CHAPTER 173: [HERE THE WHOLE TIME]

’Why aren’t they answering me?’

The thought cut through Eli’s head like static. But beneath it was something worse—offness.

Why did everything feel wrong?

His lungs still burned, every breath scraping against his throat as if the water hadn’t fully left him.

His hands trembled where they pressed into the dirt—except it wasn’t stone anymore. Not the jagged, freezing cave floor he remembered. His fingers sank into mud, slick and warm, mixed with ash and crushed leaves.

The air hit different too. No longer thick with salt or blood. No metallic tang of death.

Just the scent of rain,soil, and burned wood.

Eli coughed again, harsh and wet, a line of water dribbling down his chin as he forced the last of it out. His chest heaved. His head pounded.

When he finally looked up, blinking through the blur—

—his breath caught.

The cave was gone.

No stone walls. No echoes. No distant roars or the oppressive dark.

Instead, a vast stretch of forest surrounded him—if it could even be called a forest. The trees here were monstrous, towering high enough to scrape the faint light above. Their trunks were so wide they could swallow houses. Massive roots coiled through the dirt, jutting from the ground like bones of ancient giants.

Some trees had been snapped in half—clean, jagged breaks as if something colossal had crushed them on its way through.

Mist hung in the air, heavy and shimmering with faint mana, twisting in ghostly spirals through the light that filtered weakly from above. The sky—or what passed for one—looked fractured, glimmering faintly like glass.

A shallow lake sprawled at the center of the clearing, dark and rippling. It shimmered faintly under the light, reflecting not the clouds, but something deeper—like the water itself remembered the ocean they had drowned in.

Eli’s heart pounded in his ears.

No serpent.

No thunder.

No movement.

Only the hiss of dripping water from broken branches, and the quiet hum of mana that buzzed faintly against his skin like invisible static.

He swallowed hard. His mind raced, trying to piece together what happened. He’d been drowning. He was sure of it. He’d stopped breathing. Then—

The voice.

The hand.

The name.

"I’m sorry, my Orion."

The memory struck him like a blade twisting through his chest. It was too vivid to be a dream, too real to be a hallucination. His throat tightened, but he forced the thought down. Not now. Not yet.

He needed answers.

Eli pushed himself upright, shaky and unsteady, his soaked clothes clinging to his skin. His legs wobbled as he scanned the clearing—and what he saw made his pulse skip.

Mio was crouched a few feet away beside Zaira, who was wringing her hair dry with trembling fingers. Punzo stood near a half-submerged root, his usual grin nowhere to be found. Jabby was kneeling by Mel, who looked pale but conscious, with Arman steadying him from behind.

They were alive.

All of them.

But the weight of their stares made Eli’s stomach twist.

They were looking at him.

Not with fear. Not quite relief either. Just... confusion. And something else he couldn’t name.

He blinked, throat raw. "What?" he rasped, voice breaking. "Why aren’t you answering me?"

No response.

Their silence felt heavy, almost physical, pressing against his chest harder than the water ever had.

Eli took a step forward, ignoring the ache in his legs. "Where’s Caelen? Where’s Kairo?" he asked again, his tone louder now, desperate.

Still nothing.

Punzo looked away first, scratching the back of his neck with a nervous laugh that didn’t sound real. Jabby’s eyes softened—pity flickering behind the exhaustion. Mio’s jaw flexed as if holding back words he didn’t want to say.

Zaira bit her lip, her voice barely above a whisper. "Eli..."

The silence made his skin crawl.

He looked down at himself—mud-streaked, drenched, shivering. His heartbeat was uneven but steady. His Danger Sense—quiet. Too quiet. No sharp pains, no flashes of red or warning pulses.

Nothing.

No danger.

No anything.

For the first time since entering that cursed dungeon, the silence wasn’t safety. It was emptiness.

His voice came out smaller than he intended. "Where... are we?"

Zaira hesitated, exchanging a glance with Mio before finally answering.

"I... think we’re above the cave," she said softly. "Or... what’s left of it."

’So she can answer. They can all answer. So why the fuck aren’t they answering my question?’

Eli’s gaze followed Zaira’s, down the jagged slope behind them. The ground there was torn apart—splintered rock and upturned soil where the cave mouth must’ve caved in. Water trickled from between the stones, running down into the lake below in thin, trembling streams.

It was the aftermath of chaos.

But the serpent was gone.

Not a trace of its massive body. No scales. No blood. Just destruction and silence, the kind that didn’t feel safe—only wrong.

Eli exhaled shakily, his chest still aching. He tried to piece the timeline together. The lightning. The drowning. The fall. He shouldn’t have been out for long—seconds, maybe a minute.

