CHAPTER 248: CHAPTER 247 - SOLDIERS OF HECTOR KINGDOM.

The evening mist curled between crooked trees, seeping through roots like silent breath. Ember-flakes drifted lazily from the canopy above, casting warm orange glows across the group’s impromptu camp.

They had settled beneath a half-collapsed stone arch, probably once part of an ancient ruin now overtaken by corrupted bark and ivy.

Vines glowed faintly in the dimness, occasionally pulsing as if something beneath the forest floor was breathing.

Clara was leaning back on a chunk of stone, waving her whip-like sword for no real reason.

Jessy had dismantled part of her metal board to tinker with its magnetic core.

Graye, unsurprisingly, had made a mini bonfire with a theatrical swoosh of flame and was roasting something that looked suspiciously like corrupted squirrel meat.

That act from Graye, however, had traumatized Nibbles to the point that he ran away with Cluckles and the panther-like beast, wanting to catch some fresh air.

Now left alone, Alex was busy arguing with Blargh over whether lava-flavored tea was a real thing.

Meanwhile, Lia sat in the corner with Planty nestled in her lap, talking in hushed tones to her potted companion like a mother sharing bedtime secrets.

"...and if we ever meet another tree like you, promise not to fight, okay?" She whispered, patting its mossy leaves. "Even if they’re rude."

Planty vibrated ominously.

Then—like a ripple through a shadow—Jake appeared beside Raven without a sound.

He emerged from the forest gloom like a living whisper, startling a nearby cricket into a panic spiral.

Raven blinked. "What’s up?"

Jake nodded once, his voice calm and low. "Hector Kingdom’s soldiers. They are about five hundred meters east, running toward us."

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

Lia’s eyes widened. "Wait—What? A soldier?"

She gently set Planty aside and stood. "They won’t come here unless they are forced to, as no soldier is strong enough to survive here."

Raven also frowned, as he knew that Lia’s words were true. "What could you tell from looking at them, Jake?"

Jake, without a change in his expression, replied, "They were panicked."

But before any of them could move, Jessy lifted a hand lazily.

"Hold up. I know the whole ’hero complex’ thing runs deep with some of us..." She looked at Raven. "But aren’t we technically dead? To the world, I mean. Won’t showing up cause problems?"

Selena leaned back against the arch, arms crossed and gaze sharp. "No one in Hector knows how we look. Even if we are famous, and everyone knows our name, we haven’t shown our faces in public."

Clara nodded. "I bet there are people even in Velmoria who don’t know what we look like, so there’s no way some soldiers of another nation would recognize us with a look."

Rufus chimed in, his eyes bright with expectation as he munched on something crunchy. "I can finally put the secret code names I had made to use."

"Yeah, I won’t be so sure about that," Raven said with a shake of his head, standing and stretching. "I’ll go check. You all stay here. Keep the fire warm, and someone stop Graye from roasting that... whatever it is."

Graye held up the half-charred meat like a prize. "It winked at me, I swear."

Alex muttered, "That’s a muscle spasm. You cooked it alive again."

Ignoring the chaos behind him, Raven glanced at Jake. "You coming?"

Jake had already vanished back into the shadows before the words left Raven’s mouth.

Lia stepped forward. "I’m coming too."

Raven raised a brow at her words, rubbing his chin. "You can’t. Your features make it clear that you are from the Hector royal family."

"But—" Lia tried to object, but Raven raised a hand.

"Of course, there’s a way you could come along, but..."

"I’ll do it!" Lia replied before Raven could even complete his words, making the guy grin widely.

..............................

A few minutes ago.

Some distance away from the group, the sound of boots slamming into dirt echoed through the haunted forest like the drumbeat of a desperate war march.

Five soldiers ran—no, stumbled—through the twisted underbrush of the border woods, lungs burning, armor dented, and eyes wild with panic.

The once-familiar forest of the Hector Kingdom had warped around them, and somewhere between one breath and the next, they had crossed a line they were never meant to pass.

"This... This isn’t Hector anymore!" One of them gasped, shoving aside a branch veined with glowing fungus.

Private Darion, barely seventeen, tripped over a twisted root, his face slamming into ash-covered soil.

Sergeant Malik quickly pulled him up without a word.

However, none of them said anything.

It wasn’t the silence of discipline anymore; it was terror.

The sky was darker here. The clouds hung lower. The air was heavier. The trees were still green but pale, spiraling things with bark like bone and leaves that hissed in the wind.

They had entered the Ashen Woodland.

"Th-The corrupted forest...?" Whispered Riel, the medic, her breath shallow. "We—We crossed the line?"

Stepping into the corrupted land was a death sentence for weak soldiers, and although she was a healer, she couldn’t do anything in this forest.

"We didn’t mean to," Malik growled. "We were just trying to get away..."

Another soldier—Master Sergeant Torman—pressed a bleeding arm to his chest, eyes scanning the gloom.

"They’ll follow us," he muttered. "Those black-robed freaks. They made it seem like they weren’t after us and that their goal was someone else, but they merely wanted to kill us."

