For those who walk the road alone.

Thick tentacles crashed down upon the deck again and again with terrifying force. The defensive runes covering the hull flashed madly as they resisted the direct impacts, but many Demonkind soldiers failed to dodge the blows in time and were crushed into pulp. Blood and splintered bone ran across the deck.

The warship pitched violently beneath the blows. The Demonkind soldiers had to cling desperately to ropes, masts, or anything else fixed in place to keep from being thrown into the sea.

The Kyth Sixclaws, by contrast, displayed astonishing adaptability. Their sharp claws sank into the planks like iron hooks, giving them far surer footing on the tilting, bucking deck than the Demonkind.

Above them, the two enormous Kyth Evil Eyes unleashed [Petrifying Ray] without pause.

Gray-white beams swept across the deck, partially petrifying scores of Demonkind soldiers. With their movement impaired, they could no longer keep their balance amid the ship’s violent rocking. They tumbled screaming into the sea, where the Kyth waiting beneath the surface tore them apart with ease.

The Vampire Viscount’s expression darkened.

He chanted Flameburst, sending a blazing fireball into one of the tentacles. The stench of scorched flesh spread through the air, but the attack failed to inflict a fatal wound. The tentacle’s flesh regenerated at astonishing speed. By the time the viscount cast his second spell, a substantial portion of the damage had already healed.

He changed targets and fired a Flame Arrow at one of the Kyth Evil Eyes, only for its blue Mana Shield to absorb the attack with little more than a ripple.

Yet the viscount was not the only Diamond-rank fighter aboard the three ships.

Nor were the tribes’ senior warriors a match for the Veiled Empire’s elite troops.

On another Bonehull-class escort ship, a formidable Diamond-rank Horned Demon made his decision.

Ignoring the tentacles wrapped around his own vessel, he kicked off the deck with both legs. His hulking body shot skyward like a cannonball, and his spear pierced the air with a shriek before plunging deep into the eyeball of a Kyth Evil Eye.

With one of them grievously wounded, both Kyth Evil Eyes climbed rapidly, directing their Petrifying Rays at the Horned Demon. Gray-white stone began spreading over his armor and skin.

The Horned Demon showed no intention of letting go. Instead, he dragged the spear through the eye, trying to kill it outright.

The viscount was about to take flight and assist him when the surrounding temperature abruptly plummeted.

He turned and saw Lord Hess, the Demonborn wreathed in flowing ice-blue demon sigils, finally emerge from the private cabin engraved with sealing runes.

The viscount knew Lord Hess had not stayed out of the battle by choice. He simply could not leave the cabin lightly.

Lord Hess stood among the strongest of the Paragon rank, but his power was extraordinarily difficult to control.

The moment he left the sealing runes behind, the cold leaking from his body could freeze the sea and trap the very ship beneath his feet.

Just then, a massive tentacle came crashing down again. Hess stepped forward without dodging and placed himself directly beneath it.

He raised one arm.

With a muffled boom, he caught the enormous tentacle, stopping a blow powerful enough to shatter a reef.

“Since when did the sea have so many disgusting things in it?”

Biting cold spread rapidly from the point of contact. The tentacle’s flesh lost its vitality and became sheathed in thick ice. Within seconds, the entire limb had frozen into a rigid pillar.

Even the Vampire Viscount had to retreat to avoid being injured by the cold spilling from Hess.

The dreadful chill did not stop there. It traveled down the frozen tentacle and spread across the surface of the sea.

Cracks rang out in rapid succession as vast stretches of water visibly solidified into hard ice, as though the battlefield had been dragged into the Far Northern Icefield in an instant.

Hess exerted his strength. With a sharp crack, he snapped the gigantic frozen tentacle in two.

Then he swung the severed limb around with both arms and hurled the icy mass, larger than a battering ram, into the sky.

The ice pillar tore through the air and struck the Kyth Evil Eye grappling with the Horned Demon. With a dull impact, the creature burst apart in a spray of viscous fluid. The Horned Demon plummeted onto the frozen sea below.

…

The sight filled the Kyth Heart with anguish.

Ever since that mushroom had driven it into unfamiliar waters and robbed it of its final precious chance to create an Offshoot, the Kyth Heart had lived like a terrified beast forever waiting for the hunter’s bolt to fall.

It cautiously avoided the terrifying presences of the deep-sea behemoths and operated only along the relatively barren, safer fringes. Like the lowliest scavenger, it preyed upon ordinary sea beasts and isolated Mermaids.

Little by little, it had struggled to rebuild its strength.

Ordinarily, it would never attack a ship, not even one sailing alone.

It was no longer the ignorant predator that had once acted without restraint.

It had learned patience. It had learned to weigh the consequences.

It knew that attacking ships might draw the attention of powerful beings from the land, foes it could never hope to withstand.

But this time, the energy radiating from those Demonkind warships had been far too abundant. It was the sweetest bait in the darkness, awakening a hunger the Kyth could not suppress.

And the moment it attacked, it provoked an enemy far beyond its ability to overwhelm.

Its painstakingly cultivated Kyth Mawtentacles had suffered grievous damage. A precious Kyth Evil Eye had been destroyed. Its elite Kyth Sixclaws were being slaughtered across the decks.

How could it not feel the loss?

That damned mushroom was probably occupying its former nest even now, spreading its mycelial mat without restraint and multiplying its mushrooms.

