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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 271 271: Mission BriefTimeless AssassinC271 271: Mission Brief

(Twin Fang Planet, The Departure Bay)

Leo arrived at the hangar bay last of all team members.

The transport craft was already stationed at the center of the launch zone by the time he arrived, and it was an aircraft unlike anything he had ever seen before.

It was a gray craft with its surface plated with tiles containing runic engravings and light-absorbing paint that screamed discretion and lethality.

It was apparently a fighter type craft, that was usually used to deploy guild members into highly volatile war zones, however, was being used as a simple transport ship today.

The insignia of the Black Serpents Guild gleamed near the tail of the craft, as Leo gave it a twice over before looking towards the team.

The rest of them had already assembled near the boarding ramp.

Raiden stood near the center of the craft with his arms folded and stylish sunglasses covering his eyes.

Cipher stood to his left with a data slate in his hands, while Patricia chewing gum loaded a weapons rack onto the craft.

Karl stood nervously over a large backpack almost half his size, as he double-checked his supplies with trembling fingers, and Bob leaned casually against the aircraft, chewing his toothpick with the same blank indifference he seemed to wear for all occasions.

"You're just on time," Raiden said as he spotted Leo, as he walked over and handed him a small spatial pouch.

"Your share of the supplies. Food, rations, spare clothes, two emergency mana flares, and a backup transmitter to locate the entrance." Raiden explained, as Leo flipped it open, to briefly scan the contents, before clipping it to his utility belt with a subtle nod.

No further words were exchanged as the team made their way into the aircraft.

Once seated inside, the interior sealed shut with a hiss and the engines activated with a soft, low hum.

The craft soon lifted off the ground, rising smoothly through the vertical shaft before accelerating into the atmosphere, as the team officially found themselves en-route to the Time-Stilled World

Then—

Once a few minutes had passed, Cipher rose from his seat, holding a slim black tablet.

"Alright, listen up. We've got some intel to run through," he said, as he projected a three-dimensional map into the center of the aircraft using a mana projector embedded into the floor panel.

A vaguely sketched diagram of warped terrain, uneven landmasses, floating islands, and unsure dark regions appeared midair.

"This map was drawn by Monarch Dupravel Nuna during his last expedition into the Time-Stilled World. The guild's archivists have since worked on his crude drawing skills a bit and have turned it into something resembling a functional topographical guide."

He pointed at a central point.

"This here is our insertion zone. The terrain surrounding it is unpredictable and shifts fast, but can be considered semi-stable compared to the rest of the world, as our real problem starts from here," he said as he gestured towards a forest type region full of trees.

"The forest of death is where things start to get really spooky, as everything in there wants to kill you whether it's the plant life or the beasts….."

"We have to basically find a way to survive it, then move on to the floating islands region, then the dark pockets, then through some sort of a mountain range, and finally reach our destination, which is some sort of an ancient castle…. Or at least we hope it is?" Cipher said, sounding unsure, as he shook his head and tried to move on quickly from the uncertainty.

"The castle is where we are supposed to find a rare and indestructible metal alloy, and the goal of this entire mission is to enter that castle and retrieve that alloy—" Cipher said slowly, making sure that everyone heard the words coming out of his mouth clearly.

"According to the briefing that the guild gave me before the mission began, we are supposed to retrieve about 2 kilograms worth of that alloy, or as much as we find, and our rewards will apparently be increased if we manage to bring back more than 2 kgs," Cipher said, as Patricia whistled low at his words.

"All this trouble for a shiny little rock. If only a man went to such lengths to make me a wedding ring…. Because if he did, I might just say yes and settle down…. Even if for just a few days," She said, before giving Karl a wink, as the poor boy blushed to his ears.

"Indestructible metal means you could probably just use it to forge a sword that never dulls, right? Surely worth a fortune." Karl muttered, trying to hide his embarrassment, however, nobody responded to his words, making him feel even more embarrassed.

"The guild doesn't care what it becomes. They just want it retrieved. And so that's all we should care about as well," Raiden declared after a while, as nobody asked any more stupid questions.

What happened with the retrieved loot was a discussion better suited for their return trip, as for now, they first needed to focus on how to survive Time-Stilled world first.

—--------

Although the rest of the trip passed by in relative silence, alarm bells began to blare in Leo's head based on a small line that Cipher mentioned while showing the map.

Cipher said, that 'Dupravel himself had drawn a map of that world'

Which meant that Dupravel had been inside that world!

However, what Leo did not understand was why if Dupravel attempted this mission himself did the guild still need weaklings like him to retrieve the metal for?

Afterall, if Dupravel had already been there then the mission should have already been completed.

And if not, then how could the guild even expect that any other member could do it when Dupravel himself failed?

'Something about this doesn't add up… I've suddenly got a bad feeling about this mission,' Leo thought as his instincts began churning uneasily beneath his calm exterior.

However, despite the discomfort, he managed to keep his cool and somehow appear indifferent, as he knew better than to show his nerves now.

It was already too late for him to turn back and chicken out, and hence he decided to hold strong and put on his bravest face.

Even if it was just a facade.

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 272: Entering the Time Stilled WorldTimeless AssassinC272: Entering the Time Stilled World

(Aboard the Black Serpents Guild Craft, En Route to the Spatial Tear)

It had been 2 hours since they left the atmosphere of Twin Fang City, when the Captain of the aircraft finally announced that they would approach the Spatial Tear in T minus 12 minutes.

Up till this point, all that Leo observed through his window was an endless stretch of black.

As most of what he saw in this journey was the silent void between planets, that was untouched by wind, sound, or sun.

The stars barely flickered in the distance, far too faint to give warmth, and the team sat within the craft rather peacefully, each seemingly lost in their own thoughts as the fighter craft cut across the cosmos at unbelievable speeds.

Then, the distortion appeared.

At first it was a speck— just a faint glint in the dark, like a far away light being emitted from a lighthouse.

But as they neared, the anomaly grew in scale, and its unnatural nature became impossible to ignore.

The spatial tear was shaped like a vertical gash in space itself, hovering between systems with no anchor, no orbit and no mass.

It appeared like an oval mirror of sorts, with reality itself folding inwards around its edges, as if the laws of the universe were bending to accommodate its presence.

A membrane of rainbow lights seemed to cover its entry and from this side, it was impossible to discern as to what may be going on the other end.

'So this is what a tear in space looks like–' Leo thought to himself, as this was completely unlike anything he ever saw in space textbooks before.

