By Zephyria 
Swish—
Leonardo, having sliced through the drooping vines, scanned his surroundings in silence. Lowering his posture, he signaled with a hand gesture over his shoulder and advanced swiftly. A moment later, mud-caked combat boots landed with a wet thud where he had just passed. Taylor, leaping down from a tree, followed close behind, chewing on a piece of gum made from hardened sap.
For the sake of mobility, the pretty pumps had long since been swapped for something more practical. Following them was Nero, carrying his shell on his back, busily maintaining the interval by following the markers left by his seniors.
Finder, appearing last, leisurely covered the rear with his muzzle pointed upward. Though he seemed to be strolling casually, he was carefully scanning the perimeter.
However, as he analyzed the unfamiliar ecology and terrain, he suddenly came to a halt.
“…Hm?”
It was because he had spotted a strange silhouette amidst the tall reeds.
Between the various weeds and the pale mist, it was difficult to discern the shape at a glance. Tilting his head, Finder took two steps back. With one hand, he extended his beloved lover, subtly pushing aside the sparse reeds with the muzzle.
Then, the front of the silhouette imprinted on the dirt ground became faintly visible. It was a large footprint. Judging by the size, it wasn’t an ordinary mountain animal, but a demon beast estimated to be roughly 15 meters in size. Or perhaps even larger.
Hoping inwardly for the latter, Finder pulled out the pen and notebook tucked into his chest rig.
“I hope it tastes good.”
He quickly sketched the shape of the footprint, noted the size, and put them back. Since he had been looking for dummy targets for shooting practice, he wanted to scout the area a bit more, but he was here on the captain’s request. Just as he passed the footprint to report back, promising himself a return later—
Sssss—
A wind that pierced through the entire canyon blew. It flowed from behind Finder toward the front, as if pushing him to hurry along.
“…….”
His movement, having taken only two steps, stopped again. The look in his eyes as he slowly turned around lacked the composure from a moment ago. With a sharp glint in his eyes, he lowered his posture and braced the stock against his shoulder. His finger was pulling the trigger to the one-third mark, ready to fire at any instant.
Retracing his steps with a tactical walk, the moment he pressed his back against the smooth bark of a beech tree—
Snap—
A minute noise blended into the wind. Without letting go of the trigger, he swiftly thrust the muzzle past the trunk.
Bang, bang—!
“Huh?”
Two thunderous cracks echoed loudly, bouncing off the cliffs. Nero, who was leading the way, flinched at the roar.
A skilled sniper never fires until they are certain. This is because their position could be exposed. The fact that a shot rang out was a signal that something was happening.
Nero, poking his neck out like a meerkat, turned around without hesitation.
Swish— Moving with agile motions, he practically ran back through the vegetation, and before long, he found Finder standing blankly amidst the mist.
Finder was bent over, examining something. Nero approached him, muffling his footsteps.
“Senior, what is it?”
Hearing the whisper, Finder glanced at him and shook his head as if it were nothing.
Eventually, he raised the smoking muzzle and readjusted the shoulder strap connected to the barrel. At his feet lay a mountain goat, presumed to have been hit by a cartridge. Finder closed his eyes, traced a line across his chest, and then used a dagger to slit the goat’s hide and extract the embedded cartridge.
After picking up the rolling shell casing, he scanned the area and walked right past Nero.
Nero looked back and forth between the abandoned carcass and the departing man, asking, “Aren’t you taking that? Didn’t you hunt it?”
“I just fired a shot.”
“What?”
Tilting his head, Nero looked down at the feet again. The animal had died cleanly, without even post-mortem convulsions. Even if putting things out of their misery was Finder’s style, it felt strange that a man who usually handled things with such care—even praying before killing anything that wasn’t a villain or a demon beast—would say he “just fired a shot.”
However, fearing he would lose sight of his seniors, Nero pushed his doubts aside and slowly began to walk.
Sensing Nero behind him, Finder, who had been walking while staring straight ahead, muttered in a barely audible voice.
“There’s something there.”
Nero’s red eyes shifted sideways. He likewise lowered his voice and asked.
“A human, or a beast?”
