The streets were a blend of decay and emptiness and stretched out in a path under the eerie crimson light that bathed the land. The cobblestones beneath their feet were cracked and uneven, with weeds forcing their way through which added to the sense of neglect that hung in the air. On either side of the street, closed stalls and abandoned food carts lined the way.

  Eclipse and Chael walked side by side, their footsteps echoing in this silence. Eclipse’s presence was cold and distant, his gradient purple eyes scanning their surroundings sharply. His purple, high-collared coat swayed slightly with each step, the fabric heavy and dark. The Mooncrest Katana were strapped to his hips under his purple garment.

  Chael, in contrast, seemed almost out of place in the dreary setting. His demeanor was relaxed, his movements light and casual as if the oppressive atmosphere around them didn’t affect him. He wore a loose garment of khaki green over his light beige t shirt, its fabric catching the dim light and giving off a slight shimmer. With one arm, he carried the long Odachi over his broad shoulders and with his other hand he was absorbed in the coin he flicked between his fingers, a small, intricately designed golden piece that caught the red light of the moon with every spin.

  Chael reached out and smacked Eclipse lightly on the back of the head.

  “Why are you sleeping while we’re walking? How are you even sleeping while walking?” He glanced at Eclipse, a small grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “We’re almost at the place that old hag told us about, so stay cautious and awake.”

  Eclipse turned his head slowly, fixing Chael with a serious gaze. His lips parted as if to speak, but instead, a soft snore escaped him, and his eyes drooped again. A small bubble formed at his nose, inflating and deflating with his sleepy breathing. He swayed slightly on his feet but kept pace.

  He stared at him for a moment, then shook his head with a chuckle, the coin still flicking through his fingers. “This guy… all he does is sleep,”

  Chael looked around. There were several blocks of decaying, uneven huts and stalls ahead, and they had passed a few already. He let out a sigh - this sight was so familiar yet so distant now. Back then, he was just a powerless kid trying to scrape by to survive through whatever means necessary just to see the next day. And now, he was had gotten much stronger - stronger than any grown up in the village he used to run away from. It was all a very surreal feeling.

  As they walked further, the duo noticed a few wild dogs up ahead eyeing them up closely, but none dared to as much take a step forward. Rather, they seemed to back away the closer Eclipse and Chael got. A light smile flickered across Chael’s lips. After all, they were those same breed of dogs which had bought Eclipse and Chael together. If he hadn’t seen a worn out boy of his age fending off three dogs with nothing but a pup by his side all those years ago, none of what they had gone through the past couple of years would have happened.

  “Fate truly has it’s ways of pulling strings, huh?” As Chael reminisced, suddenly, Eclipse stopped so abruptly Chael almost bumped into him. He tilted his head to the side where there lay an old wooden shop. It looked no different from every other structure in the area.

  “Here.” Eclipse said coldly.

  Chael followed Eclipse’s vision with a soft whistle and he read the sign to the shop, “Black Cross store? Is this where the old hag wanted us to go?”

  Eclipse walked to the old wooden door which had fallen apart so much it may as well not have had one. He twisted at the handle and stopped, “It’s closed.”

  “That’s strange.” Chael raised an eyebrow and walked up to it and knocked on the door but to no response even after a whole minute. Chael knocked on the wooden door again with his knuckles and the door creaked slightly under the pressure, but there was no response from inside.

  “No one’s inside? This old hag... There’s no way she’s pulling a dumb trick, right?” He could already picture Celestia laughing hysterically at their confusion. Eclipse let out a yawn that echoed in the quiet street. Without waiting for a response, he stepped forward and slid the door open forcefully and walked in without a second thought, leaving Chael dumbfounded at the entrance.

  “Hello, does this store sell any cigs?” Eclipse called out as he wandered further inside. Chael blinked, still processing the fact that Eclipse had just barged in like that. He shook his head and followed him into the dimly lit shop.

  Suddenly, a loud BAM echoed through the shop as another door in the back slid open. A fragile old man shuffled into view, his frame thin and hunched with age. His hair was a wild mess of white, sticking out in all directions, and his glasses were perched on the tip of his nose.

  “Oh my! I forgot we were even open today! Hahaha! What can I get you, young boy? Do speak up, though-I’m quite hard of hearing!” The old man’s voice was loud.

