Onyx Veil
Outer Bane Dukedom
Border
May 15th
Year 2060
The deeper they moved into the forest, the quieter everything became.
By the third day, the silence had stopped feeling natural.
The towering trees of the Onyx Veil no longer carried the dense vitality they once had near the outer edges. Their bark had darkened into brittle shades of grey and black, branches twisted unnaturally overhead like skeletal hands clawing into the dim sky above. Leaves crumbled apart at the slightest disturbance, dissolving into ash-like fragments beneath their feet.
Even the air felt wrong.
Heavy.
Dry.
Dead.
Ishmael walked ahead of the group in silence, his pace steady and unchanging as silver-grey eyes scanned the terrain around them. The faint illusion of refracted light still wrapped around his body intermittently, blurring his presence whenever he deemed it necessary. Behind him, William, Luka, and Ana followed carefully, each of them visibly more exhausted than they had been when they first entered the forest with him.
Not physically.
Mentally.
The forest wore on the mind.
What unsettled them most wasn't the monsters anymore.
It was their absence.
For the first two days, beasts had appeared constantly. Mutated wolves, oversized insects, corrupted deer-like creatures with exposed bone protruding through flesh. None of them had lasted more than a few seconds once Ishmael stepped in.
At first, the three adventurers had tried to assist.
That had stopped quickly.
Now they mostly watched.
Because every encounter ended the same way.
One strike.
Sometimes less.
A sword of silver moonlight.
Then silence.
Luka let out a quiet breath as they stepped over another massive corpse, this one resembling a malformed panther whose body had partially fused with tree roots before dying. "…That's the sixth one today."
"Seventh," Ana corrected quietly from behind him, adjusting the grip on her spear. Her injured arm had mostly healed over the past few days thanks to her enhanced physique, though she still moved carefully. "You forgot the one near the river."
"Right…" Luka muttered.
William's gaze shifted toward Ishmael's back ahead of them. "He didn't even slow down for that one."
None of them spoke for a moment after that.
There was a strange tension surrounding the silver-haired boy walking ahead of them. Not hostility. Not fear exactly.
Just… pressure.
The kind that came naturally from someone far beyond them.
Luka lowered his voice slightly. "You guys noticed he's younger than we are, right?"
Ana gave him a flat look. "I noticed."
"No, I mean actually noticed."
William frowned faintly. "What point are you trying to make?"
"The point," Luka whispered, "is that this kid kills Third Ascension beasts like they're nothing."
Ana stayed silent.
Because he wasn't wrong.
They had all seen it repeatedly over the last few days.
And yet Ishmael never bragged.
Never said more than he needed to.
Half the time, he didn't even seem interested in the fact that he was saving their lives over and over again.
Luka rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I wanted to appraise him earlier."
William immediately looked at him. "You what?"
"I didn't do it," Luka defended quickly. "I'm not stupid."
"That's debatable," Ana muttered.
Luka ignored her. "I just thought about it. But something told me that would be a very bad idea."
"It would be," William said calmly.
Ana nodded slightly. "Strong people usually don't appreciate strangers digging into their status."
"Still…" Luka glanced ahead again. "How strong do you think he actually is?"
Neither of them answered immediately.
Because they genuinely didn't know.
William had spent most of the journey quietly observing Ishmael's movements. The way he walked. The way he reacted to danger before it even appeared. The way spirit energy swirled around him seemed natural like a mother caring for a child.
Nothing about him felt normal.
"Honestly?" William finally said quietly. "I don't think we'd survive finding out."
Luka grimaced slightly. "…Yeah. Fair."
Ahead of them, Ishmael continued walking as if he hadn't heard a single word.
But of course he had.
Lunaris' amused voice echoed faintly within his mind.
"They're terrified of you."
"They're cautious," Ishmael replied internally.
"Mm. Same thing."
Ishmael ignored him.
His focus remained ahead.
Because something about the forest kept getting worse.
The deeper they traveled, the more corpses they found.
Not just beasts anymore.
Humans too.
Adventurers.
Some still wore armor and cloaks. Others were little more than dried remains scattered across the dead earth. None of the bodies looked peaceful. Most appeared as though something had drained them completely before discarding them where they fell.
Ana's expression tightened slightly as she stared at one of the corpses near a tree. "…That's the Guild's uniform."
William nodded grimly. "They were Investigating."
Luka nodded then swallowed hard. "What the hell happened here?"
No one answered him.
Even Ishmael's expression had sharpened slightly now.
Because he could feel it too.
That energy.
Dark, Ominous, Wrong.
Not spirit energy.
Something else entirely.
Lunaris had grown quieter the deeper they moved.
Until finally
"I know this feeling."
Ishmael's eyes narrowed faintly. "What is it?"
A brief silence followed.
Then Lunaris spoke again, slower this time.
"Not yet…I'll let you know when I'm a hundred percent sure. For now, proceed with caution"
That alone was enough to make Ishmael's gaze harden.
Because Lunaris rarely sounded uncertain.
"Whatever is at the center of this forest," Lunaris continued quietly, "it shouldn't exist here."
The atmosphere grew heavier after that.
The group continued deeper in silence until eventually the dead forest opened into a massive clearing.
And everyone stopped.
At the center of the clearing was a gate. Not just any gate. A spatial gate
Space itself was torn open. And it was steadily expanding.
The rift was suspended midair like cracked glass pressed against reality itself. Black energy leaked from it slowly in twisting streams that spread through the forest like poison. It was changing the forest, corrupting it.
Beneath it stood a strange metallic structure.
Not large.
Roughly the size of a human torso.
Its surface glowed with dim blue patterns that pulsed rhythmically like circuitry. Thin mechanical rings rotated around their core while unstable energy surged through it continuously.
Luka stared blankly. "…What is that?"
Ana's grip tightened around her spear. "That doesn't look like any known technology."
"No shit," William murmured slowly.
Ishmael's eyes narrowed slightly. He had never seen anything like it before.
The device hummed softly and the air shifted as an oppressive presence descended making the group tense.
A voice echoed casually throughout the clearing as a 7ft figure made its way out of the spatial gate.
"What is that" A voice muttered behind Ishmael but he was too focused to register it.
"Ah, a few pests managed to reach here huh, how annoying."
He spoke with a casual ease.
"Three humans and a—"
He began but froze, a hint of surprise flashing in his cold crimson eyes. As he focused on the silver-haired teenager
"Tell me child, why do you smell like a Gregorian.