*WHIRR*

The hum of the engine intensified as the aircraft decelerated.

Inside the cabin, the runic circuits flared to life as the onboard enchantments activated. The hull groaned once, then stabilized as low vibrations began to echo from beneath everyone's seats.

"We'll breach the entry point of the Time Stilled World in thirty seconds. Everyone, check your seatbelts. This isn't a soft ride," Raiden warned, as he raised his arms to catch everyone's attention.

Listening to his words, Patricia immediately tightened her straps, while Bob adjusted his posture slightly.

Karl muttered something under his breath as he clutched the seat handle.

And Leo simply narrowed his eyes and leaned slightly forward, watching the tear grow larger through the viewing port, as the craft approached the entry point.

Then—

*CRACKKK—THWMMM*

The moment the nose of the aircraft pierced the boundary, reality shattered.

Not literally, but that's how it felt. Like every physical law had just convulsed.

Time twisted, gravity reversed, and for a single disorienting second, Leo felt as though his body had folded in on itself.

A deep, resonating pressure clamped down on his chest, like he was being buried beneath invisible weight as his mana spiraled, his heartbeat stuttered and his vision split into double frames.

'The fuck?' he wondered, almost clutching his head in pain, when suddenly, almost as fast as the disorientation appeared, it disappeared as well.

Color returned to his eyes, shapes and figures solidified, and the craft successfully managed to burst through to the other side.

They had successfully entered the Time Stilled World!

As Leo gazed out of the window, the first thing he noticed was the twilight darkness covering the sky.

It was a disturbing shade of darkness— an eerie blend of charred gray, streaked with sickly orange, faded violet, and occasional hints of red that bled across the sky like bruises on rotting flesh.

There was something about it that felt deeply unnatural, a kind of oppressive palette that made the world feel heavier just by looking at it… like even the colors themselves were tired of existing in this world.

Islands floated where land should not exist, and streaks of distorted light cut unidentified paths across the air like lightning frozen in time.

'So this is the Time-Stilled World' Leo thought, as the aircraft stabilized for only a few moments before the cabin lights turned red and the emergency eject lights began to blink.

"The captain will open the rear ejection bay now…. We have a 30 second window to jump.

Grab your parachutes and get ready—" Raiden said, as he was the first to grab his parachute and line up near the evacuation door.

"We can't stay inside this zone for more than sixty seconds. The shielding won't hold past that! Be fast—" Cipher added, as he lined up right behind Raiden.

Then, as soon as the door opened, Raiden first kicked down the supply crates, before leaping behind them as he vanished through the hatch, his silhouette dropping into the swirling haze below.

Cipher followed. Then Patricia. Then Bob and Karl.

With Leo being the last one to jump.

Gravity claimed him instantly. The wind surging past his ears as the vast, alien sky swallowed him whole.

He didn't scream. He didn't flinch. He simply watched—calmly—as the ground beneath him grew closer with every passing second.

The parachute rune embedded in his gear activated on its own, releasing with a faint pulse of blue mana. The recoil pulled hard against his harness, yanking him upright mid-air as his descent slowed drastically, the world below coming into clearer view.

Beneath him was a flat plain…. Endless and desolate.

The soil was the color of ash, not dirt, which looked soft and dry beneath a matte, faded sky.

Tufts of grass sprouted across the land, but none that Leo had ever seen before.

They were thin, sharp-edged, and a dusky gray-green, almost metallic in texture, swaying not with the wind but as if controlled by something within the Earth.

*Thud*

Leo hit the ground with a soft thud, the powdery ash kicking up around his boots in a slow, unnatural swirl.

The grass near his feet didn't flinch. It bent gently, as though acknowledging him, then returned to stillness.

Leo unhooked the harness in a single smooth motion and looked up.

The aircraft that had delivered them here was already rising through the cloudless sky, its thrusters rotating, leaving behind faint concentric ripples in the air.

Higher and higher it climbed, ascending toward the crescent seam in space that shimmered faintly above the Gray Sky.

He watched silently as it reached the tear.

The moment the aircraft crossed the boundary, it vanished without resistance, consumed by the red-violet slit in the sky, as a breath later, it was gone, leaving him and the team alone in this foreign world.

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 273: AmbushTimeless AssassinC273: Ambush

(Time Stilled World, the entry zone, precisely beneath the spatial tear)

The descent into the time-stilled world had gone as smoothly as one could hope, but the landing hit like a curse.

Karl was the first to collapse onto his knees, vomiting with a drawn-out gag that echoed through the stillness.

The ash beneath him turned slick and discolored as he puked all over it, his hands shaking as he wiped the lingering drool from his mouth.

"The air here... it tastes like rust and mildew," he complained while wiping his tears, as nobody responded to his whining.

Nobody responded, because, although they weren't vomiting themselves, none of them felt entirely alright either.

The air around them felt unusually thick.

The mana in the air wasn't moving, not like back home, as it did not circulate or drift.

The mana in this world seemed to cling onto their skin, behaving like a wet cloth that was pressed against a sticky wound, as it seemed to actively seep into their bodies and mix into their mana pools without them trying to absorb it.

Leo stood silently, eyes narrowed as he kept observing the sky even after the Jet had disappeared.

His body felt heavier than usual, but it wasn't due to the gravity of the world, but rather due to some unusual force he couldn't understand just yet.

Even breathing in this world seemed to demand more effort than it should have, as if each inhale drained twenty percent more energy than normal— yet, strangely, Leo did not even note it as a drawback.

Because when he tried to channel mana through his arm for something as simple as a flex, it dragged behind his intent by a fraction, like it had to push through a thick curtain before it could respond.

'It's harder to circulate mana here compared to back home, it's almost like mana doesn't want to move here,' he thought, as the odd sensation of moving mana in this world made him feel much more worried as compared to laboured breathing.

However, having read about the dangers of circulating mana in this world, he stopped his experiments almost as soon as he began, as he did not wish to let the taint accumulate in his body this early into the mission.

Meanwhile, Patricia muttered something about the sky making her nauseous, while Bob just reached up and tugged a strip of cloth tighter across his nose, uninterested in complaints.

At the same time, Cipher and Raiden had already begun setting up the emergency fallback, as they tracked one of the supply crates they had kicked out of the jet and began cranking its protective shelling open.

*Crack*

Raiden cracked open the supply crate with his bare hands, and inside he found wrapped within mana foam, a carefully placed transmitter rig, barely the size of a shoe when folded.

