Chapter 233: The Mysterious Song In The Forest

Chapter 233

Those enchanting deep forest-green eyes that belonged to a certain annoying man...

Annie’s expression immediately darkened.

"Why am I thinking about him again?"

She frowned to herself. It had been happening way too often lately.

Ever since that strange man took her V card, Alex, damn, Walker seemed to have somehow found a way into her thoughts even when he wasn’t anywhere nearby.

She hated that. Or at least, she told herself she hated it. Annie closed her eyes as she began reminiscing about the reason why she was no longer being kept captive under that bitch! God she really hated that woman!!

Some weeks back, Heukryeon and that woman, Nyx had reached an agreement.

After learning that she had successfully reached the Ascendant Realm, this shitty organization she had been so proud of before, finally realized how much of a worth she was to the organization after spending more than half a month in Nyx’s hand. So they reached out to Nyx and both sides had signed a guarantee.

Heukryeon agreed not to attack Nyx or any of her people, while Nyx agreed to release her and allow her to return to Heukryeon under certain conditions.

The agreement had been completed peacefully. She was finally free and back to doing the one thing she knew best, killing.

Though yet.... despite finally having that freedom she so longed for, she couldn’t stop thinking about one particular man. Even though she didn’t want to think about him at all.

She opened her eyes again.

"Why?"

Annie stared at the ceiling. Perhaps it was because he was the first man she had ever allowed to become that close to her.

Maybe that was why his presence had left such a strange mark on her damned heart that used to be filled with nothing but killing before.

She didn’t exactly know how to describe what she felt whenever she thought about him.

It wasn’t simple hatred, because if she truly hated him, then why did she still remember the way he had been tending to her wound?

Why did she remember the way he had made her mind go to cloud nine? Even then, why did she still find herself remembering those green eyes whenever she saw something that reminded her of him?

Annie slowly turned her head toward the green vase again and pressed her lips into a thin line.

"That damned man..."

She couldn’t understand herself. She clearly hated him a lot for what he did last time. But at the same time, there was another feeling growing quietly inside her, one that she didn’t want to acknowledge.

Whenever she imagined that woman standing beside Alex, something unpleasant seemed to lightly stir within her chest.

And whenever she imagined never seeing him again now that she was back in south Korea, an unfamiliar emptiness settled inside her.

Annie lowered her gaze. Perhaps she was just simply confused about the whole thing....

******

Meanwhile, in the woods where the late evening air was chilly and heavy with strange fogs that might remind one of campfire horror stories. There was also the presence of various tall and majestic trees that stretched high into the sky, with their thick canopy blocking out almost all the light coming from the moon above.

"Ugh! Are you serious right now?!" Tonya suddenly spat out in disgust, while lifting her boot with a squelching sound. She stared down at the dark, gooey substance smeared across the side of her ex clean shoe and frowned. "I just stepped straight into some random animal poo! Ugh, this is exactly why I totally hate coming into the forest!"

Allen, who was walking a few feet away with his hands casually resting behind his head, turned his head and let out a light chuckle.

"Oh, come on, Tonya. Didn’t you literally say last week during break that you loved nature and wanted to go camping one of these days?"

Tonya snapped her head toward him, and gave him a sharp death glare that could cut through steel.

"You turd. I literally said I wanted, like a clean, camping experience with a hot tub in my tent, Allen! Not trudging through some stinky mud and animal crap in the middle of nowhere! Keep talking and the next thing my boot touches will be that face of yours!"

Allen raised his hands in mock surrender, smirking playfully as he took a quick step forward to put some distance between them.

"Alright, alright! Message received, loud and clear."

While the rest of the squad chuckled softly at the familiar bickering, Sylph remained completely silent at the front of the formation. She darted her sharp gaze across the surrounding, to check for anything dangerous. But for now, nothing seemed amiss.

As they moved deeper and deeper into the dense heart of the woods, the surrounding atmosphere started to grow increasingly heavy and unnatural.

Alex couldn’t help wondering why even the usual sounds that accompanied the forest by this time, like crickets chirping for instance, or birds cooing were completely absent.

Sylph’s expression turned more gloomy by the second, and it didn’t take too long for her to suddenly raise her hand, signaling for the squad to hold their positions.

The entire team halted instantly. Noticing Sylph’s weird behavior, their demeanor that had been casual just a few minutes ago, vanished completely as their body became alert.

