["Shiel, did you see anyone else on the way here?" Fethan asked.]
"No," Shiel replied curtly.
'That's strange. Dozens of Demon Slayers entered before and after Lumi. Yet we've seen no traces of people. Not even a single monster, apart from the wolves summoned by the Reaper. Is this even a real Hollow Gate?' Fethan questioned silently. He stood and walked toward the high-relief sculpture, eventually finding an ancient ruin near the ritual site where Lumi had died.
He discovered symbols resembling Nabataean and hieroglyphic scripts—simple lines mixed with symbolic pictographs. Fethan couldn't read them, but they fascinated him enough to take out his phone and start taking pictures. Every passing minute sapped his strength and dulled his thoughts.
He returned to sit beside Shiel, completely drained. He reached for a nearby fruit—but before he could bite, Shiel smacked it from his hand with the scabbard of his sword.
"What are you doing?"
"Never eat anything in a red-tier Hollow Gate or above. Or did you leave your brain at home?"
"Sorry." Fethan's thinking had noticeably slowed. His eyes were drowsy as he watched Shiel draw lines in the muddy ground with a stick.
"What are you doing?"
"Counting time. Don't you feel like something's off?"
"Yeah, I'm sure lots of people entered this gate, but it's dead silent. No people. No monsters."
"I'm not talking about that. I mean our perception of time."
"Perception of time?"
"How long do you think you were over there before coming back?"
"About ten minutes, right? I barely stayed."
"Wrong. You were gone a full hour. You stood there staring at those runes for an hour."
"No way! Who would just stare at unknown characters for an hour?" Fethan pulled out his phone. He'd taken the photo at 11:00 AM. The time now was 12:16 PM. His face twisted in disbelief.
"You've felt exhausted too, right? More than usual?" Shiel asked softly. Fethan nodded.
"Humans can't track time like clocks. But I've had a sense for numbers since I was a kid. I drew one line per minute. But when I checked my phone, the count was way off. Either I miscounted—or the phone's broken."
"We're losing our grasp on time." Fethan understood immediately. Shiel gave him a solemn nod. The tension thickened. They thought hours had passed—but the reality was much worse.
The sky didn't change. The temperature never shifted. There were no environmental cues to track time.
'No wonder I'm this exhausted. We haven't realized how long we've been awake.' The sense of time slipping by without his control terrified him. What if monsters appeared and they were too drained to fight? Fethan lay down, trying to sleep—but his mind remained alert.
A foul smell, like rotting corpses, wafted through the air. Fethan ignored it, as did Shiel, though his composure nearly broke.
"I'm going to scout. Maybe find someone else," Shiel said, leaving Fethan alone with Lumi's body once more. The stench worsened. Fethan cradled his forehead, dizzy. His stomach rumbled, lips cracked from dehydration. His body demanded food—but he remembered Shiel's harsh warning.
'Nameless Forgotten City… where no sane soul returns.'
'What's "not sane"? Special people?'
'I need to get out of here before I lose my mind. This place is more terrifying than any monster. I swear I'll never return. My sense of time is degrading by the second.' Fethan stared ahead. The warped trees looked like people dancing. Strange music played on loop in his head.
This place was madness.
Fethan felt like he was losing his mind, even while avoiding the grotesque statue at all costs.
'Lumi… What do I do?' He hallucinated the trees dancing in worship. He felt like a frozen statue, trapped. The phantom music repeated endlessly in his ears.
His face twisted. He drew Ninetails and slashed his own palm. Blood seeped from the cut. He didn't know why—but he drank his own blood desperately. It snapped his mind back, the pain restoring clarity.
'Insane. But I've got nothing left to lose.'
"SHIEL!" Fethan shouted. Shiel rushed over, alarmed.
"What is it?"
"I'm going insane."
"I thought you were already insane."
"No, I mean really. Hallucinations. Voices. Whispers. We can't wait for rescue. We'll die before help comes or before this Gate turns into a Hollow Zone. We need to take a risk."