And the Kyth?

It was about to lose the meager strength it had worked so hard to rebuild.

At this rate, it would never accumulate enough power to return and take revenge on the mushroom. One day, some unforeseen disaster would erase it from the cold ocean without a sound, leaving no trace that it had ever existed.

After failure upon failure, defeat and despair welled within the Kyth.

Perhaps… it should simply let it go.

It could abandon its impossible hatred, find the remotest trench in the sea, and hide there. It would catch a few small fish and shrimp each day and cling to life.

Whenever it sensed the mushroom’s hyphae or Puffcaps spreading closer, it could flee a little deeper and farther away…

The sea was vast. Surely there would always be some corner where it could survive.

That… did not seem so bad.

After all… how could it possibly defeat a monster like that mushroom?

It has far more mushrooms than I have insects, and it can steal my insects’ abilities.

It killed that Kyth Mawtentacle last time. It must have grown much stronger…

Just give up. It would be easier to give up.

But…

How could it ever accept that?!

That mushroom had toyed with it, devoured it, driven it from its home like a denless beast, and forced it to struggle for survival in this cold, dark, perilous ocean.

That mushroom!

How could the Kyth endure watching its enemy thrive and grow stronger upon land that had once belonged to it, while it survived like some lowly insect, forever hiding and fleeing?

Devour it. Devour it. Devour it!

It would devour that mushroom!

But first, it would devour these ships!

Several thunderous booms rang out like collapsing icebergs, and the frozen sea exploded.

Thick tentacles tipped with hideous maws burst through the ice amid a storm of frozen shards. Brimming with murderous fury, they writhed like colossal serpents and smashed down together upon the Demonkind warships.

The last surviving Kyth Evil Eye abandoned its cautious, evasive tactics. Pale light blazed within its enormous eye as it charged recklessly toward Hess at the bow, intent on taking him down with it.

The remaining Kyth Sixclaws on the decks seemed to have received an order to die. They unleashed frenzied roars, cast aside all defense, and swarmed forward.

Yet reality’s cruelty would not yield before determination alone.

Had Hess faced this furious counterattack by himself, he might truly have been drawn into a bitter fight. But behind him stood an entire Demonkind fleet.

“Hold back these insects!” the Vampire Viscount shouted.

He led the elite soldiers in forming a defensive line. Sword light and spells intertwined as they stopped the Kyth Sixclaws’ suicidal charge in its tracks.

The diving Kyth Evil Eye was targeted by the Diamond-rank shadow mage aboard another vessel. Attack magic circles lit up along both sides of the ship, and Arcane Missiles and Corrosive Rays poured against its shield like a driving storm.

The blue Mana Shield flickered violently, already on the verge of collapse.

At the bow, Hess faced the flailing colossal tentacles with nothing but curiosity in his eyes.

“Instead of fleeing, it can coordinate its forces and launch an organized last stand… The more I see of this monster, the more interesting it becomes.”

A tentacle swept toward him.

“Throwing a tantrum, are we, little octopus?”

A faint smile tugged at Hess’s lips. The surrounding cold condensed around his right fist, and he met the tentacle with a simple, brutal punch.

But then…

Whoosh!

The tentacle did not freeze and shatter as expected.

Instead, Hess himself was knocked violently into the air, his body tracing an arc across the sky.

“My lord?!” The Vampire Viscount turned in horror as he noticed the sudden reversal. “Impossible! What happ…”

Whoosh!

The shriek of an arrow slicing through the air cut off his exclamation.

In the instant he was distracted by the sight of his commanding officer being hurled away, a silver arrow formed entirely from highly compressed Mana tore through his chest at incredible speed.

The arrow even carried holy damage.

The viscount staggered and dropped to one knee, staring in disbelief toward the direction from which it had come.

Far along the horizon, a plain-looking ship as large as a Bonehull-class vessel had appeared without anyone noticing.

“From… from that distance… impossible…”

They were separated by an immense stretch of sea. He could not understand how the enemy had struck him from so far away.

Another flash of silver appeared in the distance, filling him with dread.

The viscount struggled to conjure a blood shield before him, but the wound through his chest slowed him for one fatal instant.

The blood shield formed a fraction too late.

The second silver arrow slipped past it and pierced him directly between the eyes.

Darkness rapidly consumed his awareness. As he toppled backward, the last thing reflected in his blurring vision was Lord Hess’s back as the Demonborn roared and fought furiously against several raging tentacles in midair.

Yet Lord Hess’s right arm now hung limply before him.

An identical silver arrow was lodged in it.

The Church’s vessel remained far from the battlefield, cruising cautiously at the edge of the conflict to avoid being drawn into the chaos.

At the bow, Mana streamed continuously into Sophia’s gloves, condensing into arrow after arrow. Her bowstring thrummed without pause, each note sending a silver streak across the vast distance toward the Demonkind on the battlefield.

This ability to strike from nearly beyond visual range, combined with the exceptional maritime mobility granted to the ship by the [Ocean Scepter (Incomplete)], was the main reason Priest Samuel had ultimately agreed to investigate.

Sophia’s ambush had achieved remarkable results. She had crippled one arm of a Paragon-rank Demonborn and killed a Diamond-rank Vampire on the spot.

Even so, the Demonkind had not been defeated. Their resistance remained fierce.

