Do Not Touch the Juhon Stone

The journey had devolved into a strange and stilted dance of words and silence. The landscape around them had finally shed the diseased texture of the Thorn Pits, giving way to a more honest, more primal wilderness. Towering pines clawed at the sky, and a thick carpet of moss on the forest floor seemed to swallow the sound of their footsteps. For the better part of half an hour, Nicolas had been turning their plan over in his mind, trying to fit it into a logical framework, only to feel his reason splinter against the same impossible wall each time.

“Let me just make sure I’ve understood this correctly,” he finally said, his voice hoarse with a cocktail of exhaustion and profound disbelief. “The only way for us to get into Gein’s fortress—a fortress no one can even find—is to enter the… stomach… of a giant, moving golem? You have to be joking.”

Walking ahead, Katrina offered only a slight nod in confirmation, not even bothering to glance back over her shoulder. The simple gesture was a testament to how utterly ordinary this brand of madness had become for her. “The enemy’s fortress doesn’t exist on any map in this world,” she added, her tone flat. “It’s a living anomaly, constantly being relocated by the system. And the only stable point of entry…”

“Is through the portal in its gut,” Suge interjected, his voice as calm and unshakeable as bedrock. He turned to Nicolas, his eyes glowing with the faint light of system code, as if he were parsing every variable of the insane plan. “Once we’re inside, we’ll use Katrina’s power. That will allow us to infiltrate the main hall without alerting the castle’s defenses. But there’s a critical rule.” His gaze sharpened with gravity. “Try to avoid touching the Juhon stones affixed to the golem’s body. They’re docile giants, for the most part, but those stones are akin to their nerve endings. If you touch one, it will register you as a threat and attack.”

Nicolas swallowed, the lump in his throat feeling like a stone. The plan wasn't getting better; it was spiraling deeper into impossibility. As if reading his thoughts, Suge added the final, chilling caveat. “And most importantly,” he said, his voice laced with a stark warning, “whatever you do, do not inflict any permanent damage. If you truly hurt it, the portal inside could close completely. Forever.”

Just as the weight of his words settled, Suge paused, raising a hand to point ahead. They had crested a hill and were now looking down into the valley that stretched before them. At first, Nicolas couldn’t process what he was seeing. Then, his mind accepted the truth. It was a piece of the mountain, and it was walking. A colossal, humanoid silhouette, seemingly composed of ancient, moss-covered rock, was moving with ponderous steps through the valley. Each footfall sent a faint tremor through the earth, and the grinding shriek of stone on stone was audible for miles. Rusted chains, as thick as ship anchor lines, were wrapped around its neck and limbs, slowing its movements further and dragging against the ground with a sorrowful, metallic groan at every step. This was not a creature; it was a monument that had torn itself free from the bedrock of time and decided to walk.

The trio descended the slope in silence, slipping down the embankment to intercept the colossus’s path. The plan was deceptively simple: Suge would use a tremor, just light enough not to be perceived as an attack, to momentarily unbalance the golem, giving them a window to begin their ascent up its leg. Suge pressed his palms flat against the earth. A ripple of Kuvarsoya energy spread like a wave through the soil. The walking giant faltered for a second, one of its monolithic steps hesitating for a few precious seconds.

“Now!” Suge whispered.

Katrina was the first to move. With feline agility, she found holds in the rock-like hide, flowing upward with astonishing speed. Suge followed close behind. When it was Nicolas’s turn, he hesitated. The slick, moss-covered surface was not designed for climbing. He took a deep breath and grabbed the first outcropping. The golem’s leg was like the wall of a building, but a wall that was in constant, swaying motion.

“Hurry up, journalist!” Katrina called from above. “This isn’t a picnic!”

“I’m aware!” Nicolas grunted back through clenched teeth, his muscles already beginning to burn.

After climbing for thirty feet, they reached the point where one of the immense chains was anchored to the leg. A massive, rusted shackle blocked their path. “We go around,” Suge said calmly. “Do not put your weight on the chain. It could break.”

As they carefully navigated around the shackle, Nicolas asked between ragged breaths, “Has… has anyone ever… tried this madness before?”

Suge found his next handhold before answering, his voice shadowed with the pain of memory. “They have. It’s how we learned what the Juhon stones were. And it’s also how we learned that the portal can close permanently.” The short, stark reply painted a grim picture of the price of failure.

The climb continued. As they neared the region of the golem’s kneecap, a minor aftershock from Suge’s initial tremor caused a large patch of moss to peel away from the surface directly beneath Nicolas’s foot. His balance vanished, and for a heart-stopping moment, his body swung out into the open air. He choked back a cry, his fingers scrambling desperately for purchase. In his panic, his flailing hand slapped against a surface that was smooth and unnaturally cold to the touch.

It wasn't rock. It was an oval stone, etched with complex runes, pulsing with a faint, blue light. A Juhon stone.

The instant he made contact, every sound in the valley ceased. The rhythmic thud of the golem’s steps stopped. The clatter of its chains fell silent. A deadly, absolute quiet descended. Then, from deep within the golem’s stone body, a low, vibratory hum began to rise—the sound of a being awakened from a thousand-year slumber. The hum radiated out from the stone Nicolas had touched, spreading through the golem’s body like a shockwave. The stone’s pale blue light flared violently for a second, and then winked out completely.

The golem, which had not moved its head until that moment, slowly began to lower its colossal face with a grating sound of shifting rock. In the center of that featureless slab of stone, two points of incandescent red light ignited. Its eyes had locked onto the three tiny parasites clinging to its leg.

The giant raised its hand—a slab of rock the size of a cottage roof—and began to bring it toward them. As its shadow fell over them like an eclipse, Suge’s voice, raw with panic and desperation, echoed across the valley:

“Whatever you do, don’t hurt it! Or the portal might close forever!”