Everdusk Forest.
This forbidden land, shrouded in an ancient curse, was like a prehistoric behemoth lying dormant in the kingdom's Southern Territories.
With endless darkness for fangs, it devoured every adventurer who dared to set foot within.
Orum raised his head, his gaze passing through layer upon layer of tree trunks as he tried to catch a glimpse of the sky.
But he could see nothing.
Overhead, ancient canopies that had grown for hundreds, even thousands, of years wove and tangled together into a three-dimensional barrier more than ten meters thick.
Even the fiercest noonday sun could not pierce these countless layers to reach the forest floor below.
It was like a vast black canopy of sky, cutting the entire forest off completely from the bright world outside.
Now and then a few faint threads of light tried to squeeze through gaps in the leaves, but by the time they had passed through this long dark passage, they were already spent.
By the time they reached the ground, all that remained were specks of light as faint as fireflies, almost impossible to notice.
On the floor of Everdusk Forest, darkness hung so thick it seemed almost solid.
This darkness was not a simple absence of light but a tangible, heavy presence, like countless thick black curtains piled layer upon layer.
Walking across the forest floor, Orum could feel distinctly that this darkness was trying to invade his body and corrode his soul.
At this very moment, the members of the Ice Hawks Company, along with the Gold-rank knight Cyrus and his halfling squire Terry, were struggling forward deep within this forest ruled by darkness.
Beneath their feet lay muddy, damp ground made of rotting humus.
This ground was formed from the fermented mixture of fallen leaves accumulated over countless years, rotting branches, animal carcasses, and all manner of unidentifiable organic matter, and it gave off a powerful stench of decay.
With every step, their soles sank deep into the sticky layer of humus.
It felt like stepping into a puddle of melted chocolate, or into asphalt that had not quite set, and it was intensely unpleasant.
Orum looked down at his boots. The leather boots that had once been clean and gleaming were now completely coated in black humus.
The viscous stuff clung tightly to the leather, reeking with a suffocating stench.
Whenever a foot was lifted, it made a nauseating sound.
Squelch...
Squelch...
The black humus pulled out in long sticky strands, which snapped free of the soles with faint smacking sounds.
Everyone lurched along, one foot sinking deep, the next barely sinking at all.
Sometimes they stepped on relatively solid tree roots and had decent footing.
But more often they hit the soft, rotting layer, and their whole calf would sink in.
Ronald missed his footing.
Half of one leg plunged straight into a deep pit hidden beneath the humus.
"Aah!"
He cried out in alarm, lost his balance, and pitched headlong into the disgusting muck.
Raygore, quick of eye and hand, seized Ronald's arm and hauled him back with all his strength.
Working together, the two of them expended a great deal of effort to pull the leg out of the pit.
Orum glanced over. The leg Ronald had sunk into the pit was now completely coated in black humus.
The viscous stuff clung tightly to his trousers and boots, reeking with a suffocating stench.
"Damn it!" Ronald cursed.
He tried to wipe the humus off his trousers with his hands.
But the stuff was like glue and would not come off at all. Instead, it got the disgusting black gunk all over his hands too.
Felix walked at the very front of the party, his emerald eyes glinting coldly in the darkness.
As he looked up and around, ghastly white bones were visible everywhere on the ground.
Some were whole skeletons, still held in the poses they had died in. Others were only scattered bone fragments, half buried and half exposed in the humus.
The owners of these remains were, in some cases, adventurers who had strayed into the forest, and in others, beasts that had always lived there.
But whatever they had been in life, all that remained now were these pallid bones, the only proof they had ever existed.
Orum's gaze fell on one skeleton.
It was a human skeleton. Judging by the size and shape of the bones, it had belonged to an adult man.
The bones still bore deep bite marks and claw marks. Half the skeleton was completely shattered; only the part above the waist remained, and the hip joints and leg bones had vanished without a trace.
Those marks recorded plainly the horror it had suffered in life, its final moments of desperate struggle in the dark.
An image rose unbidden in Orum's mind: an adventurer lost in this dark forest, running for his life, trying to escape some terrifying hunter.
But in the end he was caught, torn apart, and eaten.
All that was left was this skeleton, lying quietly in the humus, having become a part of the forest's aura of death.
