Kyle blinked a few times and stared at Rita for several long seconds.
Had I hear that right... or...? he asked himself.
He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a word, Rita had already moved away, walking ahead in haste and leaving Kyle standing there, utterly speechless.
He wanted to yell, to ask her what she meant, or even grab her and force her to stop.
But he knew that if he did, he would only alert the others.
He would bring Reed and the rest of the cohort to a halt.
And if what Rita had said was true...
He would only be ringing the bell for his own execution.
’Still... what did she mean by that?’
The group continued onward until they finally reached the end of the Dark Woods.
Beyond the forest stretched an enormous plain of stone.
No soil.
No grass.
Nothing but an endless expanse of weathered rock leading toward the base of a jagged mountain.
No...
That wasn’t quite right.
It wasn’t a mountain anymore.
It looked like the shattered remains of one.
A colossal landmass that had long since collapsed upon itself, leaving behind broken cliffs, impossible ridges, and twisted walls of ancient stone that looked as though some monstrous force had ripped the mountain apart hundreds upon hundreds of years ago.
The sight was strange.
Surreal.
The broken range stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions, swallowing the horizon beneath its immense shadow.
Its height alone was enough to make Kyle swallow hard.
Towering hundreds of feet into the heavens, climbing it would take the entire cohort days if they marched without rest, and even then, reaching its summit seemed almost impossible.
Seeing the mountain, Kyle unconsciously swallowed.
’Don’t tell me... we’re supposed to climb that just to reach whatever promised land this damned Awakener keeps talking about.’
Thankfully...
That wasn’t the case.
Reed slowly unsheathed one of his katanas.
The gold-coated blade shimmered beneath the pale sunlight as he pointed it toward the endless rocky plains.
"Spread out and kill as many as you can!"
Kyle frowned.
He blinked several times as every member of the cohort immediately split into groups of two and three, sprinting across different parts of the plains with their weapons already drawn.
Their targets...
Were tiny creatures.
Creatures that looked almost identical to ordinary rats.
Each one was barely the size of his foot, covered in ash-grey carapaces that blended almost perfectly with the surrounding rocks, making them nearly impossible to notice from a distance.
"Wait... the beasts he was talking about were... dumb rats?"
Kyle wanted to laugh.
Maybe even grab Reed and drive his knee straight into the man’s groin.
Instead, he swallowed those thoughts and rushed into the rocky plains, recalling the handsome Awakener’s earlier words.
[Ding!]
[You have received two Soul Fragments from a slain Mountain Beast.]
[You have received two Soul Fragments from a slain Mountain Beast.]
Kyle’s heart skipped.
Two fragments.
From monsters someone else had killed.
He hadn’t even lifted his sword yet.
’I’m getting Soul Fragments from battles I didn’t even participate in?’
If merely standing nearby earned him two fragments...
Then just how many would he obtain from killing one himself?
Kyle didn’t wait to find out.
His eyes swept across the plains.
Almost instantly, he spotted one.
A lone Mountain Beast darting frantically between the rocks, desperately trying to escape a majestic mage who was relentlessly hurling blazing fireballs into the swarms ahead.
The tiny fool had unknowingly run straight into Kyle’s reach.
It paid for that mistake immediately.
Kyle drew the crimson blade of his newly purchased longsword.
The blade flashed once.
A crimson arc sliced through the air.
The Mountain Rat’s head separated cleanly from its body before it even realized it had been attacked.
[Ding!]
[You have received five Soul Fragments from slaying a Mountain Beast.]
[You have received ten Soul Fragments from a slain Mountain Beast.]
Kyle’s eyes widened.
Five fragments from his own kill.
Ten more from another member’s.
Greed ignited inside his chest.
Without wasting another second, he dashed toward another fleeing beast.
His sword flashed once more.
Another head rolled across the rocky ground.
Five more fragments.
Adrenaline flooded his veins.
His breathing quickened.
His eyes frantically searched for another target.
Within barely a minute, nearly half of his Soul Fragment requirement had already been filled.
’Just a little more...
’If I keep this up... maybe... just maybe... I’ll completely fill my core within a single hour.’
That greedy thought wasn’t unique to Kyle.
It was festering inside Rita’s mind as well.
Thor’s.
Reed’s.
Steronick’s.
The minds of every single Awakener present.
Greed.
Ambition.
Lust for power.
An insatiable desire to claim more than everyone else.
Those emotions twisted together into something ugly.
Something unnatural.
Like invisible poison spreading through their hearts.
The atmosphere itself seemed to grow heavier as those impure emotions gathered into a silent plague.
A plague none of them even realized had infected them.
[Ding!]
[You have angered the Unknown of the Withered Mountains.]
The entire group froze.
Some halted in the middle of swinging their weapons.
Others stopped with half-formed spells suspended before them.
Every pair of eyes stared blankly at the notification hanging before them.
As though an invisible curse had suddenly been lifted...
The savage impulse to slaughter every Mountain Beast rapidly faded.
Kyle finally released a breath he hadn’t even realized he had been holding.
His sword slowly lowered.
Confusion filled his eyes as he looked toward the others.
’What just—’
Whoosh!
"ARGHHH!"
Kyle’s heart nearly stopped.
Panic gripped every fiber of his being.
What he saw...
What he felt...
What he perceived...
None of it made sense.
The world itself had changed.
His body trembled violently as reality twisted around him.
The warm, sunlit rocky plains vanished without warning.
A torrent of freezing wind slammed into him.
The pleasant air inside his lungs was instantly replaced by air so cold it burned.
The world became white.
Nothing but endless snow and screaming blizzards.
The ground beneath his boots had transformed into thick layers of ice and snow.
His feet immediately sank into the frozen surface as the merciless cold crawled through his boots, threatening to freeze him alive.
"What the hell?!"
"AHHH!"
"Where are we?!"
"It’s so fucking cold!"
"What’s happening?!"
Every member of the cohort had been dragged into the same frozen nightmare.
Each wore identical expressions of fear and disbelief.
Kyle’s teeth chattered.
His entire body shivered uncontrollably.
’Just... what is happening?’
Almost as if answering his question...
Ancient runes shimmered into existence before his eyes.
[You have entered the Secret Realm of the Unknown.]
[Location: Tomb of the Six.]
[Difficulty: Calamity.]