Chapter 115: A Flame the Dark

Magnus understood what she meant—this whole situation felt off. For a few seconds, they both sat in silence, their thoughts racing over what they should do next. Eventually, Magnus suggested they head down the far-right path.

"Even if the map's wrong or new paths suddenly appeared, it shouldn't change the fact that there's still a river east of here." They would follow the path that seemed to lead them closest to the river, set up camp, and then figure out the rest from there. Seraline nodded, as they also decided to continue the rest of the way on foot. The horses were exhausted, and with them carrying all their gear, pushing them any further by riding them during this would do more harm than good. They wouldn't have to walk too far before hearing the sound of running water, anyway.

So, they walked. They didn't really keep track of how long, but as they pressed on, the sky started to dim before they even realized it. Neither of them noticed at first until the fading light turned the sky into a deep orange, the final rays barely piercing through the trees around them. But the strangest part of all of this was that they still hadn't heard the faintest sound of water. The river should've been loud, especially one as big as the one they were going towards. Even with all the trees, they should've been able to hear it from kilometers away, particularly Seraline, whose Adept-level senses were well over ten times sharper than they were when she was at the Apprentice-level.

"This doesn't make sense... Let me see the map again," Seraline said, her voice tight with confusion. Magnus nodded, quickly reaching into one of the horse's saddlebags and handing it over. The moment she opened it, he saw her eyes widen, her face darkening in disbelief.

"What..." she muttered, staring at the map as if it were something completely unfamiliar to her.

"What is it?" Magnus asked, tension creeping into his voice. It took her a moment to respond, as if she couldn't pull herself away from what she was seeing. Then she slowly turned it toward him.

The map had changed.

Just earlier, it showed the entire region—clear paths, landmarks, the river. But now... it displayed only three things: their position, the path they were on, and an endless sea of green. No mountains, no hills. Everything had vanished. It was as if the forest had swallowed the entire world. Even the river they were aiming for was gone.

"That can't be right." Magnus frowned, flipping the map closed and then back open, as if turning the runes that powered it off and on would fix the problem. But every time, it was the same—just trees, as far as the map could show.

Trees, everywhere.

Narrowing his eyes, Magnus handed the map back to Seraline.

"Stay here for a second," he muttered, his tone steady but tense.

Seraline watched as he turned, backtracking a few steps while scanning the area. She was about to ask what he was doing when, without warning, Magnus bent low—and then jumped. The sudden force sent a shockwave rippling down the path, dust swirling as the ground cracked beneath him. Within moments, he had shot over fifty meters into the air, clearing the treetops effortlessly. Mid-air, he activated [Self Body Puppetry], his feet shifting repeatedly, allowing him to float.

"Alright, let's see..." His voice trailed off, confusion creeping into his expression.

Ok... Now I'm really confused. What the actual hell is going on?

Though the night was quickly overtaking the sky, the faint traces of sunlight gave him just enough to see. From where he was floating, the forest stretched endlessly in every direction, a vast ocean of treetops with no breaks, no hills, no clearings—just an unbroken sea of green. The only thing that wasn't trees was the path he and Seraline had been walking on. And even that seemed to twist and wind forever, without a sign of where it had branched from the road they had taken out of Arlcliff City.

From the ground, Seraline watched him descend, her eyes never leaving him as he landed soundlessly.

We're surrounded by forest," Magnus said quietly.

"I can't even see where we came from or where the path had split off." Seraline's brows furrowed, a heavy silence falling between them as she processed his words.

The Verdant Woods isn't a magical place, not that I remember, even if it is one of the largest forests on the continent. So how did everything suddenly change like this? And how did neither of us notice it?

No matter how hard she tried to make sense of it, nothing clicked. She'd never encountered anything remotely like this—neither in person nor during her training.

"We need to backtrack. Someone—or something—is trying to get us lost in these woods," Seraline said, her voice low and guarded. Before, she had simply been cautious. But now, her senses were heightened to their absolute limit, her aura flaring, despite not being manifested just yet.

"Agreed," Magnus replied as they quickly began retracing their steps. Magnus switched to relying on his mental map, knowing the magical artifice they had brought with them was no longer trustworthy. And thanks to that, after just a few minutes of walking, he immediately sensed something else was wrong.

"This isn't right," Magnus muttered, suddenly stopping as he glanced down at the path. Seraline turned, a questioning look on her face.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I memorized our route here, and it didn't have any sharp turns. So why are we suddenly heading left?" Magnus's expression had turned grim, and Seraline paused, the realization dawning on her. She glanced back and saw it—somewhere along the way, they had veered left. It wasn't a slow curve; it was a sharp turn. She didn't have a perfect memory like Magnus, but now that he had brought it to her attention, she was certain—they hadn't taken any major turns after they branched off the main path.

