‘Twins?’
A fleeting thought crossed my mind—were they twins with identical faces but completely different auras?
After all, even on Odlo Island, there were people who looked alike but had vastly different personalities.
As my eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, I noticed her attire. Though concealed beneath a loose cloak, the sleeves and hem were unmistakably the same as the dress Selene had worn during the day.
I quickly scanned her with my eyes.
When I handed her the fairy tale book, Selene had a faint scratch on her fingertip…
‘It’s the same person, without a doubt.’
This woman had the same mark. The only difference was the atmosphere surrounding her—everything else matched perfectly.
‘But why is she acting like this?’
She was behaving as if she didn’t recognize me. There was no reason for her to pretend, nor did it seem like an act.
Perhaps she hadn’t recognized me in the darkness at first, but by now, her eyes should have adjusted as well.
‘Even if she were pretending not to know me, there should have been some kind of instinctive reaction upon recognizing me.’
Then, a sudden hypothesis struck me.
‘Is this… a divine curse?’
A divine curse referred to all sorts of mental abnormalities—afflictions beyond the help of doctors and unaffected even by Wita’s divine powers. It was a punishment bestowed upon those abandoned by the gods, with forgiveness said to be attainable only through prayer.
There were various forms of divine curses, and one of them was the splitting of a person’s personality.
‘If that’s the case…’
I clasped my hands together tightly and narrowed my eyes.
“Sister Selene!”
“…Huh?”
Feigning familiarity.
Unlike when I met Selene, this woman exuded a threatening presence—
The kind that made it seem like she could take down a bear with her bare hands.
‘If she doesn’t like me, there’s no telling what she might do.’
I needed to handle this carefully until Nereus arrived.
At this distance, even if I called for him, something could happen to me before he got here.
“Are you here for something in this forest too, sis? My dad is, as well!”
“…Dad?”
Yes, as expected.
Even if her personalities didn’t completely share their memories, they must at least be aware of each other’s existence.
Judging by how she had pulled her cloak over herself, she might have been trying not to intrude on the daytime Selene’s domain.
‘Let’s think this through a little more.’
But was that reason enough to venture into the Black Forest?
Click, click, click—my mind raced.
A lone woman wandering the Black Forest.
A resident of this place, moving with an unusual amount of freedom.
And the overwhelming, almost menacing energy radiating from her entire being…
‘It’s her.’
The veiled Ekati Terminus.
The last remaining member and head of House Terminus.
It was her.
‘I don’t know exactly what her power is, but they say the Terminus family’s abilities are the kind people tend to avoid.’
And on top of that, she was cursed by the gods.
With all these conditions combined, it was only natural that she would try to avoid attracting attention.
Even if she wasn’t Ekati Terminus herself, she was undoubtedly closely connected to them.
After all, what kind of reckless lunatic would enter the Black Forest so casually?
When I met her during the day, she seemed to know this area like the back of her hand.
“Do you know Selene?”
“Yes! She gave me candy today and even helped me pick out a fairy tale book.”
“A fairy tale? Which one?”
“The Loner of the Black Forest!”
I saw her eyebrow twitch slightly.
‘So she does know the hidden truth within that book.’
I feigned innocence and looked up at her with bright, curious eyes.
“But what do you mean by knowing Selene? Isn’t she you?”
“That is…”
Just as she was about to speak, a chilling aura swept through the wind.
Her expression hardened instantly, and before I knew it, she grabbed me and tucked me under her arm.
“Damn it. Stay quiet for a moment.”
I could already tell what this eerie presence was.
“I’ve encountered it before.”
The only thing born from dead land—
No, it wasn’t even something that could be called alive. A wicked existence.
As a naval officer, I had no choice but to come across them.
The phenomenon of dying land wasn’t limited to the continent; it was happening across countless island nations as well.
Since the navy patrolled the islands under the Maritime Alliance, we often witnessed lands withering away.
‘I’ve even been to the fallen Terminus territory after their collapse.’
Although the Sixth House had attempted to recover it, the devastation was still severe.
The process of land decay followed a pattern.
At first, it withered like a drought, killing all life sprouting from the soil.
Plants shriveled and died, and even when rain fell, the earth remained barren.
That alone was terrifying enough.
But the true horror came afterward—the birth of the wicked beings.
Sluggish, tar-like black masses oozed across the dried land, swallowing everything in their path.
‘No living thing lasted more than a month there.’
There was a way to reverse it, but it was incredibly tedious and time-consuming—
So much so that people considered it practically impossible.
I couldn’t hide my shock.
‘Why has it spread all the way here?!’
As long as Ekati was alive, the Terminus family served as an impenetrable barrier.
This place should have been a safe zone, completely off-limits to those wretched beings.
Then, something shifted in the dark shadows.
Unlike the sluggish wicked beings, this figure moved swiftly.