The two of them worked in practiced silence, Cipher stabilizing the base while Raiden extended the antenna, as within minutes, they assembled the mana circuit and managed to activate the signal.

"Alright, listen up," Cipher said, turning toward the group. "This beacon is attuned to a specific mana frequency. All your supply kits have a sensor that can detect it. If we get separated, lost, or overrun, follow the pulse and get back here. This zone— right under the tear— is our fallback point."

He tapped the side of the transmitter.

"And if it comes to it, shoot your red mana flare once you reach this spot. A guild retrieval ship is scheduled to make a brief hover here every ninety days. They won't land. They won't wait. But they'll do a sweep and extract anyone who signals in time."

Patricia blew a bubble and let it pop slowly.

"Charming," she said. "So either we finish the job, or we hold our breath for ninety days."

"Preferably the first option," Raiden said. "But both require not dying first."

The group shifted, checking gear, syncing the beacon's signal with their individual radars, and only once everyone was satisfied with their gear working, did they move on to the next phase.

"Come lend us a hand, we need to build a safety shelter around this antenna so that it's not accidentally destroyed by monsters or something else from this world when we are not around—" Raiden instructed, as the team members began to carry the rest of the dropped supply crates one by one towards the antenna, before ripping it open and assembling the protective shielding.

Leo and Bob held the massive metal sheets in place, while Patricia, Cipher and Raiden tightened the bolts to connect the panels.

"Am I the only one? Or does this place feel like a bad breakup to you all as well?" Patricia asked while working, as her voice sounded low and oddly sultry despite the grit in her tone.

"You know… heavy, ugly skies, air that makes you sick, and not a single man to make it worth enduring. Except you, Skyshard," she added with a wink.

"Me having many days to seduce you into having sex with me might just be the only silver lining to this trip." She said, as Leo tactfully chose not to respond.

*BLURGHHH*

Karl, who was still recovering nearby from the change in mana density, let out yet another fresh wave of vomit, as the stale smell of his stomach acid made Bob squint in anger.

"If he doesn't stop puking soon, I'll personally pull his guts out!" Bob warned, as Karl shuddered when he heard those words and immediately proceeded to cover his mouth with his hands.

"Give the kid a break Bob, he's just a master tier warrior—" Cipher said sympathetically, as Bob scoffed in disgust.

"Weakness disgusts me…" He muttered silently, as Leo smiled softly at his words, since his messaging resonated with him as well.

The assembly work proceeded smoothly, and soon it was time to affix the last roof plate, when suddenly Leo heard a faint dragging sound coming from behind him.

His hand stopped mid-motion, body going still as he turned his head toward the shallow dip along the ridge behind them.

'Something is there—' He thought, as he narrowed his eyes and scanned the terrain for any signs of threat, but only saw ashy fields and metallic looking grass.

Despite seeing nothing, his instincts told him that something was definitely off, and hence he did not look away but instead kept observing.

For a moment, he felt the urge to use [Absolute Vision] and check his surroundings for threats, however, he felt apprehensive about circulating his mana in this world, especially, when he did not have a mana stone in hand to draw pure mana from.

Hence he instead slowly raised a hand, and held out two fingers to signal to Cipher to behind him that something was wrong.

"What is it?" Cipher whispered, tone controlled but wary.

Leo didn't answer. He simply pointed, eyes never leaving the stretch of ash and ridge that had gone quiet again.

The others noticed the change in his posture and responded as well, with Raiden being the first to stand up in caution.

Patricia stopped her bolt tightening, her hand drifting near her thigh holster, and even Bob stood on guard, chewing on his stick a little slower, as his eyes shifted towards the ridge where Leo was looking.

Ten seconds passed.

Then twenty.

But nothing stirred.

"False alarm?" Cipher asked, uncertainty lacing his voice, as Leo didn't answer right away.

His eyes remained fixed on the empty horizon, every instinct in his body still on edge, as "No…" he murmured, low and certain.

"Wait for it…" he said confidently, just as a heartbeat later—

*CRASH!*

Ash exploded.

Three beasts surged forth from the shallow ridge with gray-scales, long-limbs and spines bristling with warped bone and dripping saliva.

Their heads resembled warped lizards but they had more eyes than necessary and jaws far too wide for their natural design.

These mutated beasts did not roar, did not hiss.

They simply moved mindlessly towards their target in a vicious and direct approach, as they pounced on Karl in a sudden ambush.

"Eh?"

The poor boy didn't even have time to scream before they were upon him, however, thankfully for him, Leo was there to protect him before the beasts had the opportunity to bite his head clean off.

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 274: Bob's Absurd StrengthTimeless AssassinC274: Bob's Absurd Strength

*SWISH*

*CLANG!*

Leo's blades moved into motion before the lizards fully lunged, the twin daggers slashing toward the first one's neck with lethal precision.

He aimed to cleave deep, but the moment his blade's edge made contact with the beast's skin, sparks began to fly.

The lizard skin was too thick for his blade to penetrate.

It had a rock hard texture and was dense beyond expectation, as although his blade bit into it, the edge failed to go all the way through.

*SCREECH—*

The beast screeched and reared back, its body staggering, as it turned its focus to Leo.

'Shit… it's a tough skinned bastard.' Leo thought, as without hesitating, he spun and adjusted his grip, both hands now on the hilt of a single dagger, as his body moved with violent grace.

He sidestepped the creature's snapping jaws, dragged his body's momentum past him, and then twisted around—

*SLICE!*

This time, with both arms behind the force of the strike, his blade found purchase. It carved into the lizard's lower jaw and continued along the throat, severing its windpipe and flooding the air with blackish ooze.

*CLACK!*

The beast spasmed once before collapsing at his feet.

But before Leo could even recover his stance, and focus on the other beasts.

*THUD*

*CRACK*

*SPLAT!*

The other two lizards had already been dealt with.

Bob stood near Karl's shaking frame, each of his meaty hands clenched around a reptilian skull— as blood, brain matter, and broken scales dripped down his manly forearms.

Beneath his foot, lay the limp corpses of both monsters, as apparently, he had slammed them into each other so hard that their skulls had burst like overripe fruit.

*Silence*

For a brief moment, no one moved.

Even Leo found himself pausing, his chest rising slowly as his eyes widened at the sheer brutality of what he'd just witnessed.

Raiden, Cipher, Patricia— they all had their weapons drawn, mana brimming at their fingertips… and yet none of them had made a single move.

Because there was no fight left to join.

Bob had ended it.

