NOVPUBThere were still over ten meters between Saul and the two consciousness bodies that hadn’t been covered by Golden Dust. Just as Saul was about to pull out his last Golden Dust scroll and dash the remaining distance himself, Agu traced a curve through the air with his hand.
A Second Rank spell—Golden Dust—immediately appeared between the two sides.
He was opening a path.
With Saul and Agu setting the example, An raised her hand and yanked off her right ear with force. “Golden Dust consumes too much magic. I’ll clear the way instead!”
She stretched her palm toward Saul. Her bloodied ear instantly melted into pulp. 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓅𝓊𝓫.𝒸ℴ𝓶
From that slurry, thin blood threads extended, like strands of hair, swiftly weaving toward Saul’s location.
When Saul looked up, he saw a mass of blood-red threads swarming toward him.
He didn’t move a muscle and allowed the blood threads to wrap around him.
They didn’t harm him—instead, they gently coiled around his waist, lifting him into the air. More threads stretched around him, acting as guards on all sides.
Then the threads tightened rapidly and whisked Saul over to An and Agu’s side.
“Golden Dust won’t last long. We move now!”
Though the appearance of the pale humanoids had been consistently interrupted by the Golden Dust, the spell could only buy time—it couldn’t eliminate the threat.
Agu immediately added, “I remember the forest thinning out in that direction earlier—we should be close to getting out.”
Where the pale figures had stood, there had always been trees, vines, or thick underbrush. If they could just get out of the forest—or find a large clearing like the one Mark once used to hide—they should be able to shake off the pale forms.
Golden Dust wasn’t among the most expensive of Second Rank spell scrolls. Being a support-type spell, Saul had stocked up on them in his compression bag, just in case of unpredictable dangers in the Elven Valley.
This was a luxury he could only afford after officially becoming Gorsa’s apprentice. Ever since then, his wallet had seen more income than expenses, allowing him a noticeable upgrade in spending.
But now, only one Golden Dust scroll remained. To leave himself a backup option, the task of clearing the way would fall to An and her blood threads from here on.
They ran in the direction Agu indicated for about ten minutes. The surrounding plants began to grow taller and lusher again, and at last, the crunching sound of barefoot pale figures stepping on grass faded from behind them.
“Huff… Huff…” The trio stopped at a clearing where the trees were spaced farther apart.
All three looked worn.
“How are your soul bodies holding up? Any signs of recovery?” Saul wiped the cold sweat from his brow and asked the others.
“No good,” Agu’s expression was grim. “My soul body is heavily rattled. I can maybe cast two more Second Rank spells. Any more, and I’ll blow up right where I stand.”
Their soul vessels hid how damaged their inner states were. If even their outward expressions had grown this pale, their soul must’ve been severely injured.
Saul’s face darkened as he turned to An. “How about you? If you can’t hold on, say so immediately. I’ll send you back.”
An swayed unsteadily, then dropped to the ground altogether. “No need… Let me catch my breath. I can still go on. If I go back now, I won’t be able to help you at all before you leave the valley.”
She looked up at Saul and forced a charming smile. “Master, please squeeze the last drop of magic out of me~”
Seeing that An couldn’t even stand properly, Saul grew worried. He ignored her little ploys and bent down to pick her up in his arms.
His own soul body had also been trembling continuously, but Saul had trained himself to keep the tremors rhythmic.
If the tremors followed a rhythm, they were easier to endure. It was like swinging back and forth on a swing, or bouncing on spring shoes—it made it all less painful.
“When those humanoids first appeared, they used ranged attacks, but they haven’t used them since. Maybe those attacks have a cooldown,” Saul said as he carried An and kept moving with Agu to find a way out of the forest.
“If we run into that many again, don’t fight. Just run.”
The two soul bodies nodded.
Their enemies were straight-up cheating. They had no desire for another clash.
