Chapter 79 - 78: The Light Beyond the Trees
Nobody told him to stop. They all knew they couldn’t afford to. They had barely made it through the last attack. Whatever blood had been left behind on the trail could already be attracting something else.
So they continued.
Until someone suddenly stopped.
"Wait."
The word was quiet, but everyone heard it.
Nina looked up. The survivor standing ahead of them had turned toward a narrow gap between the trees.
"What is it?" someone asked.
He didn’t answer. He simply pointed.
Nina followed the direction of his hand. At first, she saw nothing. Only trees, branches, and the darkening forest.
Then she noticed it.
Something white was glowing beyond the trees.
Her breath caught.
It wasn’t the enormous pillar they had seen during the night. This was different. Much smaller. Much farther away. The glow barely illuminated anything around it, almost swallowed by the fading daylight. Yet it was unmistakably there.
Someone whispered, "The light."
Nobody moved.
For several seconds, the entire group simply stared.
Then a woman covered her mouth. A quiet sob escaped her.
Another survivor laughed under his breath, the sound trembling with exhaustion and disbelief.
"We found it."
Someone immediately started walking faster.
"Wait," another person called after them.
But the warning barely mattered.
The sight had changed something. People who had spent the last several hours dragging themselves forward suddenly found enough strength to take another step.
Then another.
Nina remained where she was for a moment.
She stared at the distant glow.
She remembered the morning.
King’s Territory.
The broken walls.
The funeral pyres.
The people she had left behind.
The arm she would never get back.
For so long, she had forced herself to keep moving because turning around wasn’t an option. She had told herself she wasn’t following hope. She was simply moving forward because there was nowhere else to go.
But now, staring at that faint light in the distance, she felt something she hadn’t allowed herself to feel since leaving.
Hope.
It was small. Fragile. Almost frightening.
Because hope meant she could still be disappointed.
Nina tightened her grip around her knife and finally stepped forward.
The light didn’t tell them what waited beyond the trees. It didn’t tell them who had created it. It didn’t promise safety.
For all they knew, another danger was waiting at the end of the road.
But it was no longer impossibly far away.
They were getting closer.
And for the first time since leaving King’s Territory, Nina allowed herself to believe that perhaps they had not been walking toward nothing.
The faint glow remained visible between the trees as the survivors continued upward, but the path no longer resembled a road.
What had once been a single trail had split into several smaller routes, each worn down by the feet of people who had chosen different directions. Some paths climbed higher along the slope. Others curved around clusters of trees before disappearing from sight.
Nina’s group followed Kyle.
They had no proof that he had chosen the right way. None of them did.
They simply kept moving.
Every so often, another group appeared through the trees. Some were ahead of them, already making their way toward the distant light. Others emerged from completely different paths behind them.
The migration had broken apart naturally. There was no longer one enormous stream of survivors.
There were families.
Small groups.
Individuals.
Each moving according to whatever path seemed safest.
Nina wondered how many of them would reach the destination.
She didn’t know.
She suspected some wouldn’t.
The thought followed her as they climbed the final stretch.
The trees gradually became thinner. The ground beneath their feet changed from soft earth to rough stone. The slope eventually leveled out, and Kyle slowed before stepping toward a narrow opening between two large trees.
He stopped.
Nina nearly walked into him.
"What is it?" she asked quietly.
Kyle didn’t answer. He was staring ahead.
Nina moved around him and looked through the gap.
Her breath caught.
Beyond the trees, the land dropped away.
A valley stretched beneath them, surrounded by dark mountains and dense forest.
And there, at the bottom of it, stood walls.
Nina stared.
They were enormous.
Dark stone rose around the settlement in a continuous barrier, smooth and solid enough to make the wooden walls of King’s Territory seem like little more than a temporary fence.
The walls were not perfect. They weren’t polished or decorated.
But they were strong.
They looked like they belonged there. Like whatever was inside had been built with the expectation that something might one day try to break through.
Nobody spoke.
