Limitless Fortress: Rise of the Behemoth and The Gray Guards (1995)
The canopy above was a choked web of black branches, blotting out the sun until the afternoon light felt like old bruises.
"I remember when I used to just stare up at the sky," Sora Takeuchi said, his voice barely louder than the crunch of dead leaves beneath his boots. He didn't look at the others. His eyes were fixed on the few patches of gray sky visible through the trees. "Back then, I really thought I was free to go anywhere I wanted. I never realized there was an iron fence holding me back. By the time I realized, my dream had died and the world belonged to someone else."
He paused, a bitter, humorless smile touching his lips.
"Every day, my share of space got smaller and the fence got higher. It seemed like before I could even crawl, I knew I’d never be able to fly."
"You talk too much when you're anxious, Sora," Genji, the Lightning Emperor, muttered. Sparks danced lazily across his knuckles, a restless habit born of the suffocating atmosphere. "But you're not wrong. There’s something about this forest that’s depressing."
"It is more than just depressing," Leif, King of Deltora, said grimly. He kept one hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes scanning the dense, shifting shadows. "Look at the canopy. Even the crow has been spooked since we entered the woods. It hasn’t made a sound for miles."
Akira walked a few paces ahead, his silent presence a sharp contrast to the heavy brooding of his companions. Suddenly, he stopped. His hand shot out, signaling the others to halt.
"What is it, Akira?" Leif asked, his regal posture tensing.
Akira didn't answer with words. Instead, he pointed to a low-hanging branch directly in their path. Impaled on a jagged twig was a piece of thick, weathered parchment, sealed with a dollop of cracked black wax.
"Hey, look at that," Sora whispered, stepping forward to carefully untangle it. "It's a letter."
Genji leaned over Sora's shoulder, a spark from his fingertip lighting up the dimness as Sora broke the seal and unfurled the page. The handwriting was jagged, hurried, as if written by someone whose hands were shaking.
Sora read the contents aloud, his voice echoing eerily through the quiet woods:
This mission you are about to embark is of vital importance to the Sleeping Forest—no, the entire Kingdom of Deltora.
For convenience, we shall call the target IL, the initials of its name, as in a disease deep inside the Limitless Fortress.
The silence that followed was heavy. The mention of Deltora made Leif’s grip tighten on his sword until his knuckles turned white.
"The Limitless Fortress," Genji repeated, the sparks on his hands suddenly flaring into a bright, electric blue. "That mythic labyrinth? I thought it was just a campfire story told to scare children from wandering too far into the borders."
"It exists," Akira said softly, his dark eyes fixed on the letter. "And if 'IL' is a disease festering at its heart, it means whatever is waiting for us in the depths of that fortress has the power to rot this entire kingdom from the inside out."
Leif looked back at the path they had walked, then forward into the dark, unwelcoming expanse of the forest. The invisible iron fence Sora had spoken of felt closer now, pressing in on them from all sides.
"Then we don't have time to waste staring at the sky," Leif declared, his voice carrying the absolute authority of a king. "Whatever this disease is, we cure it or we burn it out. Move out
Soundbites from Air Gear, Deltora Quest, Get Backers, Pokemon, Shadow Skill, Desert Punk & Ninja Scroll With Samples from Tom Petty, Grinz Beats, Avenge Sevenfold, Kiss, Offical Tone,
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