Shadow Realm

Ethereal, eerie laughter drifted endlessly from the mist, as if a frivolous woman were teasing the Lost Ones scrambling about within it. The phantom Gawain had cleaved in two had indeed vanished like smoke, but in the next instant, it reassembled elsewhere in the fog.

This Vengeful Spirit Mist... actually possessed intelligence!

Realizing this, Heti felt a thin sheen of cold sweat form on her forehead.

The mist had first created the illusion that it was mindless, making everyone believe the situation was not so urgent and seek an opportunity to break out. But as time passed, each person's strength would steadily be drained by the fog. By the time Gawain's group truly began their escape, everyone would inevitably be weakened to varying degrees—then, if the vengeful spirits within the mist suddenly attacked, the consequences would be unthinkable.

But perhaps due to the inherent mental deficiencies of undead creatures, the soft laughter drifting from the mist had ruined its—or their—own trap.

Even so, the situation remained terrible.

Ordinary soldiers found it difficult to be of much use against such a bizarre enemy. They could only rely on the iron will forged through daily training to resist the malice and terror seeping constantly from the fog. Betty, who possessed no combat ability at all, was immediately protected at the very center of the formation. Blazing heat surged along the refined steel sword in Knight Byron's hand. He used it to disperse the ever-present chill and sever the countless phantom arms reaching out from the mist. Only under his protection did Heti and Rebecca have a relatively stable environment for casting spells.

Heti chanted incantations, constantly using all manner of low-level support spells to weaken the surrounding mist, but Rebecca's attacks were much simpler and more brutal—she swung her staff, and from beginning to end, there was only one spell she cast: Fireball Spell.

Fireballs of all sizes flew from Rebecca's staff into the mist, setting off a chain of explosions, but the effect was truly far from ideal. Fire did have some restraining effect on undead creatures, but Vengeful Spirit Mist was an exceptionally peculiar thing. It was thin and widespread, with no physical body capable of bearing explosive damage. When a fireball detonated in the fog, more than half its destructive power dissipated.

"Don't use Fireball Spell!" Noticing Rebecca's fighting style, Gawain quickly called out, "Use wide-area spells—the power doesn't need to be great, but the range must be! Otherwise, this mist will disperse every attack!"

Rebecca cried out, "But Fireball Spell is the only spell I know!"

Gawain was shocked. "What?!"

"Fireball Spell is the only thing Rebecca knows!" Heti's voice was nearly frantic. "She's studied for five years and only knows that one move!"

Rebecca's face flushed red, furious at her own lack of magical aptitude. She gathered her powerful magic together and, with nearly all her strength, barely managed to constrain it into a Spell Model. Then she swung her staff, sending a washbasin-sized... Fireball Spell flying toward the densest part of the mist.

A sudden epiphany in battle, an emergency breakthrough, a heaven-shaking comeback—none of that happened.

This far oversized Fireball Spell caused a far oversized explosion, even thinning the mist directly ahead of them somewhat. Yet almost in the next instant, the gap in the fog was filled again. Worse still, Gawain suddenly heard a roar full of terror and rage from behind him.

One of the family warriors had bloodshot eyes. The negative force carried by the Vengeful Spirit Mist had finally shattered the soldier's soul completely, and the damage to his soul immediately manifested physically. His skin rapidly shriveled and turned pale like dried parchment, and he went mad amid his howls. Raising his longsword high, he began slashing wildly in every direction, as if deadly enemies surrounded him on all sides.

The other two warriors nearby reacted immediately. After dodging his disorderly attacks, they rushed him together and pinned down the poor man who had already gone mad.

The restrained soldier struggled madly. The flesh over his entire body wriggled and twisted violently, as if it were trying to tear itself free from his body. His eyes bulged wide, and at last he rasped, "Kill me! Kill me!"

Yet in the eyes of the other two soldiers, a bloody hue was gradually gathering like storm clouds. They showed no response to their comrade's plea.

They were about to lose their minds as well.

Seeing this, Gawain immediately drove the Pioneer's Sword forcefully into the ground and drew upon the strength this body had originally possessed according to the method recorded in his mind. "Mind Shock!"

This was one of the few abilities knights possessed that could affect the mind. Powerful will swept across the battlefield, exerting immense mental pressure upon all targets harboring hostility while also powerfully encouraging allies.

Under the effects of Mind Shock, the two soldiers quickly shook off their fear, but the poor man pinned beneath them had already had his soul utterly destroyed by the Vengeful Spirit Mist. After struggling a few more times, he went completely still.

Gawain's eyes rapidly swept across the battlefield. He saw that the mist around them showed no sign of weakening. Instead, it seemed to grow denser under Heti and Rebecca's attacks. And where the three soldiers had originally been, Betty had vanished at some point.

"Where did Betty go?!" Gawain's heart tightened as he shouted, "Betty!"