Then, casually, as if smashing two mutated monsters with his bare hands was no different than tossing out the trash, Bob flicked one of the skulls off his fingers and muttered under his breath.

"…I hate reptiles."

Karl, meanwhile, let out a choked scream and stumbled backward, tripping over his own bag as his eyes darted from one mangled body to the next.

"I—I—I almost died—" he sobbed, hysterical, only to get smacked on the back of the head a heartbeat later by the same bloodied palm.

*THWACK!*

"Shut up," Bob said.

"Stop cryin' like a little bitch or I'll crush your skull the same way." He warned, as Karl immediately bit down on his own voice, too terrified to speak further, as he nodded frantically in fear.

Bob turned then, his gaze landing on Leo.

He tilted his head slightly, chewing a bit harder on the toothpick hanging from the corner of his lips.

"You moved faster than me…?" he muttered, not accusing, not impressed, just puzzled.

Like he couldn't quite wrap his head around how someone had managed to beat him to the first kill.

Leo didn't reply. He just nodded once in acknowledgment, his breath finally steadying as he wiped the blood from his blade.

The others slowly lowered their weapons, eyes flicking from the corpses to Leo… and then back to Bob.

Because in that moment, it became clear to everyone— that amongst them all, those two were the undisputed top dogs in this team.

Leo frowned internally as the tension began to settle, his gaze slowly dropping back to the mess near Bob's feet.

It was almost hard for him to believe that they were the same monsters he had just struggled to kill, as while he needed timing, leverage, both arms, and a perfect strike to take one down, Bob had simply grabbed them by their skulls and crushed them together— without mana, without technique, and without hesitation.

'He snapped their heads like twigs…' Leo thought, eyes narrowing slightly. 'And here I had to try twice to carve through the skin.'

His mind flashed back to the old rumor, of how Bob had supposedly wiped out an entire enemy fortress using nothing but a kitchen fork.

And although back then, Leo had dismissed it as an exaggerated war tale, he could almost believe it now after seeing that guy in action.

'Fucking monster.'

He thought worriedly, as he realized that perhaps killing Bob might prove to be the most challenging part of this mission in the end.

*Sigh*

With a final glance toward the mangled bodies, Leo sheathed his blade and turned back toward the antenna post.

"Let's finish building the shelter fast, I don't think it's wise to hang around dead bodies for too long, as only lord knows what the scent of their blood and marrow will attract in this cursed world—" Leo said sharply, as the team didn't argue.

Patricia immediately bent down to retrieve the last shielding panel, Cipher reset the protective rune matrix around the antenna, and Raiden silently stepped in to refasten the final corner brackets.

Karl, still pale and shaking, picked up a toolkit without being told— because after that display, he wasn't about to be the weakest link again.

No one spoke for a while.

Only the soft clinks of metal, the hiss of tightening mana bolts, and the distant, unnerving stillness of the Time-Stilled World lingered in the air as in the next ten minutes the team managed to build the signalling antenna and activated the protective mana shielding around it, that would keep it safe from stray mindless beast attacks.

"Alright then, time to make our way towards the Forest Of Death, it's about 140 kilometers away, westward.

So if we start jogging now, we should cover the whole distance in about a day or so.

If anyone wants to take a leak or have a snack, now's the time, because our next break will be after we cover at least 70 kilometers ...." Raiden said, as all eyes turned toward Karl, who lowered his gaze in shame, the dark stain on his trousers betraying everything his trembling hands now tried to hide as he covered his face in mortified silence.

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 275 275: Tainted HumanTimeless AssassinC275 275: Tainted Human

(Time-Stilled World, 23 Kilometers from Entry Point, Flatlands Sector)

The team moved in a loose formation across the lifeless plains, boots crunching over ash-coated grass that gave no sound beneath their feet.

Raiden led the way with purposeful strides, his eyes sharp and posture upright, as after every few steps he swept a cautious glance across the horizon, scanning for any imminent signs of danger.

Patricia and Karl remained in the center— Karl hunched, visibly tense, while Patricia moved with the sway of someone who didn't know how to walk without being seen.

To their flanks walked Leo on the right, and Cipher on the left, their steps measured, eyes constantly scanning for threats.

Bob trailed in the rear, silent as ever, his massive shadow stretching further than anyone else's.

Despite being a team, they all kept a cautious distance from one another— not just out of fear of being stabbed in the back, but because they were assassins by trade.

They were used to moving alone, watching their own backs, and trusting it to someone else had never been an option.

Tight formations were a luxury born of trust.

And trust in each other was something they didn't share. Not yet, at least.

As they moved, they all absorbed mana from a medium grade stone that they held in their hand, as the pure mana from the stone diffused into their systems with every breath they took.

The mana stones were essential to their sanity now, as without this stream of clean mana to keep their cores fed, their bodies were bound to start pulling in the corrupted mana of the Time-Stilled World, which would start to taint their minds.

Even Karl, pale and shaken, clutched a mid-grade mana stone like it was his lifeline, his fingers trembling slightly around its edges, as he continuously drew mana from it to ensure that his core remained saturated.

However, if there was one individual in the group who kept acting unaffected by the gloomy atmosphere, it was Patricia, as she kept trying to liven up the mood with her flirty jokes.

Her long ponytail swayed lightly behind her as she closed in on Leo with a mischievous grin.

"So, Skyshard," she murmured, brushing her arm against his for the third time.

"Planning to be the stoic hero this entire trip? Or will you melt eventually?" She asked with a flirty smile, however, Leo chose not to respond.

He just kept walking, absorbing mana from the stone in his hand and scanning the far ridge, as his cold attitude made Patricia pout.

"Tch. Tch. Are you sure you're a man? I'm starting to think your man parts don't work…. I mean, I've been flirting with you non-stop but you don't even have a slight erection." She taunted, as—

"It works just fine." Leo replied without so much as even looking at her, as his voice remained as flat and cold as the ground beneath them.

*Snort*

Patricia snorted, feeling annoyed, before turning to Karl, who had been staring at the exchange like a deer in headlights.

"What about you, rookie?" she teased, slinking up beside him. "Got any wild fantasies about having your way with the sexy assassin girl on this trip?"

As, listening to her sexy voice, Karl immediately turned beet red.

"I-I wouldn't d-dream of—" he began, as Patricia immediately cut him off.

"Relax," she laughed. "Even if I go insane, I'm not fucking you. So keep dreaming, kid."

The color drained from Karl's face as he heard the insult, before surging back, all at once, as he turned beet red and stared at his boots like they might offer an escape route.

