A Clear Death

Han Jin moved with light, silent steps.

Before coming to this world, he had always been naturally suited for committing misdeeds in the dark.

He was particularly experienced when it came to catching stray cats and dogs.

Walking in the direction where the white shadow had just vanished, Han Jin kept his fingers pressed against the hilt of his dagger.

The unicorn seemed to be startled, maintaining a constant distance from him.

It was neither too far nor too close.

Just close enough for him to keep it in sight, yet just far enough that he couldn't catch up.

The interest in Han Jin's eyes grew increasingly intense.

He was in no hurry.

The rarer the creature, the less one could afford to scare it off.

If he could just injure its leg first, he would be able to control its speed, slowly close in, and saw off its horn.

A creature like a unicorn was something he could never encounter in the modern world; surely, the sight of its pride being broken would be exceptionally beautiful.

At this thought, the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward, completely failing to notice the strand of Soul Thread wrapped around his ankle.

In the next second, he felt a violent yank at his feet.

His body lunged forward uncontrollably, and the black mud, like a wide-open maw, instantly swallowed him into the shadows.

Wrapped in the sticky muck, Han Jin tried to struggle. Just as he was about to make a sound, several vines shot out from the pile of decaying leaves, violently wrapping around his neck and mouth.

The sound was forced back down his throat.

He raised his hand to slice the vines, but even more thin tendrils emerged from the black mud, binding his wrists.

Han Jin looked down in terror. By the moonlight filtering through the gaps in the trees, he saw that the vines were densely covered in thin black threads.

Some of the threads detached from the vines and slithered into the black mud like snakes, swimming toward him.

Back at the campsite, Rena was still sitting by the fire.

Milo watched her until his eyes grew sore.

She hadn't left, and her behavior was completely normal. She even reached out her hands to warm them by the fire.

But where Milo couldn't see, a cruel smile played at the corners of Rena's lips.

She extended her hands toward the flames as if warming herself, but her fingers gave a gentle twitch.

A strand of Soul Thread slowly burrowed into the decaying leaves.

【Inverse Radiance Shadow-Folding】 suppressed the Malice fluctuations of the Soul Thread to the absolute minimum, while the residual holiness light radiating from Moon was hidden within the 【Corona Band】.

The two auras folded and concealed each other, and under the effects of the Mist-Slumber Flowers, it was highly unlikely for anyone to notice anything amiss.

A single Soul Thread could only extend up to ten meters at most, which was currently its greatest limitation.

But Isolde had never planned to use a single thread to span the entire forest.

During their journey during the day, every seven or eight meters she walked, she would leave behind an extremely thin segment of Soul Thread.

From the campsite to the depths of the Old Valley, segment after segment of Soul Thread lay buried beneath the decaying leaves, having already paved an invisible path.

Now, she only needed to release a primary thread to connect with the nearest segment.

This would allow her power to transmit segment by segment along the buried threads, weaving a giant web capable of strangling a prey hundreds of meters away.

A hundred meters away, the Soul Thread shifted according to her command, slithering along Han Jin's body in the depths of the black mud.

Isolde was in no hurry to kill him. That would be too merciful.

In her past life, she had been tortured by him for an entire night.

Healing potions had been poured down her throat bottle after bottle, solely to keep her conscious, and to allow him to continue his so-called “research.”

Now it was finally his turn, and the knowledge of human anatomy in her mind was terrifyingly clear.

Where it hurt the most, where the bleeding would be heaviest, and which spots looked dangerous but would temporarily keep him alive—she knew them all.

Just as she had told Milo moments ago—the night was still young.

The trapped Han Jin, fueled by a sudden surge of survival instinct, immediately mobilized the mana within his body to activate a skill.

But just as the faint light of a spell began to glow beneath his feet sunk in the black mud, his body suddenly plunged downward.

The black mud had already risen past his waist, trapping his legs in a vice-like grip.

Without any footing to leverage, he naturally couldn't cast his skill.

Han Jin's pupils shrank.

Refusing to give up, he struggled violently to free his arms, trying to retrieve an item from his inventory.

The vines wrapped around his wrists suddenly tightened.

His bones let out a dull pop, and the dagger slipped from his grip into the black mud, where it was quickly wrapped in black threads and dragged into the thick darkness.

Han Jin finally panicked.

In the distance, he saw the unicorn come to a halt.

Standing in the mist, its golden eyes watched him quietly, as if looking at a piece of rotting garbage.

Han Jin reached out to it desperately, letting out muffled, incoherent cries for help as tears streamed down his face and fell into the black mud, begging for a single ray of holy light.

The unicorn did not approach. It turned around.

Its white figure silently melded into the deeper forest, quickly vanishing into the mist.

The very last shred of hope in Han Jin's eyes died with it.

In the next instant, an excruciating pain violently exploded from beneath the mud.

His body shuddered violently.

Several Soul Threads hidden in the black mud pressed against his calves, slowly slicing into his flesh.

Like countless red-hot iron wires, they slowly peeled back his skin and severed his tendons.

He struggled madly in agony, the veins on his neck bulging violently.

Yet the screams squeezed from his throat were tightly choked off by the vines, leaving only muffled, broken whimpers trapped inside his chest.

Han Jin could clearly feel the flesh on his legs being carved away, inch by inch.

First the calves, then upward.

Every single cut bypassed any area that would cause immediate death.

Blood seeped out continuously, only to be instantly enveloped by the cold, black mud, preventing even a hint of the scent of blood from escaping.

