Night had fully settled over the eastern forests of Nalim by the ti Liam and Charlotte finally resud moving.
The outcrop and temporary shelter were long behind them now.
Smoke moved ahead through the darkness with silent precision while Liam and Charlotte followed several ters behind beneath the dense canopy. Moonlight barely pierced through the thick branches above, leaving most of the forest drowned beneath layers of shadow and pale silver darkness.
For Liam, the lack of visibility changed nothing.
For Charlotte, it changed even less.
The beast mage moved through the forest with disturbing ease despite now being fully back in her human form. Even without her beast-dominant transformation active, her movents still carried traces of unnatural fluidity. Her footsteps barely made noise against the forest floor, and several tis Liam noticed her adjusting direction monts before obstacles or uneven terrain appeared ahead.
Her senses remained sharp.
Sharpened enough that Smoke occasionally glanced back at her now with less hostility than before.
It was definitely not trust, but rather acknowledgnt.
Which, for Smoke, already ant a lot.
The forest around them had also changed noticeably the farther east they traveled.
The silence carried weight now.
Not the temporary quietness Liam experienced after annihilating the Gravecoils back in the swamp.
This silence felt older.
It felt natural, and very predatory.
Even the insects seed quieter here.
The occasional chirping of crickets had beco rare, and the distant sounds of wildlife were almost nonexistent. The only consistent noise ca from shifting leaves beneath the wind and the faint crunch of dirt beneath careful footsteps.
Charlotte noticed it too.
"This place really knows how to ruin moods," she muttered quietly while stepping over a thick exposed root.
Liam’s gaze remained forward.
"You’re still here."
"Unfortunately."
Charlotte sighed dramatically.
"I keep missing that sweet warm cave."
"You barely stayed there half a night."
"And it was beautiful."
Liam ignored that.
Ahead of them, Smoke suddenly slowed slightly while his ears twitched toward the left side of the forest.
Imdiately, Liam’s eyes narrowed.
"What is it?" Charlotte asked softly.
Liam linked briefly with Smoke’s senses.
The shadow wolf had picked up movent.
Several of them.
Roughly seventy ters away through the trees at a fast pace.
Liam’s expression remained calm.
"Horror-class demons."
Charlotte exhaled quietly.
"See? This is exactly what I an. Every ten minutes it’s always sothing."
Smoke growled softly beneath his breath.
The sounds grew closer as branches shifted sowhere ahead.
Then a figure burst from the darkness between the trees.
It was tall and gaunt.
Its body resembled a twisted humanoid creature stretched unnaturally thin, with elongated arms dragging across the ground while its spine protruded visibly beneath dark gray flesh. Its face carried no eyes, only a split vertical mouth lined with jagged teeth.
And behind it, three more.
Charlotte imdiately clicked her tongue.
"Oh, these ugly things again."
The leading Horror demon lunged first.
Fast.
Far faster than most lower Horrors Liam had encountered before.
But Liam moved faster.
His dagger flashed from shadow in one clean motion, and the creature’s head separated instantly.
The body collapsed before montum even fully stopped.
At the sa mont, Charlotte vanished sideways into darkness with sudden animalistic speed.
One of the remaining Horrors barely reacted before Charlotte appeared beside it and drove clawed fingers directly through its throat. Blood sprayed across nearby roots as she twisted violently and tore the creature sideways into a tree trunk hard enough to crack bark.
The third demon charged Smoke.
The shadow wolf t it head-on.
Its jaws snapped shut around the Horror’s upper torso while Smoke’s montum carried both of them across the forest floor. The crunch of bones echoed sharply before Smoke violently shook the demon once and tossed the corpse aside like discarded prey.
The last Horror stopped abruptly as instincts finally caught up.
It realized too late what it had attacked as it turned, trying to flee.
But unfortunately, a blade of compressed fla pierced directly through the back of its skull.
The body dropped instantly.
Silence returned almost imdiately afterward.
Charlotte stared briefly at the corpses surrounding them.
Then she sighed.
"You know what’s annoying?"
Liam wiped dark blood from one dagger before dismissing it.
"What?"
"The fact that fighting beside you feels unfairly easy."
"You’re complaining?"
"No," Charlotte replied quickly. "I’m appreciating it."
She stepped toward the nearest corpse and nudged it lightly with her foot.
"But seriously... these things are stronger than the Horrors I dealt with farther west."
Liam crouched briefly near one of the corpses.
She was right.
The demon’s muscles were denser and the claws sharper.
Even the Myst lingering within the body felt more concentrated than normal Horror-class demons.
Like prolonged exposure to sothing stronger had gradually altered them.
Liam’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Charlotte noticed imdiately.
"There’s that look again."
"What look?"