Felix noticed that the hand bones of some skeletons still held the posture of crawling forward.
The finger bones dug deep into the earth, as though even in their last moments they were still desperately trying to escape this forest.
What kind of horror had the owners of these remains faced in their final moments?
Felix's emerald eyes swept over those desperate postures.
An indescribable, oppressive weight rose in his heart.
These people had struggled in the dark and crawled in despair, yet in the end they had not escaped this cursed forest.
Even more chilling was what came next.
Among the bones, countless thick black earthworms squirmed slowly.
Their bodies were as thick as an adult's thumb and more than thirty centimeters long, their surfaces coated in sticky black slime.
Under the faint light, the slime gleamed with an eerie sheen, as if they had been smeared with a thick layer of black grease.
These black earthworms were creatures unique to Everdusk Forest. They fed on humus and rotting organic matter, had survived in the darkness for who knew how many generations, and had long since adapted to an environment with no light at all.
They crawled slowly across the ground.
Their bodies stretched and contracted, leaving trails of slime across the humus.
The young halfling squire Terry went deathly pale the first time he saw these creatures, his stomach heaving.
He clapped a hand over his mouth.
He fought desperately to suppress the urge to vomit but could not help retching a few times.
Urk...
Urk...
The halfling squire bent over, hands braced on his knees, looking ready to topple.
Even the well-traveled Felix felt his scalp prickle at the sight of the black earthworms squirming thickly around his feet.
Although the creatures themselves were not aggressive and posed no threat to humans, their appearance and habits were simply too unsettling.
That slimy texture, that slow squirming, and the revolting sight of them gnawing on remains and wriggling in and out of pitch-black eye sockets: it was practically a classic scene from a horror movie.
Yet just as everyone felt sick and uneasy, Ronald wore an excited expression.
"Wow, so many black earthworms!"
His eyes sparkled in the faint light.
On missions away from base, Ronald had always doubled as the Ice Hawks' cook, and he took a keen interest in all sorts of rare and strange ingredients.
"These are the black earthworms unique to Everdusk Forest!" Ronald lowered his voice and spoke in a tone that was almost reverent.
"They're incredibly nutritious, more than three times as much as ordinary meat!"
He bent down and carefully picked up a black earthworm squirming on the ground.
The worm writhed in his hand. Slime from its surface coated his palm, but Ronald did not seem to mind at all.
His face was full of focus and excitement, like a collector who had found the piece he had always dreamed of.
"And when they're grilled, the texture is superb!" Ronald looked around at the others, who stood rooted to the spot, and went on with his sales pitch.
At that moment, Ronald's eyes gleamed with excitement.
"Crispy skin, tender and juicy inside!"
"I've read about it in ancient recipe books!"
"They say black earthworms taste as good as a prime steak from a Greathorn ox!"
The Greathorn ox was a giant bovine magical beast unique to the Misty Forest in the Southern Territories. Its meat was delicious and evenly marbled, a top-tier ingredient that only nobles and the wealthy could enjoy regularly.
Back when Orum and the others had been at the black market in Port Zobek, they had tasted this delicacy, and it really was superb.
That Ronald compared black earthworms to Greathorn ox meat showed how highly he rated the ingredient.
However.
Ronald's enthusiastic recommendation drew no response from anyone.
On the contrary, everyone else's faces grew even uglier.
A few people even took half a step back without realizing it.
Terry's face had gone from deathly white to a sickly green.
He watched the wriggling earthworm in Ronald's hand and felt his stomach churning wildly.
"I think..."
Felix forced out the words with difficulty, his throat likewise dry from holding back the urge to vomit.
"We're better off eating our dry rations."
"That black bread may be hard to chew, but at least it won't give me nightmares."
Cyrus shook his head too. This Gold-rank knight, who had come up through the army and was normally grave and dignified, showed a rare look of disgust.
"Thank you for the kind thought, Ronald."
"But I think I'll stick with my issued rations."
Even Raygore, who had kept silent all along, spoke up, which was rare, when he saw the wriggling black earthworm in Ronald's hand.
"I'd rather chew bark."
Only a few blunt words.
They expressed his attitude fully.
Orum likewise firmly refused Ronald's proposal to make the earthworms lunch. It was just too disgusting.
"It's just too disgusting. I'm not eating it."
