10 C10. Fated

In one of the safe zones located in the Darknar forest, the four men sat around the campfire, their gazes fixed in the same direction, along with the cloaked man standing behind them. None of them had made any sounds for over 5 minutes. "Is it over? W-what, what the hell was that?" a well-built man said hurriedly before the two brothers could ask. He had greenish-grey skin but no other outstanding features. He was tall, well-built, and carried a large brown axe on his back.

The other three men simultaneously turned around to see who had spoken, then turned to look at the cloaked man with expectant gazes. The cloaked figure sighed loudly and walked to take a seat on one of the logs around the campfire. After sitting down, he looked at the four men and asked, "What do you guys think that was?"

"A monster," the last man spoke first this time. He was a thin, short man who looked human, with green spiky hair and green eyes.

The cloaked man looked at him and shook his head in disbelief, muttering under his breath. "How did I get stuck with such idiots?" He then raised his head and spoke. "I told you before, that was not a monster. Did I stutter?"

The green-haired man was flustered as he nervously replied, "Ah, sorry boss," rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment as he looked away and stared at the ground.

The cloaked man sighed and spoke again. "That was most likely a demon noble."

Gasps filled the air as the four men were shocked and couldn't hide their nerves.

"I-Isn't this bad? Shouldn't we be doing something?" Bam, the two-horned brother, said hurriedly, lacking confidence.

The cloaked man looked at all four of them and chuckled, "Relax. They most likely encountered a high-level monster and had to fight using their full power or something close. Even if they were trying to sneak into the castle for some reason, they would leave immediately after that display, as they know there are scouts in all the safe zones in the forest around the castle. They would not risk their identities or family identity being revealed."

The man looked at the two brothers for a moment, then smiled and continued, "Still, we need to report this to Lord Aur. Bam and Bor, you two can deliver the message. Make sure you repeat what I just told you," glancing at the two brothers again to emphasize his point.

The brothers were startled when they heard their names. "Ah, yes boss!" they replied hurriedly as they stood up in fright.

The cloaked man nodded in approval. "What are you waiting for? Leave now," he commanded, watching the brothers stumble as they left the forest.

He then turned his head back in the direction they were all looking at. "I wonder who that was. They might even be stronger than Lord Aur," he said in a low voice, though the two men still heard him clearly as they gulped nervously in silence.

••••••••••

As the area rapidly defrosted, Rain slowly opened her eyes, taking in the view in front of her. Ice surrounded her as far as she could see, melting away at an abnormal pace.

There were several melting ice walls around her that must have protected her when she passed out.

Feeling a sharp pain on her shoulder, she snapped out of her daze and placed her hand on the spot, noticing she was bleeding. The blade-like horn that had impaled her was still lodged in her shoulder. Struggling to stand, she noticed the scene around her and tried to make sense of what had happened after she passed out.

Walking a few steps, she saw a lady crouched down by a tree, looking at some wildflowers. The lady had long bluish-white hair, with skin as white as snow. The flowers around her had specks of ice on them, making her look like she walked out of a fairy tale.

Rain almost didn't recognize her friend, Liz, if it wasn't for the clothes she was wearing. Everything finally clicked for her, and she hesitated for a moment before slowly walking towards Liz, asking in hesitation, "Liz, is that you? Are you okay?"

As she said those words, Liz turned her cold and emotionless eyes towards Rain. Pausing for over 30 seconds, Rain took a step forward, then another, and another, until she was embracing Liz from behind, tears streaming down her face as she apologized deeply. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I wasn't strong enough to protect you. Forgive me..." she sobbed.

As she knelt weeping, Liz did not respond, remaining in her original position, undisturbed by the weight on her shoulders as she continued to stare at the ground with an emotionless expression.

••••••••••

In the Darknar forest, Tyler carefully walked in the general direction he had felt the strange feeling coming from. For some reason, he could tell it wasn't a beast, so it was probably a humanoid creature.

He planned to observe whatever it was from afar and ascertain its danger level. If they were demons, he would immediately flee and try to observe the castle from a distance, which was his main objective. However, if they were humans or sub-races, he would try to approach them for information, as long as they were not mercenaries.

Tyler had just entered the forest from the same direction he came out of, and he could think more clearly now. He noticed certain things he hadn't before—the huge trees and the ground covered in roots and vines, with occasional strange wildflowers he had never seen before.

Although there weren't any monsters or magic beasts, he saw some wild birds perched up on the trees. They were brown, large hawk-like birds that occasionally flew away when they saw him.

The birds were neither monsters nor magic beasts; he had seen them before on the outskirts of the human continent. They were rare creatures adventurers would hunt to make a decent sum of money, as they were considered exotic.

As Tyler got deeper into the forest, the atmosphere became darker and gloomier. 'I'm starting to get creeped out here. Why am I even doing this? Is this the type of dumb thing characters in a horror movie do right before one of them gets dragged away into the dark?' he thought, doubting his own decisions.

Just as he was about to give in to his nerves, he noticed something from the corner of his eye. To the right, there was a tree that had been frozen solid, rapidly starting to defrost as if there was a large source of heat next to it.

As he approached, he could now see the ice visibly melting in front of him. He turned his head and noticed similar situations occurring ahead, creating puddles of water on the ground. "What happened here?" he said to himself in a low voice as he followed the trail of defrosting trees and puddles deeper into the forest.

After walking randomly for about 5 minutes, he finally saw something else apart from defrosting trees. Two figures were in the corner by a tree. He was too far to see what they were doing, but not wanting to be careless, he hid in the bushes and slowly approached to get a better view of the situation.

As he got closer, he noticed one of them was crouched down, staring at some kind of frozen wildflowers, while the other wrapped her arms around the former for some reason. He couldn't see their faces, but he could tell they were both women—one with dark skin, and the other as white as snow.

Feeling something was off, he looked around and noticed another figure several meters away from the ladies. Although the figure wasn't moving and seemed stuck in place, he could still sense an imposing aura coming from it, even without any extraordinary senses.

Concentrating, he tried to identify what he was looking at. It looked like a statue or sculpture, with a part of the body glowing, but it wasn't humanoid.

He could only think of one thing based on the current situation: 'Is that a magic beast? Did those two ladies kill that magic beast? Is that what I sensed before?' Tyler was alarmed and shocked. A magic beast was at least Tier 3, a level at the peak of human strength, and he doubted the possibility of a weak magic beast in the central region of the Demon continent. That was most likely an ultra-rare and extremely dangerous Tier 4 Magic Beast.

Having never seen a magic beast in person, he didn't know much about them except for the ones reported by the Adventurer Guild. He knew they were stronger and more intelligent than other monsters at the same tier.

Since this was the demon continent, if the two ladies were able to kill a magic beast of that level, then they would have to be a Tier 4 Mage, Magic Swordsman, or Warrior. Either way, this might not be a good thing for him.

The only mages and magic swordsmen around would be high-level demons. And with that, all his optimistic plans went out the window. If those two wanted to take the castle, there was no way his measly Tier 1 spells would stop them.

Having no idea what the relationship between humans and demons was in this period, he didn't think it was a good idea to hang around any longer. He needed to retreat back to the underground tunnels for now before he could even attempt to keep an eye on the castle later on.

However, just as he took a step, the bushes and dried leaves on the ground around him rustled, startling him. His first reaction was to hide, but before he could do anything, the white-haired lady turned her gaze towards him, her stare penetrating the distance and landing right on him.