Before he finished speaking, the wisp of smoke from the smoke bomb crushed in his palm suddenly burst outward, as though it had been given life.
Dense purple smoke instantly expanded into a translucent cocoon, wrapping him and Milluki on his back tightly inside.
The next second, a violent spatial tug seized them.
Their vision stretched and shattered amid extreme distortion, dissolving into countless streaks of fleeting light.
"Ugh!"
Milluki only managed a muffled groan before he felt all his internal organs shift out of place.
When their chaotic vision came back into focus, they were already standing on the camp's beach.
The purple smoke dispersed. Morel stood before them, his teeth clamped around his enormous pipe, his expression grim enough to wring water from.
Only after seeing Bai Zhu and Milluki unharmed did his taut jaw relax slightly.
But he did not ask a single word about what had happened inside the Lighthouse.
Years of skirting the edge of life and death told him this was no time to get to the bottom of things.
Morel took a deep drag on his pipe.
"Everyone, pack the essentials immediately! We board the ship and evacuate in five minutes!"
"Why the rush?" Knuckle had just poked his head out of his tent, a trace of bewilderment still on his face.
Morel did not answer. He simply raised a hand and pointed toward the distant forest.
Knuckle followed his finger, and his pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints.
The edge of the once-lush forest was slowly being swallowed by a mass of writhing black fog.
On the towering trees touched by the black fog, emerald leaves withered, blackened, and fell at a visible speed. More chilling still, the outlines of twisted, agonized human faces began appearing on the bare trunks.
Shuto shook violently