So how the hell were they suddenly here?

How were they out of the cave entirely?

And why were Kairo and Caelen nowhere in sight?

And why—his jaw tightened—why weren’t they saying anything about it?

He pressed a palm against his temple. His head pounded, the lingering echo of mana static still biting behind his eyes. "Where’s..." He hesitated, his throat dry. "Where’s Kairo and Caelen?"

No one moved.

He forced a breath through his nose, trying again. Louder this time. "I’m serious, guys. Answer me. You’re starting to scare me."

The shift in the air was instant.

Every face in front of him froze.

Mio’s eyes darted to the others, unspoken tension flickering between them. Punzo’s usual grin cracked, faltering into something uncertain. Jabby’s hands—glowing faintly with healing mana over Mel’s shoulder—stilled mid-motion. Mel looked down at the ground, his fingers curling against his knees.

Even Zaira’s mouth opened slightly—then closed again.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Eli’s stomach dropped, a cold weight settling beneath his ribs. "...Why do you all look like that?" he asked again, softer this time, his voice trembling at the edges.

No one met his eyes.

No one answered.

The only sounds were the rustling of leaves overhead and the quiet drip of water into the lake. The forest itself seemed to still, the mist growing thicker, dimmer—like even the world was holding its breath.

Eli felt something twist in his chest. That familiar ache—the slow, creeping dread that came when your mind already knew the truth but refused to accept it.

They were looking at him like people who’d already seen something they couldn’t unsee. Like they wanted to tell him—but couldn’t.

Wouldn’t.

His hands clenched into fists at his sides. "Where are they?"

This time, his tone cracked—laced with anger and disbelief.

He was done with the silence, the pitying looks, the hesitation.

There was no reason to act like this. There wasn’t time for it. Kairo and Caelen were the strongest—untouchable, unstoppable. The kind of hunters who didn’t just die in front of people too weak to save them.

Mio’s voice broke the silence, cautious and strangely uncertain. "Eli... are you joking?"

Eli blinked. "Joking? Why— I don’t understand." His brows furrowed, confusion painting every line of his face. "Why are you asking me if I’m joking? I’m just asking a question."

Mio’s gaze flicked briefly to something—someone—off to the side, then back to Eli. "Yes, but your question, Eli... it doesn’t make sense."

"What?"

The word came out sharp, too fast. His chest was tightening again.

Jabby spoke next, her tone worried as she leaned closer to Arman. "Did he hit his head? Or maybe... the electrocution messed with his memory?"

"It wouldn’t make sense otherwise," Arman muttered, his voice low, but Eli still heard it—clear enough to cut through the fog.

He took a step forward. "What are you saying?" His voice trembled, but anger was threading through it now. "What the hell are you actually saying right now?"

Zaira stepped closer carefully, her expression soft, almost pleading. "Eli, please. Calm down—"

But when she reached out, her fingers brushing his sleeve, Eli flinched back so hard she froze. The touch had felt wrong—too familiar.

For a heartbeat, he wasn’t in that misty forest anymore. He was underwater again—hands on his throat, squeezing, the echo of that voice whispering apologies through the dark.

He jerked his arm away, stumbling a step back, breathing uneven.

"No— no, how can I calm down?" His voice cracked, panic bleeding through the frustration. "You’re all the ones acting weird, not me! You won’t answer my question, you keep looking at me like I’m crazy, and now—"

He swallowed hard, his throat burning. "Now you’re acting like something’s wrong with me?"

The words came out louder than he meant. Echoed.

No one moved.

Zaira’s hand hovered uselessly in the air. Jabby looked down. Even Punzo—loud, reckless Punzo—had his mouth shut, gaze darting between Eli and Mio like he was silently begging someone else to explain what Eli couldn’t see.

Eli’s pulse thundered in his ears. The dread in his chest was back again, crawling up his spine until it pressed like a weight behind his ribs.

’Why are they looking at me like that?’ he thought, panic flickering behind his eyes.

’What do they know that I don’t?’

His heart pounded harder.

And for the first time since waking up, Eli realized something that made his blood run cold—

They weren’t just confused.

They were afraid.

"Eli..." Zaira whispered, her voice trembling but firm, eyes locked on him with an intensity that made his breath catch.

He blinked, throat dry. "W-What...?"

Zaira hesitated, glancing toward the others before meeting his gaze again. Her voice dropped lower, almost afraid to say it. "Captain... and Lion’s Fang’s captain."

Eli’s pulse spiked. "What about them? What happened to them?"

Zaira’s lips parted, but no sound came out for a second. When she finally spoke, her words were soft—too soft.

"They’ve been here the whole time, Eli."