“I don’t know. But it’s quite intelligent. Its movements are decent too.”
“Then we should shake it off.”
“It won’t be able to stick close for a while. I hit it.”
As he spoke, Finder opened his palm toward Nero. The recovered cartridge and shell casing were held there, soaked in blood. One cartridge, two shell casings.
Suddenly, Nero recalled hearing two rapid gunshots. Yet, there was only one hole piercing the mountain goat’s carcass.
“You didn’t kill that thing, did you?”
“Yeah.”
“Should I report this to the Captain?”
“He probably noticed since the shots rang out.”
“No, the sound doesn’t travel well here relative to the distance. I thought I was several hundred meters away from you, but when I came back, it was only 50m….”
“Captain, is it over there?”
Just then, Taylor’s voice drifted over. The two men, who had been conversing like ventriloquists, stared ahead.
Beyond the mist, two figures who had gone ahead were shimmering. He had thought they would be far by now, but the distance was closer than expected. Nero gestured with his eyes to Finder.
“I told you, right?”
He once again ran toward his comrades.
Finder stared silently at their backs, then looked back toward the rear where the wind was still blowing. It seemed the Captain’s words—that the mist acted as a barrier—were true. In the meantime, the presence had vanished again.
“Senior, Captain. Is there something there?”
Nero, having caught up behind the man and woman, placed his arms on their shoulders and asked. The wind blew particularly fiercely where they stood, and the gap between the cliffs on either side gradually narrowed until there was only a path narrow enough for two people to barely pass through.
Looking beyond that, Nero’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Wow….”
Below the slope covered in boulders and piles of stone, the mist cleared to reveal a wide-open vista.
An endless swamp and a bright yellow sky that gave an impression of strangeness filled his vision. The vast plain was submerged in shallow, dark water, reflecting the sky like a mirror. Because of this, the boundary of the horizon was ambiguous.
Low vegetation and shrubs formed colonies across the land, and above them, gaunt-looking trees sent down net-like roots, setting traps beneath the water.
Though it was the vast nature he always saw, this place felt different. It was even more so because a boulder rising from the far side of the swamp was unnaturally curved, forming a perfect circle. As if one were being sucked into a twisted space-time.
“People actually live in a place like this?”
Nero murmured an exclamation into the air. Just then, Taylor, who had taken a scope out of her jumper, wiped the surface of the lens and scanned the surroundings.
It seemed impossible to find even a speck of human trace, yet occasionally, rotten wooden planks and fragments of broken bricks rolled across the dry ground. Pieces of civilization swallowed by nature allowed one to gauge the footprints of the past.
Hmm, Taylor made a humming sound and licked her lips with the tip of her tongue.
“Maybe they aren’t human. More importantly, why did you arrive so late?”
“Uh, didn’t you hear the sound?”
Ignoring the conversation between the two, Leonardo brushed back his blonde hair fluttering in the wind. He then pulled a note left by the old man at the supply shop from his pocket to check it.
‘Swamp of Thoughts.’
It seemed they had come to the right place. As expected, that man was not one to leave false information.
Just then, Finder, who had arrived behind them, frowned and shielded his eyes with his hand, staring at the sky.
“There’s no sun.”
At those words, the three who had turned their heads all lifted their chins simultaneously. It wasn’t that there were no clouds at all, but even accounting for that, the shape of the sun was completely invisible. On the other hand, the sunlight was beating down strongly, creating a strange sense of dissonance.
“No shadows either.”
Following that, Leonardo shifted his gaze and looked down at his feet. The eyes of the other three reflexively followed.
The boundary between light and shadow had collapsed. The gloomy shade that had filled the gaps of the canyon until a moment ago had retreated far behind, as if it were an immense distance away.
Nero clicked his tongue and readjusted his heavy load.
“It was a good thing the Captain came with us, huh?”
Leonardo let out a short laugh and tightened the hood of his cloak.
“Indeed.”
Then, without hesitation, he took the first step onto the slope.
“Let’s go.”
Leonardo stepped onto a sharply protruding rock and glided forward to take the lead. Using the Captain’s fluttering cloak as a vanguard, the steps of the three following behind stretched out like shadows.