"Put me down… I'm not going to enter a deadly portal! How reckless can you be?!" Zephyros yelled, pounding his fists against Darius's back like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.
Darius didn't flinch. His grip stayed firm as he carried Zephyros as if he weighed nothing.
"Stop squirming. You'll attract more attention."
"More attention?!" Zephyros snapped. "You're literally kidnapping me into a glowing death hole in the middle of the street!"
Riven walked beside them, smirking without a word. The blue portal loomed closer, its swirling light reflecting in her eyes.
"Reckless…" Zeph muttered, giving Darius's shoulder another weak punch.
"…Completely insane. Totally reckless. I should sue you. First, you say thank God nothing happened to me, and now you're dragging me into a portal filled with monsters…"
"Relax.. " Darius said smoothly, stepping right up to the portal's edge. The air buzzed and tugged at Zeph's clothes, like invisible hands pulling him in.
"You'll thank me later. I really know how to entertain, you know? Besides, you used to love entering portals with me…"
Zephyros's eyes widened. "Oh no. No, no, no. Don't you dare…"
And then Darius walked straight through the portal, carrying him in without hesitation.
"Let the fun begin.. " he smirked.
****
The world warped.
For a moment, everything was blinding light, suffocating blue, as if the air itself was water. Then the pressure snapped, and Zephyros was dropped unceremoniously onto his feet.
He stumbled forward, nearly face-planting into dirt that wasn't dirt at all.. it was gray ash, soft and powdery, puffing up around his shoes.
The forest stretched out around them, tall trees like skeletal fingers reaching into the sky. Their bark was black and cracked, as if burned centuries ago, yet no flames touched them now. A faint mist curled between the trunks, carrying a sour smell that clung to his throat.
Zeph coughed, waving the air away. "Great. Just perfect. Ash, fog, creepy trees… definitely not dangerous at all. Totally safe."
Darius ignored him, scanning the shadows.
Riven knelt, running her hand across the ash. "We're in a C-Rank. Decayed Forest."
"C-Rank?!" Zeph's voice cracked. "C stands for certain death! You people are crazy."
A distant howl echoed through the trees, then was answered by another, much closer.
Zeph froze. His mouth went dry.
"…Okay. Nope. I'm out. Back through the portal. Forget this detective work. Forget the miasma. I'm done…" he muttered.
But when he turned, the portal was gone. Only more twisted trees and fog waited behind him.
Darius smirked. "Welcome to your first hunt, little brother."
"Where's… where's the blue stuff?"
Darius sighed and smiled darkly.
"You see, we can't leave until we kill the Anchor… in other words, the boss of this place."
Zephyros was speechless.
"I take back every good thing I've ever said about you…"
"Hurtful. Well, the good news is you have a Paragon and a Primal as your guides. See it as an exclusive tour with two of the strongest humans."
'I was transmigrated as the younger brother of a madman… How would I know what the hell a Primal or Paragon is?'
He sighed, defeated. He had no other option.
Then, the three teenagers began their journey through the Decayed Forest.
****
The ground was soft with layers of rotting leaves, dark and wet, releasing a sour smell with every step. The trees stood tall but lifeless, their bark stripped away in long, uneven streaks that revealed pale, dry wood beneath. Many leaned at odd angles, as if the soil no longer had the strength to hold them.
There was no wind, no birds, no insects. The silence was complete, broken only by the crunch of their boots. Every now and then, something dripped from above, landing with a faint plop on the forest floor.
A thin mist hung low, clinging to the ground and making it hard to see more than a few steps ahead. The farther they walked, the thicker it seemed to get, until the trees in the distance looked like dark shadows pressed into the fog.
Here and there, patches of white fungus grew on the roots and trunks. Some pulsed faintly, as if breathing. Others had spread across fallen logs, covering them in a rough, uneven skin.
The deeper they went, the heavier the air felt. It smelled of damp wood and old decay, and the longer Zephyros breathed it in, the more it felt like the forest itself was rotting inside his lungs.
The fungus grew thicker here. Some looked like pale barnacles clinging to bark, others swelled like tumors, pulsing as though blood flowed beneath their skins. Once, he thought he saw one twitch, but when he blinked, it was still again.
He hugged his arms close, his voice breaking the silence. "Why is it always forests? Why not portals to… I don't know… sunny meadows? Maybe a nice library?"
Neither Darius nor Riven answered. They walked with quiet focus, eyes sharp, as if expecting something to lunge from the fog at any moment.
For some reason, Zephyros was eager to see the monsters and know what they looked like.
'Probably look like big insects or hungry wolves, like those in webtoons and webnovels…'
He glanced at his two new companions and noticed something he'd been oblivious to all this time.
'They're technically teenagers if you look closely! No, no… not that…'
'They're not holding any weapons!'
"Sorry to ruin the peaceful stroll, but I think you forgot your goodies back in… uh, reality? Wait, this is real too… ugh, you know what I mean…"
Riven and Darius stopped for a moment and exchanged confused glances.
Darius's face brightened, understanding what Zephyros meant.
"Oh, you mean weapons?"
Zeph nodded.
Darius just smirked and continued walking. Riven followed suit.
"Ignore me with a grin… typical.. " he hissed.
