ASHIX-THE LOST GUARDIAN

"When the path is lost to darkness, trust not only the stars above… but the fire that still burns within."

The air was thick with the breath of the mountain.

Ashix stepped forward, his bare hands brushing against the jagged stone as the faint azure glow of the flame mark on his wrist illuminated the narrow passage. Beside him, Naru walked silently, the wolf-sized creature's obsidian fur shimmering with streaks of silver that pulsed like waves. Its eyes—deep pools of intelligent violet—flicked around cautiously. They hadn't spoken much since their reunion. Words felt too small.

Behind Ashix, Marini and Elira kept pace. The tension between them, once a blade drawn in mistrust, had begun to soften. Perhaps it was the hours spent underground, or perhaps it was the way they'd fought side by side to survive. Or maybe—just maybe—they saw a reflection of themselves in each other.

Elira nudged a stone out of her path. "We've been walking forever," she muttered, her voice dry with fatigue. "This mountain has no end."

"It does," Marini replied, her tone calm. "Most mountain paths do. You just have to know which wind to follow."

E

Ashix raised a brow but said nothing. Marini often spoke in strange proverbs—half wisdom, half riddle. Yet somehow, they always seemed to point them in the right direction.

The narrow tunnel widened into a broader chamber. Moss clung to the walls, glowing faintly, casting ghostly shadows across the uneven floor. Naru sniffed the air and stopped suddenly, ears twitching.

"What is it?" Ashix whispered.

"Something... watches," Naru said, its voice sliding into their minds like silk over stone. "Not alive. Not quite dead either."

Elira instinctively reached for her blade, though it had grown dull with use. "Let them come."

"No," Marini said softly, her gaze fixed on the ceiling. "They're already here."

A loud creak echoed through the chamber as a section of the rock wall slid open by itself, revealing a gaping maw of blackness beyond. The group turned sharply.

Naru stepped in front of Ashix, growling low. "That's not a path. That's a trap."

But before they could retreat, the stones behind them groaned—and slammed shut.

The air grew cold.

From the dark opening, shapes began to slither out—shadows with bones. Half-melted skulls and armor fused to their limbs, their hollow eye sockets glowing faint orange. Spirits bound in pain. The fallen defenders of the mountain.

Ashix clenched his fists. "I don't have a weapon."

"You have us," Naru said.

He stepped forward, letting the fire in his veins rise. His wrist flared, spirals of flame crawling up his arm like vines. The heat licked his shoulder, flaring across his chest as the ancient power awakened once more. With a roar, Ashix thrust his palm forward. A torrent of blue fire surged outward, splitting the first wave of undead in half.

But they kept coming.

Marini raised both hands and traced symbols in the air. A blast of concussive force erupted, throwing the bone-walkers across the walls. Elira weaved between them like smoke, slashing low, dodging, twisting—a dance of blades.

Naru lunged, fangs crushing the ribcage of a ghastly knight, then landed beside Ashix, breathing hard.

"There are too many," Elira shouted.

"No," Ashix said. His gaze flicked to a cracked altar near the chamber's far end—carvings similar to those in the Flame Temple. He ran toward it, dodging the creatures that lunged at him. Reaching out, he touched the stone.

A pulse.

A memory—not his—rushed into him.

An image of a great winged beast, scales like polished onyx, its mind ancient, its gaze sorrowful. It had once guarded this place, until corrupted by the Void Whisperer.

A whisper brushed Ashix's thoughts: "If you seek the next guardian, follow the water beneath the mountain."

The chamber began to tremble.

Marini turned to him. "What did you do?"

"Woke something," he said, breathless. "We need to move."

A hidden door cracked open behind the altar. Without hesitation, they ran—Naru leaping beside Ashix, Marini casting barriers behind them to stall the remaining undead.

They emerged into a narrow ravine that sliced through the heart of the mountain, lit by glowing crystal veins. The tunnel walls began to glisten with trickling water.

"We're close," Ashix said.

"To the guardian?" Elira asked.

He nodded slowly. "Yes. I can feel it."

They kept walking, slower now.

Elira and Marini lagged a bit behind. For the first time in hours, they talked—not of battle or plans, but of childhoods spent in hidden corners of the world. Both had once lived near the coast, under tyrants who taught them to survive more than to dream. Both had scars they never showed. Both had buried someone.

Ashix didn't look back, but he heard them—laughing softly at some old shared tale of running barefoot across stone roofs to steal fruit.

Maybe this world hadn't broken them completely.

Maybe not all betrayals had to be fated.

And maybe, just maybe… something in Marini shifted.

As they moved deeper into the glowing corridor, the whisper of water grew louder.

Somewhere ahead, the next guardian waited.

But behind them… in the now-silent chamber, the shadows stirred once more. Watching. Waiting.