In the continent of Aldeira, there is a story that mothers tell their children to make them behave. A story about a ruined kingdom that people always speak of but nobody ever seen.The ancient kingdom of Aldenora.It was rumor to be the first kingdom ever exist in this world, built by hands that were not meant for this earth, and it was the first to fall. They call it the Sealed Garden of Gods. But you can't just walk up to its gates and admire the history. Because Aldenora is hidden deep, deep inside of the Rofnar magical forest.To see it, people need to venture deep into the forest just to get into the kingdom. But it was not easy. The forest itself is a labyrinth. Once you enter, none can get out. The air is swallowed by a heavy mist, and the tree are huge, their roots looking like twisted black snakes digging into the dirt. With its misty nature and big trees everywhere, people would lose the sense of direction the moment they take ten steps.There's rumor that the forest been cu

The "morning" didn’t bring no sun. It just turned the dark gray mist into a pale, sickly silver. We woke up with our clothes damp and our lungs feeling heavy, like we been breathing in wet wool all night."Move out," Borg grunted. He looked older today. The fire was nothing but cold ash now, and that warmth I felt in my chest last night? It was gone, replaced by a knot of stone.We walked for hours. The forest changed. The trees weren't just black anymore; they were covered in something white and fuzzy. It looked like mold at first. Then I saw it hanging from the branches in long, thin strands. It looked like the mist had finally gotten tired of floating and decided to sit down on the world."Static," Vax whispered. He was rubbing his arms. "The air feels... sticky. My skin is crawling.""It is the mana," Elian murmured, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "Ancient ruins often leak raw energy. It sticks to the physical world. It is a good sign. We must be getting

The deeper I went, the more I realized that Aldenora wasn't just ruined. It was rotting.Every step I took on the white marble plaza sent a web of cracks shivering through the stone. This place looked like it was made of solid mountain, but it felt like it was made of dried ash. I reached out a hand to steady myself against a grand archway—the kind of thing that should’ve lasted ten thousand years—and my fingers just... sank into it. The stone turned to gray powder the moment I touched it, sliding through my grip like sand in an hourglass."Gods," I whispered, and even the vibration of my voice made a nearby decorative urn shatter into a million tiny pieces.I stood still, barely breathing. The silence was so thin here that I felt like if I sneezed, the whole street would come down on my head. This wasn't a kingdom anymore. It was a ghost of a kingdom, held together by nothing but habit and the lack of wind.I needed supplies. I needed a better blade than this rusted piece of scrap in

The world tilted.That was the first thing I felt not the sound, but the sudden, sickening shift in my stomach as the stone floor beneath my boots just… gave up. The landing, that small slice of obsidian I thought was solid, groaned like a dying beast and snapped away from the tower wall."No!" I lunged forward, my fingers clawing at the frost-covered glass of the stairs above.I missed. My hands slapped against the cold, slick surface, and for a heartbeat, I was weightless. The air rushed past my ears, cold and sharp as a knife. Below me was an abyss of black shadows and the white, screaming faces of the remnants trapped in the walls.Clang!My chest slammed into a lower landing, knocking every bit of air out of my lungs. I rolled, my fingers catching the jagged edge of the stone. I hung there, swinging over the dark, my boots kicking at nothing but empty air. My ribs felt like they been kicked by a horse, and the silver mark on my hand was screaming, a white-hot needle of pain that