"The one that says your curiosity is becoming a problem."
Liam ignored her.
Instead, he examined the corpse more carefully.
Then he noticed it.
Near the creature’s chest, there was a partially regenerating wound.
The flesh around it looked torn inward.
Like sothing had punctured directly through the core area once before.
Charlotte saw it too.
"...That’s the sa kind of injury," she muttered quietly.
Liam said nothing imdiately.
But both of them understood the implication.
The farther east they traveled, the more evidence they were finding.
Smoke suddenly lifted his head again as he heard another sound.
But it was distant this ti, and it wasn’t movent.
Rather, a roar.
A low, deep roar.
The sound traveled through the forest like distant thunder.
Charlotte imdiately stiffened.
"That direction," she said quietly.
Liam’s gaze shifted eastward.
The roar echoed again, but fainter this ti around.
Charlotte folded her arms slowly.
"Yeah... I really hate that sound."
Liam remained quiet.
Not because the roar intimidated him, but because he was thinking.
The sound lacked the strange intelligence carried by most Sync-class demons.
There was rage within it, but beneath that, there was sothing disturbingly deliberate.
Charlotte looked toward him carefully.
"You’re thinking about going toward it imdiately, aren’t you?"
"No."
Charlotte visibly relaxed slightly.
"Good."
Liam stood fully.
"Not imdiately."
Charlotte stared at him blankly.
Then she groaned loudly.
"Stars above, you really are insane."
Liam began walking again and Smoke followed instantly.
Charlotte remained standing there for two seconds before quickly catching up.
"You know," she muttered, "most people would hear that sound and decide to move in the opposite direction."
"That’s probably why most people survive longer."
Charlotte pointed accusingly at him.
"Exactly."
The deeper east they traveled, the worse the forest beca.
Not physically.
The terrain itself remained mostly the sa, dense trees, exposed roots, uneven hills, and occasional streams cutting through the wilderness.
But the atmosphere continued changing.
The Myst in the air felt heavier now.
Distorted.
Even Charlotte’s expression gradually lost more of its playful ease as ti passed.
At one point, they crossed through a section of forest where every tree within nearly fifty ters had deep claw marks carved into the bark.
Massive claw marks which were far too large for ordinary Horror demons.
And lower near the roots, there was blood.
Old and dried.
Smoke growled quietly while passing through the area.
Liam studied the damage carefully.
So trees had been torn apart entirely while others looked smashed inward from sheer force.
Charlotte moved closer beside him now.
"I passed through here before."
Liam glanced at her.
"You didn’t ntion this."
"Because I was busy running."
She looked around uneasily.
"And because I didn’t stop long enough to appreciate the scenery."
Liam crouched near one of the broken trunks.
The damage looked brutal.
Uncontrolled, but not mindless.
Then suddenly, Smoke halted completely.
Every muscle in the shadow wolf’s body tightened.
And Liam reacted instantly.
Charlotte did too.
The forest had changed again, as the silence vanished. But it wasn’t because sothing attacked.
Rather, everything around them had suddenly beco alive with noise.
Leaves shifted overhead, branches cracked distantly, and the sounds of movent echoed through multiple directions simultaneously.
Fast movent.
Charlotte’s golden eyes narrowed sharply.
"...We’re surrounded."
Liam rose slowly.
"No," he corrected calmly.
Charlotte looked toward him.
"We’re being watched."
That was worse, much worse.
The forest around them carried movent now, yet nothing approached directly.
Instead, things circled them.
Fast enough that even Charlotte struggled tracking them consistently.
Smoke growled louder now while his glowing eyes darted between the trees.
Liam’s gaze sharpened, then eventually, he saw one.
A shape moving across a branch high above.
It looked humanoid. Lean and fast.
As soon as he saw it, the creature was gone instantly.
Charlotte stepped closer now without realizing it.
"Tell that’s not what I think it is."
Liam remained silent as another figure appeared briefly farther away.
Then another.
Charlotte’s voice lowered.
"...Those aren’t ordinary Horrors."
"No," Liam replied quietly.
The figures eventually stopped moving. For one brief mont, everything beca still again.
Then a pair of glowing dark red eyes opened within the darkness ahead.
Charlotte froze slightly.
The eyes vanished instantly afterward.
But both of them had seen them clearly.
Not yellow or white, but dark red.
The sa unnatural crimson glow described within the old Berserker records Liam had read.
Smoke lowered himself aggressively now.
Charlotte’s voice ca quieter this ti.
"...Liam."
Liam’s gaze remained fixed forward.
"I know."
The forest around them shifted again.
Then a roar exploded through the trees ahead.
Closer this ti.
Much closer.
The sound shook branches violently overhead.
And for the first ti since entering Nalim, Liam smiled slightly.
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