Hong Min stood at the edge of the lake, his eyes fixed on the watery darkness where the stone door lay. The door represented a mystery, a promise of a deeper unknown. But after everything he had been through, the unknown was the last thing he wanted.

  "A mysterious underwater door that leads to a deeper, darker place?" he thought to himself with a smirk. "No, thank you. That is the path of fools and madmen, and I'm tired of being both."

  He turned, leaving the lake behind him, and directed his gaze toward the far horizon within the cavern, where the colossal palace loomed like a majestic specter, absorbing the faint blue glow around it. That was the logical choice.

  "If there's an exit from this hell," he muttered to himself, "it will be there. In the palace. Every great place has an emergency exit for its rulers."

  He and 404 began to move through the city, passing between the strange, short buildings. Their walls were intricately carved, their windows long and narrow, ending in pointed arches like spearheads. Their roofs were sharp and sloped, like bone protrusions jutting from the earth. It was a disturbingly elegant architectural style, beautiful and menacing all at once.

  They cautiously entered one of the collapsed houses. Hong Min found an old leather bag, made of a strange but incredibly durable material, and beside it, some empty flasks of an odd design. They were perfect.

  "404," he commanded quietly. "Gather more of those flying things. We need food for the journey."

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  Silently, 404 leaped with astonishing agility onto the dark roofs of the buildings, returning moments later with several bats, which Hong Min added to the bag. Now, all that was left was water. The lake was too far behind them. Hong Min looked at 404, who stood like a statue amidst the glow of the crystals.

  "Alright, you genius," Hong Min said with biting sarcasm. "Since you have all the answers, is water going to suddenly appear in these flasks?"

  As he expected, there was no reply. Absolute silence.

  Hong Min spat on the ground in frustration. "Cold wretch."

  Then he tossed the empty flasks toward 404. "Listen, 'horse.' Take these, go to the lake, fill them up, and come back. And I want to see you here before I count to ten."

  404 caught the flasks, and in the next instant, he disappeared. It wasn't just a fast movement; it was a complete vanishing act. Hong Min sat on a stone stoop, contemplating this city of glowing ghosts. It took no more than two minutes before he sensed movement in front of him. 404 had returned, standing with his usual calm, the flasks filled to the brim with water.

  Hong Min looked at him with genuine astonishment this time, then smiled sardonically. "You really are a fast, useless horse."

  404 tilted his head slightly. "What is a horse?"

  Hong Min ignored the question, took the flasks, and put them in the bag. They were ready now.

  After a long walk, they finally reached the beginning of the road leading to the palace. It was a wide and imposing main street, different from all the alleys they had passed through. It was paved with polished black stones that reflected the faint blue light, and on its sides stood strange stone pillars that pulsed with a slow, intermittent glow, as if still holding onto the last vestiges of their ancient energy. The palace at the end of the street looked larger and more forbidding the closer they got, as if it were absorbing all the light around it and turning it into shadows.

  They stood at the beginning of this road, looking at their final destination in this city.

  "Well..." Hong Min thought, feeling his heart pound with a mixture of anticipation and fear. "Either we find an exit there, or we find a completely different kind of death."