The Paragon-rank Demonborn in particular possessed strength far beyond the ordinary. Only Sophia’s first unexpected arrow had managed to wound him. Every subsequent arrow she aimed his way was either shattered by a punch or intercepted in midair by freezing cold, all while he continued his furious struggle against the Kyth tentacles.

After several fruitless attempts, Sophia decisively changed targets. Her lethal silver arrows turned toward the other Demonkind officers and the casters attached to critical units.

Each flash of silver left another figure in the distant Demonkind formation unable to fight.

Samuel had cast a full complement of enhancement spells on Sophia before the battle began, but beyond that, he and the others could do little more than watch.

This long-range hunt belonged to the Hero alone.

Bella braced both hands against the gunwale and narrowed her eyes. A faint silver radiance leaked from them as she strained to make out the distant, chaotic battlefield.

“What an… unpleasant color. There’s something deeply wrong about those insects.”

Through her unusual sight, every Kyth and Kyth creation, whether a Kyth Sixclaw, Kyth Evil Eye, or enormous tentacle, appeared as a pure, unbroken black.

Even from so far away, the sight filled Bella with a sinister chill.

Sophia kept her gaze fixed on the distant battle, but spoke between shots. “These insects called Kyth all seem to be under some form of mind control. Is there a mage directing them from behind the scenes and making them attack the Demonkind?”

In Sophia’s vision, every Kyth Status Panel displayed the same status effect: [Mind Control].

“Not a mage,” Priest Samuel explained. “They’re controlled by a ‘Heart.’ The relationship among them is closer to that of a hive. They are a unique kind of monster that strengthens its colony by endlessly devouring and plundering other creatures.”

Bella turned back to him in concern. “What if it keeps eating and expanding? Wouldn’t it become extremely dangerous?”

Samuel did not seem particularly worried.

“There’s no need for concern. This isn’t the first time these insects have appeared. In the past several centuries, the Kyth have only reached significant numbers on three occasions.

“One outbreak occurred in the Dwarven Moltenfire Dungeon. After assessing the price of exterminating them, the Dwarves chose to seal the dungeon entrance.

“Unable to circumvent the dungeon’s rules, the Kyth consumed every living creature inside except the elemental spirits. After ten years of isolation, most of them starved to death.

“When the seal was lifted, the Dwarven army easily disposed of the few survivors that had endured through dormancy. Even the Kyth Heart became a trophy. It remains in the Dwarven treasury to this day.

“Another outbreak occurred in the heartland of the Veiled Empire. Vampire Emperor Mortis Dracon personally took the field with a Divine Artifact and led an elite army to eradicate them.”

“Didn’t you say there were three?” Bella asked curiously. “What happened the other time?”

“Three hundred years ago, the Kyth attacked the ship carrying the Hero Linc.”

Samuel offered no further details. Instead, he returned to Bella’s original concern.

“The Kyth are certainly dangerous, but the damage they can cause is ultimately limited. The Heart is already a fatal weakness, but the very power that allows it to control an entire swarm through mind control is also a shackle. Even with the Kyth species’ exceptional aptitude in the mental domain, there is an upper limit to the size of the swarm a Heart can sustain. According to previous records, that limit generally falls between several thousand and ten thousand. Even a fully developed swarm would only constitute a regional disaster. Given its current location, it poses a greater threat to the Demonkind than to us.

“Besides…” Samuel looked once more toward the distant Demonkind warships and sensed the energy they were desperately trying to conceal, yet which continued to radiate like a beacon in the darkness. “Whatever is producing such an immense amount of energy, it would be best if it never reached the Demonkind front lines. The situation there is difficult enough already…”

The battle had yet to end. The Demonborn named Hess displayed terrifying strength. Even with his right arm crippled by a silver arrow, he managed to kill the last Kyth Evil Eye while wrestling with a Kyth Mawtentacle, then used his bitter cold to pin the enormous creature firmly against the frozen sea.

Yet as Sophia picked off the Demonkind’s officers and casters one after another like death calling out names, their resistance rapidly began to crumble.

The destruction of the ships and the deaths of everyone aboard seemed only a matter of time.

Bella, who had been straining to watch the battlefield, suddenly frowned.

“Strange… Are we moving away? The silhouettes of those ships seem to be getting blurrier.”

The Captain of the Guard called back from the helm, “Our course remains steady. We haven’t deviated.”

“Then why…”

Before Bella could finish, Priest Samuel’s expression changed. He rushed to the gunwale.

“It isn’t the distance. It’s fog! Fog is rising over the sea!”

At first, the mist was so thin that the subtle change in the light would have been nearly impossible to detect without the distant silhouettes of the Demonkind warships for comparison.

Without waiting for the others to react, Samuel thrust out his right hand. A sphere of the most basic Illumination spell formed instantly above his palm.

“That’s too bright!” The sphere erupted with an almost blinding orange-yellow radiance. Bella turned away and squeezed her eyes shut. “Priest, what are you doing?”

Bathed in the light he had created, Samuel stared at it in horror.

He knew exactly how much Mana he had just used. It was only the standard amount required for Illumination.

That could mean only one thing.

“It’s the Mist!” he shouted. “Quickly! Turn east and make full speed!”

The Captain of the Guard did not hesitate. He hauled on the wheel with both arms, wrenching it all the way around. Empowered by the divine force of the [Ocean Scepter (Incomplete)], the entire ship turned desperately eastward, abandoning the unfinished battle behind them.

Only then did they see it clearly.

