(Time Stilled World, the entry zone, precisely beneath the spatial tear)
The descent into the time-stilled world had gone as smoothly as one could hope, but the landing hit like a curse.
Karl was the first to collapse onto his knees, vomiting with a drawn-out gag that echoed through the stillness.
The ash beneath him turned slick and discolored as he puked all over it, his hands shaking as he wiped the lingering drool from his mouth.
"The air here... it tastes like rust and mildew," he complained while wiping his tears, as nobody responded to his whining.
Nobody responded, because, although they weren’t vomiting themselves, none of them felt entirely alright either.
The air around them felt unusually thick.
The mana in the air wasn’t moving, not like back home, as it did not circulate or drift.
The mana in this world seemed to cling onto their skin, behaving like a wet cloth that was pressed against a sticky wound, as it seemed to actively seep into their bodies and mix into their mana pools without them trying to absorb it.
Leo stood silently, eyes narrowed as he kept observing the sky even after the Jet had disappeared.
His body felt heavier than usual, but it wasn’t due to the gravity of the world, but rather due to some unusual force he couldn’t understand just yet.
Even breathing in this world seemed to demand more effort than it should have, as if each inhale drained twenty percent more energy than normal— yet, strangely, Leo did not even note it as a drawback.
Because when he tried to channel mana through his arm for something as simple as a flex, it dragged behind his intent by a fraction, like it had to push through a thick curtain before it could respond.
’It’s harder to circulate mana here compared to back home, it’s almost like mana doesn’t want to move here,’ he thought, as the odd sensation of moving mana in this world made him feel much more worried as compared to laboured breathing.
However, having read about the dangers of circulating mana in this world, he stopped his experiments almost as soon as he began, as he did not wish to let the taint accumulate in his body this early into the mission.
Meanwhile, Patricia muttered something about the sky making her nauseous, while Bob just reached up and tugged a strip of cloth tighter across his nose, uninterested in complaints.
At the same time, Cipher and Raiden had already begun setting up the emergency fallback, as they tracked one of the supply crates they had kicked out of the jet and began cranking its protective shelling open.
*Crack*
Raiden cracked open the supply crate with his bare hands, and inside he found wrapped within mana foam, a carefully placed transmitter rig, barely the size of a shoe when folded.
The two of them worked in practiced silence, Cipher stabilizing the base while Raiden extended the antenna, as within minutes, they assembled the mana circuit and managed to activate the signal.
"Alright, listen up," Cipher said, turning toward the group. "This beacon is attuned to a specific mana frequency. All your supply kits have a sensor that can detect it. If we get separated, lost, or overrun, follow the pulse and get back here. This zone— right under the tear— is our fallback point."
He tapped the side of the transmitter.
"And if it comes to it, shoot your red mana flare once you reach this spot. A guild retrieval ship is scheduled to make a brief hover here every ninety days. They won’t land. They won’t wait. But they’ll do a sweep and extract anyone who signals in time."
Patricia blew a bubble and let it pop slowly.
"Charming," she said. "So either we finish the job, or we hold our breath for ninety days."
"Preferably the first option," Raiden said. "But both require not dying first."
The group shifted, checking gear, syncing the beacon’s signal with their individual radars, and only once everyone was satisfied with their gear working, did they move on to the next phase.
"Come lend us a hand, we need to build a safety shelter around this antenna so that it’s not accidentally destroyed by monsters or something else from this world when we are not around—" Raiden instructed, as the team members began to carry the rest of the dropped supply crates one by one towards the antenna, before ripping it open and assembling the protective shielding.
Leo and Bob held the massive metal sheets in place, while Patricia, Cipher and Raiden tightened the bolts to connect the panels.
"Am I the only one? Or does this place feel like a bad breakup to you all as well?" Patricia asked while working, as her voice sounded low and oddly sultry despite the grit in her tone.
"You know… heavy, ugly skies, air that makes you sick, and not a single man to make it worth enduring. Except you, Skyshard," she added with a wink.
"Me having many days to seduce you into having sex with me might just be the only silver lining to this trip." She said, as Leo tactfully chose not to respond.
*BLURGHHH*
Karl, who was still recovering nearby from the change in mana density, let out yet another fresh wave of vomit, as the stale smell of his stomach acid made Bob squint in anger.
"If he doesn’t stop puking soon, I’ll personally pull his guts out!" Bob warned, as Karl shuddered when he heard those words and immediately proceeded to cover his mouth with his hands.
"Give the kid a break Bob, he’s just a master tier warrior—" Cipher said sympathetically, as Bob scoffed in disgust.
"Weakness disgusts me…" He muttered silently, as Leo smiled softly at his words, since his messaging resonated with him as well.
The assembly work proceeded smoothly, and soon it was time to affix the last roof plate, when suddenly Leo heard a faint dragging sound coming from behind him.
His hand stopped mid-motion, body going still as he turned his head toward the shallow dip along the ridge behind them.
’Something is there—’ He thought, as he narrowed his eyes and scanned the terrain for any signs of threat, but only saw ashy fields and metallic looking grass.
Despite seeing nothing, his instincts told him that something was definitely off, and hence he did not look away but instead kept observing.
For a moment, he felt the urge to use [Absolute Vision] and check his surroundings for threats, however, he felt apprehensive about circulating his mana in this world, especially, when he did not have a mana stone in hand to draw pure mana from.
Hence he instead slowly raised a hand, and held out two fingers to signal to Cipher to behind him that something was wrong.
"What is it?" Cipher whispered, tone controlled but wary.
Leo didn’t answer. He simply pointed, eyes never leaving the stretch of ash and ridge that had gone quiet again.
The others noticed the change in his posture and responded as well, with Raiden being the first to stand up in caution.
Patricia stopped her bolt tightening, her hand drifting near her thigh holster, and even Bob stood on guard, chewing on his stick a little slower, as his eyes shifted towards the ridge where Leo was looking.
Ten seconds passed.
Then twenty.
But nothing stirred.
"False alarm?" Cipher asked, uncertainty lacing his voice, as Leo didn’t answer right away.
His eyes remained fixed on the empty horizon, every instinct in his body still on edge, as "No…" he murmured, low and certain.
"Wait for it…" he said confidently, just as a heartbeat later—
*CRASH!*
Ash exploded.
Three beasts surged forth from the shallow ridge with gray-scales, long-limbs and spines bristling with warped bone and dripping saliva.
Their heads resembled warped lizards but they had more eyes than necessary and jaws far too wide for their natural design.
These mutated beasts did not roar, did not hiss.
They simply moved mindlessly towards their target in a vicious and direct approach, as they pounced on Karl in a sudden ambush.
"Eh?"
The poor boy didn’t even have time to scream before they were upon him, however, thankfully for him, Leo was there to protect him before the beasts had the opportunity to bite his head clean off.