  Eclipse leaned forward slightly, whispering something in a gibberish voice. “Can I get some cigarettes?”

  “Huh? What did you say? Please speak up-I’m quite hard of hearing!” The old man repeated, cupping his hand around his ear.

  Eclipse whispered again, just as quietly and just as unintelligibly, “Gimmie some ciggies.”

  Chael’s eye twitched, and a vein popped out on his forehead. With an awkward smile, he turned to Eclipse. “Why are you messing with the old man like that when he just said he doesn’t hear well?”

  Eclipse scratched his head. “I was just making sure he wasn’t lying.”

  Chael shook his head in defeat and walked up to the counter and glanced back at Eclipse who was still loitering near the entrance, half-asleep. With a sigh, Chael reached into the small pouch they had gotten from Celestia, fishing out a crumpled piece of paper. Unfolding it, he stared at the crude doodle it held - it was an almost childish sketch of a red carpet with what looked like a series of doors scattered around it. Chael cringed, feeling a wave of embarrassment and turned the paper toward the old man.

  'How is Granny making us look for a place with a crappy doodle that she probably spent two seconds on,’ Chael thought to himself, his face heating up.

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  “Hey, Mr. Old Man,” Chael began, “Would you perhaps know where we can find this place? We were told to come here.”

  The storekeeper pushed his glasses further up his nose, squinting as he leaned in to examine the doodle. As he got a closer look, a drop of sweat appeared on his forehead, his expression shifting from curiosity to discomfort. His body tensed up, and he gulped audibly before looking Chael directly in the eye, his face now serious.

  “Son, my great-granddaughter could draw better than that. There are some hobbies you should give up on,” The old man said, his tone deadpan.

  Chael’s jaw dropped, and he slumped to the ground, utterly dumbfounded. For a moment, he just stared at the floor. Finally, he muttered, “I didn’t draw it...”

  The image of Celestia laughing hysterically flashed in his mind, making the situation even more unbearable.

  Smack.

  Eclipse dropped a pack of cigarettes on the counter and without a word, he dug into the pouch that Celestia had given them before pulling out a handful of coins - but these coins looked very weird. Chael, still sitting on the ground with his head hanging low, glanced up just enough to see what Eclipse was doing.

  “Ahaha, you’re really something else, aren’t you? That old hag probably didn’t even give us many coins, and you’re using them to get smokes,” Chael sneered.

  Eclipse barely acknowledged him and went on to hand the coins to the old man, who did not take it immediately but examined them closely.

  “Huh, these are some weird coins... My bad, Old Man, but this is all we’ve got,” Eclipse said.

  The coins were strange, unlike the usual Krecos which were round coins made of copper, silver, or gold. These looked like they belonged in a different world, another prank from Celestia, perhaps.

  The old man squinted at the coins, turning one over in his hand as if trying to determine its value. He didn’t seem convinced but didn’t say anything either.

  “Oh, great,” Chael lamented, burying his face in his hands. “That old hag didn’t even give us real money, sigh. How great.”

  His voice dripped with sarcasm.

  Suddenly, the old man lunged forward, his movement almost as quick as a frightened antelope and tried to snatch the coins from Eclipse’s hand, but Eclipse was quicker. He closed his fist tightly, his eyes narrowing as he stared down the old man. A faint violet Qi began to swirl around him, giving off a cold, ominous Anima Pressure.

  “Hey, Old Man, are you really as fragile as you look?” Eclipse asked, his voice low and menacing.

  Chael assumed his battle stance in an instant, his hand gripping the hilt of his Odachi. A golden beige qi flickered around his body, glowing softly as he prepared for a fight. He then let out a chucke, “Ahaha, you don’t know what’s best for you, huh, Gramps?”

  “Wait, wait, wait!” the old man stammered, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I apologize - I didn’t realize you boys were people of the Avyssos too. If you had shown me the coin earlier, I wouldn’t have acted so foolishly.”

  Eclipse shifted uncomfortably, ‘Avyssos… it sounds familiar. Where have I heard of that before…?’

  Chael stepped forward with the drawing once again, this time, his voice heavy, “Avyssos? Do you know this place then?”

  The old man gulped, his eyes darting to the coin Eclipse held. “The coin…”

  Without a word, Eclipse tossed the black coin to the old man, who clumsily caught it, fumbling for a moment before securing it in his grip. The tension in the air eased slightly as the old man nodded, his demeanor now serious.