He looked like he wanted to vanish into the ash after that burn, as from the back, Bob gave a low snort, while even Cipher chuckled softly under his breath.

—----------

Hours passed, and the terrain around the team remained flat, featureless, and deathly still.

Despite the absolute silence, the team did not feel at peace, as something about this world's silence did not feel calming but rather disturbing.

The silence here felt watchful, as if the air itself was spying on their movements.

As this constant pressure created quite the stressful environment for one's mind to be in.

'Man I hate this silence….. However, I hate how colourless everything around here looks even more' Leo thought, as more than the silence, the lack of bright colors in this world began bothering him.

Ever since they had entered this damn place, Leo had yet to see a shade of anything that looked bright.

The sky was dark, the grass was gray, and even the blood of beasts they slaughtered here was dark and gooey.

For as far as the eye could see, the world appeared muted and dull, with everything just looking like a different shade of gray.

And although it did not sound like a serious problem when spoken out loud, it was in fact psychologically very disturbing, as for a normal mind used to seeing vivid colors, the sudden lack of any bright colors led to a psychological shock.

'I hope the forest of death has more colors, because if not, I might just have to give Karl a slice on his cheeks to see a streak of red' Leo thought, when abruptly, Raiden raised a fist.

Everyone stopped as Raiden crouched near the ground, his fingers brushing along a pair of freshly pressed tracks into the powdery soil.

Leo approached slowly, Cipher beside him.

There, in the dust, were two distinct footprints.

The left leg was a normal booted human print— heel, sole, even a partial shoe pattern.

While the right leg was bare, with long, slightly bent toes, as if the individual leaving this print walked with one shoe half-intact and one completely missing.

However, more striking than the missing shoe print, were the two palm prints just in front of the legs.

"Someone was moving on all fours," Cipher noted quietly.

Raiden nodded. "They passed through here less than twenty minutes ago— and they're headed in the same direction we are."

Patricia's flirtatious edge vanished as she crouched beside the tracks, eyes narrowing.

"You think it's another Serpent?" she asked, as—

"No," Cipher replied, firm and certain.

"Not a serpent for sure. Because according to the journal of psychology, it takes 300 days for a human to fully devolve into a mindless ape beast within a Time Stilled World.

Assuming that whoever entered here, held stable for the first 60 days or so, this print definitely belongs to a human who entered this world at least a year ago.

And since even the earliest Serpents to have entered this world can only be inside this space for a maximum of 200 days at this point when adjusted for time difference, it's safe to assume that these prints belong to a criminal or a rogue warrior that entered this world over a year ago." Cipher analysed, as everyone looked at him with an impressed expression on their faces.

"These prints match the behavior of tainted humans, the ones who've absorbed too much of this world's impure mana.

However, although they're no different than beasts now, it's observed that they're much more dangerous to fight than regular humans, so we should definitely keep our guards up" Cipher added, as everyone took a sharp breath.

"Alright. If that's the case then from here on out we walk with weapons at ready.

From here on out, we assume that danger looms at every corner." Raiden instructed, as he drew his own dagger, with the others quickly following suit.

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 276 276: The Trail DisappearsTimeless AssassinC276 276: The Trail Disappears

(Time-Stilled World, 31 Kilometers from Entry Point, Ashen Grassland Ridge)

The group had grown noticeably quieter ever since they encountered the trail of the tainted human.

Patricia, once playful and flirtatious, now walked in grim silence with her dagger drawn and held low, as the usual sway in her step was replaced by caution.

Karl flinched at every gust of wind, nearly stumbling more than once as he struggled to keep pace without tripping over his own feet, the tension in his shoulders betraying his rising anxiety.

The others were no more at ease, each gripping a mana stone in one hand to absorb a steady stream of clean mana, while their dominant hand remained coiled around the hilt of a weapon, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

Their formation remained loosely aligned, spread just far enough to allow freedom of movement, while still holding together with enough caution.

Even the air seemed heavier now, pressing down on them with a strange, suffocating weight, as if something unseen was trailing them just beyond the edge of perception.

The trail they'd been following for nearly eight kilometers had remained disturbingly consistent, twisted human footprints, each paired with a palm print, until, all of a sudden, it stopped without explanation.

"The hell?" Raiden muttered, slowing to a halt as he studied the abrupt end of the trail with narrowed eyes.

Before him stretched a low-lying ridge, shallow and oddly symmetrical, resembling a grassy swell formed by some forgotten upheaval of the earth.

Yet unlike the endless plains that they had passed thus far, this particular stretch stood out distinctly.

The usual gray, metallic grass had disappeared entirely, replaced by a dense spread of thorned flowers—hundreds of them, that were short-stemmed and pale, with fat, bulbous heads that swayed unnaturally in the still, windless air.

The soil beneath them was coarse and pebbled, absorbing their footsteps without leaving any impressions behind, which could likely explain the sudden disappearance of the trail.

"The trail ends here," Raiden said grimly as he crouched, brushing his fingers across the unmarked ground, before rising once more and sweeping his gaze across the flower coated ridge.

"There are no more prints past this point."

He glanced over his shoulder, eyes sharpening as they swept across the terrain.

"Be cautious. There are quite a lot of blind spots someone could use to ambush us from around here," he warned, as the group immediately shifted into high alert, each member adjusting their stance, their feet planting more deliberately while their eyes flicked toward every potential vantage point.

Something about this patch of land gnawed at their instincts.

It felt like a trap laid in plain sight.

As assassins, they knew better than most as to what made a perfect kill zone, and this was it!

If they absolutely had to ambush someone in the wide open of these grasslands, this patch of land was the perfect spot.

Here, one had limited room for movement, as the thorny terrain made it harder to fight or escape, while the surrounding lowland ridges could help conceal a threat until it was too late, making it the perfect spot for ambush.

[Absolute Vision]

Leo cycled mana through his body with practiced control, activating [Absolute Vision] as a faint image of his surroundings popped in his mind.

At first, he scanned the ridge out of habit, searching for hidden enemies or concealed weapons. But what he perceived next did not align with anything he had expected.

[Absolute Vision] was a technique built on mana imagery, a perception-based skill that used microscopic pulses of mana to scan the surroundings and then feed that information directly into the user's brain as a reconstructed image.

Back in normal space, this information came in high resolution. Every crack in the pavement, every glint of a sword, every subtle shift in muscle tension, all of it appeared crisp and clear, bordering on high-definition.