The survivors slowly gathered near the edge of the slope, careful not to crowd one another.
One woman whispered, "What is that place?"
No one answered.
There was no smoke rising above the walls. No shouting. No visible army patrolling the perimeter. No monsters wandering outside.
Nothing suggested that the settlement was under attack.
It simply existed.
Quietly.
Waiting below them.
Nina’s eyes remained fixed on the walls.
Her mind immediately returned to King’s Territory.
The broken wooden barriers.
The gaps that had appeared after the Beast Tide.
The smoke from the funeral pyres.
Tobias.
The people who had trusted those walls.
The people who had died behind them.
Her missing hand.
Her jaw tightened.
If a settlement this small could build walls like those, then why couldn’t Tobias have done the same?
Why had they been left behind those fragile wooden barriers?
Why had everyone been forced to believe they were safe when those walls could barely withstand the creatures attacking them?
Her resentment burned hotter.
Beside her, someone let out a shaky breath.
"It’s a village."
Nina looked at him.
"How do you know?"
"I don’t."
He stared down at the settlement.
"It just looks like one."
Another survivor gave a quiet, disbelieving laugh.
"A village with walls like that?"
Nobody had an answer.
They continued staring.
None of them knew who had built the settlement. None of them knew who controlled it. None of them knew whether the people inside would welcome them or turn them away.
They didn’t even know if the distant white glow had truly been calling them here.
Then a familiar voice sounded inside their minds.
[You have arrived at Velaris Village, Level 1.]
Nina froze.
For a moment, she wondered if exhaustion had finally made her hallucinate.
She wasn’t the only one.
"What?"
The voice had been clear.
Impossible to misunderstand.
Someone looked around as though expecting another person to explain it.
"Velaris?"
The name passed through the group in confused whispers.
Nina stared down into the valley.
Velaris Village.
So this was where the light had been leading them.
She had expected something.
She didn’t know what.
Perhaps another territory. Perhaps a ruined settlement. Perhaps another disappointment waiting at the end of a road she had nearly died trying to cross.
She hadn’t expected this.
The walls stood silently beneath the fading sky. And somewhere beyond them, people were already living inside a place Nina had never heard of until this moment.
She tightened her grip around her knife.
They had finally reached their destination.
But none of them knew what would happen when they crossed those walls.
For several moments, nobody moved.
The walls looked even larger from where they stood. Black stone stretched farther than Nina could see, following the curve of the valley until the trees swallowed the distant sections. The upper edge rose far beyond the highest trees around it, forming an imposing barrier between the settlement and the wilderness.
Nina stared at it.
Tobias should have built walls like these.
The thought came again.
She hated that it did.
But there was no point standing there thinking about what should have been.
They had already come too far.
Kyle finally exhaled.
"We go down."
Several people hesitated.
Nobody needed to ask why.
They had followed a mysterious light through an unfamiliar forest, survived a monster attack, lost people along the way, and now stood before a settlement they knew absolutely nothing about.
It could be another Lord’s territory.
It could be a trap.
It could be worse than King’s Territory.
Nina looked at the walls one last time.
Then she looked at the faint pillar of light still visible beyond them.
"Fuck it."
The words left her mouth before she could stop herself.
A few survivors glanced at her.
Nina tightened her grip on her knife.
"We’ve already walked this far."
That was enough.
One by one, the others began moving down the slope.
The descent took longer than expected. The walls seemed to grow larger with every step, until they eventually disappeared above the treeline.
Once they reached the forest floor, the survivors found themselves standing directly beneath the massive stone barrier.
Nina tilted her head back.
She couldn’t even see the top properly anymore.
"Where’s the gate?"
Someone walked along the wall, searching for an opening.
Nothing.
They moved farther.
Still nothing.
Another group arrived from the trees and immediately began searching as well.
"Maybe it’s on the other side."
"Then what are we supposed to do?"
Nobody answered.
They had already started wondering whether they would have to spend another night outside when a voice suddenly called down from above.