn't just die. It shattered. Time itself shattered."

Ash's expression darkened. "That explains the shifting streets. The frozen flames in houses. The places that feel like echoes of the past."

"They fractured reality." Eris let out a breath. "And they paid the price."

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The weight of it settled in the space between them—the knowledge that Eterna wasn't just dangerous. It was a graveyard of ambition, a warning etched into the bones of the city itself.

Then Ash tapped one of the later murals. "But not everyone died."

Eris leaned closer. This part was different. The figures weren't frozen in time like the others. They were moving, standing before something massive—a pillar, surrounded by spiraling runes. The Last Pillar.

"These are survivors," Ash murmured. "They found a way out."

Eris ran her fingers over the lines, analyzing every detail. The survivors weren't just walking through a gate. They were offering something.

One figure held a flame, burning bright despite the surrounding frost. The other clutched something small—a carved symbol.

"An offering," she whispered.

Ash's eyes flickered with realization. "Wait. If this is real—if this isn't just some myth—then we need either of these two things." He straightened. "A flame and… what? Knowledge?"

Eris pointed to another section. "It looks like this—this ember, whatever it is—came from somewhere specific." She traced the carving of a brazier, its fire flickering even in the stone depiction. But a dark, looming figure stood beside it—a guardian.

Ash exhaled. "Of course there's a guardian."

Eris shot him a look. "Would you rather the flame just be sitting there unguarded?"

"Yes," Ash said flatly. "Yes, I would."

Eris ignored him, staring at the Last Pillar's sequence. "And the other thing—the symbol. It has to be something that proves we understand what happened here. A record."

Ash thought for a moment. "Maybe… something from the temple? The place where the ritual started?"

"Maybe," Eris murmured. She leaned back, eyes flicking between the murals. The pieces fit. Not perfectly, not completely, but enough.

If the Eternal Ember Flame was found...

If the Knowledge Record was gathered...

If The Last Pillar was activated...

If they could find them—if they could claim the ember and bring the right offering to the Last Pillar just like the survivors—

They could escape this nightmare of a city.

Then suddenly, a light rose from the assembled murals and reflected words on the frost walls in the cavern shelter.

A final warning crawled across the stone.

"Take what you must. But beware... the city watches."

Silence.

Eris and Ash stood motionless. Even the frost on the walls seemed to have stilled, waiting.

Ash let out a slow breath. "…Well, at least we know what we need to know."

Eris agreed.