Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women

Jude kept his senses sharp, eyes scanning for any sign of movement. The silence was unnatural. Even in the deepest parts of the forest, there should have been the sounds of life, birds, insects, the rustling of small creatures. But here, there was nothing.

Lyara noticed it too. "I don't like this."

"Neither do I."

They moved carefully, their steps light against the forest floor. Hours passed in tense silence, the stillness pressing against them like an unseen force. And then, just as they reached a clearing, Jude stopped abruptly.

Something was wrong.

Lyara followed his gaze, her hand drifting to her weapon. The clearing ahead was untouched, no signs of struggle, no evidence of anything out of place. And yet, the moment Jude stepped forward, the ground shifted beneath him.

Instinct kicked in, and he threw himself back just as the earth split open where he had stood. Dark tendrils shot out from the cracks, writhing like living shadows.

Lyara cursed, drawing her blade in a flash. "Move!"

Jude rolled to the side as the tendrils lashed out, barely avoiding their grasp. They weren't just attacking blindly, they were hunting.

Lyara slashed through one, her blade cutting cleanly through. The tendril recoiled but didn't fall. Instead, it twisted and reformed, reaching for her again.

Jude's mind raced. Normal attacks weren't enough. These things weren't bound by the same rules as living creatures. They were something else entirely.

"We can't fight them like this!" he shouted.

Lyara gritted her teeth, dodging another strike. "Then what do you suggest?"

Jude's eyes flickered to the edges of the clearing. The cracks in the earth hadn't spread beyond the open space. That meant,

"The trees!" he called. "Get to higher ground!"

Without hesitation, Lyara moved. She leaped onto a low branch, pulling herself up just as another tendril struck where she had been standing.

Jude followed, gripping the rough bark as he climbed. The tendrils thrashed below, unable to reach them.

Lyara caught her breath, glancing down. "That was too close."

Jude nodded, his mind still racing. "We need to keep moving. If this is already spreading this far, the mountains might be worse."

They didn't waste any time. Moving through the trees was slower, but it kept them away from whatever was lurking below. The corruption was spreading, twisting the land in ways that defied nature.

By the time they reached the foothills of the northern mountains, the sun had begun to set, casting long shadows across the rocky terrain. The air was colder here, the wind carrying whispers that sent a chill down Jude's spine.

Lyara exhaled, scanning the landscape ahead. "No turning back now."

Jude nodded, his jaw set. "Let's finish this."

As they stepped forward, the ground beneath them rumbled. The corruption was waiting. And it would not let them pass without a fight.

Jude tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade as the ground trembled beneath him. The corruption had spread further than he had anticipated, twisting the very essence of the land. Dark veins pulsed beneath the surface, moving like living things beneath a fragile sheet of ice. The air was thick, heavy with a strange energy that made his skin crawl. Beside him, Lyara exhaled, steadying herself. Her fingers flexed over the handle of her weapon, her muscles coiled with tension.

Ahead of them, the narrow mountain path stretched upward, winding between jagged rocks and steep cliffs. The sky above had taken on an unnatural hue, a deepening crimson that bled into the fading blue of the approaching night. The sight of it made Jude uneasy. The sun had been setting when they arrived, but now, the horizon seemed frozen in an eternal dusk, as if time itself hesitated to move forward.

"We need to be careful," Lyara murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. "This place isn't normal."

Jude nodded. He had felt it too. There was something watching them. Not just the corruption, it was something else. Something older.

They moved forward cautiously, their footsteps barely making a sound against the uneven terrain. The deeper they went, the more the world seemed to shift around them. Shadows stretched unnaturally long, even where there was no light to cast them. The wind carried whispers that dissolved the moment they tried to focus on them. Shapes flickered at the edge of their vision, never there when they turned to look.

Jude clenched his jaw. He wasn't new to danger. He had fought beasts, faced death more times than he cared to count. But this? This was different. This wasn't just a battlefield or an enemy he could cut down. This was something that was changing the very nature of the world.

Then he felt it.

A pulse. A slow, rhythmic beat that throbbed through the ground, as if the land itself had a heartbeat. It was faint at first, almost imperceptible. But with each step, it grew stronger.

Lyara stopped beside him. Her gaze was fixed ahead, her body unnaturally still.

"You feel it too," she whispered.

Jude nodded.

They pressed on, following the pulse. It guided them higher up the mountain, where the path narrowed and the cliffs fell away into endless darkness below.

Then they saw it.

At the peak of the path, where the land opened into a plateau, the first anchor stood.

It was nothing like Jude had expected.

A massive, obsidian obelisk towered in the center of the plateau, its surface covered in ancient, glowing runes. Dark energy pulsed from within, the same slow heartbeat they had been following. The air around it was thick, crackling with power. And standing before it, their backs turned to Jude and Lyara, was a figure.

They were cloaked in darkness, their form shifting like smoke. But when they turned, Jude felt his breath hitch.

He recognized the face.

It was his own.

His reflection, his double, stared back at him with hollow eyes. A slow, twisted smile stretched across its face.

Lyara's blade was drawn in an instant, her stance shifting into a defensive position. "Jude, "

"I see it."