Mia blinked, stepping up closer to Sylph’s side while looking around nervously.

"Squad leader? Why did we stop? Did you see something in the trees?"

Before Sylph could answer, Drew, the usually quiet and serious one, stepped forward, and the look on his face was unusually grim. His brow was furrowed in concentration as he looked down at his own trembling hands.

"Can... can anyone else feel that?" Drew asked, his voice dead serious as he looked around at his teammates. "Is it just me, or is everyone’s primordial essence getting drained by the second?"

Hearing his words, the squad members immediately closed their eyes and checked the inner flow of their energy reserves. Almost instantly, pale, shocked expressions washed over their faces one after another.

"Holy shit..." Allen muttered under his breath, his eyes widening in alarm. "He’s right. My primordial essence is slowly dropping! It’s like something invisible in the air is slowly sipping away at my primordial essence like it’s a tasty juice!"

"Mine too!" Mia gasped out, clutching her chest as a faint trace of panic filled her eyes. "It’s not super fast, but it’s manageable! If we stay here too long, we’ll end up completely depleted in an hour!"

"Speak for yourself, we that are in the Early Realm, if we continue to stay here any longer, it’ll take about thirty minutes or so before we end up completely depleted."

Even Alex himself, who didn’t rely on primordial essence like the rest of them, was shocked to discover that he could feel his own desire energy fading away... albeit at an extremely slow, almost negligible pace compared to the others.

Still, the fact that whatever was affecting the area could touch his system energy at all was deeply alarming.

Ella, the shy and timid girl of the group, wrapped her arms tightly around herself. She looked around at the eerie, looming trees before turning her anxious eyes toward Sylph.

"S-squad leader... what should we do now? Should we fall back and report this to the bureau first?"

Every single pair of eyes in the squad turned straight toward Sylph, waiting for their leader’s command. Sylph stood motionless for a brief moment, with her pearly white teeth clenched tightly as she mentally weighed their options.

Returning to base empty-handed without finding the root cause wasn’t an option, especially when civilians’ lives were at stake.

Sylph gritted her teeth hard, her eyes flashing with sharp resolve.

"We continue moving forward. Whatever is causing this energy drain is clearly the source of the disappearances. If we leave it unchecked and retreat now, it might spread further or evolve into something far worse before we can launch a second strike."

Chris stepped up, nodding his head in firm agreement. "She’s right. We’re one of the most elite squad responsible for protecting the common people. We can’t just turn back because the environment is tricky. If we leave now, I also feel like whatever is responsible for this might get even more hard to deal with."

"Alright. Stay close, keep your guards up, and monitor your energy levels," Sylph ordered smoothly.

The squad regrouped, tightening their formation as they pushed deeper into the dark, suffocating woods.

However, the further they walked, the heavier the surrounding air became. After about ten minutes of continuous marching, Alex suddenly felt an overwhelming wave of drowsiness wash over his brain out of nowhere.

His eyelids felt like they were being dragged down by a couple of heavy weights, and he could also feel as his vision began to blur slightly.

And whatever was causing this blasted phenomenon started from the exact moment he first heard this faint, sort of strange, and hypnotic tone echoing through the forest. It was as if someone or something was playing a slow, eerie melody that seemed to cloud one’s mind with a strange hypnotic feeling.

Alex couldn’t help stumbling slightly, while shaking his head violently back and forth in an attempt to snap himself out of the sudden, unnatural sleepiness.

He even later resorted to squeezing his two eyes shut, forcing his willpower to fight against the heavy mental fog trying to drag him into sleep. For several long minutes, he desperately struggled against the creeping numbness, and then finally bit the inside of his cheeks until the metallic taste of blood helped clear his head just enough to think straight.

"Guys... watch out..." Alex muttered, his voice sounding raspy to his own ears as he rubbed his throbbing forehead. "There’s... there’s some strange tone playing in the woods..."

When he finally managed to lift his head and turn around to check on his teammates, Alex’s heart instantly dropped into his stomach.

None of them were responding to him.

Mia, Allen, Tonya, Drew, Ella, Stephanie, and Chris were all moving slowly forward, with their arms hung limply at their sides, and their eyes completely unfocused, as if their souls had been forcibly pulled out of their bodies, leaving them trapped under a spell.

Only Sylph was still standing upright next to him. Though her body was kind of shaking violently but she bit her lower lip so hard that blood trickled down her chin, barely managing to maintain a sliver of consciousness...