“I don't like this…” Davis groaned, the pair wandering the brightly lit grand halls. Behind the door was yet another long hallway, this time, brightly lit by a warm sunnish glow, with similarly decorated pillars. Rows upon rows of golden flame sat atop bronze braziers, disappearing into the horizon.

“Way too similar to the previous hall...” Jonathan added.

One would think that because it was so bright, he would be able to see what was hiding in the darkness in the previous halls, but no. The light seemed to warp several meters past the edges of the pillars, turning into an almost tangible wall, blocking all sight past it.

The floor was decorated with even more runes, this time, with many ancient references to the sun was made. “Jonathan, are you good?” He glanced over, seeing how tired he was, and untied his waterskin.

“No- no I’m good… I just haven’t had any rest yet…” He said with a smile, the dark half-circles under his eyes extending even closer. His eyes looked as if he was already dead…

“Drink some water.” Davis tossed his waterskin, which he caught. “...Thanks…” Pouring some water into his parched mouth, he tossed the waterskin back to Davis and wiped his lips.

They continued down the brightly lit halls, and before long, both ends of the hallway seemed to stretch infinitely. The door which they had arrived from had disappeared completely, lost in the endless light.

Only the clack of their boots against the porcelain floor rang across the hall. Time seemed to stretch on once again, with days seemingly passing, as they finally arrived near the end of their travels. Unlike the dark halls, with their thousands of miniature sharp stars, the bright hall only had one.

A massive sun, held up by the nearby pillars, and nearly hundreds of meters in size, even at this range, blazed. The area around it was scorched black, unlike the usual bronze, gold, and porcelain everywhere else. The gigantic sun seemed to be the source of the light, and Davis was sure that the closer they got, the hotter it will get.

Streams of fire spewed from its surface, scorching the area it inhabited. He wasn’t even sure if the miniature sun was even a living thing since the Scrolls has yet to respond with a classification.

“Only way is forward,” Jonathan said, frowning.

The closer they got, the hotter the temperature became to be. Soon, the miniature nearly filled their entire vision, despite being several hundred meters away. Davis felt sweat pouring down his skin, and his eyes screamed every time he glanced at the sun.

Suddenly, a sapphire blue scroll unfurled itself in front of Davis.

Davis’s heart dropped. The miniature sun in front of him began morphing, and the plumes of fire shooting out of its surface became more frequent. The size expanded too, and the temperature soared. The duo was struck with fear, as they witnessed the transformation of a Calamity ranked monster.

The fires seemingly turned solid, as not long after that, 4 pairs of arms born of solidified flame erupted from the surface. The golden fire danced throughout its arms, melding into a sparkling golden cuff, with the symbol of the sun carved into each.

The miniature sun collapsed in on itself, forming a chiseled male torso, with hundreds of different necklaces and decorations adorning it. The head formed next, with a handsome face that radiated brilliance and power. He had flowing, curly hair cascading down his shoulders, with miniature suns for his eyes.

With a burst of light, the remainder of the miniature sun was blasted away, Davis forcibly shielded his eyes as a wave of intense heat seared past him. It felt as if he had stepped too close to a bonfire, and had burned himself in the process. Any bit of clothing he had left was on the verge of combusting, being uncomfortably hot.

Once the light faded, Davis felt a stare at him. Helios was in a kneeling position, his eyes staring holes into Davis. He felt the temperature drop several degrees, enough to be bearable, but not enough to be comfortable.

“Davis.” Jonathan tore him from his stupor. “I’ll distract him. Run to the other door.” Davis followed his gaze until he saw a gigantic door, similar to the one they had entered previously. It was hidden by the miniature sun before, but now that it had transformed, it was right behind Helios.

He was the guardian.

“But-” At that moment, a massive flaming spear appeared where Jonathan stood. His instincts could not even sense the approaching spear.

It was just that fast. Molten porcelain and gold filled the air with an acrid stench, a plume of smoke rising from the impact site.

“J-Johnathan?!” Davis took a wary step back. Not long after, his mind filled in the blanks of what had happened.

He wanted to deny it. He couldn’t believe that his friend was just vaporized in a single attack before he could even realize what had happened. But there was no use, no matter how many times he called his name, no one replied.

The spear began to melt, covering the ground in molten lava and unquenching fire. The sickening sound of a bow being drawn taunt rang across the gargantuan halls, and as Davis watched, a fiery arrow was nocked in a bow made of pure sunlight. The miniature suns for his eyes burned brightly, locking onto its next target.

‘Run.’ That was all his mind told him to do. He dumped mana into his legs, allowing him to reach the cover of a massive pillar just before the arrow was shot.

With a release more akin to an explosion, the fiery arrow exploded against the pillars, a sphere of fiery death expanding for a fraction of a millisecond before fading out of existence. Even in this heat, cold sweat ran down his body.

If he had been just a second slower, took just a second longer to process…

He would've been erased from existence. Peeking out from behind a pillar, he caught sight of the same gargantuan doors that he, and Jonathan, had entered from to this hall. It was right behind Helios, the 10 silver braziers nearly being outshone by the Calamity that was Helios.

“Shit…” As Helios nocked another arrow, Davis quickly ran the tens of meters to the next pillar, as yet another sonic boom rang across the hall, the arrow exploding against the unwavering pillar.

Slowly but surely, he had arrived until he was nearly right next to Helios’s titanic form. Davis waited for the arrow to fly, but was confused when nothing happened.

In the next instant, a massive sword cleaved through the pillar like a hot knife through warm butter. Davis scrambled to his feet as molten material fell from the sky like rain, the sword carving new crevices with each swing.

He could only pray that he would not be hit as he ran in a straight line, aiming to get as far as possible from Helios as possible so that he would switch back to firing arrows.

At least that attack didn’t destroy the fucking pillars!

A massive explosion came from behind him, signaling that Helios had switched back to firing arrows. He almost sighed in relief.

The giant door was so close he could feel it. Only a couple more meters. A dark shadow came from above, and he found hundreds of fiery arrows whistling down. Helios heaved a familiar-looking spear, ready to throw it at speeds incomprehensible to the eye.

Davis could nearly feel the heat from the arrows as his fingertips touched the cold metal door.

As the arrows pummeled the porcelain floor, Davis managed to slip inside the small crack before diving to the side. The door slammed shut as the fiery spear embedded itself against it, the tip of the spear peeking out through the door.

“Fuck…” Davis panted, his legs groaning in pain as he collapsed on the floor.

“Ah, visitors. I have had none for quite some time…”

“?!” 

Shyberu

Bit sorry for the cliffhanger, but hey, busy week. (Yeah yeah I was just lazy and procrastinating bleh no need to point fingers). I'm also quite interested in a change of cover, you know, maybe hiring an artist to draw one for me, so I'll update yall whenever I decide to shell out some money for a new cover (or art, idk). 

Anyways, I'll soon start removing the old chapters and putting them up on an alternate, separate book on scribble hub. Too bad scribble hub doesn't have any private function, would've made my life so much easier, but noooooo. Oh well, a bit sorry to all the people who saw my book on trending and started reading from the first chapter...

Whoopsies? I didn't expect it to pop up on the front page a few days after I come back. Sorry guys if you reading this. That one was scrapped.