"What are you talking about? We have been going forward haven't we?"
Saranda walked towards Mattie, looking at her worriedly. She looked at Mattie as if she had hit her head somewhere.
Mattie was silent for a while, not knowing how to reply. Saranda and Levi were exceptionally intelligent people who paid attention to their surroundings, if they could not recognize what was going on, there was definitely something wrong.
Leaving Saranda without a reply, Mattie unsheathed one of her sabers and carved three lines onto a tree.
Let's keep walking. You'll see I'm right.
Levi was silent through the whole ordeal. It truly felt like he was moving forward, he did not feel like he was going in loops.
There were countless infected with varying powers. Some could manipulate mana to a certain extent, even they had their own innates. Other than being physically powerful, they also were dangerous if they had an exceptionally good understanding over their mana.
Traveler's words, not his.
Levi decided to follow along with Mattie's plan. They would continue walking, and if they encountered the three slashes, then that would mean...
That they were under the influence of an infected of a higher ladder than theirs.
***
It was not even half an hour before they encountered the three lines carved onto the tree.
"See? I told you."
"I see..." Saranda traced her fingers over the lines, then looked at Mattie with slight fascination. "If we did not notice, then how did you do it?"
Levi chimed in at that moment.
"Probably this has something to do with the strength of her mind. Even though Mattie is mentally not that strong, her god blood must grant her some protection against mind attacks."
"That was pretty rude of you." Mattie pouted at Levi, making him scoff.
"I was simply stating the truth." Then he looked ahead, his expression turning grim. "We will need to face whatever infected that has influenced us, or find another way to break free."
"Honestly, I would rather we find another way. If this monster has a way to manipulate space and time, it needs to be very high ranked, no?" Saranda asked.
"Perhaps it is just influencing our minds instead of space and time."
"We would be so cooked if we did not have those manuals." Mattie held the bunny closer to herself.
Levi sighed and looked at the sky, it was getting darker.
"Lets settle down for tonight. But don't let your guard down, the infected might be waiting for us to get comfortable."
Soon, Levi was the only one who was awake. He was leaning against a tree as his gaze swept over the vast expanse of snow and trees. His spear rested against him.
The other two were sleeping.
A pair of red eyes gleamed on Mattie's lap. They were looking towards Levi.
'What is the deal with this animal..?'
At that moment, he saw something in the distance. It was a source of light, not exactly bright, it was very small.
'A firefly..?'
Levi pushed himself off the tree and nudged Mattie with the bottom side of his spear.
"Get up, both of you, and stay here."
Mattie slowly opened her eyes, she looked slightly drowsy as she registered his words. But her drowsiness was washed over by a sense of worry.
"Where are you going?"
But Levi was already walking, Mattie got up and shook Saranda awake too. They were about to follow Levi, however they stopped when they heard heavy footsteps behind.
The moment the sound reached them, both girls froze. It was too heavy, too deliberate to belong to a human.
***
Levi walked to the location where the firefly was in. But now... he saw no fireflies and no source of light.
What was even weirder was that he was not hearing the girls anymore, they were not even that far.
'Its getting darker?'
No it was not.
It was not that the surroundings were getting darker. It was Levi's own vision that was darkening.
'Shit...'
Levi felt a heavy sense of dizziness wash over him. The trees seemed to bend around him, twisting in slow circles as the world tilted sideways.
Without even being able to warn the other two of his condition, he collapsed onto the snow with a dull thud.
***
The two girls immediately turned their gazes towards the source of the footsteps. Their eyes widened once they saw it.
It was an infected that towered over them, spanning up to three meters. It had a humanoid body, covered in navy colored fur, its muscles were bulky and asymmetrical. The head of the infected resembled a bats, but it looked much more harrowing than that as it had multiple eyes, each blinked at their own pace.
The infected looked like it had crawled out from a horror movie... no, even those paled next to this abomination! Mattie felt her stomach acting up as she stared at the monster.
Most worrying aspect of it, was that it was an infected of the fourth ladder, undeniably the reason they were walking around in loops for a week.
Mattie had assumed that since it manipulated minds, it ought to be physically weak. However the infected was even bulkier than a gorilla!
They were definitely fucked this time around. Not only they could not leave Levi behind, but they also could not outrun this monster. The harrowing abomination was most likely faster than them.
Mattie had also realized her hands were shaking, pressing the bunny onto her chest even more.
"Pull yourself together... it is coming." Saranda said in a calm tone. The calmness was an act of course, deep down, she was scared shitless. But she needed to look strong in front of Mattie. After all if Mattie did not fight in full strength, they were both guaranteed to be doomed.