A boundless wall of pure white fog, so dense it seemed almost solid, was racing toward them from the western horizon. Within moments, it swallowed both the Kyth and the Demonkind fleet still locked in battle.

“How is that possible?” Sophia stared at the vast whiteness consuming sea and sky. “These are coastal waters, close to the continent! If the Mist is here, then what happened to the Western Isles?”

Samuel stared at the wall of fog and swiftly judged its rate of expansion.

They were not going to escape.

Before the dense fog engulfed them, he raised his staff. Abandoning any attempt to protect himself or the others, he focused all his Mana and concentration on Sophia. Layer after layer of brilliant blessing light descended upon her.

At the same time, he spoke with urgent speed.

“Hero! The Mist behaves abnormally when it expands, but it can be repelled! A temporary core will form inside it. I’ll find a way to deal with that. Until then, protect yourself at all costs. Don’t trust…”

The dense fog swept over them.

“Samuel!”

Sophia instinctively stepped forward and reached toward the spot where the old priest had been standing only an arm’s length away. Her fingers closed on empty air.

She looked around, her voice unnaturally clear amid the deathly silence.

“Bella? Captain? Anyone?”

Endless white filled her vision. The ship, her companions, even the sound of the waves had vanished as though erased by the Mist.

This was the first time Sophia had ever been swallowed by it. Previously, she had only hunted Lost Souls along its fringes.

Her instincts urged her to move forward and investigate, but Priest Samuel’s final warning came back to her. She forced down her agitation and unease and remained where she was. Raising her longbow halfway, she held a silver arrow against the string without releasing it and watched vigilantly for any disturbance around her.

Time crawled through absolute silence and uncertainty. It felt as though centuries passed, yet also as though no more than an instant had gone by.

At last, the suffocating fog seemed to thin.

But as her surroundings gradually came into focus, Sophia’s pupils contracted sharply, disbelief spreading across her face.

She was no longer standing on the deck.

Instead, she found herself inside a small room of roughly 110 square feet.

There was a soft but unfamiliar bed, a nightstand with an alarm clock, and a desk against the wall. A computer with a dark screen sat on top of it, beside several books with colorful covers.

The room’s arrangement and every object within it carried a distant, familiar strangeness.

She nearly stumbled in her haste to reach the window, then tore the curtains open.

The Mist still lingered outside, but it had thinned enough for her to see through it.

Familiar red-brick buildings lined a narrow street. In the distance, barely visible through the fog, rose the outline of a church with an onion-shaped dome.

“St. Petersburg… Have I… come back?”

“It’s fake.”

Sophia’s confusion lasted only an instant. Almost immediately, she judged the seemingly familiar scene for what it was.

She had imagined that she might one day return to her former world, but it could not possibly be as simple as being swept up by the Mist.

Her Status Panel still opened normally. She examined her condition and found no negative status effects indicating hallucination or mental interference.

Her senses had probably not been distorted. Instead, this entire area was an illusion.

Sophia knew the Mist was unlikely to be anything so simple, but that did not stop her from treating it as one for the time being.

Boom!

A violent explosion thundered from deep within the fog outside, rattling the windowpanes.

Was that Samuel and the others?

Were they all trapped in the same illusion?

She instinctively moved to investigate, but the moment she took a step, Samuel’s warning to protect herself at all costs held her in place like a chain.

“If only I were stronger…” The thought that her companions might be fighting while she could do nothing but stand by made her tighten her grip on the bow.

“Get away from me!”

A familiar shout tore Sophia from her frustration. She rushed to the window and saw Bella in the narrow street below, swinging her longsword as she fought a retreating battle.

A group of strangely shaped humanoid monsters with twisted limbs pursued her.

Their movements were stiff yet swift. Judging by the scraps of tattered clothing still clinging to their bodies, these monsters had most likely once been residents of the city.

Sophia stared at the familiar, hateful figures.

“Aberrants…”

She quickly noticed something else.

The Aberrants had no Status Panels.

Below, Bella swung her sword with all her strength. Silver light flashed, severing the heads of the two nearest Aberrants.

But more monsters continued pouring from the intersection and the shadowed alleys.

Bella anxiously surveyed her surroundings, her gaze darting between the entrances of the buildings lining the street. She seemed to be weighing whether to take shelter inside and use the complex terrain to evade her pursuers, while clearly fearing that even greater dangers might be lurking within.

Several silver arrows suddenly descended from above and pierced the skulls of the Aberrants closest behind her.

“Bella! Over here!” Sophia called from the window.

“Sophia!” Delight flashed in Bella’s eyes. Without another moment’s hesitation, she sprinted into the entrance of Sophia’s building.

At the window, Sophia’s bowstring thrummed repeatedly. She shot down every Aberrant that tried to follow Bella into the stairwell or climb the exterior walls.

The apparently powerful Aberrants fell with ease.

Sophia could not help thinking how different everything might have been if she had possessed the Hero’s power back then.

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door behind her.

“Bella?”

“Sophia, it’s me.”

That was not Bella.

It was a clear, familiar voice, one Sophia had long since buried beneath the ruins of her memories. A voice she had believed she would never hear again.

She cautiously opened the door.

A handsome young man in a police uniform stood in the hallway. His features bore a distinct resemblance to Sophia’s.

A bloodstained bandage was wrapped tightly around his neck. Beneath its edge, the outline of a hideous wound was faintly visible.

