Five people. Ten eyes. Silence stretched tight between them like wire pulled to its limit.
Ethan’s thoughts were spinning, trying to reconcile what he was seeing with everything he knew about this place. The three n facing him looked no steadier. Their grips were firm on their weapons, but confusion flickered plainly across their faces.
"Who are you...?"
They spoke at almost the sa ti, each side finding the other’s existence here equally absurd.
Up close, it was obvious the three n were nervous rather than aggressive. Their eyes darted between Ethan and Blackie, searching for weapons that were not there. After a mont, perhaps reassured by the lack of visible threat, they gradually lowered their submachine guns, though they did not quite relax.
"Are you from the US?" one of them asked, catching Ethan’s accent.
"Aren’t you?" Ethan replied evenly. It was answer enough.
The flap of the tent behind them rustled, and a woman stepped out.
She was Asianl, dressed in practical expedition gear layered for cold climates, though here, in the Vale’s humid warmth, it looked slightly out of place. Her expression was sharp, intelligent, and strained from too many days without proper rest.
Ethan’s mind began assembling the pieces. The equipnt. The layout of the camp. The way supplies were stacked and cataloged. This was no rogue militia or lost hikers. It was a professional operation.
An expedition team.
The three ard n leaned toward her, speaking quickly under their breath. Ethan caught one word repeated with deference.
"Doctor."
She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, perhaps a little older, though responsibility had etched faint lines of tension at the corners of her eyes. She stepped forward to face Ethan and Blackie directly.
"How did you get here?" she asked, her tone controlled but edged with suspicion.
It was a fair question. They had no packs, no climbing harnesses, no oxygen tanks, no visible provisions. In a place like this, that alone was alarming.
Before Ethan could craft a asured reply, Blackie stepped forward in a blur.
"Who cares how we got here?" he snapped. "Point those toys sowhere else before I lose my patience."
He moved so fast that even Ethan felt the air shift.
The three n did not have ti to react. One instant their fingers were looped through triggers, the next their weapons were gone. Blackie crushed all three submachine guns together in one hand as if they were plastic props and shoved the n aside with a flick of his wrist that sent them stumbling.
His other hand shot toward the young woman’s throat, fingers curved like claws.
"Blackie, don’t hurt them!"
Ethan’s voice cut through the clearing.
At the sa ti, the woman moved.
Her body seed to ripple, as though her outline had been disturbed by a passing current of air. She slid backward two ters in a smooth, almost liquid motion, Blackie’s grasp slicing through empty space where she had just stood.
Blackie’s eyes narrowed, ready to strike again.
Ethan’s command halted him.
Ethan studied the woman closely now, reassessing. "You’re a Mutant."
She t his gaze, fear and defiance tangled together in her expression. Blackie’s first strike had not been a warning. It had been lethal. If his fingers had closed around her throat, she would already be dead. She had evaded by the narrowest margin, and she knew it.
"Who exactly are you?" she demanded, retreating another cautious half-step. "What are you doing here? This entire region is a restricted zone."
"Relax," Ethan said calmly, stepping past Blackie and positioning himself between them. "You can tell we’re not ordinary. We’re here for sothing specific. That’s all."
He extended his hand. "Ethan Caelum. This is Rhys. You can call him Blackie."
She hesitated, then took his hand. Her grip was firm despite the tension in her shoulders.
"Dr. Serena Chen," she said. "Polar Expedition Team 901."
As expected.
Ethan released her hand and took in the scene once more. The three n were civilians, that much was clear. Their posture gave it away, along with the sloppy way their weapon straps hung unsecured. Blackie had disard them because they did not know how to hold onto what they carried. Serena, on the other hand, possessed a flicker of energy beneath her skin. A low-tier Mutant, but genuine.
Judging by the stunned looks on the n’s faces, they had not known that about her.
"You should turn back," Ethan said after a mont. "Don’t go any deeper. It won’t end well."
Serena’s expression dimd. "We’re not going in any further. Not yet. We’re waiting three more days. If the advance teams don’t return by then, we’ll..." Her voice faltered.
"There are others?" Ethan’s gaze sharpened. "They already went deeper?"
"Yes. A week ago." She exhaled slowly. "In three days, our remaining supplies will only be enough for the return trip to the Great Wall Observatory."
As she spoke, she glanced at her wristwatch out of habit.
The motion brought her closer.
Before she could lower her arm, Ethan’s hand snapped out and seized her wrist, pulling her forward just enough to throw her off balance.
"You—!" she gasped, energy flaring instinctively.
He was not attacking.
His eyes were fixed on the small digital display glowing against her skin.
"Is your watch broken?" he asked quietly.
"What?" She stared at him, bewildered. "No."
She glanced down to check.
"April 18th, 2016. 8:29 p.m., Ashwick ti." She looked up at the others. "Right?"
The three n fumbled for their own devices and confird it. Sa date. Sa ti.
Ethan slowly looked at his own.
April 18th, 2026. 8:29 p.m.
The minutes and seconds aligned perfectly. The year did not.
A ten-year discrepancy.
His expression darkened, the implications spiraling outward in his mind. This was not simple clock failure. The synchronization of minutes and seconds suggested sothing far stranger. A temporal distortion. A layered reality. Or perhaps the Vale existed in a fold where ti did not flow as it should.
Serena noticed the shift in his face. "Is sothing wrong?"
Ethan released her wrist.
"It’s nothing," he said, though his tone carried weight.
He asked several more questions, this ti with greater urgency. The number of missing personnel. Their equipnt. The route they had taken. Serena described it in detail, pointing toward a direction that made Ethan’s pulse tighten.
It was the sa path marked on the bone plaque. The sa red-circled region the Cloudfang elder had once crossed.
When he turned to leave, Serena called after him.
"If you see them," she said, voice trembling despite her effort to remain composed, "tell them to co back. Please. And if you find..." She swallowed. "If you find their remains, bury them. Let them return to the earth."
It was an old custom, older than nations. The dead should not lie exposed.
Ethan inclined his head. "I will."
It was not an unreasonable request. Digging a grave required little effort from him.
Though inwardly, he doubted he would find survivors.
The Vale had been described as a place where even seasoned Energy users tread carefully. Ordinary humans with conventional firearms had little chance.
According to the bone plaque, Serena’s camp rested within a relatively stable zone. But ahead lay the territory once traversed by the Cloudfang elder. And that was precisely where the expedition team had gone.
Ethan considered skirting the red-marked region.
He dismissed the thought almost imdiately.
He did not know how wide the danger zone extended. Attempting to bypass it blindly could waste hours, even days. More importantly, the persistent pull within him, the strange summons that had guided him here in the first place, emanated from that direction.
Ti pressed against him like a closing fist.
He had already lost over a year in what felt like a blink. The knowledge left him with a restless urgency he could not quite suppress.
Without another word, he surged forward into the dense, otherworldly rainforest. His speed tore through undergrowth that would have slowed ordinary travelers to a crawl. Blackie followed effortlessly, keeping pace at his shoulder.
They moved swiftly, the air growing heavier, the light subtly shifting in tone.
Then, without warning, Ethan stopped so abruptly that the earth tore beneath his boots.
The world ahead had changed.
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