“Kongsha and her team have been here for over half a year. Unless they were constantly running and never surrounded the way we just were, there’s no way their soul bodies could still be stable.”
Saul’s grip tightened. “There must be a way to recover from the tremors—they just didn’t tell me!”
He wasn’t angry. Before entering the valley, he’d already come to terms with this: not everyone could be as clear-headed as Senior Byron, or understand the strength of unity.
Most people still clung to the belief that “as long as I run faster than you, I’ll live longer.”
“Master, look!” Agu suddenly pointed ahead and shouted.
Saul immediately turned his head, ready to bolt if more pale figures had appeared.
But instead, he saw that the trees, though not sparse, abruptly vanished about a dozen meters ahead. The green ground gave way to cracked, dark-brown soil.
It looked as if a transparent barrier had sliced the world in half.
Beyond that barrier, the earth was scorched and dead. Not a single blade of grass or tree remained.
The land was shrouded in chaotic darkness.
Though sunlight poured freely over it, it was devoured completely—no reflection, no shine.
Even the wind stopped at the forest’s edge. It bent around the last tree and turned back the way it came.
“That’s the Dead Season?” Saul took two steps toward the dark terrain.
“Be careful, Master. It’s best not to enter rashly,” Agu warned quickly from behind.
But Saul said, “Still, we need to check it out. Right now, what gives Kongsha and the others an edge is information. We can’t just sit and wait for danger to come before we act.”
Agu nodded and sped up, moving to Saul’s side and slightly ahead.
He was offering to scout ahead for him.
As they reached the forest’s edge, Saul followed the stark boundary between green forest and black soil with his eyes and saw, several kilometers away, a palace standing still and silent.
“That must be the palace Mark mentioned?” The other side was silent, nothing seemed off. Saul spoke inwardly to the diary, “Is the reason you brought me here inside that palace?”
The diary made no sound.
“Fine, then let me ask you this instead—if I don’t go into that palace, will I die?”
The diary stayed silent.
“So it’s not even tied to that suspicious-looking palace?” Saul’s thoughts raced. He flipped to the last page with writing in the diary. “They were ambushed right after entering the palace. Before that, it didn't seem like anyone had died.”
“Everything changed with the palace. But now that I’m considering not going in, the diary gives no warning?”
Staring at the diary’s words, Saul muttered again.
“Madness is what invited me… Could the true turning point be madness?”
The maddest one here was, without a doubt—Kongsha.
She had already seen how terrifying the Forest of Four Seasons was the first time, yet still dared to bring a second group in.
Let alone the thing currently perched on Kongsha’s neck!
“I still don’t know why Kongsha’s face became a perfect face. But I suspect it has something to do with the elves’ lost treasure!” Agu was helping Saul analyze now. “That palace is dangerous. In our current condition, we shouldn’t enter.”
That face looked vivid and lifelike, its skin texture and expressions remarkably real. If Saul hadn’t known that wasn’t how Kongsha looked, he might’ve mistaken it for the real thing.
“So… is that an actual head? Or some sort of mask? Should I rescue Kongsha, or snatch something from her? Am I supposed to steal that eerie yet beautiful head?”
Ideally, they could enter the palace first, figure out what was stolen, resolve the hunting threat, and then, once the seal over the valley lifted, leave with both Kongsha and that head.
But if the hunts truly stemmed from the palace’s lost treasure, going back in might be like throwing themselves into the lion’s den.
Even if they managed to escape, they’d be battered and broken.
Just then, An tensed up in his arms.
“Master, look behind us!”
An, who’d been enduring dizziness while staying alert, tapped Saul’s chest and pointed back.
A chill ran down Saul’s spine. He turned instantly and saw more pale humanoids emerging in the distance.
The sparse trees were transforming, one by one, into eerie figures, steadily approaching.
Saul narrowed his eyes and gave a firm command without hesitation: “We enter the Dead Season first!”
No trees in the Dead Season!
(End of Chapter)