"What risk?" Shiel was ready to listen—but if Fethan started ranting nonsense, he'd end him on the spot.
"If we're going mad… why not embrace it?"
"..." Shiel pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I mean, not yet. But think—why just us? Others entered. Yet we're the only ones left. That's not normal. There should've been others. So I considered a possibility we overlooked."
"What possibility?" Shiel leaned in. As he listened, he saw a crazed glint in Fethan's eye. It made something inside him snap—and clarify.
"Everyone else left."
"Yeah… Everyone except us."
"It's possible. But why?"
"'No sane soul returns.' We're the ones who stayed. We're not sane. Everything here pushes us toward madness—especially that statue. One glance and you feel like dying. Maybe we have to face it. Survive it. Only then can we escape."
Fethan knew his idea was insane. But it was the only theory that fit.
He remembered Shiel saying Dark Magi always had a way out of Hollow Gates. Their minds were already warped. Looking at that thing wouldn't break them further—dead men can't die twice.
Everyone else probably lost their minds and got kicked out the same way Dark Magi do.
If all other possibilities were eliminated, then maybe—just maybe—this was it.
Shiel listened to Fethan's analysis. They locked eyes.
"We're gonna die anyway. Even an asylum's better than being statue-guarding ghosts. Don't you agree, dear brother-in-law?"
"Say that again and I'll behead you. But… you're right." Shiel wasn't afraid of monsters. But in this place, his sword and magic meant nothing.
Fethan and Shiel picked up Lumi's wrapped body and returned to the ritual site.
"Drop your weapon. Whatever happens, endure. Even if we lose our minds—we must make it back." Shiel's gaze held a flicker of hope and concern. Fethan laughed at the sentiment, then grew solemn.
"If I do something stupid, punch me. Don't hold back." Fethan planted Ninetails in the ground.
"Got it." Shiel inhaled deeply. Together, they looked up at the sculpture.
The yellow ocean sky cast a glowing light over the statue. A massive shadow fell across their vision.
Knees buckled. Something primal compelled them to kneel.
Tears streamed down their cheeks—too much emotion all at once. A sweet whisper flooded Fethan's mind, calming him with nostalgic warmth.
Then the whisper deepened—alien, majestic. No known language. No phonetic pattern. Yet it enthralled him like a beloved professor's lecture.
CRACK!
A punch landed square on Fethan's temple. He collapsed, Ninetails flying from his grasp. Shiel straddled him, eyes blood-red and wild. Like a beast, he rained down blows on the fragile mage.
Fethan felt bones break. Muscles tore. Thought vanished. He lay there, unmoving. Shiel stopped, exhausted. Their eyes were void of all light.
[Congratulations. Title Acquired: Whisper Resister. -10 Intelligence, +20 Curse Resistance.]
Back in the real world…
The red Hollow Gate was surrounded by steel fences and guards. No one was allowed near. Civilians had been evacuated. Even pigeons avoided the place.
A red beam spat out three bodies and two swords.
Personnel rushed over. Two survivors. One grotesque corpse. Shiel clutched a notebook, refusing to release it. A medic read the note—and was stunned.
"Get them to NeoCaster Military Hospital, NOW!"
Fethan and Shiel were loaded into a transport. Every second counted.
Elsewhere…
A man in a white suit monitored the events in NeoCaster. His black eyes were cold as he listened to a subordinate's report over the phone.
"You're telling me it failed, but not how? No one stayed to observe the outcome? Useless cowards. Kill the rest before I kill you myself." He ended the call, furious.
It hadn't been easy. Sacrifices of that caliber were rare. He'd invested heavily—money, time, resources.
And it failed.
"Truly a loss…" he muttered.
He opened a drawer and touched a low-relief sculpture identical to the one in the Nameless Forgotten City.
He gazed at it with reverence, lifted it above his head, and kissed it gently.
"Forgive me, my lord. Please wait a little longer. Our wish will soon come true."