“Alexei?” Sophia’s voice trembled without her realizing it.

The next instant, she raised her bow again and aimed the arrowhead directly at him. Tears gathered uncontrollably in her eyes.

“You… What are you?”

“Easy, easy.” Alexei raised both hands obediently, looking helpless and a little hurt. “Could you stop pointing that thing at me? It’s frightening.”

Sadness entered his voice.

“You don’t want to kill me a second time, do you, Sis?”

He slowly reached up and untied the bloodstained bandage around his neck.

It slipped away, exposing a gruesome slash deep enough to reveal bone.

Sophia stared at the wound she had inflicted with her own hands and reminded herself again and again that none of this was real.

Yet no matter how hard she tried, her fingers could not release the fully drawn string and send the condensed silver arrow flying.

“I don’t blame you, Sis.” Alexei watched her struggle without resentment or accusation in his eyes. “There was nothing else you could have done back then. But I’m alive here. I’m doing well. The Mist isn’t what you think. It isn’t what you believe it is.”

“Not what I think?”

“That’s right.” Alexei nodded firmly and extended his right hand toward her, palm upward in invitation. “Let me show you the truth, Sis.”

Sophia did not approach. Reason still urged her to remain vigilant, but the familiar face and horrifying wound shook her deeply. She could not bring herself to shoot this “brother.”

When she neither answered nor lowered her weapon, Alexei’s expression fell.

Rapid footsteps suddenly sounded in the hallway.

A streak of silver sword light burst into the room.

Bella’s longsword drove mercilessly through Alexei’s abdomen and slammed him against the opposite wall, pinning him there.

“Lady Sophia, are you all right?” Bella asked in concern.

“Bella, he…”

“Was he someone important to you?” Bella glanced at the young man and pressed her sword deeper without hesitation.

Silver light flowed through her eyes.

“He’s fake! Just like my father, who suddenly appeared before me and asked me to go to Mushroom Metropolis with him. I cut him down with one strike. They’re no different from the monsters outside. Every one of them is the same lifeless gray!”

No blood flowed from the wound in Alexei’s abdomen. Only ash-like matter drifted away as cracks spread across his body.

“Sooner or later… you’ll come back… I’ll be here… waiting for you…”

Before he could finish, his body collapsed entirely into gray fragments. They scattered into the air and vanished as though he had never existed.

With “Alexei” gone, the fog around them thickened once more.

This time, Sophia did not hesitate. She seized Bella’s wrist and held on tightly.

At some unknowable moment, the suffocating whiteness abruptly receded. A salt-laden sea breeze struck their faces and swept away the last traces of the Mist. Behind them, the immense wall of fog gradually fell away. Ahead stretched a boundless expanse of blue sea.

They were back on the deck.

“Lady Sophia!”

“Hero, thank goodness you’re safe!”

Priest Samuel, the Captain of the Guard, and the others immediately gathered around them. All bore signs of battle, but the sight of Sophia unharmed brought visible relief to their faces.

Sophia’s gaze swept across the deck, and her heart sank.

There were clearly fewer personal guards aboard the ship than before the Mist had engulfed them.

Those who were missing had likely been left behind forever in that unnatural white void.

…

In Mushroom Metropolis, Dylan awoke in the middle of the night and splashed cold water over his face, trying to wash away the gloom in his heart.

He had dreamed of his daughter again.

He hoped Bella would stay out of danger. He hoped the Kingdom of Concord would defeat the Demonkind. Most of all, he hoped that once the war was over, father and daughter would finally be reunited.

The Mycelial Garden.

Sable rubbed her growling stomach and looked around in confusion.

When a Puffcap passed nearby, she scooped it up. She brought it close to her cap, sniffed, then hesitantly took a small bite before releasing it in disappointment.

Her stomach could no longer live without Delectable Puffcaps. Filling it with ordinary Puffcaps would only waste precious space.

Life had become difficult for Sable lately.

Once, Delectable Puffcaps brimming with enticing Mana had always wandered into her mushroom house of their own accord. All she had needed to do was enjoy the Puffcaps delivered straight to her door.

But at some point, they had learned to hide.

Worse still, the Mycelial Garden was now filled with Mana-laced fog. Against that background, the mana fluctuations of Delectable Puffcaps were far less distinct, making their precise locations difficult to identify with [Mana Sense] alone.

All Sable could do was mourn the good old days as she casually pulled open Norris’s mushroom house and peered inside. After confirming that it contained no mushrooms, she trudged away dejectedly.

Her footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

A moment later, Puff One cautiously emerged from another mushroom house. A line of plump Delectable Puffcaps followed close behind.

Puff-puff, puff-puff, puff-puff.

Their short fungal legs carried them swiftly into the mushroom house Sable had already searched.

“We’re safe for now!” Puff One’s cap sagged limply. The memory of Sable stopping in front of their hiding place, only to search the neighboring house instead, still filled it with lingering dread.

“Are we supposed to keep hiding like this forever?” Puff Four demanded. It swung a tendril and struck the soft mushroom bed with a heavy squelch.

“But we can’t beat her!” Puff Five huddled in a corner, trembling. “That black demon is completely beyond us. Even if we all attacked together, we couldn’t hurt her at all!”

“But we are the glorious Puffcap Kindred!” Puff Four declared passionately. “Even if we’re destined to be eaten, it should happen after a heroic battle! We shouldn’t skulk around like this, living as miserably as that tailless Lizardkin who’s always being chased by a Werewolf!”