But here, within the Time-Stilled World, the information came back distorted.

The landscape around him blurred and bled together, like a wet painting left out in the rain.

The vision wasn't blacked out or fully blinded, but it felt as though the feedback his brain was receiving had been corrupted, as if a thousand mismatched signals were being slammed into his senses all at once.

It was like trying to study a landscape through a lens that had five thousand flashlights pointed directly into it, as it appeared too bright, too inconsistent, and painfully oversaturated.

On the surface, nothing looked unusual to the naked eye. The thorny flowers swayed gently, the ash-laced wind carried on, and the dull terrain stretched outward like always.

But through [Absolute Vision], the world became something else entirely.

Every blade of grass, every twisted flower, even the smallest patches of moss, pulsed with such concentrated mana that they eclipsed the stone he was holding in his palm.

The very soil beneath his feet had veins of glowing energy running through it, like this entire patch of land was not natural terrain, but a sealed mana battery disguised as a field.

And where there should have been gradients and balance, there was only saturation.

He tried to isolate a few regions of low interference, hoping to identify paths of mana free passage, but even those came back as noisy outlines, broken by bursts of uncontrolled radiance.

Leo narrowed his eyes slightly, adjusting his stance and reducing the amount of mana he circulated into the skill, attempting to dull the feedback.

However, no matter how he tried to map the area around him, the end result remained the same, as [Absolute Vision] failed to provide him with a clean and usable image.

'This place... it isn't just rich in mana. It's flooded with it. It's contaminated everything living inside this world, including the blades of grass growing here.

Like, how the fuck does the grass at my feet have more mana stored in it than the stone in my hand?'

Leo wondered, his grip tightening ever so slightly around the mana stone, as a chill crawled up his spine, not from fear, but from the growing sense that this world operated on rules no one had prepared him for.

'Just where the fuck did I agree to come?'

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 277 277: Fighting A Tainted HumanTimeless AssassinC277 277: Fighting A Tainted Human

With [Absolute Vision] failing to map the area accurately, Leo was forced to rely on traditional perception, keen instincts, and peripheral focus, to scan the ridge in front of him for signs of enemy presence.

His breath slowed as he centered his footing atop the uneven slope, dagger gripped tightly in one hand as he locked his gaze on the exact spot that seemed the most suspicious to him.

*Shuffle*

Then it happened, he heard a sound come from behind him, as

*THUD*

A blur of flesh and speed exploded from the ridge's left flank, from his blind side, as a pale figure darted from behind a patch of thorny flowers and moved with blinding speed towards Cipher.

"Cipher!" Patricia shouted, trying to warn him about the ambush, however, it was too late.

The tainted human moved like a beast, not a man, darting across the ground on all fours with a hunched spine and limbs bent at unnatural angles, his speed exceeding what most grandmasters couldn't even dream of matching.

*SWISH!*

Cipher turned, his blade flashing outward in reflex. But the creature twisted mid-air with an erratic jerk, narrowly avoiding the strike as it wrapped its limbs tightly around Cipher's body.

*CRUNCH!*

A sickening sound tore through the air as blood exploded from Cipher's neck, the creature's jaws clamping down and ripping a chunk of flesh clean out, as Cipher screamed in pain.

"Arghhhh—!"

Leo reacted instantly, hurling a dagger towards the creature's skull with deadly precision, while Patricia followed suit, her own blade flying through the air in a mirrored arc.

*CLANG!*

*THUD!*

Both daggers struck true, but shockingly bounced harmlessly off the creature's skin, as though it were armor-plated.

"What the—?" Patricia muttered in confusion, as her Grandmaster strength was usually enough to even embed rocks, however, had somehow failed to penetrate mortal skin today.

Thankfully for Cipher though, Bob was already charging forward, as–

*BOOM!*

He slammed his shoulder into the creature, knocking it off Cipher's back and sending it tumbling through the dirt.

The creature skidded, rolled, and landed in a crouch on all fours, before beginning to hiss like a feral beast.

*SKIIIIRRRR*

It warned, its facial hairs flaring like a beast sensing prey through vibration.

Now that they could see it clearly, Leo's eyes narrowed as he took in the details.

It looked... almost human. But its skin was stretched tight over wiry muscle, and pulsing green veins ran visibly beneath its pale surface.

It wore nothing but a tattered utility belt that hung lopsided around its waist, clearly from another era.

On one foot it still wore half of a disintegrated combat boot, while on the other it was completely exposed to the elements.

Its man parts looked disfigured and chewed upon, as whatever remained was clearly not functional, however, somehow that mess of flesh wasn't the worst body feature it had, as its eyes were even worse.

Wild, and glowing faintly with an unnatural hue, the creature's gaze did not hold intelligence or malice, but rather only madness.

Like it had long forgotten what it was to be human, and was now only driven by instinct and rage.

"He's gone completely feral..." Leo muttered.

"Forget talking. Kill it," Raiden snapped, already moving.

The creature hissed and darted forward, zigzagging on all fours like a monkey on speed.

It lunged at Patricia this time, who ducked and rolled as Leo moved to flank it.

Raiden slashed horizontally, forcing it to leap backward, while Bob already circled behind it, to punch it unconscious.

However, when the beast did eventually come his way, it dodged his strike with an unnatural rotation of its body, and landed on his shoulders, before immediately trying to bite his face off.

*KHAIIIIAASS*

The beast growled, as spittle and germs from its roar spilled all over Bob's face, making the veteran assassin feel really pissed.

"Get off!" Bob growled, grabbing the thing midair and flinging it like a sack of meat, as the creature landed hard but rolled into a crouch again, unhurt.

"Damn this thing doesn't break," Patricia complained, her voice sounding slightly nervous now.

Leo darted in from the side, feinting left then spinning with a backward slash, as the beast evaded by a hair, but the maneuver gave Raiden an opening.

"[Phase Cut]" Raiden announced, as his blade flickered with mana and flashed through the air tracing a green arc.

It grazed the creature's ribs, drawing black blood that steamed in the cold air.

*Shriek*

The creature shrieked and pounced at Raiden, only to be intercepted midair by Bob's glowing fist, as–

*BOOM!*

The punch connected with the creature's side, sending it hurtling through the flowers, its jaw broken, as Leo activated [Blade Switch] and reappeared behind it, his daggers slashing outward in an X to carve open its back.

*SHHHK!*

The first strike failed to penetrate its skin, but the second caught its shoulder, slicing halfway in before stopping against the shoulder bone.

