About an hour later, a caravan of roughly thirty people had formed, with many joining immediately the moment they realized the offer was genuine. They packed the flesh fruits and water they had earned through hard labor and prepared themselves to depart.
Furthermore, after witnessing Teresa kill Elias, many had developed faith in her and the two beside her, especially after seeing them openly challenge and negotiate with the rulers of the Settlement.
Naturally, not everyone chose to follow.
Some remained hesitant and unwilling despite suffering beneath the Settlement’s cruelty. In the end, they chose temporary safety and stability over freedom. Unfortunately, the harsh reality was that such peace was never meant to last forever...
The caravan gradually arranged itself into order. A small portion of them brought their beasts along, while many no longer had any. Either the creatures granted to them had died long ago or disappeared somewhere within the Garden.
Teresa assumed command of the group as the most influential figure among them.
She gazed ahead into the distance.
By now, they had already traveled far enough from the hill where the castle rested above the Settlement.
Ahead of them stretched a massive grey fog that towered high into the sky, swallowing every visible path and lurking danger alike. Even the dim twilight overhead could not penetrate the suffocating mist, making the route ahead exceptionally dangerous without proper preparation.
Sadly, it was their only option.
Effie would not be able to identify what moved beneath the fog from above, making aerial scouting meaningless, while Rook, unlike the Dark Dragon, was a land beast with an exceptionally sharp sense of smell.
...Puppets, however, carried no scent.
The white haired girl surveyed the caravan before shifting her attention toward Oliver and Kaden at the front.
She said firmly:
"We’ll have to pass through the fog. The biggest danger inside should be Puppets hiding within it. Those things don’t make noise naturally, so there’s no reliable way to pinpoint where they are in such thick mist. It’ll be dangerous, but this is the only route forward."
Oliver nodded in agreement with her proposal. The only flaw he could see was the sheer number of people travelling with them, liabilities that came with no guarantee of surviving the passage through the fog.
He knew the terrain well, at least through the written events of the novel, since a similar scene had once occurred in the story, though under entirely different circumstances and along another route.
Meanwhile, Kaden neither objected nor voiced approval.
The red-haired youth simply maintained his detached composure.
Teresa released a faint breath before continuing:
"Kaden and I will scout the path ahead, and... Oliver... err... you’ll stay with the group and follow behind us."
"Sure," he answered shortly.
Almost immediately, she turned away with a faint blush colouring her face and proceeded toward the fog alongside Kaden, while Effie trailed after them and Rook remained beside its master.
She lightly tapped her cheek as she moved forward.
’Seriously, what’s wrong with me? Why do I keep blushing? I’m not in love... but this feels so similar to it. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.’ Teresa thought inwardly.
***
The caravan continued through the fog with slow and cautious steps, every individual remaining tense as they advanced deeper into the concealed terrain. The mist was far denser than many of them had anticipated, forcing several people to constantly narrow their eyes just to vaguely distinguish the figures ahead of them.
Visibility was dreadful.
Even the silhouettes of those closest occasionally blurred whenever the fog shifted thickly around their bodies.
The deeper they travelled, the colder the atmosphere became, and the silence lingering within the grey haze gradually started unsettling several members of the caravan.
Oliver walked near the center while maintaining his grip around the hilt of his Sword.
The faint metallic sound of the blade sliding partially free resonated around him.
His gaze carefully traced the surroundings.
According to the details he remembered from the novel, the fog extended for an enormous distance, but as long as they maintained a straight course without wandering too far off route, they would eventually emerge from it after several hours.
The real danger was not the fog itself.
It was what dwelled within it.
Puppets.
Those creatures possessed neither scent, nor sound, nor fear.
Inside a terrain where sight was already heavily restricted, they became vastly more dangerous than usual.
Oliver slightly lowered his voice toward the man nearest to him.
"Tell everyone to stay close and remain alert. If anybody gets separated, they’ll die before we even realise they’re gone."
The man beside him swallowed nervously before nodding hurriedly.
Soon, the warning quietly spread throughout the caravan.
Several people tightened their grip around crude weapons, while others anxiously carried sacks filled with flesh fruits and water over their shoulders.
A young woman clutched her younger brother’s wrist firmly while repeatedly peering into the fog with visible unease.
Nobody dared utter another word.
Ahead of the caravan, Teresa and Kaden advanced cautiously through the dense mist while scouting several meters ahead of the others. Effie hovered above Teresa, whereas Rook remained beside Kaden with its sharp eyes vigilantly monitoring the surroundings.
Teresa continuously glanced around in agitation.
The fog heavily disrupted her focus.
