The car came to a sudden crawl, wheels crunching gravel as the dense gray veil of fog swallowed the path ahead. It rolled in like a predator, slow and suffocating, cloaking the world in whispers.
Julius narrowed his eyes. This wasn't an ordinary mist. The transparent curtain caused people to hallucinate and see illusions.
"The Whispering Fog. We've arrived," Mister Lin said, stopping the car engines completely before he came down from the front.
Julius came down with his bag and adjusted his cap. His purple eyes surveyed the surroundings in detail.
The fog seemed to go thicker as one went to the left. Meanwhile, in front of them was a straight road leading away from the forest.
"Alright, gather around!" Lin suddenly called all of them to the back of the truck.
As Julius reached there, he suddenly saw the final member of the team.
It was a man who seemed to be in his early thirties, with a brown beard and thick full hair, giving him a bestial appearance.
His eyes were sharp and ruthless, and the scar running from his nose to his ear made it look like he had fought wars.
"There are several gallons of water here and items for survival. I think it'll do," Lin said, pulling out a small sack from his pocket.
All of a sudden, the items vanished from behind the car as if they were sucked by a black hole.
Except that this black hole was the small pouch that Lin held in his hands.
The small pouch was tied to his waist, and he smiled at everyone.
"It's a gift from the king himself. Very handy," Lin said, walking forward.
Soon he reached Julius' side, and then he gave the purple-eyed man something.
"You don't have a weapon, right? Use this," he said, giving Julius a revolver which had a long barrel.
Julius took it with a smile and then he took a look at it.
The gun had a silver body with a wooden frame. He put it in his jacket and then he thanked the historian.
The party ventured into the mist slowly, holding up lanterns in their hands. They couldn't exactly drive into it as there were a multitude of trees in the forest.
"Since we arrived at morning, it should be safe for now. Let's go," Lin said, allowing the man with a scar on his face to walk past him.
Looking ahead, Julius sucked in the cold breath.
A ghostly curtain blanketed the trees and cliffs, shifting and breathing like a living thing. Visibility dropped to less than ten feet. The forest groaned beneath the weight of silence.
Myrrh leaned forward. "We've hit the fog line," she said quietly, as if louder words might invite something unwelcome.
Julius blinked, pretending concern, but inside, he was thrilled.
'Finally...'
The Whispering Fog.
He had written it as a natural phenomenon, but in truth, it was far more insidious—a relic of a battle between the Second Wonder and an Archdemon, where souls never found rest. A cursed domain of the undead.
Of course, no one knew that, not even the historian. Anyone who ventured too far in to experience the horrors of the forest would never return. But he knew a way out.
"Alright, like we discussed." Lin made a call, and then Julius pulled out earplugs.
The Whispering Fog did not have the 'whispering' in its name for no reason.
It spoke to those who ventured into the forest. Not aloud, but within—memories, regrets, guilt... it whispered them back to you. Tailored lies, personalized truths. Many who entered turned on their allies. Some never left.
Lin looked back at Julius and nodded to the young man. Julius let out a sigh and walked forward, beyond them, pulling out a lantern from his back as the car's lamps went out.
He stood side by side with the beastly warden who was a mystery so far.
Then they began walking.
The sounds of little stones being brushed inside the unnatural black sand reached their ears with every step.
Julius' heart skipped a beat when he heard a faint cry, and he looked to the side, and what he saw made him frown.
By the side of a black tree, he saw his mother sitting on a chair, smiling at him and crying.
His mother from his original world.
"Julius, please don't go. I'm sorry for not being a good mother to you. I can treat you better. Come here," she said, extending her arms to him.
Julius blinked, his expression turning cold as he ignored the visage of his mother.
'Fuck, I knew these earplugs weren't going to work,' he said, looking around.
Julius heard a child laughing behind him. Familiar. Painfully so.
'No. Not now.' He gritted his teeth hard.
But he smiled instead. Let the others think the fog was getting to him. He could use this.
Aldren began twitching. Myrrh looked pale. Raine... unreadable as ever.
Aldren was the first one to snap.
"You were going to let me die!" he shouted, turning on Raine with glowing eyes. "I saw it! In the mist. You walked away and left me!"
Raine didn't flinch. "You're hallucinating."
"I'm not!"
Aldren opened his hand, and a long sword appeared in his hands. Raine kept his usual unreadable expression as glowing light shone in his hands, forming two long daggers.
'Artifacts,' Julius thought, looking at the weapons that they pulled out.
Lin stepped between them with a calm expression on his face.
"We're just starting the expedition, get yourself together!" Lin shouted, an angry expression on his face.
He placed a hand on Aldren's shoulder, injecting a small surge of life points—just enough to stir him out of the illusions to ease the pressure on his mind. Aldren staggered, confusion softening his rage.