"Now!" Leo barked, as Raiden surged forward with a vertical strike and Patricia released her charged skill [Needle Rain].

Within a microsecond, hundreds of razor-thin projectiles conjured from mana rained down upon the beast, as the feral human hissed and tried to leap, but Bob tackled it from behind, pinning it with brute strength as the needles pierced its body.

*SHRIEK—*

The beast whimpered louder now, as Raiden's blade came down one final time, to slice its head apart from its body.

*Splat*

Raiden's blade buried deep into its neck, stopping just short of a full decapitation as the edge lodged halfway through bone.

Thankfully, that was enough, as the creature convulsed once.

Then again.

Then it stopped moving entirely, its body slumping into the dirt with a final exhale that sounded less like death and more like relief.

The team stood still, weapons raised, eyes sharp and breaths shallow, as they watched the beast for any last twitch or sign of movement that would suggest that it could rise again, however, none came.

Only silence reigned in their surroundings, bar from Cipher's whimpering, as he tried to stop the bleeding from his neck.

A few seconds later, the beast's eyes that were still glowing faintly, finally dimmed and began rolling back into its sockets, as black blood pooled beneath its cheek.

Leo didn't sheathe his blade. He just stood there, watching, his gaze fixed on the half-torn utility belt still fastened around the corpse's waist.

It was the same kind they were all wearing.

Same material. Same type of make.

As it was for sure an assassin belt, which meant that the man they just killed was once upon a time an assassin.

*Sigh*

Leo exhaled slowly, his chest tightening with something colder than fear.

'He wasn't born a monster. He became one in this world, after absorbing the tainted mana,' Leo realized, as just like that, the reality of the Time-Stilled World finally settled over him and the rest of the team like a second skin.

This place didn't just kill one.

It warped one into something unrecognizable.

And if they weren't careful, it was also the same fate that awaited them all.

As apparently, death wasn't the worst thing that could happen to one in a time-stilled world.

In a way, death was a mercy.

As if you lived long enough, much worse things than death awaited you in this accursed place.

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 278 278: A brief respiteTimeless AssassinC278 278: A brief respite

(Time-Stilled World, 70 Kilometers from Entry Point, Temporary Camp)

After surviving the encounter with the man-beast, the team continued their journey for a few more kilometers, pushing forward in wary silence, before finally reaching their predetermined rest point after nearly eight hours of uninterrupted walking.

They did not set up tents, nor did they ignite any fire when it was finally time to make camp, as everyone knew that lighting a flame in this world was equivalent to painting a target on your back, so instead, they found a natural hollow between two ridges and sat down in a loose circle, resting for the first time since the fight.

The silence in the air was broken only by the soft clinks of armor being adjusted and weapons being set aside, as the team removed their shin guards and boots, letting their feet breathe for a moment of rare comfort.

Karl, who somehow seemed in a better mood than anyone else, hummed to himself as he set up a black stone slab over three glowing firestones, the stones glowing a faint orange beneath the grill as they radiated silent heat without releasing any flame—creating the perfect surface for cooking without drawing unwanted attention from the wilds around them.

Once the slab was up to temperature, Karl oiled the surface and placed thinly sliced meat and dehydrated root vegetables onto it, watching them sizzle and soften slowly while the faintest wisp of steam curled upward into the still air.

*Sigh*

Patricia exhaled deeply as she leaned back on her arms, sipping water from a pouch with half-lidded eyes, as she watched the meat cook with something between relief and hunger.

"Now this is what I call survival," she muttered lazily, her usual flirt gone, replaced by a tired smirk that only slightly masked how drained she looked.

The fatigue wasn't from walking, but from the slow, grinding psychological pressure this world seemed to place on everyone who spent more than a few hours within its grasp.

Meanwhile, Cipher sat hunched forward, one hand wrapped around the bandage on his neck as he muttered a string of curses under his breath.

"Fucking inbred retarded ape. Bit my neck off—" he grumbled, the pain clearly still present even after Karl had cleaned, stitched, and dosed him with two different potions to accelerate the healing process.

"Gods, it still hurts like a bitch," he added, massaging the side of his neck carefully, as Raiden sat beside him, listening with a faint smile that hovered somewhere between sympathy and amusement, nodding occasionally, yet saying little, as he did his best to let Cipher vent as much as he needed.

On the far end, Bob sat with his back to a rock, legs stretched out and a blade resting across his lap, as he poured water and oil over a rectangular whetstone before dragging the edge of a tall knife across it in long, steady strokes—each pass accompanied by a soft grinding sound that hummed through the silence like the rhythm of a war drum.

"Do you even use that giant knife?" Patricia asked after a while, her eyes flicking toward him, "Or is it just for show? Because I've only seen you fight with your fists."

Bob didn't answer immediately. He clicked his tongue, shifting the toothpick in his mouth from one side to the other, before eventually replying in his usual gruff tone, his gaze never leaving the blade.

"I haven't had to use this bad boy yet," he said, voice low and slow, "but after seeing how your daggers bounced off that thing's skin, I figured I'd rather not find out mid-battle that mine isn't sharp enough."

Leo, seated nearby, scoffed quietly at the comment and chuckled under his breath.

"That's the most I've ever heard you speak," he said flatly, as Patricia grinned, stretching her legs out in front of her while casting a sideways glance at Leo, her teasing spark flickering back to life.

"I have a way with men, Skyshard," she purred, voice soft and sultry, "they always tell me things they wouldn't say to anyone else."

Leo didn't respond, his expression unmoved as he stared down at the potion bottle in his hand, while Patricia chuckled to herself and turned her attention back to the sizzling grill, the scent of food slowly filling the air and mingling with the lingering scent of ash and mana that never quite left this world.

Soon, the food finished cooking and Karl portioned it carefully onto thin steel plates, before handing them around with an eager grin that didn't quite match the fatigue in his eyes.

"Hope you like it crispy," he said, plopping a slice of charred meat beside some softened roots on Leo's plate before moving on to the next.

"You've officially earned your place on this team, rookie, this is delicious," Patricia said while chewing, as she gave him a thumbs-up.

"Glad you liked it," Karl replied cheerfully, clearly happy to be useful.

For a while, the group ate in relative silence, the occasional clink of cutlery on metal or the soft sounds of chewing breaking the monotony, as they slowly drifted into casual conversation, sharing stories and banter, each beginning to know the other just a little better.

They spoke of their interests, traded tales of their most memorable kills, and laughed more than once— not because anything was particularly funny, but because laughter was sometimes the only weapon one had against creeping dread, and for a brief while, it worked.