He watched the earthworm wriggling in Ronald's hand and felt his stomach lurch violently.
Orum thought grimly that he would rather absorb nutrients through his Monster Organ: External Mycelium than touch this so-called delicacy.
Felix even looked at Ronald gravely and cautioned him, "Ronald, you can't eat them either. Otherwise no one else will be able to eat a bite."
"Well... all right."
Seeing everyone's firm refusal, Ronald looked disappointed.
He sighed.
Reluctantly, he set the earthworm back on the ground.
He watched it slowly burrow into the humus and disappear.
"You people really don't know how to appreciate good food."
Ronald muttered under his breath.
But he did not keep insisting.
He knew that in a dangerous environment like this, keeping the team united and morale up mattered more than insisting on his own culinary tastes.
The six people currently traveling with the Ice Hawks Company (Orum, Felix, Ronald, Cyrus, Terry, and Raygore) had all now used the Blessings of Light obtained from Aravia.
The only exception was Melina.
This girl of dark bloodline had been born with the ability to survive in darkness.
She did not need the protection of the Blessing of Light.
At this moment she was sleeping peacefully in the bamboo basket, curled into a ball, her fluffy wolf tail wrapped tight around her body.
The instant the Blessing of Light took effect, a faint golden radiance began to glimmer inside everyone's body.
The glow was not dazzling, just a soft shimmer that outsiders could barely perceive.
Orum looked down at his palm.
He could see golden light faintly flowing beneath his skin.
It was as if countless tiny golden rivers were flowing and circulating inside his body.
The golden glow spread outward from his heart and traveled along his blood vessels through his whole body.
A warm sensation spread from his chest to every limb and bone.
Orum could feel distinctly that the warm holy power was remaking his body.
His vision grew sharper.
The forest that had been pitch-dark was now as clear to his eyes as daylight.
Although what he saw was in black and white, lacking any riot of color, it was enough to let him move freely in the dark.
His hearing grew keener as well.
He could hear the faint snap of a branch far away.
He could hear the soft scraping of black earthworms moving under the ground.
Even his skin's perception of his surroundings became much finer.
The faintest drafts stirring in the air.
The slight tremors traveling up from the ground.
Even the changes in the concentration of the death aura around him.
He could pick up all of it with keen sensitivity.
Orum clenched his fist, feeling the holy power flowing within his body.
[Darkvision] let him see everything around him clearly in an environment with no light source at all.
[Blindfighting] let him sense the positions of enemies through hearing, touch, and intuition even when his sight was completely blocked.
[Curse Resistance] was the most crucial protection of all.
Orum could feel that the Blessing of Light had built a transparent protective shield around his body and soul.
This shield continuously cancelled out the erosion of the Everdusk Forest curse.
The cold curse that had gnawed at his spirit every moment was now completely shut out.
This protection was not permanent, however.
Orum could feel that the Blessing of Light's energy would gradually drain away over time.
Especially when it took powerful curse attacks, the rate of drain would multiply.
Orum remembered the scene earlier at the outpost ruins, when his teammates had questioned him over the gift of the Blessings of Light.
At that moment everyone had been staring at him.
Felix, Ronald, Raygore, Cyrus, Terry.
Everyone's eyes had held confusion and curiosity.
Especially Cyrus.
This Gold-rank knight, hired by Felix at great expense, had sized Orum up with a scrutinizing gaze.
Though that gaze had held no overt hostility, the suspicion and probing in it had made Orum feel like thorns were pricking his back.
Melina's identity had already been settled earlier through Felix's explanation.
Cyrus had understood that she was a dark werewolf of good nature.
He had signed a contract with Felix to keep the secret and never expose her identity.
But Orum's situation was entirely different.
A zombie girl, an undead creature of unknown origin and unfathomable strength.
Why would she hand such precious Blessings of Light directly to Orum?
This question had to be given a reasonable explanation.
The unknown and the unexpected often meant danger.
Orum's mind had raced.
The moment Aravia had done the thing that stunned everyone, he had known he would need to give a reasonable explanation.
Otherwise it would likely cause needless trouble.
"Orum." Felix spoke first, his voice calm but his eyes serious. "Why did that zombie girl give you something?"
