After Cipher's outbreak, Leo wondered what could be the reason behind the group's growing mental instability?
After all, the books he'd read had warned of madness creeping in slowly—over weeks, not days—yet the team was already snapping at each other like rabid dogs.
However, after thinking about it for just a few minutes, he understood exactly why.
It wasn't the forest alone.
Even back on any normal planet, if a person was forced to stay awake for days on end, constantly running, constantly fighting, constantly under threat, while being starved of proper sleep, food, light, and comfort, cracks in their demeanor were sure to show.
Not because they wanted to be irritable.
But because they simply didn't have the patience left to be kind anymore.
The constant threat and lack of proper rest left a temporary impact on one's brain, and in this cursed world, that weariness was worsened tenfold— corrupted by every cycle of tainted mana they were forced to draw, every improperly cooked meal they ate due to time constraints, and every single second they spent walking in a loop that never seemed to end.
The forest didn't just pressure the body.
It whispered threats in one's mind.
And it whispered constantly, until the silence began to feel louder than words, louder than thoughts, louder than sanity itself.
No wonder Cipher looked like he was on the cusp of losing it.
His eyes twitched randomly now. His hands trembled even when he wasn't using mana. His lips moved sometimes even when he wasn't speaking, and Leo had begun noticing the way his fingers hovered around his blades even during meals.
The signs were there.
'Maybe I should just kill him first after we're out of the forest,' Leo thought, narrowing his eyes at Cipher from across the campfire. 'Maybe I don't need to kill Raiden just yet.'
Raiden, for all his faults, still seemed a lot more in control of himself compared to Cipher.
He too was slipping, yes— but he still managed to hold his composure, meaning that he could still be managed.
Cipher, on the other hand, was wild. Unpredictable. Dangerous.
A liability.
'One wrong trigger and he's going to stab someone while they're asleep. Best to silence that risk before it grows fangs.'
Leo didn't even realize he was staring until Bob nudged his arm and nodded at the food pouch. Leo blinked, nodded back, and returned to chewing, but in the back of his head, a decision was slowly beginning to take root.
The journey to the edge of the forest was the last that Cipher was making, as sooner rather than later, Leo planned to take him out.
—----------
Across the circle, Karl sat quietly, his eyes lowered, his breathing slow, but his insides burned with rage.
The slap Cipher gave him a few minutes ago still echoed in his skull.
That single act of humiliation replayed like a broken record, and no matter how much Karl tried to smother it beneath thoughts of mission focus or patience or tactics, the sting remained and his ego throbbed.
'You slapped me,' Karl thought, his hand twitching just slightly as he stirred his own food. 'You insulted me. Threatened me. Grabbed my chin like I was some child. And you think you're going to walk away from that?'
His lips didn't move.
But his pupils narrowed.
'You're nothing, Cipher. A bug. A fucking insect who doesn't realize he barked at a Transcendent in disguise.'
In his mind, he'd already played out a dozen variations of how Cipher would die.
Some slow. Some fast. Some while everyone watched. Some in silence.
But the one common thread between them all?
Pain.
'No one will suspect me. I will orchestrate your death perfectly.
Perhaps, I shall use a gush of wind to push you in the path of a monster's attack while you're trying to evade it.
Perhaps I shall treat your next wound with poison instead of medicine.
Maybe I'll just isolate you from the group and murder you with my own two hands.
As with no witnesses around…. who's going to question it?'
His fingers clenched around the wooden spoon just a bit tighter.
'You don't even know it yet. But your fate's already been sealed. You slapped a man you should not have offended, and now it's over for you—'
He didn't glare.
Didn't scowl.
He smiled—just a touch too wide, and held it a moment too long, the kind of smile that didn't quite reach the eyes.
And all the while, the others sat around him, chewing through another half-cooked meal thrown together in a rush between fights, too focused on survival to notice the weight of murderous intent drifting through the circle like smoke.
The shift had begun.
The group had finally started to turn on one another.
—----------
Barely ten minutes after they finished their meal, the group was attacked yet again by a monster, this time a near invisible chameleon, who sprayed poison and lashed out with a highly corrosive tongue.
It came without warning.
The group did not see it, nor smell it or hear it before it struck.
As it wasn't until a sharp hiss rang in the air, almost like steam escaping from a kettle, that they noticed the threat.
*Fssssssk—!!*
The attack struck, burning Raiden's head cloak and barely missing his head, as he ducked at the last second.
"Ambush!" Bob roared, blades already drawn, as everyone spun to face the source of the attack.
But there was nothing.
The chameleon remained cloaked, its body pressed tight against the massive trunk behind them, scales bending light, limbs blending with the woodgrain like it was part of the forest itself.
And then it moved.
A pulse rippled through the forest darkness, and Leo's eyes narrowed as he caught the faintest shimmer against the wind. Something tall. Coiled. Watching them.
"Mid canopy, five o'clock!" he shouted, already flanking right as Cipher dropped low and pulled his daggers free.
*Crack*
Another lashing tongue split the air, this time aimed directly at Bob's chest, only to miss as he dove and rolled, kicking up a cloud of dead leaves.
Karl stood near the rear of the formation, unmoving.
Not out of fear.
But anticipation.
He didn't draw his blade. He didn't reach for a spell.
He simply stared, eyes wide and lips parted, as the chaos bloomed around him.
And then— he smiled.
Just a little.
Just enough.
Because he could sense that his moment was coming.
The monster was strong, clearly intelligent, and had a lethal attack that could one shot a Grandmaster if it connected and hence Karl saw his opportunity to take Cipher down.
He began observing Cipher in great detail.
Every twitch. Every breath. Every detail of his movement, from the way his boots skidded on wet moss, to the way his left wrist flinched slightly when he tried to parry, as Karl's fingers twitched behind his back in anticipation.
He could use a light [Wind Gust] to push him off balance and no one would even notice.
However, he couldn't do it now.
He needed to wait for the right opportunity to present itself.
'I just need the perfect moment…' he thought, pupils dilating slightly as another burst of movement tore through the air, this time, the monster leaping from the tree.
*BOOM*
It landed.
Hard.
A massive chameleon with gnarled limbs and skin like rippling moss crashed into the clearing, its camo flickering like static as it dropped all pretense of stealth and revealed its hideous frame.
Seven feet tall. Lithe. Built like a predator.
Its tongue recoiled back into its jaw, now dripping with glowing venom that hissed with every drop hitting the soil.
*Fsshh* *fsshh*
It hissed again, twitching as if analyzing each of them.
Raiden and Bob moved instantly—one to the left, one to the right—trying to split its focus.
Cipher braced near the center, arms trembling slightly as he raised his daggers.
And Karl stayed still.
Watching.
Waiting.
And smiling, ever so faintly, as he waited to see if he could end Cipher right here and now.