For those few minutes, the ashen plains, the blood, and the madness of the Time-Stilled World faded into the background, as everything almost felt normal.

Almost.

Because no matter how normal things felt in that moment, the world around them never changed.

The grass was still gray, the air still heavy, and the mana still clung to their skin like a film of ash.

The laughter was real, the food warm, and the company tolerable—

but the silence that followed between words always felt too long,

and the shadows that crept just beyond their camp never felt like they stopped watching.

And though no one said it aloud, they all knew, this peace wouldn't last….

No chance it did.

Not in this accursed world.

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Show menu Novel BinNovel Timeless Assassin Chapter 279 279: The Forest Of DeathTimeless AssassinC279 279: The Forest Of Death

(Time-Stilled World, 140 Kilometers from Entry Point, Outer Rim of the Forest of Death)

The remainder of the journey toward the Forest of Death passed without much incident, as the team encountered no sudden ambushes, no storms, and no hidden traps— just a slow, grinding march across ashen plains and the occasional ridge, where a few more mutated lizards crossed their path.

But these beasts were nothing compared to the man-beast they had slain. Though fast and armored, they lacked the feral cunning and brutal tenacity of that tainted assassin, and with the team's coordination steadily improving, such threats were dealt with quickly and cleanly.

By the end of the second day, they had covered the full 140 kilometers from the drop site, arriving at the edge of the Forest of Death— an expanse that looked as haunting as any graveyard.

Their clothes were caked in dust, their boots dulled by the ever-present ash, and their nerves thinned by the pressure of this cursed world… but they had made it.

All of them.

And that's all that mattered for now.

—-------------

The first impression Leo got from the Forest of Death was simple— the trees here were just... wrong.

They weren't simply tall, but unnaturally vertical, rising like the spine of some ancient beast rather than anything birthed by nature.

Their trunks were bone-white, streaked with black veins, and the canopy above was so dense it strangled out the last traces of light long before it reached the ground.

The Forest of Death might as well have been called the Forest of Darkness, because after just twenty meters past the tree line, Leo could barely see anything around him at all.

"Alright, time to pull out your night vision goggles," Raiden said, voice low but firm, as one by one, the group complied.

Thanks to the field notes left behind by past expeditions, they already knew the rules to survive in the Forest Of Death.

No loud noise. No sudden movements. And never— under any circumstance— light a fire for vision.

That was why Raiden had made sure each of them was equipped with night vision before even setting foot on this cursed land.

One by one, the lenses slid into place, bathing the world in shades of green, as Leo blinked against the static and felt his sight return.

"From here on out, we move in a single file," Raiden instructed, his tone heavier now. "Step only where the guy in front of you has stepped. No detours. No tomfoolery."

He didn't explain why.

He didn't need to.

Because the moment they moved deeper— just ten more steps into that suffocating blackness— every single one of them felt it.

The shift.

The weight.

The slow onset of dread.

The Forest of Death didn't warn you.

It simply pressed in on you, quietly, relentlessly— until your sanity began to bend.

And in such a place, their only strength was each other.

*Crunch*

Their boots crunched softly against the mulch-like ground, each step deliberate, as Leo scanned left and right with growing discomfort.

The trees felt alive.

He sensed it in the way the bark seemed to faintly pulse when he passed too close and the way the vines coiled ever so slightly, just enough to register in his peripheral vision.

It wasn't dramatic.

It wasn't overt.

But it was there.

Like the forest was breathing.

And watching.

No one spoke for the first thirty minutes.

Until—

"Huh? Did you hear that? Someone's laughing up ahead—" Karl muttered, glancing to the side.

"No, there isn't," Cipher snapped instantly, not even looking over.

"That's one of the illusions of the forest. Ignore it. It's not real."

Karl nodded shakily, forcing himself forward again, though Leo noticed the twitch in his stride.

Five minutes passed.

Then Leo stopped cold.

"I see figures moving between the trees," he said, voice tight and focused.

"Illusions," Raiden replied immediately, his pace unbroken. "Ignore them."

But it wasn't that simple.

Because illusions or not, they felt real.

The shadows drifted just slow enough to be seen. They didn't charge or lunge. They just watched. Always lingering between trees. Always just far enough to be unreachable and untouchable.

Leo tried activating [Absolute Vision]— once, then twice.

Both times his mind was flooded with static, the feedback crashing into his brain like blinding heat, forcing him to shut it down.

However, his real eyes weren't any better.

Everywhere he looked, silhouettes danced and twisted just outside his reach, taunting him with the uncertainty of what was real and what wasn't.

'This is insane... If I don't know what's real and what's not, how the fuck am I supposed to react to danger?' Leo thought bitterly, his fingers tightening around his daggers as sweat pooled between his fingers.

Somewhere behind him, Bob muttered under his breath.

"They're calling my name."

"What?" Patricia whispered.

"They said it again. Just now."

"No one said anything, Bob," she replied, her voice quieter now— tense and fragile, as the truth began to settle in.

The forest was fucking with their minds.

Ten more minutes passed.

The group stayed in formation, breaths controlled, blades half-drawn, but their nerves were stretched taut, and the illusions weren't letting up.

They were relentless.

Even if they never attacked, they gnawed at the mind— breaking down focus, eroding composure, whittling sanity into splinters.

Then—

Leo felt it.

A cold, wet sensation brushing against his boot.

He looked down and there was fog.

'Huh? Where did this come from?' he wondered, as he was sure that he did not see them walking into a fog field.

Which meant that this fog wasn't drifting from ahead, nor descending from above, but rather rising from the ground beneath them.

It coiled slowly around his ankles, pale and wispy at first, then thickening with each step forward, as his instincts began to scream 'Danger'.

Raiden stopped.

So did everyone else.

"What... is this? Cipher?" Karl asked quietly, his voice trembling.

"I don't know," Cipher replied after a pause, as that silence said more than his words ever could.

Because no one understood what this was.

Not Raiden.

Not Cipher.

Not the guild records, not the expedition logs, not even the oldest fragments Leo had ever studied.

This fog wasn't in any of the documentation.

Which made it the most dangerous kind of threat…..

The threat of unknown.

Leo stared down as the mist reached his knees, its chill seeping into his clothes and numbing his skin.

His senses were already shot.

His vision was compromised.

His instincts were screaming.

And yet, the forest around them remained eerily still.

Almost like it was holding its breath for a big event to unfold.