Chapter 1708: The Inbetween

A number of odd and unknown soldiers suddenly appeared from the mist.

They were wearing light silver armor with green patterns all over them, and they were adorned with a similarly silver winged helm, each of them at least two meters tall. At the same time, they did not wield any usual weaponry seen in a normal army, and instead, they all had special metal gauntlets, and the gauntlets were glittering as if there were a hidden mechanism in it.

Awenna’s eyes widened as she looked at the soldiers from the mist, the armor pattern and the entire uniform was totally different from the armies of the nations she had known, and the average two-meter height was not something you see in a normal army, and that intrigued her.

The soldiers on the other two carriage was a different story altogether, as they had encountered the incoming army at this distance, there were no use for camouflage anymore, and the soldiers who had just fought off the imperial army were naturally suspicious towards the soldiers that came out of nowhere in the Black Forest. Thus, the moment they caught sight of the soldiers, all of the guards were ready to draw blade, and even Charlemagne could not help but to activate a few magical items to reinforce his weapon.

Yet, the unusual army did not seem to notice the caravan, and against the guards with their drawn weapons, they chose only to look ahead as they marched on without any emotions.

“Calm down,” Hao Ren broke the stalemate (technically it was a one-sided stalemate on the guard’s side), “These soldiers aren’t real.”

As he said, the soldiers had already reached the caravans and simply walked through the caravan like an illusion.

“An illusion?” Awenna’s eyes widened. “But they look so real…”

“Still in the Inbetween…” Rheia’s gentle voice rang again, “This is another scene of the Black Forest, and just like the thick fog earlier it was something that did not manage to materialize in this world, but we have already escaped the influence of the false world, so these are mere illusions and will not affect the real world.”

“If we had not escaped the false world’s influence?” Lily asked out of curiosity.

“We would be fighting now then.” Rheia blinked.

As she spoke the squad of soldiers had already walked passed the caravan and straight on along the path. Hao Ren turned back and looked at them. Just as he was about to suggest that they follow the ‘illusions’ to check what’s going on, the group of soldiers suddenly stopped.

They seemed to have detected their foes, and all took up a defensive stance as they eyed the woods cautiously. A commander-like figure made a motion and the soldiers quickly formed up into a defensive formation and were braced for combat. Hao Ren saw them clanking their shining gauntlets together and instantly a photon shield that could easier cover half their body appeared on their left hand, while a glowing photon blade formed on their right.

Hao Ren’s jaw dropped the moment he saw that, “Bloody hell… that does not fit the setting at all…”

And before he could even finish, a howl thundered from the woods as a massive smoke-covered monstrosity crashed against the trees and charged out from the forest.

The smoke-covered monsters were clearly illusions as well, but its form reminded Hao Ren of the minions of madness; rotten limbs, mutated bodies, with thousands of eyes and maws all across the body as tentacles waved madly from broken skin while a blasphemous roar rang out from its throat. This chaotic and maddened monster was the total opposite of reason and order. Seeing, hearing or touching the monster would drive any common man into the depths of madness.

And the monster even got Awenna screaming, as she let out a short shriek before forcibly covering her mouth to totally pipe down. And the guards were not faring much better, even the veteran guards had never seen such hideous and blasphemous creature, and they were quaking where they stood.

Even the soldiers armed with a photon blade and shields were shocked by the monster’s sudden appearance, but the shock was just temporarily as the commander quickly barked orders to adjust the formation, and the soldiers complied immediately before striking out against the monster from all directions.

The various signs showed that this was not the first time these warriors had faced the monster.

A chaotic melee ensued as the illusory warriors and monsters clashed along the wide path of the Black Forest. The monster were not only powerful, but it could also spit out corrosive energy blasts and unleash lasers to attack its foes, while the tall soldiers defended methodically with their photon shields while continuously attacking the monster’s limbs with unparalleled skill. Finally the commander figure roared as the photon blade in his hand turned into a whip as he bound the creature and ensnared it, while the remaining warriors leap forth and tore the monster apart with their blades.