Ronald leaned in too, curiosity all over his face. "Yeah! She could have just crushed those runes, or asked for a higher price!"
"But instead she just gave them to you."
"Indeed," Cyrus said in a low voice, his hand resting on his sword hilt. Though he did not draw it, his wary posture was very plain.
Orum took a deep breath.
He had worked out his story long ago.
Under everyone's scrutinizing gaze, Orum kept calm inside.
The moment Aravia had handed over the Blessings, he had anticipated that someone would question it.
After all, Aravia's action had been far too abnormal.
A powerful undead creature voluntarily giving away precious Blessings of Light was eerie no matter how you looked at it.
"This power also comes from my patron, the great Dryad Goddess."
Orum's voice was steady and devout.
His expression was full of awe, as if he were speaking of a supreme being.
"To protect my growth, She placed a special gift upon me."
"This gift lets me win the natural goodwill of dark creatures."
"So that when I face dangerous undead and monsters, I won't immediately come under a fatal attack."
His voice held a matter-of-fact calm.
As if he were stating a well-known fact.
"This is a grace the Goddess granted out of protectiveness toward Her follower."
"After all, in this dangerous world, a young adventurer can easily run into threats he cannot withstand."
"This ability greatly improves my chances of survival."
The explanation was indeed persuasive.
Vilanestrae, as a High Fey from the Court of Joy, had magic so powerful it surpassed mortal imagination.
The fey's alignment sat between light and darkness.
They did not belong wholly to the camp of good, nor lean wholly toward evil.
This chaotic neutral nature made it possible for them to do anything.
Granting a follower an affinity with dark creatures fell entirely within the scope of a fey goddess's gifts and made perfect sense.
Felix nodded thoughtfully.
He recalled the abilities bestowed by the Dryad that Orum had shown before.
The authenticity of those powers was beyond question.
"I see."
Felix's voice softened.
"That does make sense."
That Orum had a High Fey in his background was something Felix, Ronald, and Raygore had long known.
With that premise already in place, they could accept the explanation.
Besides, his teammates had watched how Orum conducted himself over this period, and he was nothing like the necromancers of legend, evil, twisted, and psychopathic.
However, the person who really needed convincing had not yet spoken.
Cyrus, this Gold-rank knight, had kept silent from the start.
His eyes had been fixed on Orum, that scrutinizing gaze as if trying to see straight through him.
Cyrus had seen too many swindlers and impostors.
He knew verbal explanations meant nothing.
Real proof had to be demonstrated with actual power.
"You say your patron is the Dryad Goddess?"
Cyrus finally spoke.
His voice was low and commanding.
"Then you should be able to show proof of the corresponding power."
"A dryad's gift can't be counterfeited with a simple verbal claim."
The words were blunt, almost an interrogation, and the tone was very grave.
In a world full of deceit and disguise, words alone were useless.
Actual evidence had to be produced.
Orum was not the least bit flustered.
He had long expected this step.
"Fine."
He answered calmly, then took a deep breath and called upon the blessing from the fey within his heart.
[Life's Concerto]!
In an instant, a mighty flow of magical energy appeared out of nowhere within his body, pure and vast, bearing the breath of life and the rhythm of nature.
It flowed along Orum's spiritual channels through his whole body and swiftly formed a layer of brilliant light on his skin.
Light of seven colors bloomed across Orum at once, as if countless rainbows were dancing around him!
The lights flowed and interwove over his body, forming countless intricate, beautiful patterns.
In the end the lights condensed into a resplendent garment of light, formed of pure natural energy.
Upon it flowed the veins of life and the rhythm of nature. Each color represented a different quality of power, and the seven colors interwove and shone off one another on Orum, forming a truly stirring sight!
Wrapped in this mighty dryad magic, Orum's presence began to climb steadily higher.
The change was so obvious that everyone around could feel it clearly.
Strength! Agility! Constitution! Perception! Intelligence! Charisma! Magic Power!
The seven basic attributes were all boosted comprehensively at the same moment!
Orum could clearly feel his body changing.
His muscles brimmed with explosive strength, every fiber trembling as it released energy.
His body grew light and nimble, as if freed from the shackles of gravity.
His five senses became sharper than ever before. He could even hear a leaf touching the ground far away.
His thinking sped up enormously. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, each one perfectly clear.