  “Come with me,” he said, his voice trembling slightly. He turned and led them toward the room he had emerged from earlier, the door creaking open as he guided them inside.

  It was a small empty room. Chael cringed at the sight of cobwebs and what he assumed to be small animal faeces on the corners and walls of the room.

  The old man shuffled to a far corner of the room, his hunched frame casting a jittery shadow in the flickering light. He knelt with a grunt, brushing aside a pile of old rags and dust to reveal what looked like nothing more than a worn floor mat. But as his fingers curled beneath the edges and peeled it back, the fabric seemed to fold away with ease, revealing a dark, narrow opening carved into the earth.

  Chael stepped forward, his eyes narrowing. “Hmmm, what secrets are you hiding, mister?”

  The old man chuckled nervously, though the sound cracked like brittle wood. “No secrets, no secrets. Just… opportunities. Haha… For men like you....”

  Chael didn’t reply, already climbing down into the darkness, his boots echoing against the old stone ladder as he disappeared below.

  Eclipse lingered at the entrance, his gaze lingering on the old man, who wrung his hands for a beat before blurting out, “Er… about those cigarettes - do you still want to pay for them, or-?”

  Eclipse’s eyes sharpened to slits. “I’ll be taking the cigs… as your apology.”

  The old man froze, mouth half-open, then gave a quick nod, swallowing whatever retort he was about to make.

  Without another word, Eclipse turned and vanished into the tunnel after Chael, the trapdoor swinging shut behind him with a dull thud that left the room silent once more.

  Drip, drip, drip.

  The sound of water droplets falling from rusty pipes echoed through the narrow tunnel as Eclipse and Chael walked side by side. The air was thick with dampness, and the faint metallic scent of rusted iron lingered around them. Chael flipped his coin up and down, the faint clinking sound cutting through the steady dripping.

  “What do you think the old man was talking about?” Chael pondered and then took his eyes to the strange looking coins that prompted such a shocking response from the shop keeper, “There’s definitely more to these weird coins than meets the eye, huh?”

  “Old Man seems to think we’re part of this… organisation, whatever that is, which is probably where we’re heading right now,” Eclipse replied, his voice calm as always. He flicked his fingers, a small spark of lightning igniting the cigarette in his mouth. He took a drag, exhaling smoke as he continued. “The coins seem to be the currency of this Avyssos place. He took the coin as payment for letting us through here.”

  “You mean the Avyssos? Could this be it?” Chael chuckled, his sea green pupils gleaming with curiosity and excitement, “Ahaha, damn! This is getting fun.”

  “Avyssos...” Eclipse murmured, the word sparking a distant memory. He recalled a time in Grapefruit Village when a mysterious man whom the villagefolk referred to as “The Faceless” mentioned the Avyssos.

  They walked in this darkness for a while, maybe ten or fifteen minutes, when they noticed something.

  “Wow, I can sense a lot of people further down,” Chael’s senses sharp as he picked up on the faint vibrations from the tunnel’s end. “Are we about to walk into some kind of gathering?”

  Eclipse nodded, a grim understanding passing between them as they continued walking.

  The faint sound of a crowd began to reach their ears, growing louder with each step.

  “It seems we’re almost there,” Eclipse said in anticipation.

  A bright light flickered ahead, and as they drew closer, they could make out the silhouettes of countless people moving at the tunnel’s end.

  Finally, they emerged from the darkness. The tunnel opened up into a vast underground expanse, where the floor shifted from cold, dark concrete to a deep red carpet. The sight that greeted them was like something out of a dream. Hooded figures and masked faces moved about in a chaotic yet organized manner, weaving through stalls that lined the sides of the expansive space.

  “So, this is what the old hag drew…” Chael muttered, glancing around to see numerous tunnels on the vast cavern walls like the one they had just exited, all leading to the same red carpeted floor. It was a web of entrances, each one disgorging more shadowy figures into some sort of an underworld gathering.

  Chael looked solemn, “That old Man was right, there’s definitely some hobbies she should give up on.”

  “We should cover our faces,” Eclipse suggested, his voice dropping.

  “Hehe, alright.”

  They both reached into the pouch Celestia had given them and they pulled out black cloaks. Draping the cloaks over their shoulders, they pulled the hoods low over their faces and blended into the crowd.