The fourth day wasn’t any easier.

  The fourth day was the day things started to turn into hell.

  After dispatching the trio of Arahaktar and humans and watching as they moved towards another spot on the map that depicted a rectangular formation, we kept moving for hours after the moon had set.

  With me invisible, the threat of a jaguar coming at us was minimal, and the few we saw on our way were easily dealt with or simply moved to other positions.

  If we didn’t sleep that night, we’d probably find the dungeon in five or six hours. However, everyone’s pace had slowed to a near drag. We moved only out of necessity, so when Tress located a slope near two big trees, we wasted no time and rested against it.

  After drinking some water and eating the cheapest food we could find at the market, I finally took the time to look at the map.

  Max’s group wasn’t following us anymore. They were still in the same general direction, but instead of moving toward the dungeon, they kept a direct line toward the city stone.

  We had a few hours ahead of them, and as I watched, they set up camp.

  “One hour of watch, three hours of sleep, and we keep moving. We can’t let them get there ahead of us,” I muttered, already feeling sleep take over me.

  “I’ll do the first round,” Elk sat with his back to one of the trees. The devil had good hearing and sharp eyesight. Besides, ever since we moved away from the other Arahaktar, he’d decided to be alone most of the time.

  I respected his decision, but at the same time, I knew he’d need to talk eventually. Now wasn’t the time, though.

  Sleeping was far from comfortable, but the exhaustion in my muscles made the rocky ground feel like hotel mattresses. I only woke because it was my turn to watch over the group.

  Elk was already sleeping in a corner. I sighed, seeing his troubled face. Was he having a nightmare? Before I could shake him from the bad dream, his grimace softened, and he went back into a quiet slumber.

  On the map, Max and his friends were still halted, which gave me peace to think.

  I activated my [Shadow Step] and scanned our surroundings.

  There were no jaguars or kobolds around, but something was off.

  Thoughts of what the Arahaktar had said to me, of how people were back home, and even about my patron gods came to mind—all of them quick to vanish when a shiver ran down my spine.

  No matter where I looked in the forest, no matter which direction, nothing was there.

  I stared at the tree canopies and found nothing. Another kind of invisibility? I thought, but as I stared at the tree canopies, the strangeness of the situation hit me.

  There were more gaps in the branches.

  Where the canopies once hid us from the moonlight, only holes remained. The trees around us had been dying before my eyes, and I barely noticed.

  It was so subtle, yet completely visible.

  The ground had far more leaves than before, the branches were thinner, and they slowly recoiled toward the trunks.

  “Guys, wake up,” I said, immediately hearing them stir, getting up and scratching their faces. “Something’s here.”

  That was all I got time to to say.

  The tree behind me grabbed me with its thin branches. At first, it was only two, but in the next second, several of them scrambled through my armor, scratching my arm and wrapping me in a tighter embrace.

  “[Lightning Momentum]!” I hissed, feeling the explosion of energy in my feet as I shot into the sky, other branches reaching for me on the way up.

  One branch tried to grab my arm with its thin, makeshift fingers, but I caught it instead, yanked myself down, and hit the ground, buckling my knees and rolling toward my companions.

  “The fucking trees are trying to murder us,” I hissed.

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  “They were normal not long ago,” Elk protested, his staff in hand.

  “It’s past midnight. It’s the new monster,” I argued, realizing that had to be the only change I could think of. I did everything I could, moving closer as the trees shifted, their trunks dead and graying by the second.

  “Burn that shit!” I shouted, and Elk started hurling fireballs at the trees.

  They didn’t scream like living beings, but they contorted like spiders do when they die. The two nearest to us were the first to fall—once their entire bodies were engulfed in flames, they shriveled into small masses on the ground, avoiding setting the other trees on fire.

  They were intelligent, somehow. Maybe a hive mind, I thought as I stared at the horizon. More and more trees slowly crept toward us.

  “We need to get away,” I muttered, looking at the map and trying to figure out the best course.

  “The sea is too far,” Tress argued, probably thinking the same.

  “The slopes to the dungeon are hours away, but the trees always thin out when we’re climbing a slope,” Marry added, giving the right answer. I didn’t need to think anymore.