Puff Five’s voice quavered. “The Mycelial Sovereign gave all of us the delicious attribute. Doesn’t that mean we’re supposed to be fed to the black demon? We were born to be demon food! Puff-puff-puff…”

Puff One felt utterly helpless as Puff Four preached suicidal charges while Puff Five sank into complete defeatism.

Several fewer Puffcaps followed it now than at the beginning. Some had begun acting independently, while others had been won over by the ambitious Puff Two.

Of those who remained, Puff Four was the most loyal and steadfast, but also the most reckless and impulsive.

Faced with their current predicament, Puff One had no choice but to reassure them.

“You must not question the Mycelial Sovereign! None of you understand the Mycelial Sovereign’s profound intentions! The Mycelial Sovereign made us delicious, then commanded us to evade the black demon. Through this cycle of pursuit and escape, we are being trained in reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, and teamwork!”

It raised the intensity of its thoughts.

“Have you all forgotten the skill the Mycelial Sovereign allowed us to choose after our resurrection?”

With that, Puff One’s cap released a great cloud of Mana-infused fog capable of interfering with Mana Sense.

“The Mycelial Sovereign wants us to cooperate and overcome this trial together!” Puff One surveyed the others. “What skills did all of you choose?”

“Haste.”

“Haste.”

“Haste.”

“Detonation.”

Puff Five answered through action. The light around it distorted, and it vanished from sight.

The spreading white fog seemed almost like Puff One’s tears.

Surrounded by such hopeless fools, when would the Puffcap Kindred ever reclaim its former glory?

The entrance to the mushroom house was suddenly wrenched open, and Sable’s head pushed inside.

The instant her golden pupils saw the room full of Delectable Puffcaps, they lit up. Her eyes shone with the delight of a weary traveler who had finally found an oasis after an arduous journey.

Puff One was shaken to its core.

It had never imagined that this demon could be so cautious that she would return and search a mushroom house she had only just inspected.

It did not know that Sable simply had a poor memory and could no longer remember which mushroom houses she had searched.

All the Puffcaps were trapped like prey cornered in a sealed cave, with nowhere left to flee.

At that desperate moment, Puff Four stepped forward once again.

“For the glory of the Puffcap Kindred!”

“Idiot!”

“Puff Four, you…”

Boom!

The violent explosion obliterated the Puffcaps along with Norris’s mushroom house, leaving nothing but hyphal dust drifting through the air.

Sable remained where she was and blinked in confusion. She gave an aggrieved whine, picked Puff One’s only surviving severed leg out of the wreckage, and ate it to take the edge off her hunger.

Then she had no choice but to resume her search for other Puffcaps.

…

A mycelial cocoon split open, and Puff Four emerged with some apprehension.

It had already prepared itself for the collective condemnation of its companions after its latest “heroic sacrifice” had gotten every last one of them killed.

But the chaotic barrage of accusations it expected never came. Only one other Puffcap occupied the room with it, the habitually solitary Puff Ten.

Puzzled, Puff Four sent a question through the Mycelial Network.

“Puff Ten? Did the black demon catch you too?”

“Hmph!”

Puff Ten said nothing more, but inwardly added Puff Thirteen to its list of enemies.

During their earlier flight, when Sable had been on the verge of catching Puff Thirteen, that traitor had tried to use the soul resonance between Puffcaps to drag Puff Ten out of the group hiding among the Mushborn and offer it as a sacrifice instead.

Fortunately, Puff Ten remained perpetually alert. Not only had it foiled Puff Thirteen’s attempt, but it had cleverly tripped Puff Thirteen with its hyphae, causing the schemer to fall directly into the demon’s clutches.

Yet to Puff Ten’s astonishment, the black demon had not eaten Puff Thirteen. Somehow, Puff Thirteen had defected to her side and become a shameless turncoat guide.

Soul resonance made it nearly impossible for Puffcaps to hide from one another. With Puff Thirteen treacherously guiding Sable, even the ever-cautious Puff Ten had only managed to remain hidden for another half day before being dragged out.

Puff Ten swore it would not rest until that grudge was repaid.

As for the reckless Puff Four, Puff Ten could not be bothered to explain such complicated intrigue.

Of greater concern was its new body. Since this resurrection, it seemed considerably tougher than its previous one and contained far more power. It would need to find an opportunity to test its strength later.

Still… this did not appear to be the sunroom.

Puff Ten and Puff Four turned almost simultaneously, their senses locking onto the pink-haired fungal servant behind them, who was staring at them with wide, curious eyes.

At that moment, the Mycelial Sovereign issued a fungal decree.

“Your task from now on is to protect the pink Puffcap!”

“I shall obey the Mycelial Sovereign’s will!” The instant Puff Ten received the command, it entered a state of full vigilance and calmly began assessing the surrounding environment and the condition of its assigned charge.

Puff Four, meanwhile, extended a mycelial tendril in astonishment and touched Elara’s arm.

“You… You’re a Puffcap too?”

Elara’s staff lay abandoned on the carpet.

Nearby, one pink Puffcap and two blue-gray Puffcaps huddled together in a small circle, their caps nearly touching.

“So you really are a Puffcap!” Puff Four marveled after witnessing Elara’s transformation. “What was that shape you had before? Is it some incredible disguise? How can you grow so much bigger?”

