By the time morning fully settled over the forest, the rocky outcrop had already lost most of the stillness it carried through the night.

Not because anything had attacked or because the forest had suddenly become loud either.

But because Liam had started moving.

Inside the hollow chamber hidden within the outcrop, the small fire he had used through the night had already been reduced to a low bed of dying embers. Thin lines of smoke curled upward from the pit before slipping toward the narrow crevice entrance, disappearing into the pale morning light outside.

Liam crouched near the coldest corner of the chamber, silently sorting through the supplies he had managed to gather yesterday. The makeshift water container rested against the stone wall, sealed tightly enough to prevent spills. Beside it were the remaining two out of the three smoked fishes and the deer meat wrapped in broad leaves and tied with vines.

The medicinal pouch remained close by as well, holding the herbs and roots. Even though his punctured wound had been healed, Liam knew the herbs could still serve a purpose in case something happened again.

Liam checked and inspected everything they were going to carry along and began packing them into Charlotte’s dimensional storage.

Charlotte herself sat not too far away from him, leaning against the chamber wall while watching him with quiet amusement.

She had already eaten earlier, and now she looked far too relaxed for someone who had just agreed to follow him toward the same region she had fled from the day before. One knee was raised, one arm rested loosely across it, and her golden eyes followed Liam’s movements with a familiar teasing glint.

"You know," she said eventually, "watching you prepare is starting to feel like watching an old man organize his house before a storm."

Liam didn’t look at her.

"That old man would probably survive the storm."

Charlotte hummed softly, clearly entertained.

"True. But he’d probably be boring while doing it."

"I’m not preparing for your entertainment."

"Unfortunately," Charlotte said with a sigh, "I noticed."

Liam ignored her and continued working.

Charlotte watched for another moment before her expression shifted slightly.

This time, the amusement remained, but something more cautious settled underneath it.

"So we’re really going east today?"

"Yes," Liam answered simply.

Charlotte stared at him.

"No dramatic pause? No last chance to rethink this? No speech about how curiosity is worth risking our lives over?"

"You already know my answer."

"Unfortunately," she muttered.

Liam finally glanced at her.

"You can still stay here."

Charlotte clicked her tongue and pushed herself off the wall.

"I already told you why I’m not doing that. Staying here alone sounds peaceful until some oversized nightmare decides this cozy little cave looks interesting." She stretched slightly, then walked toward the supplies. "At least with you, the nightmares have someone else to focus on first."

Smoke, who had been resting near the crevice entrance in a smaller form, a normal-sized wolf rather than the usual puppy size, lifted his head slightly and gave a low grunt.

Charlotte looked at him.

"Oh, don’t start. You know I’m right."

Smoke’s eyes narrowed.

Liam eventually finished packing everything into the dimensional ring and then turned back to Charlotte and tossed it at her.

Charlotte caught it easily and placed it back on her finger.

"We’ll move slow," Liam said. "No rushing unless something forces us to. Smoke will scout ahead in intervals, and you’ll track scent trails and changes in the forest. We avoid fights unless they block our route."

Charlotte leaned slightly toward him.

"And what do you do, Mr. Bodyguard?"

"I make sure you don’t die."

Charlotte’s smile returned immediately.

"That still sounds so lovely when you say it."

Liam gave her a flat look, then turned toward the crevice.

"Let’s go."

One by one, they squeezed out through the narrow opening and emerged into the pale morning light.

The forest outside was damp with early mist. Thin veils of it drifted low across the uneven ground, weaving between roots and rocks around the outcrop.

For a moment, Liam remained still.

His eyes moved across the surrounding trees, listening.

The forest was awake now.

He could hear insects moving between rock spaces, small creatures rustling beneath bushes, and distant calls from birds high above the canopy. Beneath all that, faint demonic Myst signatures drifted through the deeper woods.

Charlotte stepped out behind him, inhaling slowly, and her expression changed almost instantly.

The playful look thinned, replaced by sharper focus.

"Even from all the way here, it still smells wrong toward the east," she said.

Liam looked at her.

"Think whatever you fled from is following?"

Charlotte tilted her head slightly, nostrils flaring as she focused, then scoffed.

"Possibly, but the scent isn’t as close as you think," she paused briefly. "It’s just annoyingly strong."

"That’s good to know," Liam said simply.