The battle was over as the panting warriors looked at the monster disintegrating into ash. One of the soldier broke the silence as he spoke a language known to L’Haronne. “They had appeared here as well.”

“Inform the war captain of the situation.” the squad commander ordered. “Everyone, follow me to the next checkpoint.”

He then looked up into the sky, as if mumbling to himself. “The day has finally come… Again…”

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The illusion then stopped there and disappeared into thin air.

“What did they say in the end?” Awenna was dazed, as she and Charlemagne had no translation plugin, and was totally confused. “That doesn’t sound like any of the Dragonian dialects…”

“They seem to have expected the monster, and have sent a person to inform that war captain character of what happened here.” Hao Ren thought as he decided to translate what he heard to Awenna, thinking the latter might have some ideas. “Can you think of anything?”

But Awenna was still confused after listening to that, and she shook her head. “No… Not a clue. I don’t recognize the insignia of the soldiers, and I have never heard of any countries’ military hierarchy having a ‘war captain’ as a rank.”

“Is this a possibility of the false world?” Vivian looked at Rheia, “Why am I getting a feeling that something is off?”

“I’m not sure myself,” Rheia too had the same confusion, “By right, all these un-materialized world lines would be chaotic, and will not present any sense of logic…”

Hao Ren looked at Rheia as an idea welled up in his mind.

“Perhaps… What we saw was not only the world’s possible future, but also its past.”

Lily scratched her head, “What do you mean?”

“Don’t forget, this world is not just this one,” Hao Ren shook his head, but he had swapped to Earth’s language, “If it had went through destruction and recreation, that means the planet’s past is to the current history, one of the ‘false world lines’ as well.”

As he said that, he looked at Rheia, “Do you remember anything about the Black Forest? Did it had anything of the likes before L’Haronne was destroyed?”

Rheia combed through her thoughts before shaking her head, “No impression of it at all. I had observed L’Haronne for many years, and I’m very familiar with every nook and cranny of his planet, and I’m sure that there was no such thing as the Black Forest, unless… it was formed at the last moment after I fell into my slumber. But is that possible?”

“Is that so…” Hao Ren mumbled to himself, as he was unable to come to a conclusion.

Charlemagne and Awenna exchanged confused glances as Hao Ren and the rest had suddenly switched to a language they did not understand to speak. This was clearly meant to be secretive, but knowing that they too bore a lot of secrets, they did not dare to ask much, and hence the awkwardness.

Thankfully that did not last long as Hao Ren quickly turned towards them, “We have no answers either, but if we don’t have any further questions. Let us be on our way.”

The two siblings nodded. “Right.”

The caravan then started moving against as they followed the path deep into the Black Forest before arriving at the first fork.

Yet, this fork did not appear in any of the records.

Seeing the fork ahead did not have any markers, nor any imperial emblems, Charlemagne took a deep breath, “It seems like… we have reached a part of the Black Forest never reached before by others.”

Awenna frowned too. “But this is technically impossible…”

While the Black Forest was vast and mysterious, the pathways in the forest were limited and fixed, during the long exploration and development phase, the Dragonian adventurers and imperial exploration teams had already marked and recorded every road in the forest – at least every possible exit by the edge of the forest – and had marked every fork with a marker and a rest stop. On larger forks, there were guards manning the outpost all year long, so technically speaking, once they entered through Greenway, and as long as they did not stray from the path, the travelers should encounter the navigation markers at every fork.

An unmarked fork only meant one thing, the travelers had stepped into an unexplored area in the forest, and this area is not connected to the other explored paths in the forest.

“Technically not possible, but we had just went through something impossible altogether,” Hao Ren raised his eyebrows, “When the thick fog rose earlier, the caravans were moving along an endless path for quite a bit, perhaps it was then we had already entered this unexplored place.”

“Entering the unknown area is not important,” Vivian said, as she look at Rheia beside her, “More importantly… the whole process seemed to have fooled Rheia’s eyes.”

Rheia blinked, before breaking into a smile, “No, it is the opposite, it was those people who had passed through the Black Forest successfully that had their eyes fooled, and we… are the first group in history to had passed through the correct path.