The pain seemed endless, and death did not arrive swiftly.

There was only the slow, lingering torture, repeatedly grinding down his will and his body.

Only at this moment did Han Jin finally understand how clearly the animals that died by his hands had witnessed the approach of death.

Milo suddenly raised his head.

He thought he had heard something just now.

He whipped his gaze toward Rena. She was still sitting with her back to him, her shoulders outlined by the firelight, completely normal.

Milo's throat bobbed.

Was it his imagination again?

Drowsy, Milo looked down at the wound on his forearm. The blood had already dried.

With bloodshot eyes, he stabbed himself with the bolt once more.

Crimson blood trickled down, but his bloodshot eyes remained locked onto Rena's back.

On the other side, Kolo suddenly opened her eyes.

First, she was drawn by the scent of Milo's blood, and immediately afterward, a distinct aura of holiness drifted from the night mist.

Clean and warm, it was entirely out of place amid the damp, rancid smell of decaying leaves.

Kolo reached up to adjust her mask, silently stood up, and looked out into the forest.

A snow-white figure was standing in the mist.

A silver-white mane draped down the side of its neck, and the single horn on its forehead glowed with a faint golden light.

Separated from the campsite by a row of crooked trees, its silhouette was as blurry as an afterimage left by moonlight.

A unicorn?

A trace of astonishment flashed in Kolo's eyes.

Why would such a holy creature appear in the Mist-Dwelling Forest?

This place was covered in rotting mud, and even the air was thick with the rancid smell of decaying treant roots. It was completely unsuitable for a unicorn to live.

The white shadow watched her quietly.

In the next moment, it turned and walked deeper into the forest.

After a few steps, it stopped and turned its head slightly, as if waiting for her.

Kolo narrowed her eyes.

The unicorn was gesturing for her to follow.

She didn't act immediately, first scanning the campsite.

Rena was still sitting by the fire, and Milo leaned against the rock, staring at her with bloodshot eyes.

The spot where Han Jin had been keeping watch was now empty.

Kolo's gaze lingered for a brief moment.

The direction Han Jin had gone was exactly the same direction the unicorn had appeared from.

This was too much of a coincidence.

Gripping her weapon, she quickly made a decision.

The unicorn might have seen something, or perhaps some creature had taken on the guise of a holy beast to lure people into the forest.

Either way, she had to go and check.

Without making a sound, Kolo slung her heavy weapon onto her back, lowered her stance, and slipped into the forest while Milo wasn't paying attention.

In the mist, the white shadow always stayed ahead of her.

Its movements were incredibly light, its hooves making no sound as they stepped over the decaying leaves.

Occasionally, when a wave of mist rolled by, it would vanish for a moment.

But as Kolo closed the distance by a few paces, that white light would shine again further ahead.

It wasn't running away, nor was it trying to lose her.

It seemed more like it was leading her somewhere.

The vigilance in Kolo's heart grew stronger.

She pursued it for nearly a hundred meters. The surrounding trees gradually thinned out, and the soil beneath the decaying leaves grew softer and softer.

The white shadow suddenly stopped beside a dead tree.

Kolo slowed her pace and was about to approach when a heavy scent of blood suddenly rushed into her nostrils.

It was mixed with the rancid odor of decaying soil.

Kolo's expression changed. She immediately pulled her weapon from her back and held it across her chest.

She pushed through the shrubs blocking her path.

Branches brushed against her cloak, making a soft rustling sound.

In the next moment, she froze.

Hanging from the dead tree not far away was a human figure.

Several thick vines pierced through his clothes, suspending his arms high in the air. His head hung limply, and a ring of blackened roots was wrapped around his neck.

The flesh of his lower body was no longer intact.

From the waist down, only a mangled mass of crimson and mud-stained bones lay exposed to the moonlight.

Blood mixed with black mud dripped along the bones, falling into the decaying leaves beneath the tree and quickly being absorbed by the soil.

It looked like a greedy monster that hadn't had its fill.

Kolo's gaze fell upon the twisted face.

It was one of the Descenders.

His eyes were wide open, his pupils frozen with the terror he felt before death.

His mouth was deformed, tightly gagged by the vines. It seemed that up until his very last moment, he hadn't been able to make a single sound to call for help.

Kolo's grip on her weapon tightened bit by bit.

It was barely a hundred meters from the campsite to this spot. How long had it been since Han Jin left?

Yet she hadn't detected even the slightest sound of combat.

This annoyed Kolo, who had always trusted her 【Beast Instinct】.

But far stronger than her annoyance was her vigilance.

To cause a Descender to die so silently in such a manner was absolutely not something ordinary tree roots could accomplish.

Kolo suddenly turned her head.

The unicorn that had led her here was still standing nearby.

Through the mist, its pale golden eyes quietly watched the corpse on the tree.

It was as if it had deliberately brought this death before her eyes.

In the next instant, the night wind swept through the forest.

Like moonlight scattered by the wind, the white figure gently dissolved into the mist, and the aura of holiness quickly faded away.

Back at the campsite, Isolde's wrist warmed slightly.

She lowered her fingertips, severing the primary Soul Thread at the nearest point.

Stripped of its power source, the Soul Threads buried beneath the decaying leaves loosened one by one, turning into fine black ash that dissolved into the damp soil.

The campfire in front of her crackled softly.

Isolde picked up a burnt branch beside her and tossed it into the fire.

This first debt was finally settled.