‘That is…’
From the ground, something began to crawl up.
The skeletal remains of a few trees trembled and wriggled as if coming to life.
I could clearly see what was emerging from the earth.
‘Animal and human corpses.’
Some were mere bones, while others still had patches of flesh clinging to them.
They gradually took shape, transforming into something grotesque.
At a glance, they almost resembled wicked beings.
‘Could this be the power of Terminus?’
By the time I had officially participated in naval operations, the head of the Terminus family no longer existed.
Even among the Six Houses, the nature of their authority had never been fully disclosed.
And since their family had long since fallen, there was no way to uncover it now.
I was speechless at the eerie sight before me.
Ekati Terminus stood at the center of it all, orchestrating the movements of countless dead.
With perfect coordination, they overwhelmed the wicked beings, subduing them one after another.
‘This is overwhelming.’
The most troublesome aspect of wicked beings was that they drained the life force of everything they consumed.
However, if they were fighting against the dead, that weakness became irrelevant.
Now I understood why the Terminus family had been entrusted with guarding the empire’s most crucial borders—
How they alone had managed to defend it all this time.
I had only witnessed it once, and it was enough to make everything clear.
What should have been a prolonged battle was over in an instant.
However, at that very moment, I felt my body fall to the ground.
Ekati Terminus had let go of me.
“Ah!”
She, who had been holding me, was now pale as a sheet, gasping for breath.
Her entire body trembled violently, and in the end, she collapsed to her knees.
‘Is she unwell?’
She had seemed fine just a moment ago. I cautiously approached her.
“D-Don’t come any closer.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Get away… now…”
She spoke in a low, almost threatening voice, but she couldn’t even lift a hand against me.
‘If she’s speaking so harshly to a mere child like me, her condition must be truly dire.’
Given my size and age, I wouldn’t even qualify for use by an assassination guild, meaning I posed little to no threat.
Even if she were out of touch with the world, someone of her status as the head of the Terminus family wouldn’t be ignorant of that fact.
In other words, she was not in a state to think rationally—
‘Her fingertips and the area around her eyes have turned black.’
There were various illnesses that caused similar symptoms, but this was one I was very familiar with.
‘This is a sign of darkness.’
A rapid drop in body temperature, blackening of the fingertips and eyes, uncontrollable trembling, and the inability to support one’s own weight…
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Her dazed eyes flickered as if she might lose consciousness at any moment. They were unfocused, unable to properly perceive anything.
Darkness didn’t go berserk the moment it appeared.
There were always precursor symptoms, though no one could predict when the actual outburst would occur.
‘And as time passes, these precursor symptoms become more severe. At this stage, it’s only the first phase.’
The reason I knew so much about the progression of darkness, despite not being a Seer, was simple:
All naval officers, upon reaching a certain rank, were required to learn the protocol for handling Admiral Pharus if he were to go berserk during a mission.
When someone showed signs of the first phase, the immediate action was to create distance.
In Pharus’s case, his authority was over the sea, so if symptoms appeared while on a ship, the only thing one could do was pray they wouldn’t die.
‘Since his power affected a 100-meter radius.’
After thirty minutes, he would usually regain control.
At that point, he would be restrained and transported back to headquarters, where the Sixth House would be notified.
Then, a representative from the Sixth House would be dispatched to oversee the situation.
‘But something about this doesn’t add up.’
There were instances where darkness would erupt without any precursor symptoms.
That was why it had caused so many disasters.
I had always assumed that Terminus, before my regression, had been destroyed because the Sixth House was unable to intervene in time due to a sudden outburst.
‘But she’s clearly showing precursor symptoms now.’
Had they failed to take action despite being notified?
Or had they done everything possible but been unable to stop her due to the sheer power gap?
“Aaaaaaah!”
Ekati Terminus let out a piercing scream.
The first phase of her symptoms had begun in full force.
“This isn’t the time to be standing around.”
There was another issue concerning the Tenus territory, which the Terminus family governed.
I had been reminded of it the moment I realized the state Ekati Terminus was in.
‘But how am I supposed to escape from here?’
The first phase of the symptoms meant her power would now be unleashed uncontrollably within a 100-meter radius.
And based on my observations, the Terminus family’s ability was to control the dead.
‘Which means…’
Everything within this area now belonged to Ekati Terminus’s domain.
As if to confirm my suspicion, the moment I assessed the situation, the buried corpses beneath the ground began to rise.
Not just that—
The withered trees and tangled thorns surrounding the area twisted together, forming an enormous cage that enclosed me completely.
“N-No!”
There was still something I had to do.
Before I died, I needed to identify the infiltrator who had entered Caelum.
I couldn’t let my family be taken away so meaninglessly.
‘But how…?’
How could I escape? How could I survive?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t find a way out.
And just when I was about to lose all hope—
A blinding light erupted from somewhere.