Her thoughts were equally unsettled.
Fragments of blurred memories occasionally surfaced within her mind, only to vanish again before she could fully grasp them. Every attempt to properly recall what happened after Marilyn’s sister died caused an odd tightness to spread through her chest.
She subtly clenched her fist.
’Did I really lose control that badly?’
Before her thoughts could wander further, Kaden abruptly stopped walking.
Immediately, Teresa halted as well.
The red haired young man slowly turned toward the fog behind them.
His composure remained unchanged as always.
However, his eyes slightly tightened.
"Something just moved through the fog," he stated evenly.
The instant those words left his mouth, Teresa unsheathed her sword completely.
Almost simultaneously, panic erupted behind them.
Several terrified screams suddenly pierced through the fog.
"They’re behind us!"
"Monsters!"
"Run!"
Oliver immediately spun around the moment the commotion erupted. His hearing sharpened instinctively.
Within the thick fog behind the caravan, several distorted silhouettes burst forward at alarming speed. Their movements were unnatural and twitching, causing multiple people to panic the moment they caught sight of them.
Five String Puppets charged directly toward the rear of the caravan.
Their heads twitched grotesquely with every motion as they sprinted toward the horrified crowd.
"Stay together!" Oliver shouted sharply.
Unfortunately, fear had already begun spreading uncontrollably.
’These idiots are going to get themselves killed if they panic now.’
A middle aged man stumbled backward while dragging the sack containing his belongings.
Another person immediately attempted to bolt blindly into the fog, only for Rook to clamp its jaws onto the man’s shoulder and hurl him back toward the caravan before he could disappear into the mist.
"They’ll surround us if you scatter!" Oliver warned, suppressing the irritation rising within him.
The nearest String Puppet suddenly lunged forward viciously.
Its arm stretched unnaturally toward a frightened woman at the rear of the caravan.
Before it could make contact, Oliver rushed forward and swung his sword sideways.
The blade struck the Puppet’s carapace with a heavy impact. He followed immediately with a second strike, then drove a deep cut into its shoulder joint. The creature staggered back violently, its movements twitching in erratic spasms. The Chimera Wolf pounced onto its head, tearing into it relentlessly, and Oliver finished it with a decisive blow.
[String Puppet (Rank 1) destroyed.]
"Good job, Rook. Protect the ones panicking in the group," he said grimly.
Another String Puppet immediately rushed him from the side.
Oliver stepped back quickly, then swung again toward its neck. The creature tilted its body at an unnatural angle and narrowly evaded the blade, forcing his strike to scrape against the carapace without leaving a mark before it lunged straight toward his chest.
He frowned and raised his guard to block the impact.
’Annoying creatures.’
Right then, a scream rang out nearby.
A young man from the caravan had broken formation and tried to flee alone, only to be tackled by another Puppet.
The creature pinned him to the ground, its fingers clawing violently toward his face. The boy desperately held it off with both arms while screaming in pure terror.
"Help me!"
Meanwhile, Rook was occupied defending the unarmed members of the caravan. A few managed to land counterattacks against other Puppets, but most were quickly overwhelmed.
Oliver clicked his tongue sharply.
He immediately pushed off toward the attacker he had just been fighting and eliminated it in a desperate close-range exchange.
[String Puppet...]
Before he could reach the struggling boy, a thrown sword suddenly pierced through the Puppet’s arm from the fog ahead.
It was Teresa.
She slid across the ground to extend her reach, grabbed the embedded weapon, drove it deeper, and then followed with two rapid slashes, severing the head in a rough, forceful execution.
Kaden emerged from the mist immediately after.
"Three more behind us!" Teresa called out.
Almost the instant she spoke, three additional String Puppets burst out of the fog toward them.
One lunged directly at Teresa.
She stepped forward instantly and delivered an upward slash with brutal force.
The Puppet split partially through the torso before collapsing. It did not die immediately, but her follow up strike finished it, forcing the weakened carapace apart.
Meanwhile, Kaden calmly evaded another Puppet’s charge and drove his blade through its throat with precise timing. He then forced it deeper with his elbow before ripping the weapon free.
The final Puppet rushed him wildly, but Rook leapt in and slammed into it mid charge, sending it tumbling back into the fog.
Even so, the situation remained dire.
The remaining Puppets had already driven several caravan members into full panic. Some were crying, others were scrambling just to avoid being grabbed.
The formation was beginning to collapse.
Oliver’s expression darkened slightly.
If the caravan broke apart here inside the fog, many of them would never make it out alive.
’This is already a mess... and we’ve barely been inside ten minutes.’