Amber leaped out of a nearby shadow. "I just saw that little girl run into the mist—she looked like she was sleepwalking!"

"Damn... she's lost her mind," Gawain said in alarm. "Why is this Vengeful Spirit Mist so strange?!"

Amber's face was filled with horror. "I don't know what's strange about it, but the situation is already completely awful!"

"The Vengeful Spirit Mist shows no signs of dispersing. Logically, after being attacked for this long, even the most powerful mist should have weakened somewhat," Gawain rapidly stated the judgment he had drawn from the knowledge in his mind. Though those memories were not his, he had discovered that as long as he actively called upon them, they were as useful as his own knowledge and experience. "And we already judged that the Magic Power Focus here wouldn't be very strong. How could such an ordinary Magic Power Focus breed Vengeful Spirit Mist that could even develop intelligence?"

Amber was clever and understood immediately. "You mean this mist wasn't naturally formed? Something like an artificial Energy Source is sustaining it?"

"Not necessarily an artificial Energy Source, but something is definitely sustaining it—" Gawain frowned tightly at the fog, as if he wished to pierce through it with his Line of Sight and see its true nature. "And whatever is sustaining it should be nearby. We've just had our senses blinded, so we can't see it at all!"

"But Lady Heti already used Detect Distortion..." Amber said in confusion, then suddenly widened her eyes. "...Could it be that it isn't on 'this layer'?!"

Before her words had even faded, Gawain watched the half-elf woman suddenly leap one step backward and vanish into thin air.

No, she had not vanished.

Gawain noticed abnormal shadows rippling across the nearby ground. It was a vague humanoid silhouette, barely recognizable as Amber's outline. This outline, which had only a shadow and no physical body, flickered and shifted between nearby surfaces as if teleporting, appearing on the ground one moment and on a nearby tree trunk the next. After jumping several times, it finally disappeared completely.

It was not a true shadow, but Amber's "reflection" projected into the Material Realm as she walked along its edge in a shadow state.

Such a simple, brutal, and powerful Shadow Walk opened Gawain's eyes.

Just who was this half-elf thief?

Before Gawain could come up with more questions, Amber suddenly reappeared in the air. She hurried toward him, and just as Gawain was about to ask what had happened, she grabbed his arm and yanked him hard.

Gawain staggered, then felt himself pass through an icy, illusory barrier. When his vision focused again, the surroundings had changed completely.

Everything had lost its color. Only black and white remained between heaven and earth. A thin layer of mist enveloped this world. It was cold, but unlike the Vengeful Spirit Mist, it did not carry the power to steal life.

Gawain looked around and found that the dense forest had vanished. Yet the ground around him was covered in one dry stump after another, their positions perfectly matching those of the trees in the forest.

And everyone, including Heti, stood not far from him. Yet they were frozen in place like victims of a petrification spell, utterly motionless.

Rebecca was closest to Gawain. She stood gripping her staff tightly, her face filled with tension, but there was no light in her eyes. Already transformed into a gray-white "statue," she stared emptily ahead, her skin possessing the texture of some rough ceramic object.

Wisps of black mist rose from the nearby ground, entering their bodies and creating tiny cracks in their ceramic-like forms.

The bizarre, horrifying sight made Gawain instinctively look at his own hands. Only after confirming that they were still human limbs did he breathe a slight sigh of relief. Then he gripped the Pathfinder Longsword and strode toward Rebecca, preparing to sever the clearly harmful black mist.

But just as he took half a step, Amber suddenly appeared beside him. The half-elf woman tightly grabbed his arm. "Don't get close. Outside help can't save them, and one mistake may only make things worse."

Gawain stared at Amber in astonishment—she looked entirely different in this black-and-white world.

Her hair had grown longer and floated behind her as if weightless. Her light brown eyes were now filled with a faint golden radiance. A mass of black Smoke and Dust, like flames, gathered beneath her feet and continuously repeated the process of condensing and dispersing.

Even Gawain Cecil's memories contained nothing that could explain the sight before him.

"Don't ask me too much. If you ask and I refuse to tell you, it'll be awkward—especially after I dug up your grave. It'll make me feel guilty," Amber said quickly. "We have limited time. This is my first time entering somewhere this 'deep.' And with you in tow, who knows how long I can keep it up?"

"What is this place?" Gawain asked the question that concerned him most.

"The Shadow Realm," Amber said flatly, nodding toward where Heti and Others stood. "Look."

That was where Betty and the soldiers had initially been, but one of the soldiers had now collapsed onto the ground, transformed into countless pale fragments—truly like shattered porcelain. The others, meanwhile, were like Rebecca, still maintaining the movements and expressions they had worn when they first came into contact with the Vengeful Spirit Mist.

Only beneath Betty's feet, a row of tiny, faintly glowing footprints stretched forward...