This all-round enhancement made him feel like a different person.
A stronger, more perfect one.
Cyrus's eyes suddenly widened at the sight.
As a Gold-rank paladin, he had seen countless blessings and buff spells.
But a mighty blessing that raised every attribute at once like this was something he was seeing with his own eyes for the first time!
The texture and fluctuation of that seven-colored light was unmistakably the natural power of a dryad.
That breath of life and rhythm of nature could not be imitated by any dark power.
Nor was it the same kind of sanctity as divine light magic. It was another holy quality altogether.
"This... this really is a gift of the Dryad Goddess."
Cyrus murmured to himself.
His voice was full of shock and awe.
"And an extremely high-grade gift at that."
"A dryad able to bestow so mighty a blessing must be a deity!"
Cyrus had never seen blessing magic this powerful.
Fey power so pure and vast.
The quality and density of that energy far exceeded what an ordinary dryad could give.
Felix's emerald eyes glittered with wonder.
No matter how many times he had seen it, the instant he saw Life's Concerto he was always amazed at how mighty the blessing was.
"A miracle..."
Terry's voice trembled.
"This is a true miracle!"
Orum felt the mighty power surging through his body.
He knew this proof was enough.
No one would question the relationship between him and Aravia again.
Nor would anyone doubt the patron behind him.
Vilanestrae's name had once again provided him with perfect cover.
A moment later.
Orum withdrew the blessing of [Life's Concerto].
The seven-colored light slowly faded.
He returned to his normal state.
But the way Cyrus and Terry looked at him was now completely different.
It was awe.
The awe one feels toward someone favored by a god.
Cyrus drew a deep breath.
His attitude had changed completely. This battle-hardened Gold-rank knight no longer held a trace of suspicion or wariness in his eyes as he looked at Orum. In their place was sincere respect and trust.
"To receive the favor of a being of such standing, it seems my earlier worries were entirely unnecessary."
Cyrus said solemnly.
He pressed his right hand to the holy emblem on his chest and gave Orum a proper knightly salute.
The gesture was as precise as an illustration in a manual.
Right hand made into a fist and pressed lightly over the heart, upper body leaning slightly forward, eyes meeting Orum's directly.
"Please forgive my earlier suspicion, Lord Orum."
Cyrus's voice was low and sincere.
Every word carried apology.
Orum hastily waved his hand.
"There's no need for that, Mr. Cyrus."
His tone kept a fitting modesty.
"Your vigilance is part of your duty. I completely understand."
Ronald suddenly slapped his thigh hard.
Smack!
The crisp sound echoed through the forest.
"So that's how it is!"
He cried out excitedly, his young face full of sudden realization.
"I knew it!" Ronald went on, his tone full of the satisfaction of finding an answer. "No wonder Melina and Orum got so close! They got familiar with each other in just a few days!"
"So it's because Orum has a special power that attracts dark creatures!"
Felix nodded thoughtfully.
"Indeed, this explains a lot of puzzling points."
His emerald eyes glinted with thought.
"Although Melina is good-natured, she has always kept her distance from strangers and stayed wary."
"For her to come to trust someone in such a short time, there really had to be a special reason."
Raygore stood silently to one side.
Though he did not speak, a slight nod showed that he accepted the explanation too.
"Haha... so that's how it is."
Orum kept a calm, composed look on the surface.
But the corner of his mouth twitched, and inwardly he could not help grumbling.
The truth was nothing like what they thought!
The only reason Melina and I got along so well was that I felt sorry for her and kept feeding her tasty food!
The allure of dried small fish was far more real than any mysterious power!
What goodwill from dark creatures?
What attraction from a dryad's gift?
All these lofty-sounding reasons were less effective than a box of spicy chili-oil dried fish.
Still, letting his teammates misunderstand wasn't a bad thing.
It actually helped him conceal his identity as a necromancer even better.
After all, a warlock under the protection of a Dryad Goddess was far easier for people to accept than an evil mage who practiced necromancy.
Before setting out, the Ice Hawks Company had found a relatively safe fortress near the outpost ruins.
* * *
It was a small building made from rough logs combined with solid stone.
Although its walls were covered with marks left by battle, it could at least keep out wind and rain.
They had rested and regrouped there.
