Chapter 35: Empty Gates

Several weeks passed.

For Eden, they passed almost entirely underground.

Gate after Gate.

Dungeon after dungeon.

Fight after fight.

D-Rank Gates had became pretty manageable by then.

By now, Eden could walk into a D-Rank dungeon with Lucy at his side and clear most of it without needing to think particularly hard about survival.

That didn’t mean he had become careless.

If anything, the opposite had happened.

Eden had become more efficient.

He no longer wasted movements.

He knew when to spend Essence and when to conserve it. He had learned exactly how much force he needed to kill most D-Rank creatures, and he had become increasingly comfortable combining Phase Shift with Heir’s Pride.

Devour remained his most dangerous weapon.

It was also the skill he understood the least.

Eden had stopped assuming that he completely understood it.

That was probably a good thing.

"Behind you!"

Lucy shouted.

Eden ducked.

A claw swept over his head.

He pivoted on his heel and drove his fist directly into the creature’s stomach.

The D-Rank beast folded.

Lucy appeared beside him a moment later, her fist already glowing with bright pink Essence.

"Move."

Eden stepped aside.

She punched.

The resulting explosion tore the creature apart.

Chunks of blackened flesh scattered across the stone floor.

Lucy landed, shaking her arm slightly.

"...I think I overdid it."

Eden glanced at the crater.

"You think?"

She looked at him.

Then at the crater.

"...A little?"

Eden sighed.

"Self control matters too, you know?"

"I’m working on it."

Lucy smiled.

Over the past few weeks, Lucy grew significantly more powerful.

She had reached C-Rank.

And with it came a new skill.

[Quick Charge — C-Rank]

Quick Charge was almost tailor-made for her fighting style.

Rather than simply increasing the strength of her Essence attacks, the skill allowed her to sacrifice a significantly larger amount of Essence to charge multiple stages almost instantly.

For someone like Lucy, whose entire combat style revolved around gathering Essence into her fists before releasing it in one enormous attack, the skill was absurdly useful.

She could now build power much faster.

The downside was equally obvious.

It burned through her Essence reserves at a frightening rate.

Which, naturally, Lucy considered a minor inconvenience.

"I can do three charges almost instantly now."

Eden looked at her.

"How much Essence does that consume?"

"...A lot."

"How much?"

Lucy hesitated.

"A lot?"

Eden stared at her.

Lucy smiled innocently.

"...Right."

He sighed.

"You’re going to kill yourself."

"I’m getting better."

"Those aren’t mutually exclusive."

She laughed.

"You’re one to talk."

Eden couldn’t argue with that.

His own progression had been a little slower.

Not because he wasn’t growing.

Quite the opposite.

He was steadily approaching the peak of D-Rank.

But the closer he got, the more difficult the remaining levels became.

D-Rank creatures were no longer enough to provide meaningful progress.

He needed stronger opponents.

Better Gates.

More dangerous enemies.

---

The next Gate was different.

Eden noticed it immediately.

The moment he stepped through the entrance, something felt wrong.

No sound.

No movement.

No Essence signatures.

Nothing.

He stopped.

Lucy nearly walked into his back.

"Huh?"

Eden didn’t answer.

He stared into the darkness ahead.

The entrance tunnel continued forward.

Normally, even the weakest Gate contained something.

A distant roar.

The scratching of claws.

The faint presence of Abyss Creatures.

Something.

Anything.

But this place was silent.

Completely silent.

Lucy slowly looked around.

"...Where is everything?"

"That’s what I’m wondering."

Eden took another step.

Nothing happened.

They went farther.

Still nothing.

No creatures.

No corpses.

Not even tracks.

It was as though the Gate had been constructed for monsters that had never actually existed.

Lucy frowned.

"This is a D-Rank Gate, right?"

"Yeah"

"So where are the monsters?"

"I don’t know."

Eden’s eyes narrowed.

That phenomenon bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

He had seen strange things since his regression.

But this?

He had never heard of anything like it.

Not once.

Not in his first life.

Not during his years as an Awakened.

Not even in the countless reports he’d read.

Empty Gates simply didn’t exist.

"Maybe someone cleared it already." Lucy suggested.

Eden shook his head.

"Then there’d be signs."

"Maybe the corpses somehow disappeared?"

"There would still be signs of battle."

"...Fair."

They kept walking.

The deeper they went, the stranger the dungeon became.

There were no signs of battle.

No remnants of Essence.

The walls themselves seemed untouched.

They eventually found someone.

A woman stood farther down the corridor.

She was alone.

Fit, athletic, and seemingly unbothered by the fact that she was illegally inside an undiscovered Gate.

Long silver hair fell down her back.

Her eyes were an unusual green.

She turned when she heard them.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Her gaze moved from Eden to Lucy.

Then back to Eden.

She smiled faintly.

"Oh."

She sounded more surprised than alarmed.

"You’re not Abyss Creatures."

Lucy blinked.

"Uh...?"

Eden raised an eyebrow.

"You sound disappointed."

The woman laughed softly.

"Well I am disappointed."

She stepped closer.

"My name is Seraphina."

She tilted her head.

"But you can call me Sera."