“It’s a Polymorph spell,” Puff Ten explained.

“So that’s it!” Understanding dawned upon Puff Four, only for another question to arise. “But why do you transform into a fungal servant? And why are you called ‘pink Puffcap’? Didn’t the Mycelial Sovereign grant you an official number?”

A trace of sympathy unconsciously entered its thoughts. To think there was a member of the Puffcap Kindred who had never received a number. How pitiful.

Puff Ten chose to remain silent. It could not be bothered to explain to the single-minded Puff Four that “pink Puffcap” was most likely the Mycelial Sovereign’s personal designation for this unique being.

Besides, the Mycelial Sovereign’s decree only required them to protect her. It did not require Puff Ten to get along with Puff Four.

“Puff Ten, Puff Four…” Elara softly repeated the names the two Puffcaps had given her, her mind brimming with curiosity. “You seem different from the other Puffcaps.”

“The other Puffcaps?” Still unfamiliar with its new fungal body, Puff Ten activated one of its detection skills and sensed the ordinary Puffcaps outside the room. It immediately understood what Elara meant. “Those are merely tendrils extended by the Mycelial Sovereign. We are the Puffcap Kindred, each possessing an independent will.”

“The Puffcap Kindred… Is the Mycelial Sovereign the Boss?” Elara asked.

“How can you call the Mycelial Sovereign ‘Boss’ like those fungal servants do?” Puff Four immediately corrected her, straightening with pride. “The privilege of addressing the Mycelial Sovereign by that honored title belongs solely to the Puffcap Kindred!”

Elara found the two lively, distinctive Puffcaps both endearing and fascinating. One question followed another.

Most of the time, Puff Ten answered with concise, lucid thoughts. Aside from matters the Mycelial Sovereign had explicitly ordered it to keep secret, it satisfied nearly all the pink Puffcap’s curiosity.

Whenever Puff Four seemed about to say something it should not, Puff Ten interrupted at precisely the right moment.

The pink Puffcap and her two blue-gray companions conversed enthusiastically for a long time, until the sound of approaching footsteps suddenly came from the corridor outside.

…

“Alaric, there haven’t been any problems with the new arm grown by the Restoration Elixir, have there?” Lorenzo’s voice entered the room before he did.

He strode inside and pulled a potion glowing pale green from an inner pocket of his mage’s robe.

“I’ve formulated another nutritional compound. It should help speed your recovery. The healing process is always far more troublesome for warriors who specialize in tempering their bodies than it is for us casters…”

His voice trailed off as he sensed something strange about the atmosphere in the room.

Alaric sat alone in the shadows of a corner, his face buried in his hands. He was as motionless as a statue and gave no reaction to Lorenzo’s arrival.

Lorenzo frowned in confusion. He walked over to his old friend and leaned closer.

“What’s gotten into you this time?”

Alaric slowly lowered his hands and looked up, meeting Lorenzo’s gaze with empty eyes.

Lorenzo had never imagined that he would see such desolation and bewilderment in the eyes of a man who could face a Demonkind army besieging his walls without so much as changing expression.

“I suddenly realized,” Alaric said hoarsely, his voice drained of all spirit, “that I am a complete failure as a father…”

Lorenzo relaxed slightly.

So it was only a family matter. He had feared there might be some irreversible injury to Alaric’s body.

“What makes you say that?” Lorenzo sat beside him and tried to offer comfort in a lighter tone. “Elara did remarkably well this time, didn’t she? She may have relied on outside help, but she truly did save us from a desperate situation. That’s far better than those two little bastards of mine, who do nothing but cause trouble all day!”

“I went… to see her just now,” Alaric said with difficulty. “I found her secretly in her room… with… with…”

Alaric looked as though he could barely force the words out, his entire understanding of the world having suffered a devastating blow.

Lorenzo instantly understood. An expression of worldly sympathy appeared on his face.

He patted his old friend on the shoulder and offered advice in the tone of someone who had already endured the same ordeal.

“Children grow up, Alaric. Some things are inevitable. I was furious when I first discovered that my eldest son was having an affair with the maid who looked after him. Later, I thought it over. Young people are ruled by hot blood, and it was hardly unforgivable. Go on, then. Who has my niece taken a liking to? Deputy Warren, the one who came here with her? I could accept him. His family may be unremarkable, but the young man has genuine ability, and he’s handsome enough. Almost as dashing as I was at his age. You should find an appropriate time to speak with them and make the arrangement official…”

“It was a Puffcap!” Alaric interrupted sharply.

The ordinarily resolute and composed man was now on the verge of collapse. Even his voice trembled.

“I saw her… She had transformed herself into a pink Puffcap! She was huddled cap to cap with two other Puffcaps! How did it come to this?!”

The understanding and reassurance on Lorenzo’s face froze. His mouth fell slightly open.

“What?”

…

Elsewhere, Elara had suffered a devastating blow of her own.

“What am I going to do…?” She sat on the bed with her knees drawn to her chest, her long pink hair falling over her mortified face.

Conditions in the valley were extremely limited. Having a private room was already a privilege granted to her as a commander. Something like a lock on the door was out of the question.

The moment Elara heard footsteps outside, she knew something was wrong. Like a startled rabbit, she lunged for the staff on the floor and tried to undo her transformation before the visitor entered.

She had been one step too slow.

Alaric pushed open the door and caught her in the act.

