Carine Forest — Outer Camp
No one spoke at first.
The forest did enough speaking on its own.
Branches cracked somewhere behind them.
Slowly.
Methodically.
Not pursuit.
Presence.
The hunting party moved through the undergrowth in disciplined retreat, formations tighter now than before the attack. Angelus knights guarded the flanks while the black-armored Laos soldiers held the rear with unsettling precision.
The wounded creatures had vanished back into the trees.
But the feeling remained.
Watching.
Waiting.
Darian finally broke the silence.
"…I hate this forest now."
"That is a healthy instinct," Kleber replied.
"No," Darian muttered. "Healthy instinct would have been never coming here in the first place."
Mirelle glanced behind them once.
The deeper woods had already swallowed the battlefield whole.
No corpses.
No blood trails.
Nothing.
As though the forest itself had eaten the evidence.
"…That should not be possible," she said quietly.
Sous walked near the center of the formation beside Logos.
Penelope's crimson armor was streaked with black blood and splintered bark. White Tiger still glowed faintly from residual heat.
"You noticed it too," Sous said.
Logos nodded once.
"The retrieval behavior."
"They removed the dead."
A pause.
"Or something removed them."
Sous's eyes narrowed.
"You think those creatures were controlled."
"No."
Logos looked ahead.
"Their minds have likely degraded enough for external influence."
"Some form of corruption or infection is more probable."
Darian overheard that.
"Your explanation somehow sounds worse."
"It should."
Another tremor rolled faintly beneath the earth.
Farther away now.
But still massive.
Kleber glanced toward the treeline.
"…Tell me honestly."
"How bad is this?"
Logos answered immediately.
"I cannot determine that until I dissect the specimen."
He pointed toward the chained corpse being dragged behind the Laos soldiers.
"That is not comforting."
"I am not attempting to comfort you."
"That somehow makes it worse."
The deeper tremors stopped.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
The forest seemed to exhale afterward.
Birdsong slowly returned somewhere above the canopy.
Insects resumed their noise.
Small movements crept back into the underbrush.
Life cautiously reclaiming the silence.
Sous noticed immediately.
"It seems we are finally safe."
"No," Logos replied.
That answer made several nearby knights tense again.
"We are merely no longer being observed closely."
"…Why do you say things like that?" Darian muttered.
"Because they are accurate."
By the time the hunting party reached the outer rings of Carine Forest, dusk had begun swallowing the woods in long shadows.
The camp appeared through the brush.
Torchlight.
Wooden walls.
Movement.
Normalcy.
And yet—
The moment the retainers saw the damaged armor and black blood coating the formation—
The entire camp shifted into alarm.
Knights rushed forward.
Handlers seized horses.
Servants scattered.
"What happened?!"
"Medic teams!"
"Get the support crews!"
Sous stepped down from Penelope as the armor hissed open around him.
"Seal the inner routes immediately," he ordered.
"No one enters the deep forest without authorization."
"Double the watch rotations tonight."
"And arm the towers with heavy bolts."
One of the older retainers stared toward the corpse being dragged through the mud behind Logos's soldiers.
"What… is that?"
Logos glanced toward the thing.
The massive body twitched once beneath the chains.
Then answered calmly:
"I do not know."
A pause.
"That is why I brought it back."
The retainer swallowed.
"…Is it dead?"
"Maybe."
"The hell do you mean maybe?!" Darian stepped forward, hammer raised. "Put it down and I'll turn that maybe into certainty."
Logos looked toward him.
"If you damage the cranial structure," he said calmly, "I will find that deeply annoying."
"That thing tried to eat us."
"Yes."
"And you still want to study it?"
"Yes."
Darian stared at him.
"…You really are insane."
"Incorrect."
Logos adjusted one of the locking mechanisms on his grotesque armor.
"I am curious."
"That is worse."
Sous stepped between them before the argument escalated further.
"Enough."
His voice cut through the camp cleanly.
"Darian."
The larger man exhaled sharply through his nose.
Then lowered the hammer.
Barely.
Sous turned toward Logos.
"How certain are you that it cannot move?"
Logos paused.
Then sighed.
"I attempted humor."
"…It clearly failed."
Kleber covered his face with one hand.
"My lord."
"What?"
"Please stop trying."
Logos ignored him and looked toward his soldiers.
"Bring the specimen near my tent."
"Triple the chains."
"And if it moves—remove the limbs first."
Several nearby retainers visibly paled.
The black-armored soldiers obeyed immediately.
Heavy chains tightened as they dragged the carcass across the camp.
The corpse scraped through the dirt with a wet grinding sound.
One of its claws twitched.
A servant screamed.
The claw stopped moving.
Logos watched carefully.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Sous noticed the look immediately.
That was the problem.
Because Logos did not look disturbed.
He looked engaged.
"I will return to Angelus territory tomorrow," Sous said quietly.
"Prepare a full report for my father within the week."
"Understood."
Logos did not take his eyes off the corpse.
That somehow made the answer worse.
After Logos disappeared into the Laosian section of camp, Sous finally turned toward Mirelle and Darian.
"Keep an eye on him."
Darian frowned.
"Why?"
Sous looked toward the black tents in the distance.
"Because I have a feeling he is already deciding whether this can be weaponized."
Mirelle closed her eyes briefly.
"That is an incredibly fair concern."
The three finally stepped out of their armor near a stack of supply crates.
Steam still rose faintly from Penelope's joints.
Darian dropped onto a crate heavily.
"What do you think happens now?"
"Probably a containment campaign," Mirelle said.
"Then the war with Faros."
Darian leaned back with a groan.
"This was supposed to be stress relief."
Sous stared toward the dark forest.
"No," he said quietly.
"I think this was a warning."
Silence settled over them.
Because all three of them had felt it.
That thing in the forest had not attacked them.
It had looked at them.
Measured them.
Then decided they were not worth the effort.
And somehow—
That was far worse.