Eden studied her.

Something about her Essence was strange.

Not weak.

Not necessarily strong either.

Just...

Different.

He couldn’t explain it.

There was something about the way her Essence felt that didn’t quite fit with what he was used to sensing from other Awakeneds.

He couldn’t identify why.

And that irritated him just as much as the empty gate did.

Eden had become accustomed to trusting his instincts.

His instincts were telling him that Sera was unusual.

But not necessarily dangerous.

...Yet.

"I’m Eden."

Lucy introduced herself immediately afterward.

"Lucy."

Sera nodded.

"So what are you two doing here?"

"Illegal raid."

Lucy answered.

Eden stared a hole into her head.

’...Sometimes it’s hard to believe that this Idiot is a future SS-Rank.’

She shrugged defensively.

"What? She already knows we’re not supposed to be here."

Sera laughed.

"Fair enough."

Eden crossed his arms.

"What about you?"

"I’m investigating."

"Investigating what?"

"The Gate."

Eden glanced around.

"Because it’s empty?"

"Exactly."

That caught his attention.

"You’ve seen this before?"

"Something like it."

Sera looked past them.

"Come with me."

---

They spent the next twenty minutes exploring.

Sera moved differently from most Awakeneds Eden had encountered.

She wasn’t particularly cautious.

She wasn’t reckless either.

She simply seemed to know where she was going.

Eventually, the tunnel widened.

The ceiling rose.

The walls disappeared.

And the three emerged into an enormous chamber.

At the far end stood something that immediately made all three stop.

A door.

No.

Calling it a door didn’t feel right.

It was a structure.

Two enormous slabs of ancient material stood side by side, reaching nearly a hundred meters into the darkness above.

The surface was covered in strange dark runes.

They were carved so deeply into the doors that some looked more like scars than writing.

Eden stared.

His heartbeat slowed.

He had seen those markings before.

Somewhere.

He knew he had.

But where?

He stepped closer.

His eyes followed one rune.

Then another.

Nothing.

His memory refused to cooperate.

"These are the same."

Sera’s voice was quiet.

Eden looked at her.

"What?"

"The doors."

She walked forward.

"I’ve seen them before."

Lucy looked between them.

"How many times?"

Sera stopped.

"Seven."

Lucy frowned.

"Seven?"

"Seven Empty Gates."

Eden’s expression changed.

"You’re saying you’ve found seven of these?"

"In the last week."

"How did we never hear about this?" Lucy glanced at eden.

"Because most people aren’t stupid enough to illegally raid undiscovered Gates."

Lucy opened her mouth.

Then closed it.

"...Fair enough."

Sera approached the door.

She placed one hand against its surface.

Nothing happened.

"It always ends here."

Eden frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly that."

Sera stepped back.

"Every Empty Gate I’ve entered eventually leads here."

She gestured toward the massive doors.

"And every time, they refuse to open."

Eden approached.

He placed his palm against the ancient surface.

’They’re cold.’

That was the first thing he noticed.

The second was something much harder to explain.

His Essence reacted.

Barely.

A tiny vibration.

Like something deep inside the door had noticed him.

Eden immediately pulled his hand away.

Lucy noticed.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Sera looked at him.

"You okay?"

Eden met her eyes.

"...Yeah."

Eden looked back.

Sera continued.

"But I can see something else."

She raised one finger.

"Watch."

A faint glow appeared around her fingertip.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Eden saw them.

Threads.

Almost impossibly thin strands of Essence stretched through the air.

They were nearly invisible.

They moved around the chamber like veins beneath skin.

Some disappeared into the walls.

Others extended beyond them.

Eden’s eyes narrowed.

"What are those?"

"My skill."

Sera smiled.

[Sage’s Eye]

The threads became slightly clearer.

"It allows me to see and visualize Essence structures that the human eye normally can’t perceive."

Lucy stared.

"That sounds really useful."

"...And really complicated"

"It has its problems."

"What problems?"

"It’s too much for my body."

Sera’s smile faded.

Eden looked at the threads.

"These are connected to the door. Do they lead somewhere?"

"Yes."

Sera followed one with her eyes.

"They lead further away from here."

"Another Gate?"

"Yup."

Eden turned toward her.

"You can follow them?"

"To an extent."

"So there are connections between the Empty Gates."

Sera nodded.

"I believe so."

Eden stared at the runes again.

His mind began working.

Seven Gates.

Seven sets of doors.

Threads connecting them.

No creatures.

No corpses.

No evidence of anything ever living inside.

And those runes...

He knew them.

He was sure of it.

But his memory wouldn’t give him the answer.

"Can you lead us to another one?"

Sera looked at him.

"You wanna help me investigate?"

"Yes."

She smiled.

"I was going to complain if you said no."

Eden shook his head.

"Let’s get going."

Sera nodded.

"There’s nothing else here."

They began walking back.

For several minutes, Eden said nothing.

His mind remained fixed on those runes.

He had seen them.

Somewhere.

He knew he had.

The memory was there.

Just beyond reach.

Like a word sitting on the tip of his tongue.

He closed his eyes briefly as they walked.

’Where have I seen them?’