Magical Journey: The Other Shore Blooms on the Other Shore

Chapter 156 Twilight of Mokaricchi 2

"Stop..." Eve gestured for the entire group to halt in place.

The entire team obeyed orders without question. Even those around Eve didn't know why they had to stop, but they did so without hesitation the moment they saw the gesture.

Eve carefully extended the ghost lamp, which emitted a faint light, toward a tree root.

"What's wrong?" Adam asked as he arrived at the front of the team after arranging for them to enter a state of emergency.

“We’re going in circles,” Eve said succinctly. “We were here about ten minutes ago.”

Getting lost in the forest is quite common, since there are no landmarks—but for this team, getting lost is quite rare, as Eve is equipped with the "North Star," a sophisticated magical artifact crafted by successive leaders, which can always point in a certain direction without wavering.

The North Star has been passed down for countless generations and has never made a mistake.

Eve was convinced that the group had been heading in a certain direction.

But just now, she saw the marks she had made ten minutes earlier on these tree roots—in fact, Eve left these marks not to prevent getting lost, but to provide a reference for future explorers. These marks were uniformly designated by the Twilight Mocaric to represent the signs that had been explored.

If subsequent generations pass through this road three times in a row without any problems, the marker will be upgraded to a safe marker.

This wasn't the first time Adam and Eve had teamed up, and without Eve adding much, he immediately understood the gravity of the situation.

At least none of the returning teams reported a similar incident.

He was fairly certain that his team wouldn't be the first to be so lucky as to encounter such a thing, and he preferred to believe that none of the teams that encountered this situation ever made it back.

That is precisely why they need to go back and report this to the leader.

Let the people of the kingdom gather their strength to mitigate this risk in the future.

In fact, the principles that Adam spoke to the people before setting out were the very principles that generations of Night's Watchmen had discovered through their lives.

“Keep moving forward and keep an eye out for any clues,” Adam said.

Eve nodded and gestured for the group to continue forward.

The paths we all walk are so similar; every scene is black, and the road ahead is also black, so black that it's hard to imagine what light will look like.

If it weren't for the fact that the kingdom gets sunlight for a few days each year, no one would know that sunlight even exists.

A few minutes later, Eve found herself back.

That mark was a stark reminder that they had been going in circles all along.

Meanwhile, Eve discovered a grotesque face drawn above her mark—stained with blood on the tree trunk, a truly horrifying sight.

Everyone at the front of the group saw it—before that, Eve and Adam hadn't told the group what they were going through; they had to maintain the group's morale.

But when they saw that blood-red ghost face, a visibly commotion broke out in the group.

Even experienced elderly people would find it impossible not to be afraid in such a situation.

They knew the dangers of the forest, but that didn't mean they were completely unafraid of death.

“It’s like this unknown monster is deliberately toying with us. It left our marks on purpose to remind us that we were going in circles,” Eve told Adam, sharing her guess.

“This intelligence beyond hunting is unlike that of ordinary monsters,” Adam said.

Some monsters are very intelligent, such as the wolf king we encountered on our last expedition, which would use a trap-and-surround strategy.

But this intelligence only applies to hunting; such playful behavior doesn't occur with these monsters.

"You mean the demons?" Eve asked.

Pig-headed people, minotaur people, horse-faced people... The textbooks of Twilight Mokaritch describe these demons as highly intelligent, at least comparable to humans, and possessing their own civilization. At the same time, their magical abilities are outstanding; even newly born demons are born with the ability to use magic.

Every demon is a born magician, though their areas of expertise may differ.

“Not sure. Let’s walk around and see,” Adam said.

He explained the predicament the team was facing and calmed the unrest within the team using appropriate words.

And so, the group continued forward.

Teams had encountered demons before, but they did not attack; this time, Eve sensed a deep malice from the unknown demons.

Perhaps they are demons, perhaps not.

But it is definitely highly intelligent.

Eve hates creatures like this the most—if they stand up and challenge her to a duel, she would gladly fight them to the death, but those who hide in the shadows and use magic unknown to everyone to put her in a desperate situation are the most despicable.

She desperately hoped that the monster would get tired of playing and leave.

Or perhaps they felt these people were too boring, so they stepped forward and killed them all.

Whatever the situation, Eve would be happy to see it.

But the fact is...

The team could never find the culprit, and kept going in circles. The ghost face above the tree root where Eve had left the mark would change every time they passed by.

Sometimes it cries, sometimes it laughs, sometimes it opens its blood-red mouth wide, and sometimes it bleeds from all seven orifices.

Eve didn't know how much time had passed, but she knew that this was the 360th time she had passed by this place.

The team is now in a critical situation. Hozuki's fuel is almost gone, and their food reserves are about to run out. What's even more terrifying is that they don't even know what has put them in this predicament.

During this time, Adam and Eve tried all sorts of methods.

Whether it's changing direction, feigning an attack on the surroundings, or using the various knowledge taught in the Twilight Mocaric Book to try and break this unknown "ghost wall" magic.

All efforts were in vain.

In any case, they will return to this marker.

Then they saw that ghostly face. And now, that ghostly face was grinning, maliciously staring at everyone.

"Damn it..." She once thought the key to breaking the ghost wall magic was in the ghost's face. Last time, she chopped up the tree, but the next time, she saw the tree standing perfectly intact in the same place.

The ghost face is still there.

It's like mocking Eve's futile efforts.

The ghost face disappeared when they passed by the tree 361 times.

It turned into words written in blood: "One person can return."

The character for "person" was written in a very sinister way, making people shudder just by looking at it, as if a fear had been implanted in their soul.

Does this unknown existence mean that only one person can go back?

Everyone in the group saw what was said; it couldn't be hidden—so neither Adam nor Eve tried to conceal it.

Even though they knew what kind of blow this would be to the team.

Now, the team has run out of ammunition and food, and the candlelight in their hands flickers precariously, seemingly signifying that their lives are about to be extinguished.