By now, night had fully settled in, the only form of illumination coming from the moon and stars above.

Fuck me... this is starting to feel like some blair witch shit! I mean first the forest, and now the path?

[Master, I've noticed something else.]

Huh? What is it?

"Maybe we should just set up camp and wait until morning," Seraline suggested.

"If we keep wandering in the dark, we're only going to get more lost." But Magnus shook his head at her suggestion.

"I don't think that's going to help," he stated, his voice low—lower than usual, even when distorted by his mask. He pointed up toward the sky, or rather, the moon. Following his gesture, Seraline's eyes widen in bewilderment. She saw that the moon was hanging high; in fact, it was directly above them.

"When we reached those branching paths, it was getting late. But we should've still had a couple of hours of daylight left. But within less than an hour, not only has the sunset, but the moon is already at its peak." It wasn't something most people would notice if they were too busy getting distracted by the constantly shifting forest and paths. Even Magnus had been thrown off by it. But Basker picked up on the strange flow of time. And it was all thanks to the fact Magnus had told him a few days ago to set up a mental clock in his mindscape. Just like Magnus's mental map, it was perfectly accurate—ticking away the seconds in his mind, independent of anything but his own sense of time.

"Now, the moon has completely stopped, and so have the stars," Magnus added, his hand lowering as he exhaled a heavy sigh. Whatever was happening had them completely trapped. First, it had subtly thrown off their sense of direction, and now it had stolen their sense of time. This wasn't just an attempt to confuse them. No, it was setting the stage. Both Magnus and Seraline were smart enough to understand what was happening. These were the perfect conditions for a predator.

They were being hunted.

Without another word, Seraline extended her hand, and the ruby-colored ring on her finger flashed. In an instant, a spear nearly twice her height materialized, the same one she'd used in her match against Velis. On alert, she and Magnus moved in sync, slowly backing up until they were close enough to cover each other's blind spots. Their eyes swept over the forest, scanning for any sign of movement. That's when Seraline pointed out something unsettling.

"The sounds of the forest are gone." Her voice was low, but it carried an undeniable edge. With her senses heightened, she had noticed it first. Aside from their own rapid heartbeats and shallow breaths, there was nothing—except the panicked whimpers of their horses. Even they could tell something was wrong. If it weren't for their intense training, they would've bolted long ago. All the usual nighttime noises—the rustling of leaves, the chirping of insects, the subtle movements of nocturnal creatures—had vanished completely.

Then Magnus heard it: the faint, ominous hum creeping in. It was a theme unlike anything he'd ever heard—a low, continuous drone, like a distant horn or the far-off roar of some unknown beast. The sound slithered under his skin, making the hairs on his arms rise as a cold dread spread through his chest. That's when he noticed the shadow stretching across the ground in front of them. The moonlight, which had been illuminating their path, was dimming. Looking up, he saw dark clouds, not natural by any stretch, rolling in from all directions, moving far too quickly.

If the moon had been a spotlight on him and Seraline, the clouds were now smothering that light.

What the hell is this thing!? The Command Console hasn't reported anything, so it's not a glitch. This has to be magic. It's messing with the forest, the path, the fucking time, the sounds, and now the weather?

"It's coming," Seraline muttered, her voice tight. The last slivers of moonlight flickered as the clouds swallowed the night sky whole.

And then, darkness.

Absolute.

Suffocating.

Sight was useless now. And with it, the haunting music Magnus had been hearing stopped—except for a ticking noise, like the second hand of a clock.

And after the fourth tick, a scream tore through the silence.

"Seraline, it's coming your way!" Magnus shouted, his head snapping toward the sound of the music behind him. Seraline didn't sense a thing. No sound, no movement, and even her sixth sense as a knight, which was capable of detecting things like mana fluctuations and intent—were silent. But she trusted Magnus's warning all the same; she tightened her grip on the lower end of her spear and swung it in a wide arc before her. Mid-swing, she felt it—a solid, heavy force slammed into her spear. There was no sound, but the impact was so intense that even with her Adept-level strength, she couldn't push back.

It forced her to dodge, with Magnus doing the same. Whatever it was rushed past them, leaving the air bulging and rushing in its wake, a clear indication of how fast the thing had lunged at them both.

