Grey was thinking about how his system didn't show the character panel of the chief, no matter how much he called upon it.

Also even after hearing the plight of the village, the system didn't present him with a mission.

"Can't sleep?" Blaze asked as he approached Grey, pulled a chair and sat beside him.

"Just thinking about stuff." Grey said with a smile.

"You thinking about the guardian of the village?' Blaze asked.

"Kind of. I can't get my mind around this thing." Grey replied.

Blaze kept his silence, but then his brows creased with worry and confusion.

"I've been getting a weird feeling since entering the village. It's like something is there right in front of us, bit we're missing it somehow." Blaze said, his face twisted with confusion and skepticism.

"Also, I had a doubt since the your meeting with the chief."

"What?" Grey asked, his brows creasing.

"How did he knew we had girls with us? They never came out of the carriage nor they made a single sound the whole time." Blaze asked with confusion.

Grey's eyes opened wide in shock and realisation.

Just then Grey's eyes darted outside the window. The distant forest was not visible anymore, a thick layer of fog had covered everything.

THUD!!

Just then a loud thud came from the adjacent room where the girls were.

"Fuck!! Wake everyone up Blaze, something's not right, we need to get out of here." Grey hollered as he jumped and rushed towards the door.

The door opened with a bang as he ran out and now stood in front of the girls room.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Elena! Lenore! PRINCESS EROWEN!" Grey screamed out as he kept banging the door. But there was no response from the other side.

"What's the matter?" Harlon appeared beside grey as he asked, his face pale with fear and worry.

"They're not answering." Grey said.

Both of them stared at each other for a second and then immediately, aura covered Grey's fist as he blasted the door open with a punch.

The two of them hurriedly rushed inside, but almost instantly they froze on thier places seeing the scene inside.

The fog from the outside had seeped inside the room, a sniff of the wet droplets was enough for the two of them to understand that the fog had hallucinogenic components mixed inside.

They immediately covered thier noses and covered themselves with aura film.

But the greater shock was the empty room. None of the three girls were present inside. There was a huge gaping maw like hole in the wall, and a trail of blood from the floor followed outside through the hole.

Just then the rest of the gang arrived.

"Don't breath the fog in, cover your noses." Harlon hollered.

The rest of them immediately did so without asking anything. They were shocked to the core seeing the scene inside.

The realization hit Grey like a physical blow. Blaze was right—they had been compromised from the second they crossed the threshold. The Chief hadn't just been hospitable; he had been counting.

The thick, unnatural fog was now pouring through the shattered door of the girls' room, swirling like a living thing. It smelled of rot and damp lilies—the distinct, cloying scent of Spirit-Laced Hallucinogens.

Grey and Harlon stood at the edge of the massive, jagged hole in the wall. The blood on the floor was still warm, the crimson trail disappearing into the white void of the forest.

"The blood," Harlon hissed, his eyes glowing with Elven fury. "It's not a struggle. It's a trail. They wanted us to follow."

"Then we give them exactly what they want, but with interest," Grey growled. His red aura flared, burning away the mist immediately surrounding him.

Grey turned to the group, his voice cutting through the panic. "Blaze! Solmon! Take Aeron and Zenon. Don't show that 'Chief' an ounce of mercy. If he breathes, he talks. Find out what this 'Guardian' really is and how to break the binding!"

Blaze nodded, his eyes reflecting the fire of his aura. "We'll peel the truth out of him. Move!"

The four of them sprinted toward the Longhouse, their footsteps heavy and determined. Meanwhile, Grey and Harlon turned back to the forest.

The cold night air was thick with the cloying, sweet scent of the fog. As Grey and Harlon leaped through the shattered wall, the village of Oakhaven seemed to dissolve behind them, swallowed by the unnatural mist.

Grey's mind raced. The silence of his System was the most terrifying part. Usually, it provided a safety net—information, warnings, missions. Now, it was a void.

It meant whatever was out here was either masking its existence or the "System" didn't recognize the entity as a standard "enemy."

"Harlon, keep your aura tight!" Grey shouted over the whistling wind. "The fog is getting thicker. If we lose the blood trail, we lose them."

Harlon didn't speak; his obsidian sword was already drawn, glowing with a faint, pulsing black light that seemed to eat the mist around them.

His Elven senses were pushed to the limit, tracking the minute splatters of crimson on the pulsating, pale roots of the trees.

Meanwhile, back in the village, Blaze led the charge into the Chief's longhouse. Solmon walked beside him, his massive gauntlets humming with stored kinetic energy. Aeron and Zenon followed, weapons drawn, their faces pale but set.

They burst through the heavy oak doors, expecting to find an old man. Instead, they found a nightmare.

Chief Olden was standing in the center of the room, but he was no longer hunched. His skin had taken on a gray, bark-like texture, and his eyes were glowing with a sickly violet light.

Around him, the "young men" of the village stood, their bodies twitching, their limbs elongated and skeletal.

"You should have stayed in your rooms," Olden rasped, his voice sounding like two grinding stones. "The Great Root requires the vitality of the young to maintain the sanctuary. You were meant to be a peaceful sacrifice."

"Sacrifice this!" Blaze roared, his hands erupting in intense, white-hot flames. "Where are the girls, you piece of rot?"

Solmon stepped forward, the floorboards cracking under his weight. "Don't bother talking, Blaze. Look at them. They aren't human anymore. They're just puppets

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