V.2.41. Rescue (1)
Dark Forest
Merin cautiously steps into the Dark Forest, careful not to rush and invite unnecessary danger.
The forest earns its name not because of tall trees or dense canopy, but because not a single ray of sunlight touches its floor.
He stops and looks up—nothing is visible to his eyes, yet he doesn't conjure a flame.
Instead, he scans with his field, which sees no colour, only shapes and presence.
Above him, a spiked, hairy leg as thick as a trunk presses onto a branch—it's a giant spider.
This is the reason for the forest's darkness—its web blankets the entire canopy, blocking out the sun.
Merin remains still, silent, until the spider crawls beyond the edge of his field.
Though powerful enough to kill the spider—it's only a Colossal Realm beast—he resists.
Killing it would alert the entire forest and shake the massive web above, drawing countless others.
Some spiders here are rumoured to be Titanic Realm beasts—the real threat.
He might escape most Titanic Realm creatures, but not a giant spider once its web ensnares him.
If caught, he knows he'll never leave this forest alive.
He resumes ambling, searching for the trail left by the enemy.
The fleeing attacker hadn't expected pursuit and had left faint traces for him to follow.
Merin halts as his field picks up movement ahead—a pack of wild dogs, teeth bared, already sensing his scent.
They pose no threat, but their posture shows intent to attack, mistaking him for ordinary prey.
Suppressing his aura, Merin calmly raises his palm as orbs of grey-black energy swirl into existence.
They shoot forward, piercing each dog in the forehead, dropping them instantly.
Without a glance back, he continues his pursuit, encountering more and more ordinary beasts along the way.
Their numbers are abnormal—this forest teems with beasts unlike any he has seen elsewhere.
The presence of the giant spiders drives away all other apex predators, letting weaker creatures multiply freely.
Most spiders dwell above, supported by thick branches or massive webs, rarely descending to the ground.
Merin kills only those that attack and keeps moving through the dense forest, tracing the enemy's trail.
Eventually, he stops—the tracks vanish before a wide, silent lake.
From above, even the lake is veiled by webs, though a sliver of moonlight reaches the surface.
He watches as huge spiders crawl above on shimmering strands, some still, some shifting slowly.
Merin steps lightly onto the lake's surface, walking along its edge, looking for signs of passage.
Perhaps the enemy used the water to erase their trail before returning to land.
But after searching the banks and finding no trace, he begins scanning the lake's depths.
Then he halts—his field detects land beneath the water.
There is an island hidden at the centre of the lake.
Reaching it, Merin frowns—it's small.
His frown deepens as his field fails to penetrate the dense forest covering it.
Inside the forest, the electromagnetic field is chaotic, distorting his senses.
Now the real danger begins—he cannot see, and his field is nearly useless.
He needs only a faint light, just enough to guide his steps, not to reveal his presence.
From his palm, he releases a ball of gray-black energy—he cannot see it, but he can feel it.
He commands the Karst energy to emit light.
Karst energy contains the essence of extremes—high and low temperatures, not fire or ice.
The particles within begin to shift, reorganising to generate heat.
But heat alone isn't enough—he needs brightness.
He recalls how metal glows under heat, how its particles behave.
Carefully, he restructures his energy, mimicking those metallic patterns.
He stops when a dim glow forms, restoring his vision, faint, grey, enough.
With the hovering light before him, he steps into the forest.
After a short walk, he halts—there is a compound ahead.
He waits in silence, hoping someone will exit so he can capture and interrogate them.
Dispersing the grey energy ball, he finds a hiding spot and listens carefully, ears tuned for footsteps or the creak of a gate.
But the sound he hears comes not from ahead, but behind.
Not one, but many.
He carefully turns and sees three grey balls of light floating toward the compound.
Behind them, eight figures walk in silence, all heading the same way.
He watches them for a moment and shakes his head—they aren't from the compound.
Like him, they're sneaking.
They halt at a distance from the compound and begin speaking.
"Do we attack?"
"Wait. The demon hunters are coming. Let them take the lead. We'll attack to support them."
"So we're just watching? If they handle it, we don't act?"
"No, no—we support them, regardless of whether they can handle it."
"Sir, what do we say if we're questioned about being here?"
"Yeah, it'll look suspicious—eight King Kong Realm cultivators showing up like this."
"We'll say we came to hunt a Titanic Realm Giant Spider. That's reason enough to come in numbers."
Merin's mouth opens slightly as he hides, listening to the conversation.
Eight King Kong Realm martial artists.
He glances at the compound and silently prays for himself.
He's glad he didn't charge in recklessly—he's only in the Unification Realm.
Even if he's stronger than most in his realm, there's no way he can leap across the gap to fight a King Kong Realm cultivator.
And there are eight of them.
If they're only the backup, then the compound's strength is unimaginable—likely two or three King Kong Realm cultivators or demon hunters of similar level reside inside.
Then a loud hiss cuts through the silence, not once, but many times.
A burst of light flashes through the forest.
He looks up and sees spiders dropping down, suspended by thick threads.
The ground trembles as one lands heavily, and a wave of water crashes over his knees.
Merin stays still—if he moves, the eight martial artists nearby will notice.
He keeps quiet.
If they're guarding some massive secret, they won't hesitate to kill anyone who overhears.
He hears—"Let's go and watch."
"Are you sure? They must know the location's been exposed with all this commotion."