While they were resting, the sound of hooves had come from the distance.
It was a troop of royal soldiers.
They had set out from the Watchers' Fortress at the edge of Everdusk Forest and had traveled for several days to reach this place.
Leading them was a burly middle-aged officer.
His face bore the marks of wind and frost, and his gaze was sharp as a hawk's.
"I'm Garrison Captain Carlson."
The officer's voice was hoarse and forceful.
He surveyed the carnage inside the outpost, and his face went livid.
"Damn cannibals!"
Carlson said through gritted teeth.
His fists clenched until they creaked.
"To think they dared to slaughter the kingdom's soldiers!"
"This is an open challenge to the kingdom's authority!"
"I'm Felix, captain of the Ice Hawks Company."
Felix and Carlson completed a brief handover.
He told the other man the details of the attack on the outpost.
Including Aravia's appearance and the information she had provided.
Carlson's face grew uglier and uglier.
"The Voodoo Cannibal Tribe has been growing more active."
He said in a low voice.
"This is not a good sign."
"I'll report to my superiors immediately and request reinforcements."
"Going by the way the kingdom's military operates, an expeditionary force will be assembled within three months."
"They'll wipe out those unforgivable cannibal tribes completely!"
Felix nodded.
"We're leaving our carriage here. Please look after it for us."
He took a bag of gold coins from inside his coat.
"This is the storage fee."
Carlson took the coins and weighed them in his hand.
"Rest assured, we'll keep the Ice Hawks' carriage and horses safe."
"Safe travels."
The next morning.
To be precise, it was some moment within the eternal darkness of Everdusk Forest.
Because there was no daytime here in any true sense.
The Ice Hawks Company bid farewell to the outpost's garrison.
They shouldered packs full of supplies and set out on the journey to Greentown.
This time they could only advance on foot.
Because along the rest of the route there was no road at all that a carriage could pass.
After leaving the outpost, the surroundings began to change noticeably.
The trees grew older and thicker.
The trunks were more than five meters in diameter, their bark covered in deep cracks and strange patterns.
The air grew damper and colder, and with every breath he could feel the wet mist working its way into his lungs.
The layer of humus on the ground grew thicker.
With every step, they sank knee-deep.
Felix took a parchment map from inside his coat.
It was the route map Ith had enclosed with his letter.
The map clearly marked the layered structure of Everdusk Forest.
The outermost layer was Blackwood Forest.
It was a relatively safe area, with only some low-level magical beasts and undead about.
After going fifty kilometers deeper, one would enter the Second Layer: the Humus Wetlands.
The environment here was harsher still. Most of the ground was covered by swamp, and countless bones and insects lurked in the rotting humus.
According to the map, Greentown sat on the border between the Humus Wetlands and the Third Layer, the Wailing Woods.
Beyond the Wailing Woods lay the truly dangerous and terrifying core of Everdusk Forest.
The Fourth Layer, Crow Marsh, was said to be home to thousands upon thousands of Carrion Vultures and crow zombies.
The Fifth Layer, the Land of Iron Thorns, was overgrown with thorny vines that hunted day and night and could strangle a living person in an instant.
The Sixth Layer, the Hive of No Return, and the Seventh Layer, the Lake of Serenity.
It was said that at the bottom of the Lake of Serenity, an ancient and terrifying being lay sleeping.
In all the Southern Territories, adventurers who had reached the Seventh Layer of Everdusk Forest and returned safely could be counted on one hand.
Felix put the map away.
"Thankfully, our target is only in the second layer."
There was a trace of relief in his tone.
"If it were anywhere past the fourth layer, with our current strength there's no way we'd come back alive."
Ronald swallowed.
"The second layer alone is scary enough."
He looked at the dark forest around them, his young face full of tension.
"I can't even imagine what it's like deeper in."
"Stay alert. Don't let your guard down," Cyrus said in a low voice. This knight, who had come up through the ranks of the army, had vigilance far beyond that of ordinary people. "Even the second layer is full of deadly threats for an adventuring company."
Felix nodded, his gaze grave. "Let's finish the mission as fast as we can and bring Ith back."
The party pressed on, trekking through the dark forest for two days.
At last they caught sight of the outermost wall of Greentown.
The wall stood abruptly beneath a purplish-black sky.
