"Do we really have to check out this cave, captain?" I said, my voice muffled by the scarf wrapped tightly around my face. The wind howled past us, dragging loose snow in spirals, stinging any exposed skin. We’d been trudging through this frozen wasteland for what felt like an eternity, but my rationale said just twenty minutes.

  Frank punched my back softly, enough to jolt me but not knock the breath out. "How are you even registered as a B Rank mercenary? Man up. Toda took care of Vellin already. This is just procedure."

  His voice was calm, but there was an edge to it—like he wasn’t just trying to comfort me, but reassure himself. Every time the Piercing Serpent has been up against impossible odds, he's won because of his bloodline's blessing. It's a cheat. I glanced at the jagged mouth of the cave ahead, half-buried in a wall of frost and shadow. My teeth clenched as another chill ran down my spine, not just from the cold, but from the memories of that thing.

  It wasn’t a man that walked out of that skirmish twenty years with the Haku Mercenary Association. No, not a man at all. I said 'it' for a reason. It wasn't human. A god resides in the Cardaires.

  The snow crunched beneath our boots as we moved, every footstep echoing faintly into the icy silence. I asked, “What if Toda loses? We would stand no chance unless Vellin was significantly weakened.”

  Frank sighed and halted for a moment, rubbing his hands together before exhaling into them. “Let me explain something to you.” he said, his breath forming little clouds. “The strongest people in this world are the ones who control entire cities or provinces. Obsidian and Sun control over sixty percent. The other ‘kings,’ you could call them, are fellow transcended, but lack manpower.”

  He started walking again, a slow, deliberate pace. I followed closely, trying to step in the indentations he left in the snow.

  “Leo and Toda are the only two men in the world who lead more than one other transcended.” he continued. “Overall, from strongest to weakest, it goes Leo and Toda, their subordinates tied with the other transcended and kings, the ‘legends’ such as Mason, Hal, and leaders of Major Clans, then the rest.”

  The explanation, clinical as it was, actually cheered me up a bit. I smiled behind my scarf. “So it won’t be too tough after all.”

  Frank cracked his neck and gave me a rare grin, one that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Not at all, but be on alert anyway.”

  We entered the cave, our boots crunching against the uneven, frost-laced dirt. The temperature rose further inside. The walls were jagged and damp, glistening faintly from the firelight flickering somewhere deeper within. There was a faint crackle ahead, wood popping in heat.

  We took a right, expecting to find Toda seated by the flame, exhausted but victorious, maybe even smirking. Instead, our hopes turned to ash.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  His body laid in a mangled heap, surrounded by a pool of blood darkening the rock-hard dirt. The warmth of the fire only made the scene worse, casting shadows that brought his death to reality. Frank blitzed forward, falling to his knees beside the corpse. He checked Toda’s injuries with grim efficiency, his fingers tracing shattered ribs and puncture wounds. Finally, he placed two fingers to the neck.

  The rest of us held our breath as murmurs began to rise among the band. We were nervous insects.

  Frank stood slowly, his expression unreadable. “He’s dead.”

  No one moved at first. Then his voice turned cold and sharp. “Bring out your weapons.”

  Metal hissed and clanked as we obeyed. I unslung my darksteel mace from my back. Normally, a weapon like this would’ve been reserved for elites, but Obsidian had been generous. Too generous. Even the C Ranks were armed with darksteel. Toda was thorough—almost paranoid.

  I shifted uneasily. Something was off.

  Frank’s eyes narrowed, and I knew he felt it too. The air had changed. It pressed against our skin, thick and malevolent. “Even I can feel that bloodlust.” he muttered.

  He turned without warning and hurled a darksteel ball into a shadowy crease in the cave wall. “So it was activated after all,” he said just before the ball exploded, blasting apart the rock it struck.

  Darksteel shouldn't have detonated like that unless it struck something alive.

  From the dark rose a shape.

  It was Vellin, and his eyes were dead.

  His shirt was torn to ribbons, his arms slick with drying blood. He clung to the wall like an insect, limbs contorted, spine bent unnaturally. That wasn’t a martial stance—it was something else. Something terrifying.

  That was Unconscious God.

  Frank's voice boomed. “Fire!”

  The ten or so archers around us reacted instantly, drawing and releasing with practiced speed. The cave echoed with the thrum of bowstrings. Vellin moved, severing arrowheads mid-flight with slashes of his spear hand. A few struck his body but embedded shallowly, like needles failing to pierce deep flesh. He examined his hand, then flexed—the arrowheads popped out and clattered to the ground.

  With an eerie stillness, he dropped from the wall and flipped forward, landing lightly in a crouch. His spear hand rose like a blade.

  Frank's gaze sharpened. “He, or Toda, did something. I thought at first that blood was Toda’s. It’s not. Toda nearly got him, but Vellin won... somehow. He’s weakened.”

  Frank raised his arm, revealing darksteel balls between his fingers. With a flick of his wrist, he sent them flying. Vellin’s body weaved through them like water around rocks—leaning left, right, down. He didn’t just dodge—he flowed.

  We couldn’t follow him. Not even a bit.

  Frank kicked up dirt, sending a thin cloud into the air to obscure vision. “Even when he’s weakened, we’re nothing to him.” he said, backing up. “We have to use our experience to win this. Circle formation. Back to back.”

  We shuffled into position, shoulder to shoulder, watching each other's blind spots. My limbs felt heavier than usual. Slower. And I wasn’t the only one.

  A mercenary to my right, his name lost to me, asked, “Can you follow his bloodlust, Frank?!”

  Frank shook his head. “The bloodlust is too thick. It's everywhere now. I’m the only S Rank here, so none of you know this, but ‘bloodlust’ is an actual power in transcendeds. If any of us were C Rank or below, he could freeze us where we stand.” He scanned the walls with sharp eyes, his stance low and tense. “Since we’re all strong, we can resist it. But movements are sluggish. My movement isn’t too heavily affected, but I bet any B Rank feels they’re at half of their power.”

  The weakest of us nodded, jaw clenched.

  I was the only one who spoke up to confirm it, “Yeah.”

  Frank pulled out more darksteel balls, weighing them in his hand. “We’re being hunted.”