'To think I've only known this bastard for less than a day…'
The howls from earlier came again, but this time, much closer.
Zephyros heard the rustle of uneven footsteps behind him and a low growl.
He gulped and tried to walk faster toward the other two. The growling and rustling stopped.
Zephyros breathed a sigh of relief, blaming it on tension and anxiety.
'I'm just hearing things…'
Then, all around them, the growls multiplied. The mist was thick in this area, making it hard for the three to see.
Riven and Darius immediately flanked Zephyros, walking slowly around him, gazing intently into the mist.
That was when Zephyros realized the growls were multiplying, and so were the uneven footsteps… if you could even call them footsteps.
They were surrounded… but by what?
The figures making the sounds started to emerge from the mist. Their shadows grew more frightening and menacing.
Riven lifted her hand, palm open. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air above her skin rippled, like glass beginning to crack. Tiny shards of light appeared, sharp and clear as splinters of diamond, spinning slowly in the mist. They caught the dim glow around them, flashing faintly before pulling together.
The shimmer thickened, twisting and folding into shape. What started as scattered flecks became the outline of a blade, piece by piece, as if someone were forging it right there in the air. A low hum rose with it, soft but steady, and the sound made the hairs on Zephyros's arms stand on end.
The weapon took its final form in her grip. The steel gleamed coldly, polished smooth, with golden patterns etched along its length that flickered like fire whenever they caught the light. The hilt was wrapped in dark leather, worn but firm, and the crossguard curved outward like wings frozen in mid-strike.
The last specks of light faded, leaving the sword solid and heavy in her hand.
All of this happened in mere seconds.
Zephyros stared, wide-eyed. His mouth opened, closed, then finally managed sound.
"You… you just pulled a sword out of thin air."
Riven didn't answer. She only shifted her stance, blade angled toward the fog, her eyes locked forward, ready to strike at the growling monstrosities.
The shadowy figures began to take physical form.
The "things" that stepped out of the fog were beyond Zephyros's imagination.
Initially, he thought the monstrosities might be what he'd guessed earlier, but they weren't just "insects or wolves"… they were "wolves and insects."
The monsters looked like a crossbreed of a spider and a wolf.
The creatures fully emerged from the fog.
They had the shape of wolves, but their bodies were all wrong. Each one walked on eight legs, long and jointed like a spider's. The limbs bent sharply in places where no wolf's legs should bend, and every step made a sharp crack as the joints shifted. Fur covered some parts, but in others, the skin gave way to hard, black chitin that shone like armor.
Their heads were the most disturbing. A wolf's muzzle jutted forward, lined with sharp, uneven fangs, but above it stretched a cluster of eight eyes. These weren't like normal wolf eyes, these were glossy, black orbs, layered across the forehead in two crooked rows. When the mist caught them, they gleamed like wet stones, twitching and blinking in sickening patterns.
From their backs sprouted more spider-like limbs, thin and bony, moving constantly as if restless. Some ended in crooked hooks, scratching at the air, while others dragged sticky strands of web that clung to the ground and trees, marking the forest with faint silver threads.
When they growled, the sound wasn't just canine.. it was mixed with the dry hiss of a spider. The noise carried through the fog, making it hard to tell how many of them were really there.
Zephyros swallowed hard and started shivering. Then he mistakenly made eye contact with one of the wolves. Too scared to look away, fear engulfed him.
The intensity of eight terrifying eyes staring at him with murderous intent was nothing short of intimidating.
He finally decided to look away, but it was too late.
The spider-wolf.. wolf-spider?.. lunged at him with incredible speed. Zephyros shut his eyes in fear, expecting his face to be torn to shreds.
Instead, thick liquid splattered all over his body. He opened his eyes.
He had closed his eyes for five seconds or less, but what he saw was both amazing and terrifying.
The spider-wolf that lunged at him lay lifeless on the ground, as did five others. It seemed they had attacked at the same time as the one that targeted Zephyros.
But that wasn't the most astonishing and terrifying part. His two allies had already sprung into action. In the few seconds Zephyros's eyes were shut, they had cut down more than ten spider-wolves.
Riven's blade gleamed, its golden patterns catching every flash of movement as she weaved through the monsters like she'd been born for this.
And Darius…
Zephyros blinked. He hadn't even seen when it appeared, but in his brother's hand was a weapon that looked nothing short of unreal.
The hilt was wrapped in deep crimson leather, tight against his grip, and the crossguard curled like talons ready to strike. But what stole Zephyros's breath was the pommel shaped like the head of a bird, its eye a burning orange gem that seemed to watch everything around it with predatory hunger.
The blade itself was long and curved, faintly glowing blue along the edge as if drinking in the mist around it. Strange swirling patterns were etched into the steel, and when the weapon sliced through the air, those markings shimmered faintly, as though alive.
Every swing left a pale trail of light, and every swing ended with a spider-wolf collapsing in broken, twitching pieces.
Darius stood tall in the center of the chaos, his curved sword gleaming cold and merciless. His smirk never left his face.
With every arc of the two swords his allies wielded, another spider-wolf was cleaved apart, its eight eyes forever dimmed.
Zephyros could only gape, frozen in place.
"This…" he whispered under his breath. "This isn't human…"