Hell, she was sure they would lose even if Mattie did fight full strength!
Mattie let the bunny down, unsheathing her sabers, letting out breaths to calm herself. Next to her, Saranda had already pulled out her longsword.
Seeing the shiny weapons in their hands, the abomination let out a quiet growl and started rushing towards them, its steps shaking the ground with force.
"Here goes nothing!"
Mattie concentrated on her mana, and then suddenly the surroundings erupted in a blinding light.
***
Levi opened his eyes.
What greeted him was a vast expanse of white.
There was nothing in sight. The space seemed endless and limited at the same time.
Strangely, his thoughts were calm, it was as if he had stopped thinking altogether.
But that was not the case. He simply felt too at ease, too relaxed.
Levi was at peace.
'Is this the afterlife?'
Did he even die? How?
He walked forward.
He walked and walked, the white seemed to be never ending. There was nothing standing in his way unlike in real life, he could keep walking forward.
So he did.
How much had he walked?
His legs did not seem to be tired.
How much time had passed?
Why did it matter? Why would it matter if time kept flowing? He was at peace. Peace was something he yearned for, it was always out of reach, but now he was being cradled by it.
His dream had been fulfilled, he had reached his goal.
If this was death, he wanted to welcome it.
So, he simply should stay here for the rest of existence. He should stop walking forward when he had reached his goals.
Was time passing?
Wait... why was he concerned about time again? Wasn't he at peace?
Time should not matter right now.
So why was he walking forward? Wasn't this his dream? Why did his body keep walking? It was as if something else was controlling his body.
But the one who is at peace did not know, that it was his own will that kept him walking forward. This was not peace, this was brainwash. A small part of his own mind had kept itself pure, not making itself known to the external source that was using brainwash on his body.
Even though Levi could not utilize it to its full power, he was still aware of what the ability could do. So he knew its weakness's and strengths.
So he kept walking forward, running ahead.
That was until the brainwash suddenly stopped and Levi could gain full control over himself once again.
There were two figures on each side far away from him.
One was a woman with long blond hair. Blond was an understatement though, the color of her hair was full blown shiny yellow. She was wearing a white garment, its length covering her body down to her knees.
Levi felt an ethereal aura radiating off the lady, even if her face was blurry.
As for the other figure... it was a woman too.
She was tall, as tall as Levi himself. She had dark hair that fell down her shoulders, her bangs covering her forehead. She had high cheekbones and a razor sharp jawline.
Her eyes resembled two black pools of darkness, bearing no light in them. A smile adorned her lips, not quite reaching her eyes.
Levi knew her very well.
That was... Seraphine.
***
The infected was suddenly blinded by the radiant light that was pushed into existence.
Two blades cut through the air, whistling through the body of the abomination, making it let out a quiet shriek.
Saranda had slashed her sword against its side as she dashed past the blinded freak, however her sword only left a small scratch on its hide.
Mattie on the meanwhile, carved a deep wound onto the side of the momentarily blinded beast. Her body was enhanced by her empowerment, although it was also hurriedly eating away her mana.
She needed to leave the beast wounded at least so they could run away!
Mattie's sabers whistled through the air as they headed towards the leg of the beast, however she was forced to back down immediately as she realized that the beast was charging its leg towards her to kick her away.
He threw herself sideways as she rolled through the snow, only to see the beast was already looming over her, ready to bring its fists down to crush her puny body.
When Saranda saw this, she immediately conjured a ball of water. But what was a ball of water going to do against a fourth ladder? She needed to change things up.
This move consumed some of her mana, but the water ball hovering above her palm had become increasingly hot, to the point of boiling temperature. Saranda swung her hand and the ball hurled itself against the beast, crashing against its back. This time, the beast let out a pained scream as the boiling water hit its back.
Mattie immediately leaped up to her feet, and in the next second, a blinding flash erupted in the vast expanse of the forest once again.
Using the beasts momentary blindness, Mattie brandished her sword and swung them down at full force. Strength flowed within her body as she left a cross shaped wound on the beasts torso, red blooding seeping down it.
Saranda appeared next to the beast too, her longsword flashing to stab the wound that Mattie had left on its side. Her sword was coated in salty water.
The longsword plunged into the wound, the beast letting out a deafening scream. In the next moment, the abomination swung its arm sideways, and unfortunately the powerful arm hit Saranda sending her flying.
Saranda crashed through two trees before the force settled and eventually she crashed into another tree, falling down on her butt.
Her left arm was left mangled and bent in an unnatural way, blood streamed down from the top of her head, coating her face in blood. There was no doubt that she had also broken a rib or even her spine.
"Saranda!" Mattie's shriek echoed through the forest.