Basilisk venom was incredibly potent. So far, Damian had yet to encounter a flesh-and-blood creature that the legendary toxin couldn't melt from the inside out.
Damian waited until the Sandworm Monster's magical signature had completely faded before stepping forward to examine the corpse. Looking at the grotesque pile of dead, writhing worms, he felt extremely reluctant to touch it.
However, he could sense that the unnatural beast possessed residual energy that the metal disc in his mind could absorb. Bracing himself, he pressed his bare hand against the carcass.
As a sickening, slimy sensation reached his fingertips, the metal disc shimmered. A burst of crimson light, visible only to Damian, seeped out from the corpse and was rapidly absorbed.
The artifact took in a massive amount of energy this time. It was roughly a third of what it had siphoned from Old John's mutated form months ago. After a quick mental calculation, Damian estimated his current reserves could support two or three complete world-crossings.
With the energy collected, Damian grimaced and packed the massive Sandworm Monster into his Undetectable Extension Pouch. He planned to study its bizarre anatomy in a sterile environment when he had the time.
Only then did Damian have the chance to carefully observe his surroundings.
Inside the Grey Mist, his visible range was reduced to a mere five meters. Anything beyond that was a blurry, impenetrable wall of fog.
Furthermore, the mist actively suppressed his magical perception, making it impossible to sense magical auras beyond ten meters. Fortunately, the anomaly didn't affect his ability to mobilize the metal disc. Knowing he still had an absolute emergency escape route gave him the confidence to explore.
Damian quickly realized that the terrain beneath his boots didn't match the camp's perimeter at all. Although the expedition team had blasted a clearing in the grove, they had still been surrounded by dense, towering Dragon-Serpent Trees.
But in Damian's current environment, there wasn't a single living tree in sight. The ground was barren, covered entirely in sharp stones, gravel, and the occasional dried, petrified stump.
Damian's expression grew incredibly solemn. This place didn't look anything like the Forest Canyon.
The Sandworm Monster had only just lured him away from the campfire. Judging by the timeline, he couldn't have walked more than a hundred yards. Yet, in that brief window, he had somehow completely left the forest environment behind.
Damian spun around, trying to pinpoint the camp's location, but the desolate scenery was identical in every direction. The bright, magical bonfire was nowhere to be seen.
Just then, a faint, eerie white glow pierced the fog. Looking closely, he saw a humanoid silhouette standing perfectly motionless in the mist.
Damian frowned. He slowly backed away in the opposite direction until the glowing figure was swallowed by the fog and fell completely out of his visual range.
He let out a quiet breath and turned his head to change his route. His heart skipped a beat.
The humanoid glow was right there in front of him again. Only this time, it was significantly closer.
A deep chill ran down Damian's spine. His magical perception couldn't sense the figure at all. Unlike the Sandworm Monster, which had radiated a distinct, dark aura, this entity registered as absolute nothingness.
Damian immediately cast a Speed Charm on himself. He abruptly changed direction and sprinted blindly into the fog.
He hadn't run far before he skidded to a sudden halt. The glowing silhouette was standing directly in his path again, the details growing sharper.
Damian narrowed his eyes. He noticed that as long as he stood perfectly still, the figure in the mist didn't advance. He tried blinking a few times, but the glow remained frozen. Shifting his weight and moving his arms didn't trigger it, either.
A terrifying theory formed in his mind. He deliberately turned his head to look in a completely different direction.
The instant his eyes shifted, the glowing figure appeared directly in the center of his new line of sight, now only a few yards away.
It teleports closer every time I break my line of sight?
Damian realized, deducing its twisted logic.
He tested the theory twice more by jerking his head. Sure enough, the glowing silhouette jumped forward in the mist, becoming terrifyingly clear.
The entity clearly didn't have good intentions, so Damian decided to strike first. He raised his wand and snapped it forward. "Avada Kedavra!"
The blinding green light of the Killing Curse erupted from his wand, striking the glowing figure dead center. But there was no impact. The deadly magic phased cleanly through the entity and vanished into the fog. The figure remained perfectly motionless.
Damian's face twitched in annoyance. Lately, the Unforgivable Curses were proving incredibly unreliable against these bizarre anomalies.
Raising his free hand, Damian channeled his wandless Runic magic. A brilliant, crackling bolt of blue lightning shot from his palm. The electricity arched wildly, but just like the curse, it passed straight through the phantom.
He cast Invisible Hand next, sending his Basilisk-venom-coated dagger flying at the figure's chest. The enchanted blade simply slipped through the glowing projection, proving that physical attacks were equally useless.
Damian pulled a preserved Basilisk Eye from his robes—a dark artifact capable of instant petrification. It was his absolute last resort. If the creature's gaze didn't stop this thing, he was going to activate the metal disc and abandon this dimension entirely.
He held the eye out like a shield and tried to step forward, aiming to get close enough for the petrifying gaze to pierce the thick fog. To his shock, as long as he maintained his line of sight, he physically couldn't get any closer to the entity.
The distance between them was somehow locked. No matter how many steps he took, the glowing figure remained exactly the same distance away. Space itself seemed warped around it.
He had to bring it into range. He couldn't risk exploring a hostile dimension with this bizarre stalker trailing him. If he encountered another monster, he would be forced to look away, giving this entity an opening to strike.
Taking a deep breath, Damian rapidly blinked and twitched his head. With every break in eye contact, the figure jumped closer like a stop-motion nightmare. After deliberately breaking his vision twenty times, the glowing entity was finally close enough to see clearly.
It was a girl who looked as if she had stepped out of a classical Renaissance painting.
A pair of smooth, elegant, pure white elk antlers grew gracefully from the crown of her head. Her features were ethereal and delicate, her eyes ancient and impossibly deep. Cascading chestnut curls fell over her shoulders.
Her entire body emitted a soft, eerie luminescence. Her lower half was still partially obscured by the swirling Grey Mist, but the skin that was visible radiated a pure, ghostly white light.
She was the undeniable humanoid manifestation of the Shadow White Deer they had been hunting. Yet, even though the Antlered Girl was breathtakingly beautiful, a primal, suffocating terror inexplicably clawed at Damian's mind.
Every survival instinct he possessed screamed at him to flee. Damian shoved the Basilisk Eye forward, unleashing its deadly, invisible petrifying curse in a wide arc.
It was completely useless.
The Antlered Girl didn't turn to stone. Instead, she broke her frozen state and moved for the very first time. She slowly raised her right arm, pressed her fingers together, and pointed her index finger out into the deep fog.
She just stood there, silently pointing the way.
The supernatural dread in Damian's heart peaked. He made a split-second decision and violently triggered the metal disc in his mind.
The grey world before him was instantly saturated in blinding red light. His body felt as if it were being violently squeezed through a narrow tube. A sickening sense of weightlessness—like a plummeting elevator—flooded his stomach as the fabric of reality stretched into distorted afterimages.
In the final fraction of a second before leaving that dimension, Damian's perspective was forcefully yanked into the sky.
Looking down, he saw that the world beneath him was an endless, churning ocean of Grey Mist. And hanging ominously above that dead sea was a massive, bleeding Blood Moon
[75 STONES] - Unlock1 Bonus Chapter
[150 STONES] - Unlock 2 Bonus Chapters
[300 STONES] - Unlock 3 Bonus Chapters