  “Stick real close. Don’t let them grab you. Burn every tree you see on the way, Elk, and follow me,” I commanded, stepping forward.

  I helped Elk with my lightning bolts, quickly noticing they burned the trees just as well as his fireballs.

  But the dead monsters kept coming. It was like a disease spreading through the forest. As far as I could see, more and more trees were moving toward us, each one faster than the last.

  “Did you get any notification for burning the trees?” I asked Elk as I dodged a large branch swinging for my head.

  Marry was quick to slam her shield into it, snapping the branch in half.

  “None!” Elk cried, dodging an attack and hurling a fireball at another tree.

  I took a moment to breathe while my companions fought for their lives. The air was thick with the smell of scorched wood and burning leaves, the crackling fire barely covering the groans of the shifting trees. My heart pounded, and for a split second, I let my eyes sweep the battlefield, searching for something—anything—that stood out.

  Near one of the curled-up trees, almost invisible against the chaos, I noticed a fine blue line.

  The line ran along the ground, weaving through the dirt and dead leaves, connecting to other trees—including the ones that lay burnt on the ground. It pulsed faintly, as if alive, as if feeding something.

  “I know where to go,” I said more to myself, but they all heard. My voice barely cut through the noise. “It’ll be difficult. Keep your shield up, Mary.”

  To our left, the trees were packed tightly together, their gnarled limbs twisted into one another like skeletal fingers locked in a desperate grip. On the right, they were more sparse, their forms swaying, waiting.

  But it was the left side that held the secret.

  The blue lines there tangled together like a ball of wool, knotting and looping, spreading through the ground and trees like veins. The closer I looked, the more I saw how deliberate it all was. This wasn’t just a random infestation—this was control. Like a ventriloquist working dark magic, pulling the strings.

  I hurled as many lightning bolts as I could, each one striking the trees with a deafening crack. The impact sent splinters flying, the heat scorching away their cursed life, but even as they crumbled, I felt a lingering unease.

  Elk’s fire magic spread through the tangled branches, igniting the nearest trees in bursts of orange and blue. They burned fast, too fast. The way the flames clung to them, how they curled inward, how they collapsed into small, shriveled masses—it wasn’t natural.

  They were so close together that, even as they died like spiders, it was hard to hide what lay beneath them. But something was shifting.

  Mary kept our rear intact, her shield slamming against any branches that got too close. Tress was right beside her, hacking through anything that moved, the two of them holding back the advancing wall of trees while Elk and I forced a path forward.

  Then the fifth tree fell, and everything changed.

  The ones coming from the left were too far to obscure what was hidden beneath. The ground where the roots should’ve been was instead covered by something else—something massive.

  A rock.

  A damn rock. A giant, muddy green rock, half-buried in the earth, sitting right in the center of the tangled mess of blue lines.

  But that didn’t make sense. The trees weren’t just growing around it—they were connected to it. Feeding from it. And the blue lines… they weren’t just linking the trees together. They were leading here.

  My stomach twisted.

  I struck the rock with lightning. The instant my spell hit, the illusion shattered like glass. The surface flickered, breaking apart in thin, glowing cracks before vanishing entirely.

  There was no rock.

  Seeing it, Elk hurled another fireball, and I watched as it sank into the false image, swallowed by something unseen. It wasn’t just an illusion—it was a veil, a mask, something designed to keep us from seeing the truth.

  We had no time to hesitate.

  I tightened my grip on my dagger and wand and rushed forward. The moment my foot crossed the threshold, a force yanked me forward, and I barely had time to brace before I was sucked inside.

  The world folded in on itself. It wasn’t like falling, wasn’t like stepping through a doorway. It was a sudden, crushing sensation—like being squeezed through a space too small for my body, the air turning thick, heavy, suffocating.

  Then it spat me out.

  I staggered forward, barely keeping my balance, and the second I took my first breath, the stench hit me.

  Rot.

  Not just dead leaves or burnt wood, but something deeper. Like meat left to fester under the sun, thick and wet and rancid. The air itself felt damp, clinging to my skin, seeping into my lungs with every breath.

  I forced myself to look up.

  What lay inside almost made me vomit.