"Of course it is, you suicidal lunatic," Charlotte muttered, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

Smoke moved ahead without needing an order, slipping down from the outcrop and into the shade of the trees. His body blended naturally with the darker portions of the forest, leaving only brief flashes of glowing eyes visible between the roots before even those vanished.

Liam began walking after him.

Charlotte followed beside him, though she didn’t move with the careless ease she usually carried. Her steps were quiet, almost too quiet, and her eyes continuously scanned the surrounding woods. Every now and then, her gaze would shift eastward, as if the direction itself annoyed her.

They moved for nearly an hour without incident, then two more hours passed.

The pace was deliberate.

Slower than Liam would have chosen if he were alone, but not unbearable. Charlotte wasn’t physically slowing him down because she lacked speed. If anything, she could probably move through the forest faster than most of their classmates without exhausting herself too quickly. The problem was caution.

She refused to move quickly toward a place her instincts had already warned her about.

And Liam accepted that.

The purpose of this journey wasn’t simply reaching the eastern region. It was understanding it.

That meant moving carefully.

With his senses linked to Smoke’s, Liam was able to keep track of everything ahead where Smoke was scouting. Doing so, he was also aware that there were no immediate threats or major obstacles awaiting them.

There were a few trails belonging to Feral-class demons and some old blood scents, but they were nothing worth stopping for.

At least, not at first.

Eventually, Charlotte slowed, and Liam noticed immediately.

"What is it?"

She crouched near the base of a tree and brushed her fingers across the bark. There, barely visible beneath the moss, were long shallow cuts.

Claw marks.

Not deep enough to be from a battle.

More like something had scraped the tree while passing.

Charlotte leaned closer and sniffed.

"Not fresh," she said. "But not old either."

Liam approached and studied the marks.

"Demon?"

"Definitely." Charlotte’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Horror-class probably. Maybe a big one too. But that’s not the strange part."

"What is?"

She stood and looked deeper into the forest as she sniffed the air.

"It was moving west."

Liam’s gaze shifted to face west.

"That means it was leaving the area," he said.

"Exactly."

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Then Smoke growled softly from ahead.

Liam and Charlotte both turned.

The shadow wolf stood between two trees, body lowered, gaze fixed on something beyond a cluster of roots. Liam moved first, stepping carefully through the brush until he reached Smoke’s side.

Then he saw it.

A dead demon lay half-hidden beneath the roots.

It was smaller than the Advanced Horrors Charlotte had described, likely a standard Horror-class. Its body was long and malformed, with four thin limbs ending in hooked claws. Its face had been crushed partially inward, and its torso had been torn open.

But what caught Liam’s attention was the chest.

There was a hole there.

It didn’t look like feeding damage, but more like something had punctured through the chest and removed the core.

Charlotte came up beside him and went still.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "That."

Liam crouched near the corpse.

The flesh around the wound was dry at the edges, but the inner tissue still carried faint traces of demonic Myst. Not fresh enough to suggest the kill happened recently, but recent enough that scavengers should have found it by now.

Yet the body was untouched.

No bite marks or signs of feeding.

Even the insects seemed to avoid it.

Liam reached out and touched the ground beside the corpse.

The soil had been disturbed. Drag marks showed the demon had either crawled or been thrown there after being wounded. Around the body were broken leaves, snapped roots, and faint traces of dark fluid.

Charlotte folded her arms.

"So," she said, her voice quieter now, "still curious?"

"Yes."

She looked at him and sighed, like she had already expected it but still hoped for a different answer.

"You are impossible."

Liam stood slowly.

"This confirms part of what you saw."

"It confirms that something out there is ripping cores out of demons."

"Which aligns with what I read."

"Bae, c’mon, act like a normal person and say, ’let’s go back,’" Charlotte said. "It’s not that hard, you know?"

"You can still head back to the cave if you plan to keep whining," Liam said calmly. "It’s probably just a three-hour walk back."

"Well, you already know I don’t want to do that. That’s why I’m trying to convince you here," Charlotte said, trying to sound persuasive.

"Well, your efforts are proving futile, so please stop." Liam said.

Before Charlotte could say what was already on her lips, her nose flared slightly and her ears twitched as well. Liam’s nose flared too as he caught onto demonic Myst.

And Smoke’s head snapped toward the left, causing all of them to face that direction.

They could hear movement.

Fast and hurried movement of several bodies moving through the undergrowth.

The closer the sounds got, the clearer the scent became for Charlotte.

She was picking up fear and panic.