Chapter 127 - Kestrel

The first impossible thing in Kestrel was a bird.

Etzel heard it five minutes after crossing the outer marker.

Three short calls.

High in the trees.

He looked up.

Saeva looked at him.

“No bird.”

The call came again.

Behind them.

Garrick’s hammer came off his shoulder.

Mara raised one hand.

Nobody turned around.

Good.

Caldris’s warning had survived five minutes.

Etzel kept walking.

“I already hate this place.”

“Bad place,” Saeva said.

“Finally. Expert confirmation.”

Kestrel did not look dangerous enough.

That was the problem.

Trees.

Broken road.

Old utility poles.

Ruined houses consumed by vines.

No rivers of blood.

No giant bones.

No glowing portal announcing poor decisions.

Jalen checked the route marker.

“Four hundred meters to the first survey point.”

They walked.

Five minutes.

Ten.

Fifteen.

Jalen stopped.

Etzel looked at him.

“What?”

The tracker checked the map.

Then the physical markers behind them.

“Seven hundred and twelve meters traveled.”

Garrick looked forward.

“The point?”

“One hundred meters ahead.”

Etzel stared at the road.

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“So four hundred became eight hundred.”

“Approximately.”

Mara marked the location.

They reached the survey point.

On the return measurement, the same section took three hundred and six meters.

Garrick swore.

Etzel approved.

It saved time.

No one heard voices for the next half hour.

That almost made things worse.

Rook’s bond remained faint, but steady inside the Foundation.

Direction northeast.

Saeva stayed within Soul Link range.

Orsik never moved more than twenty meters from Etzel.

Nobody separated.

Nobody investigated interesting noises.

Kestrel hated them for being sensible.

It sent a monster.

The creature dropped from a ruined overpass.

C-Rank.

Long-bodied.

Six legs.

Skin like wet slate.

System classification flickered, but held.

Garrick grinned.

“Finally.”

“Do not say finally in Kestrel.”

The Ravager attacked.

Garrick swung.

Hammer passed through its head.

The image burst.

The real creature hit Mara from the side.

Barrier caught claws.

Etzel moved.

Spear thrust.

Another false body.

Pain exploded across his shoulder.

He spun away.

The real Ravager stood three meters to his left.

Saeva shouted.

“Two!”

Etzel saw them.

Two identical creatures.

Then three.

No.

Not identical.

One disturbed dust.

One cast a shadow.

One made sound.

But not the same one.

Wonderful.

Witness remained silent.

Etzel almost thanked it.

He had not earned anything yet.

Orsik cut through one image.

Nothing.

The real Ravager struck his shield from behind.

“How?” Garrick demanded.

“Different information is splitting!”

Etzel watched.

The visible body appeared left.

Footsteps sounded right.

Shadow moved center.

Kestrel was separating the creature’s presence across positions.

Which one was real?

Wrong question.

All the signals were real.

But only one could physically affect the environment at a time.

Saeva darted upward.

“Etzel!”

She pointed.

A branch bent.

No creature stood on it.

Then claws appeared.

Orsik saw the shadow shift.

“Center!”

Garrick watched dust kick from the road.

“Right!”

Three observations.

One sequence.

Etzel understood.

“Don’t attack the image! Attack the interaction!”

The Ravager launched.

Its visible body came from the left.

Dust moved center.

Etzel stabbed center.

Contact.

The spear entered flesh that appeared a heartbeat later.

The creature screamed.

Orsik was already moving.

The shadow showed the next step before the body resolved.

Greatblade cut across empty air.

Then the Ravager appeared inside the strike.

Blood hit the road.

Saeva flashed low.

The creature turned toward the light.

Garrick watched the grass.

Hammer fell.

This time something broke.

The Ravager collapsed.

Its extra positions flickered.

Merged.

One body.

Dead.

Etzel exhaled.

His shoulder burned.

Not serious.

Still irritating.

Garrick looked at the corpse.

“I preferred normal monsters.”

“You said finally.”

“I withdraw it.”

Mara checked Etzel’s shoulder.

“Functional.”

“That is my word.”

“You’re bleeding.”

“Still my word.”

They did not linger.

Kestrel had already taught them the first rule of combat there.

Eyes were insufficient.

Etzel liked teamwork.

It meant reality had more than one witness.

They continued northeast.

Rook’s bond strengthened.

The Foundation tugged at Etzel’s awareness.

He checked it without fully entering.

Rook’s pale echo was standing beside the central stone.

Saeva’s pebble remained at his feet.

His head faced forward.

Toward the same direction as the road.

Etzel stopped walking.

Orsik noticed.

“Rook?”

“Yes.”

The echo moved.

Its mouth opened.

Nothing.

Then a sensation passed through the Foundation.

Not speech.

Not exactly.

A fragment of identity forcing shape into something that had once been a voice.

“E…”

Etzel’s heart stopped for one beat.

Saeva appeared beside Rook through the bond.

“Rook?”

The echo trembled.

“Ed…”

Etzel returned his attention to the physical world.

Mara was watching him.

“What happened?”

He looked northeast.

“Rook is trying to say something.”

Orsik’s hand tightened around the Greatblade.

Etzel already knew the name.

He refused to finish it for him.

If Rook remembered, Rook would finish it himself.

They moved.

The bond pulled harder.

Behind them, the bird called again.

This time it sounded almost like laughter.