The cold morning air bit at my face as I felt a nudge on my shoulder. 

I blinked awake, my body still heavy with exhaustion. 

When I opened my eyes, Ryu was standing over me, his usual stoic expression in place, though there was a sense of urgency behind it.

“Up.”

 he said simply.

I rubbed my eyes, groaning slightly as I pushed myself up from the ground, feeling the stiffness in my muscles from the previous day’s battle. 

The fire from last night had long since died out, leaving only the chill to fill the air around us.

Evane was already up, her figure unmistakable against the icy landscape. 

She stood near the edge of the hole in the ice, her arms crossed and a grin on her face like she had been waiting for this moment.

“Morning, sunshine!”

 she called out, beckoning me over with an exaggerated wave. 

“Come on, we’ve got some exploring to do.”

I threw on my gear, securing my rifle over my shoulder, and followed Ryu as we made our way toward Evane. 

The hole in the ice loomed in front of us, dark and deep. 

It looked even more ominous in the daylight, its gaping maw like an invitation into the unknown.

Evane turned to us, eyes sparkling with excitement. 

"Ready?" 

she asked, without waiting for a reply.

 "Let's go!" 

And before I could even think to respond, she jumped—disappearing into the darkness of the hole.

I blinked in surprise, stepping closer to the edge and looking down. 

The drop was steep, but it wasn’t impossible

 My heart raced as I glanced at Ryu, who gave me a slight nod. Without a second thought, I took a deep breath and leaped after her.

The wind rushed past me as I plummeted down into the cold depths below, the world around me nothing but shadow. 

My rifle jostled against my shoulder, threatening to come loose.

 Before I could adjust it, I felt something hard and strong beneath me.

Nirva. 

He had already reached the bottom and caught me mid-fall, his massive arms steadying me before he set me down.

“Thanks,” I muttered, adjusting the rifle that had almost slipped from my shoulder.

Evane’s voice rang out from a little ways ahead. “Over here, Yvette!”

I hurried forward, my boots crunching against the frozen ground, until I reached where Evane stood. She had that same eager grin plastered on her face, her hand resting on her sword’s hilt as she gestured toward something in the distance.

I followed her gaze—and my breath caught in my throat.

Ahead of us, two colossal figures stood frozen in place, as if time itself had forgotten them. 

They were covered in ancient armor, massive plates that were chipped and worn, their once-glorious metal now dulled by age. 

Moss and other growths clung to their bodies, spilling over their forms like nature itself had claimed them. 

The stone of their skin was cracked and jagged, giving the impression that they had been standing there, immobile, for decades—maybe even centuries.

“What… are those?”

 I whispered, taking a few tentative steps forward, unable to tear my eyes away from the massive beings in front of me.

“Giant stone creatures.” 

Evane said with a low whistle. 

“Covered in armor and moss like they’ve been sitting here for ages. But check this out…”

 She walked closer, running her hand over one of the thick, moss-covered plates of armor. 

“This isn’t just regular stone. This is something else… something old.”

I stood next to her, examining the creatures more closely. 

Their eyes—or at least where their eyes should have been—were hollow, dark sockets staring off into nothingness. 

Their stance was powerful, as if they had once been mighty protectors or warriors, and yet now they were frozen in place, forgotten by time.

“What do you think happened to them?” 

I asked, my voice barely a whisper as I stepped closer.

“Who knows?” 

Evane replied, crouching down near one of the creature’s feet.

 “But one thing’s for sure—they didn’t just end up here by accident.”

I crouched beside her, studying the intricate designs on the armor. 

It was like nothing I had ever seen before.

“Why here, though?” 

I murmured. 

“In the middle of a frozen lake, buried under all this ice?”

Evane shrugged. 

“That’s what we’re here to figure out, isn’t it?”

Nirva finally spoke up from behind us, his deep voice echoing through the cavernous space.

 “Looks like a tomb to me,”

We ventured deeper into the cavern, the air growing thicker with each step. 

The stone creatures faded into the shadows behind us, leaving an eerie silence in their wake. 

As we pressed on, the floor shifted beneath our boots, no longer the smooth ice from the lake above but rough, uneven rock, dotted with dirt and debris.

The deeper we went, the more the atmosphere changed. 

The walls grew narrow and jagged, curling inward as though trying to close us in. 

The passage was lined with webs—thick, stringy tendrils that draped across the path in front of us. 

They weren’t like the thin webs of ordinary spiders. 

These were larger, more oppressive, sagging under their own weight.

Evane brushed one aside with a flick of her hand, her lips twitching into a smirk. 

"Well, this is lovely." 

she said with a sarcastic drawl. 

"Nothing like a nice, cozy tunnel full of webs and dirt to really get the blood pumping."

I pulled my rifle tighter against my shoulder, my eyes scanning the walls as we continued to push through the increasingly claustrophobic corridor. 

My skin prickled with the sensation of being watched, though I couldn’t tell if it was real or just my imagination running wild in the gloom.

 Every now and then, I’d see something scurry through the corner of my vision—small creatures, probably—but the flicker of movement still set me on edge.

“This place gives me the creeps.” 

I muttered under my breath, pushing a strand of webbing aside and watching it stick to my glove.

Nirva, marching ahead of me, let out a low chuckle. 

“You and me both, newbie.” 

he said, his tone gruff but not unkind. 

He slashed through a particularly thick cluster of webs with a broad sweep of his sword, sending pieces of it floating to the ground. 

“Doesn’t feel right, being down here.”

I had to agree. 

There was something unnatural about this place. 

The further we went, the less it felt like an ancient ruin and more like something had been living here—something we hadn’t yet encountered. 

The dirt on the floor was disturbed, as if something had been dragging itself along the ground, and the webs, though thick, seemed fresh, glistening with moisture from deeper within the tunnel.

I shuddered involuntarily. 

“Yeah, creepy doesn’t even begin to cover it.” 

I muttered.

“Creepy’s good!”

 Evane’s voice echoed cheerfully from ahead, her silhouette flickering against the faint light from her torch. 

“Means we’re on the right track. Always gotta be a little spooked before you find something cool.”

Her optimism was a stark contrast to the unsettling vibe of the tunnel, and I found myself both appreciating and resenting it at the same time.

 How could she be so relaxed?

We moved deeper, the passage narrowing until we had to duck beneath low-hanging rocks and push through dense clusters of webs. 

The dirt beneath our boots was thick and heavy now, like we were walking through the remnants of something long forgotten. 

The air smelled stale, as though it hadn’t been touched in years, and my mind raced with the possibilities of what might be lurking in the shadows just out of sight.

I was trying to shake off the sensation of eyes boring into my back when Evane’s voice rang out from up ahead.

“Yvette, come here for a sec.”

I looked up, my heart skipping a beat as I saw her standing near a curve in the tunnel. 

Her hand was raised, beckoning me forward, and though her expression was calm, there was a spark of intrigue in her eyes that made me quicken my pace.

“What is it?”

 I asked, stepping over a large rock and brushing a few lingering webs off my arm.

Evane didn’t answer right away. 

She waited until I was standing beside her before pointing toward a section of the wall, illuminated by the flickering light of her torch.

At first glance, it looked like any other part of the tunnel—rough, covered in dirt, and coated in webs. But as I looked closer, I saw something else.