It could hardly be called tall or imposing, only four to five meters high or so, but it had been carefully built of dark brown stone blocks.
The stone was a deep, gloomy color.
Under the light of the purple sky, it looked almost black.
Orum narrowed his eyes.
He could see many withered black vines embedded between the stones of the wall.
The vines were long dead, turned into dry, hard black fibers wound tight in the gaps between the stones, as unsettling as clotted scabs of blood.
A chill wind blew from afar and swept over the top of the wall.
But eerily, the wind made no sound at all, neither a howl nor a rustle, like an invisible ghost slipping silently over the wall.
Orum tightened his grip on the shaft of his Flame-steel glaive and studied the wall before him.
The wall's surface was covered with mottled dents and scars, and he examined the marks carefully.
He found that some were clearly left by arrows, some looked like the claw marks of some beast, and others were deep grooves.
He could not tell what terrible thing had carved them. The scars carried a chill, as if steeped through by time, and they clearly had not appeared recently.
They had endured years, even decades, of wind and sun, and had merged with the wall itself, becoming part of its history.
The Ice Hawks Company had only just approached the wall and had not yet had time to look for an entrance when a figure suddenly stepped out of the shadows at the wall's corner.
The figure appeared so suddenly that several of them instinctively gripped their weapons, and Cyrus's hand was already on his sword hilt.
He was a rather slender, handsome man.
He had a head of glossy jet-black curly hair that fell softly over his narrow shoulders, the black strands giving off a faint sheen in the gray light.
The tips were still damp with the morning dew of the woods.
The young man's face was unusually pale.
Pale as if covered with a thin layer of frost.
That sickly pallor made him look like someone long deprived of sunlight, or suffering from some wasting chronic illness.
But even with such a pale, frail appearance,
he could not hide the eager, agitated look in the depths of his eyes.
When he saw Felix,
those dull eyes lit up at once, as if he had seen a light of hope in the darkness.
Orum noticed that the man had a pair of pointed ears like an elf's.
The tips of the ears tilted slightly upward,
forming an elegant point.
This was a typical trait of elven blood.
Though not as pronounced as a pure-blooded elf's, it was still clearly recognizable. He probably had about one-sixteenth elven blood.
Though the bloodline had thinned, it still left him with some elven features.
"Felix!"
the young man said.
His voice was gentle and pleasant.
"I knew you'd come!"
"I've been waiting for you here!"
Felix froze for a moment.
Then he recognized the person before him.
His emerald eyes showed pleased surprise.
"Ith!"
"You're alive!"
His tone was full of surprise and concern.
Orum understood.
The young man before him was Ith.
The client who had sent Felix the letter asking for help.
When all the members of the Ice Hawks Company saw Ith,
they felt somewhat surprised and startled.
Because although the young man did look somewhat sickly, pale and haggard, his overall condition was far better than the situation described in the letter.
In the plea Ith had sent, his tone had been full of despair and fear, and between the lines it had conveyed a hopelessness on the verge of collapse.
The letter had made one feel he might fail to hold out at any moment and be utterly crushed by the strangeness of Greentown and the terror of Everdusk Forest.
But the Ith standing before them now,
though his physical condition was indeed not good,
was mentally fairly stable.
At least he did not show the extreme panic and despair of the letter.
Plainly, Ith's eyes were tired but still clear, and his speech was logical.
Felix's brow creased slightly. He had clearly noticed the discrepancy too.
The only explanation was
that in the time it had taken the Ice Hawks Company to arrive, some major change had taken place in Greentown.
Either that change had altered Ith's situation, or it had merely relieved some symptom temporarily.
Either way, it meant this small town hid secrets more complicated than they had imagined.
In any case, seeing Ith standing alive before him was, in the end, immensely heartening.
After all, he had come deep into Everdusk Forest this time precisely to rescue his friend Ith.
Felix stepped forward a few paces and patted Ith's shoulder.
It was the gesture of old friends, full of care and encouragement.
"Don't worry. We're here."
Felix's voice was gentle and firm.
"Everything will be all right."
Ith's eyes reddened slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed a few times, as if he were suppressing some strong emotion.
"Felix... thank you."
His voice was hoarse, with a touch of choking.
"I knew you'd come!"