Julius observed the cheerful historian. This was the first time that he ever saw the man get angry.
Historians in this world are mostly wardens who could traverse treacherous landscapes with ease. When he found out that the historian was a mere mundane person, he thought the man was out of his mind.
Competition was a very dangerous thing. If this man were to discover the world's third rebirth stone, then he'll be extremely famous and might even surpass the trending historians.
And he was going to exploit this determination to the last.
The party continued forward, heading deeper and deeper into the foggy forest. Julius wasn't forgetting to mark the path they were taking.
Lin, on the other hand, was doing something even more impressive. He was leaving a rope tied to the vehicle and had been letting it loose for hundreds of meters now.
It was a marvel that the small pouch in his hand could store that much.
'Meeting him was the best thing that's happened to me now,' Julius smirked.
He pulled out a pocket watch and flipped it open, looking at the time.
"One hour to morning. Let's set camp," Lin said with a calm voice and looked up at the trees.
No one objected and prepared to get settled.
"We're being followed, tracked," Raine's cold voice suddenly reached their ears.
"What is it?" Lin asked, adjusting his coat and pulling out a long shotgun.
"It's a wolf, probably a shadow hound. It's coming fast." Raine summoned his daggers again, and this time, Myrrh summoned a bow and leapt from the ground, reaching over a hundred meters in one jump.
She landed on the branch of the tree. The bow was golden, and a white glowing arrow formed on the bow.
Julius was fascinated by all of this. He was about to watch a warden party fight off the dangerous creatures of the otherworld.
He couldn't help but wonder what abilities their awakened stories gave them.
Myrrh attached a rope to the top of the tree, and Lin was the first one to climb up.
Luckily for them, the strange creature didn't find them on time, and they were all atop the tree branch.
The wardens had dismissed their weapons and their white uniforms. A loud howl suddenly reached their ears, and the man with the scar suddenly relaxed.
"Don't worry, those creatures won't be able to reach us up here," the man's voice came forward.
"Don't worry, the echoes would take care of them," Lin said, pulling out a sandwich and eating.
They had discussed various things before they came here. They couldn't stay on the ground at morning and would only travel at night.
The echoes were a species that dwelled deep inside the valley. They are basically undead creatures with supernatural strength.
Outside of the empire, they weren't under the magical glare of the artificial sunlight, so the sky was pitch black, casting darkness on the ground below.
Lin slapped glowing papers around them in their small camp. Tents were pitched in silence, weapons kept close.
Julius sat by the fire later, watching the flames flicker through the mist. No one spoke much. They were each lost in their own whispered pasts; they all saw something in the mist, but they all kept quiet.
He felt the fog pressing at the edge of his mind—trying to claw into places he'd locked away. But he had one advantage the others didn't.
He had written this place.
He knew which memories were real and which were planted.
The fog didn't control him.
But he would let it try… just to see how far others would fall.
...
Growling caught their attention later, and they all looked down. There was a large, two-metre-tall wolf with pitch-black fur walking towards their tree with slow steps.
The tree also had the glowing papers, so they were able to see the creature very clearly.
All of a sudden, the soil started to move and human hands burst out of them. The hound suddenly let out a howl, vanishing right there.
This was one of the abilities of this creature. It could be invisible in the shadows.
Julius chuckled, making everyone look at him.
"I'm only just understanding the danger of this journey. I could die," he mumbled.
Aldren laughed at his statement, shaking his head.
"This is nothing compared to the garden. Out there, everything tries to kill you. Only the toughest survive," the man said, looking down.
The human figures became disfigured humans. Some were missing an eye, while some were missing large chunks of flesh.
It was all so revolting to look at.
Their mangled flesh sometimes fell apart, and their bones sometimes snapped randomly.
A low growl resounded in the area, drawing the attention of the echo spawns.
A black wolf suddenly appeared out of the darkness, lunging at one of the disgusting spawns.
But it was making a huge mistake. Why would simple undead creatures be so feared that wardens avoid coming here at all?
What was so dangerous about them?
Well...
The wolf struck at one of the spawns with its claws, tearing its shoulder apart.
In that instant, a whimper could be heard, and a deep claw mark appeared on its own shoulder.
Well... Any attack upon them was reflected. That's why the spawns were so dangerous. And that was why the wolf would die today.
The black beast suddenly vanished into the darkness again. It seemed angry at the wound it had just received.
It lunged again, this time its entire paw burst through the spawn's chest.
The zombie turned around, a low cry came from its mouth as it put on a small smile, and all of a sudden, the wolf's chest burst open.
'Damn, I think I went too far designing this place.' Julius smiled bitterly.