"Even if they know, what can they do? The place is surrounded."
A loud boom follows, and Merin sees a bright fireball burst through the spider webs—one giant spider crashes down, burning.
"Let's go! It's a feast now. If we don't join, they'll get suspicious—we came to hunt, but we didn't help when the feast began."
"Yes, let's go."
Merin stays frozen as footsteps pass him, unmoving until all sound fades.
Then, he hears the creaking of the compound gate and spots figures emerging—but they remain stationed at the entrance.
Merin slowly steps back and slips away from their sight.
He leaves the inner forest and emerges into chaos, floating corpses of giant spiders drift above the water.
He sees flames—orange, green, white, and blue—shaping the bodies of firemen.
There are people with wings of insects, birds, and bats.
Were-beasts roar among them.
Merin murmurs, "Wow… the demon hunters came in full force."
They may look human at first, but demon hunters who refine demon parts lose their humanity with every step.
Once they reach the Demon Count stage, there's nothing human left in their bodies—only their souls remain untouched.
Merin wants to join the fight—an opportunity like this may never come again.
His eyes narrow as he spots werewolves among the chaos, glowing symbols pulsing around their fur-covered bodies.
They're not demon hunters.
They're humans with demon blood sealed inside them—specifically, the blood of seal demon wolves.
And in the Federation, only one family bears that lineage—the Manford family.
Merin leaps forward, darting across the lake's surface and the floating corpses of spiders.
He passes lifeless bodies of demon hunters adrift in the water, their flames extinguished.
As he nears the werewolves, one of them turns to him sharply.
The man squints, then calls out, "Adam, what are you doing here?"
Merin freezes, stunned to recognise Evelyn's father.
But what he learns next shatters his focus.
The reason behind the attack on the Dark Forest is to rescue Evelyn.
That same night, Merin left the city, and Evelyn was kidnapped.
Today, the Manford family received intel from the Norell family revealing her location.
The kidnappers intend to sacrifice Evelyn to locate the sealed dimension of a demon named Axerus.
Merin hears no more—his mind floods with only one thought: Evelyn.
He turns and sprints across the lake, heading straight for the compound.
But a thick poison cloud halts his charge, and a colossal spider descends to block his path.
Merin clenches his fists, heart hammering, unwilling to waste time in battle.
He tries to dodge, to outmanoeuvre the massive beast—but it refuses to let him pass.
The spider is enormous—Merin barely reaches halfway up one of its legs.
It strikes, leg stabbing down to impale him.
Merin evades again, but the spider is relentless.
He has no choice.
He attacks.
Both are in the same realm—Colossal.
Normally, a creature of such size would overpower him in strength.
Three days ago, Merin might not have survived.
But three days ago, he was not the same man.
He extends his hand, and his energy condenses into a spear.
The moment his energy turns grey, it can take solid form.
And the darker it turns—deep into black—the stronger it becomes.
With that spear of blackened energy, Merin charges the giant spider.
The spider lunges first, one front leg stabbing down like a falling tree.
Merin raises his spear, intercepts it mid-air, and the ground beneath him cracks from the force.
The spider presses, trying to crush him with sheer power.
But Merin's body doesn't budge—his strength surges through the weapon, and with a roar, he shoves the leg away.
The spider stumbles back, its weight shaking the forest floor.
Merin doesn't give it time.
He leaps onto the nearest leg, boots slamming into its chitin, and sprints up the curved limb.
The spider thrashes, trying to shake him off, but Merin is faster.
He leaps again, energy burning in his hand, and drives the spear straight down into the creature's head.
The weapon pierces through the shell with a crunch and a flash of grey-black light.
The spider lets out a shriek that shakes the trees, legs twitching violently.
Merin flips backwards off its head, landing on one knee as ichor splashes beside him.
The spear lodged in the spider's skull turns into crackling energy.
It ripples like smoke and returns to Merin's hand, reforming into solid shape.
He rises, eyes locked on the flailing beast, ready for its next move.
The giant spider staggers but doesn't fall.
It is a colossal realm giant beast—Merin's earlier strike, though precise, is little more than a sharp stick poking into its skull.
It screeches again, body pulsing as its monstrous vitality begins to heal the wound almost instantly.
The crack in its head vanishes beneath layers of regenerating flesh and bone.
Merin grits his teeth and lunges forward.
He attacks again and again, each thrust of his spear aiming for the eyes, joints, and gaps between the chitin plates.
His arms blur—slashes, stabs, and arcs of grey-black energy strike relentlessly.
The spider defends, legs whipping, poison spewing from its fangs, but Merin ducks, leaps, and rolls under every attack.
His spear begins to grow, lengthening with each burst of focused will.
Four meters.
Six meters.
Eight.
The energy flickers with increasing density, darkening toward black as the spear becomes heavier and sharper.
He lands on the spider's back again, muscles tense, every movement precise.
Ten meters now—the spear hums like thunder restrained.
With a battle cry, he lifts it high above his head.
Then he drives it down, straight through the top of the spider's skull.
The weapon pierces deep, tearing through layers of bone and flesh with a sound like rending steel.
The spider lets out one final, broken shriek.
Its limbs twitch, then collapse.
The beast crashes on the water, shaking the lake like an earthquake.
Merin pulls the spear free.
It dissolves into energy and returns to his hand.
He stands atop the fallen beast, chest heaving, eyes burning with one thought—Evelyn.