I woke up with the same feeling as the previous night.
It wasn't fear. Nor anxiety. It was certainty.
Certainty that we were very close.
I got up before everyone else and stood for a few seconds observing the forest ahead of me. The air was still. Heavy. As if even nature itself was avoiding making any sound.
Elara woke shortly after. "You felt it too?"
I nodded. "Today this trail ends."
Liriel opened her eyes in silence, as if she had known that even before falling asleep. Vespera stood up without saying anything. Rai'kanna and Lyannis exchanged a brief look between them.
No one asked anything.
We ate something quick and started walking.
It didn't take long for us to realize that the terrain ahead was different. The vegetation was becoming lower. The trees more spaced out. The ground increasingly marked.
Then the forest simply ended.
We stopped at the edge.
In front of us there was a vast area completely open. It wasn't a natural field. It was a space that had been forced into existence.
The ground was destroyed.
Trees torn out from the roots and thrown far away. Large stones broken as if they were fragile. The earth churned up in hundreds of different spots.
But what drew the most attention wasn't the destruction.
It was the emptiness.
No monsters.
No sound.
No movement.
Elara spoke quietly. "This isn't normal."
"Nothing here is," I replied.
We took a few careful steps forward. Each mark on the ground showed the same pattern. Hundreds. Maybe thousands of creatures had passed through there.
And stayed.
For a long time.
Liriel walked slowly, analyzing the surroundings. "They waited here."
"Like a stationary army," Vespera said.
Rai'kanna observed the deeper marks in the soil. "And then they all left at the same time."
Lyannis looked to the other side of the field. "In different directions."
I began to understand what that meant.
"This was the central point," I said.
They all looked at me.
"He gathered everyone here. All the hordes. Then divided them and sent them to attack different villages at the same time."
The silence confirmed they had reached the same conclusion.
We moved forward a few more meters. The field seemed endless. The farther we walked, the more signs of concentration appeared.
It was as if that place had been chosen with precision.
Elara stopped suddenly. "Here."
I approached. The ground at that spot was different. There was a circular area where the earth seemed to have been compressed in an unnatural way.
Liriel crouched and slowly ran her hand over the surface. "He stood here."
No one needed to ask who.
I felt it too.
A residual presence. An energy that didn't come from the monsters.
It came from something far stronger.
Vespera looked around with heightened attention. "He stood here, observing."
"Controlling," Rai'kanna added.
Lyannis took a deep breath. "This was calmly planned."
I spent a few seconds staring at that mark on the ground.
He didn't just send the monsters.
He came here.
Organized.
Observed.
And then unleashed everything.
I stood up and looked around once more. The entire field was a silent testimony that this had never been chaos.
It had always been control.
We kept walking. The wind began to pass slowly over the open field, lifting light dust.
And even with the gigantic space, the feeling of being watched didn't fade.
It grew.
Because now I was certain.
He knew exactly where we were coming from.
And he knew exactly that we would arrive there.
"This isn't just a trail," I said.
Elara looked at me. "Then what is it?"
"It's an invitation."
No one disagreed.
We reached almost the center of the field. From there, we could see the forest on the other side, intact, far too silent.
Liriel narrowed her eyes slightly. "I feel something coming from that direction."
Vespera adjusted her stance. "He's there."
Rai'kanna gripped her weapon firmly. "Waiting."
Lyannis took a step forward. "He wants us to cross."
I took a deep breath.
Everything made sense now.
The attacks on the villages.
The scattered hordes.
The sudden silence.
The trail we had been following without realizing it.
Nothing was random.
We were being brought exactly to this point.
I looked at my companions. They were all tense, but steady.
Elara ready for any movement.
Liriel focused, attentive to any change in the environment.
Vespera ready to react.
Rai'kanna and Lyannis aligned at my side.
No one spoke for a few seconds.
The empty field seemed more threatening than any battle we had faced so far.
Because there were no visible enemies there.
Only the certainty that the real one was close.
We began crossing the rest of the field toward the forest on the other side.
Each step felt heavy.
The sound of our boots on the dry earth echoed more than it should have.
When we finally reached the edge of the forest, I stopped for a moment before entering.
I looked back.
At the entire empty field.
And I understood something that ran through me like a silent warning.
That wasn't the end of the trail.
It was the final point of preparation.
I turned forward again.
The forest ahead of us was far too quiet.
As if it were waiting.
I took the first step inside it.
And I was absolutely certain of one thing.
The next time we found movement…
It wouldn't be monsters.