"Didn’t even say a word..." Darion added, his voice cracking. "We said we were soldiers and what our purpose here was. We didn’t even draw weapons. Yet, they cut down Roven and Jax like pigs."

The words fell like stones into a still lake as they recalled what had happened.

They were more than sixty in number, moving in a group, yet those assassins, around ten people, killed all of them.

These five were the only ones who could escape, but they could feel the assassins following them.

They could hear their snickering.

Those assassins were hunting them down, playing with them. These five soldiers were entertainment for them.

They stopped in a clearing at the base of a hill, breath ragged, hearts pounding. The oppressive pressure of the Ashen Woodland was unbearable. Their skin itched. Their heads buzzed with unseen whispers.

"We can’t stay here..." Malik said. "Or either this place or those freaks will kill us."

"But we have to keep looking," Torman replied grimly. "If the young princess was seen near the border woods, and they’re sending assassins in..."

"You think those freaks are after her?"

"Of course they are," Malik answered. "Why else attack soldiers without warning? They wanted to eliminate any variable. But if she wandered into this forest..."

They didn’t finish the thought.

The one they were searching for was the young princess of the Hector Kingdom, the younger sister of Prince Leo and Princess Lia.

She, who had never left the royal palace before, had suddenly gone missing a while ago.

For a while, there was no clue of her whereabouts, but then, the news of her being sighted in the Hector Great Forest started spreading like wildfire.

The king dispatched his information gatherers to verify the truth of the rumors, and it turned out to be true.

As soon as it was confirmed, the king didn’t delay and sent three-fourths of the kingdom’s soldiers to conduct an extensive search for the princess throughout the forest while avoiding the beasts.

Who would’ve thought that instead of finding the princess, they would be ambushed by assassins?

What was happening? Were the other groups safe? Did they even have a hope of being rescued?

None of the questions could be answered, but they still hoped for a rescue.

Darion suddenly wheezed, collapsing to one knee. "S-Sergeant... I can’t... breathe..."

His hands clutched at his chest.

The others weren’t doing much better. The air here was soaked in corrupted mana—thick and oily, like invisible sludge crawling into their lungs.

Their armor felt heavier. Limbs slower. Vision dimmer.

Their bodies were giving in, as they weren’t strong enough for all of this.

Even the Senior Sergeant was only a layer-three knight.

"Don’t breathe deep. Short inhales," Riel warned while using her healing magic on the boy, helping him ease his nerves. "Like we trained."

Even so, the edges of their vision pulsed with shadow.

They needed to get out.

Malik pointed to a sloped ridge. "Up there. If we get high enough, we might get a signal flare through the canopy."

The others nodded and followed—but just as they reached the halfway point of the slope—

ROOOOOOAAAAARRR!!!

The trees shuddered. The ground trembled. Birds—or things that used to be birds—burst from the branches with shrill screeches, vanishing into the sky.

A massive form tore through the foliage downhill.

Its body was a misshapen fusion of fur, scale, and bone. Eight legs, three heads—none of them the same—and a tail that lashed like a scorpion’s stinger. Its eyes glowed with virulent green light, and its breath leaked black smoke into the air like a living forge of death.

Corruption oozed from its pores like sweat.

The soldiers froze.

Not because they wanted to. Not because they lacked courage.

But because they couldn’t move. Their muscles seized. Their bodies refused to obey.

The beast’s corrupted aura weighed on them like gravity. Even blinking became difficult.

"W-We’re dead..." Darion whimpered.

The monster let out a guttural snarl, acidic drool hissing as it struck the soil, carving a blackened trail of rot.

It charged.

The ground split.

BOOM.

It was so fast and massive that they couldn’t even think of anything for a second.

Then, Malik reached for his flare—not to fight, but to signal.

Maybe the rescue had arrived and they would answer their call.

His hand shook.

He pressed the runestone flare and aimed it at the sky.

The moment his thumb pushed the mana slot—

FWOOOSH!

A brilliant red signal tore through the air like a blood-soaked comet, screaming above the twisted trees.

The corrupted beast roared again—this time in anger, having noticed the signal.

Its charge became a sprint.

Closer.

Closer—

SPLAAANG!

An invisible pressure slammed into the soldiers.

Something, or more like someone, had appeared.

The corrupted beast froze mid-charge—skidding through soil and kicking up boulders as it twisted around to face the new arrival. Its snarl turned to confusion.

Because there, standing between the soldiers and the monster, hand raised, coat fluttering—

—Was a young man with eyes like blood stars.

Raven had arrived.

With one hand still casually in his pocket, he glanced back at the soldiers.

"...You all look like you could use a breather."

The corrupted beast lunged.

But Raven was faster.

In a blur of black and flame-tipped motion, he launched himself upward, spun midair, and slammed his foot into the beast’s central head like a hammer to an egg.

CRACK!

The skull caved. The entire monster collapsed sideways, skidding and shrieking in pain. The trees around it shattered from the impact.

The soldiers stared, slack-jawed.

Raven landed, flicking a bit of slime off his boot.

"Gross."