Fortunately, her improved proficiency with Polymorph at least allowed her clothing to transform with her.

Otherwise, reverting to her original form naked in front of her father would have been unimaginable. It would have been a hundred times worse than this.

The present situation was humiliating enough.

Alaric had said nothing when he saw her in Puffcap form, huddled together with the other two. Yet his frozen expression and the slight sway in his steps as he left had made it painfully clear that something had gone terribly wrong.

Beside her, Puff Ten was drowning in self-reproach.

It had failed in its duty.

After being reborn, it should have immediately familiarized itself with the skills of its new body. Had it known how to use its various detection abilities properly, it would never have made such an elementary mistake as failing to notice someone until he had already reached the door.

Fortunately, the intruder had shown no hostility. Had he been an enemy, Puff Ten might already have failed the mission entrusted to it by the Mycelial Sovereign.

“This failure must never happen again!”

Puff Four, meanwhile, could not understand why the pink Puffcap was so dejected.

After Elara briefly explained that being seen in a strange form by her father was terribly embarrassing, Puff Four suddenly remembered the exalted status the Mycelial Sovereign had just bestowed upon them.

“We are incarnations of the great Puffcap Will, the glorious Puffcap Kindred!” Its thoughts rang with sincere pride. “Why should we hide? Come! We’ll explain everything to those non-fungal folk and make them understand how exalted your status truly is!”

It extended a mycelial tendril, intending to pull Elara outside and set the record straight.

When Puff Four saw her human hands, however, it clearly hesitated. Its hyphae paused in midair. Eventually, suppressing its slight distaste for the pink Puffcap’s “non-Puffcap form,” it gently wrapped the tendril around Elara’s wrist and began leading her toward the door.

Puff Ten immediately followed, ready to salvage the situation if Puff Four caused any trouble.

Although Puff Four had marched Elara out of the room with great determination, it froze the moment they stepped outside.

This was not the familiar Mycelial Garden, after all. It had no idea where to go.

In the end, Elara had to lead both Puffcaps through the camp’s winding paths until they found Alaric and Lorenzo sitting grimly inside the temporary command post.

Elara was not foolish enough to simply let Puff Four drag her around without thinking.

Before leaving her room, she had secretly consulted the Boss through the Mycelial Network. Evan had merely instructed her to conceal certain critical information.

Evan knew perfectly well that the spreading mycelial mat and the unusual capabilities displayed by the Puffcap army could no longer be dismissed as the actions of ordinary monsters.

He had heard as much in several private conversations between Alaric and Lorenzo after the mycelial mat covered the entire valley.

The two human leaders deliberately avoided discussing the matter around Puffcaps, but they clearly did not understand the mycelial mat well enough. Every inch of it throughout the valley was an extension of Evan’s senses.

The human leadership knew that an extraordinary power stood behind the Puffcaps. With a powerful enemy before them, however, they still needed that power and could neither afford nor dare to investigate too deeply.

To claim they harbored no caution at all would be little more than pulling a cap over one’s eyes and pretending not to see.

Evan’s objective was simple. Since the humans already suspected that Puffcaps might possess intelligence, he would present them with several intelligent Puffcaps.

It was just as Evan had always told Sevvy: Whoever wins the Puffcaps wins the realm.

He could distribute his thirteen sapient Puffcaps one by one. A few would be stationed in the North, several more among the major human powers, and others in the Elven lands. He might even send a few to the Demonkind.

Everyone would see that those who earned the recognition and assistance of these “sapient Puffcaps” could command Puffcap forces to some extent.

Whether people suspected hidden risks did not matter. As long as Evan himself remained concealed and the sapient Puffcaps provided genuine power, anyone who rejected them out of suspicion would be turning down power placed within easy reach.

It was an open gambit laid before the entire world, one that would remain difficult to refuse even after its nature became obvious.

The ultimate purpose behind it all was to spread the mycelial mat more smoothly, absorb more nutrients and Mana, and make Evan himself ever stronger.

Truthfully, Evan had no desire to become the kind of ambitious Dark Lord found in stories, intent on conquering the world.

But the Sacred Tree’s warning still lingered in his mind. The world might come to an end in as little as ten years or as many as several decades.

Evan could not determine whether that ancient power had deceived him. Yet the many signs of decline appearing throughout the world made it impossible to dismiss the warning as empty.

Time might already be running short, but the continent’s peoples, whose souls were fundamentally no different from one another, remained consumed by internal conflict. They still devoted themselves to dynastic struggles and wars between species.

Perhaps these powers, all of whom regarded one another as mortal enemies, would suddenly abandon their prejudices and unite against an unknown apocalypse.

Evan found it far more plausible to make them all submit to the glory of the hyphae, consolidate every force, and concentrate all available resources on securing that one slim chance of survival for him.

Ideally, he intended to spread the mycelial mat to every corner of the world within three to five years.

Once that happened, the immense mycelial-mat network would provide him with vast quantities of XP and a nearly limitless supply of Mana. His Level would rise at an astonishing rate, and his power would swell to unimaginable heights.

Then, armed with overwhelming strength, he could launch a campaign across the continent, consolidate the various powers, and coordinate them under unified command to face the approaching crisis.

Of course, this remained an idealized plan.

Evan knew perfectly well that reality would be filled with complications and resistance. He would not be surprised if the entire plan ultimately failed.

If that happened, h