"The people from the Palace of the Four Cycles are here. Let's go."
Ethan's voice was calm, but there was no room for discussion.
Elara and Risa were startled awake almost at the same time. The murderous aura lingering in the air had not yet fully dissipated, but the distant fluctuations—those oppressive, familiar presences—were already closing in.
"Where do we go?" Elara asked instinctively.
"Where are the ruins," Ethan replied.
"Towards the swamp."
Risa's pupils contracted slightly.
The swamp ahead was marked on the jade map as a dangerous zone. Not a place of obvious slaughter, but the kind of region that devoured people silently—quicksand, poisonous miasma, ancient plants, and unknown beasts that lurked beneath stagnant waters.
Yet Ethan didn't even pause.