Rolling to his feet, Magnus quickly condensed mana into a sphere of flames in his palm. He aimed in the direction the creature had passed and let the fire loose. The flames surged forward, lighting up their dark world for a brief moment, roaring as they scorched everything in their path, even the ground. But Magnus didn't feel like he had made contact with whatever he was aiming for. The thing had already slipped back into the forest before the flames could reach it.

As the flames Magnus had created faded away and the darkness began to close in again, he clicked his tongue before generating more. Eight balls of condensed flames appeared in a circular formation in the air just below where Seraline and Magnus were standing. They were the brightest flames Magnus could generate around them without the heat becoming more of a detriment. They lit up the path the two of them were standing on in their golden hue; however, they weren't enough to pierce very deep into the dark forest.

"We need to be careful," Magnus muttered.

"Whatever this thing is, it doesn't make a sound when it attacks. The only way we'll fight it is through sight." Seraline nodded, taking in his every word.

"Alright." Just as she spoke, Magnus noticed something slick at his feet, reflecting the light from the flames.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath.

"What is it?" Seraline asked her eyes and senses so fixed on the edge of the forest, that she was unaware of the pool of blood soaking the ground at their feet. She probably didn't even notice that a curse had slipped from the lips of 'Cain'.

"It got the horses," Magnus said grimly. They had dodged the attack, but their horses hadn't been so lucky. Whatever the creature was, even after missing them, it had taken the animals instead. There was no trace of them left—just a trail of scorched blood leading into the forest. That meant all of their supplies were gone, but considering the situation, neither Seraline nor Magnus could spare a moment to dwell on it.

The music had started again, more haunting than before, echoing through the air in an eerie collage of sounds. It grew louder and louder, building to a crescendo, signaling the creature's next attack.

As terrifying as this thing is, it's not hard to figure out its attack rhythm...The problem is, it's so fast and completely silent. Even if you know where it's coming from, not being able to rely on your own senses messes with you.

No sooner had he formed the thought when everything fell silent once more. Then came the attack.

Magnus's eyes snapped forward as he realized from the sound's direction that it was charging straight at him. Bracing himself, he prepared to finally see what was causing all of this. But what came into view first weren't the creature itself, but its arms—or what he assumed were arms. They were impossibly long and shot from the darkness like arrows, emerging from beyond the dim light that surrounded him and Seraline. Yet, even under the light, they remained pitch black, as if they were cloaked in a shadow that could never be lifted.

Each arm split into ten grotesque, elongated fingers, sharp and jagged, clearly capable of piercing through a person's body with ease—bone and all.

Instantly, Magnus constructed two dense, multi-layered barriers to block the attack. But, the strength behind the arms was unreal. They shattered the first ten layers without resistance, only stopping at the eighteenth.

But then, something massive barreled into view.

It was enormous, the size of a bus, and like its arms, it was wrapped in a permanent, shifting shadow. Magnus couldn't make out its exact shape. It was like a living, ever-morphing amalgamation of twisted forms, entirely inconsistent.

No way in hell I'm touching that thing with my bare hands!

With that thought, Magnus conjured two gauntlet-shaped mana constructs around his fists before charging straight at it. He dropped low, aiming for what appeared to be the jaw of its massive open mouth—if it even had one. The thing's form was so chaotic it was hard to tell where its mouth began or ended. Using [Self Body Puppetry], Magnus launched an uppercut backed by the absolute force of the Command Console.

But before his fist connected, the creature bulged grotesquely and exploded—not into pieces, but into more arms. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of disjointed limbs swarmed out of its body. Magnus couldn't even comprehend how it had managed to shift its form like that so quickly.

Fortunately, Seraline had sensed the almost silent battle and rushed over to assist. As the writhing mass of arms arced through the air at nearly half the speed of sound, the two of them countered each attack in perfect synchrony. Magnus's mana-coated fists pummeled the limbs away like ragdolls, generating vibrations of mana that tore each arm apart on each impact. On the other hand, Seraline's spear, now enveloped in her fully manifested aura, which was like a living inferno, pierced and sliced through them with pinpoint precision.

As they had fended off the swarm, the dismembered arms began to slink back into the forest. Even the ones they had destroyed reassembled, merging together before disappearing into the shadowed trees.

It can regenerate? Shit... In that case, destroying it piece by piece is pointless. Damn it, I really should have had the Knockout Brick variant of Rokshaata made before we left. But... no matter. I still have another way to handle this thing, even if it can put itself back together.

Using the storage ring Luden had given him, Magnus summoned something from it, holding it in his right hand.

As long as it's a living creature... it doesn't matter what it is. This move is a guaranteed, instant kill.