The clearing around the shattered carriage roof was a tableau of stunned, chaotic stillness.

The Shadow Beast, an alpha predator of terrifying speed and precision, had not attacked them, but their resources. It stood atop the mangled canvas, its pale yellow eyes fixed on the remaining vials, the embodiment of cold, efficient destruction.

Vice, however, was already moving. He didn't draw a weapon, nor did he use a powerful spell. His action was singular and precise.

As the Shadow Beast prepared to swipe again, Vice didn't intercept the paw; he intercepted the creature's focus.

He moved with an unnatural speed that put Cass's Silas to shame. His silver hair flashed as he reached the shattered roof and, with a gentle, expert hand, placed a single, freshly peeled orange beside the creature.

"Stop," Vice commanded, his voice sharp and low, resonating not with a challenge, but with an ancient, inherent authority that bypassed the beast's rage and triggered a primal pause. "Do not waste what others have worked for."

The Shadow Beast froze, its claws inches from a rack of precision-brewed anti-poison vials. Its yellow eyes darted between the orange and the serene, unthreatened elf. '

The scent of the strange, foreign fruit, a scent Vice had offered before, was a confusing variable in its kill sequence.

This brief pause was all Aria needed.

"Qwy, full saturation, now," she snapped, her staff slamming down on the earth.

The little eyeball, which had been pulsating a calming rhythm into Lord Moomoo, instantly inverted its energy.

A massive, localized pulse of World Energy slammed down onto the carriage roof, not as a destructive force, but as an instantaneous, localized Blueprint.

===

Goal: Non-Lethal Environmental Restraint.

Method: Contain the target in a time-dilated, anti-teleportation field by using World Energy to stabilize and solidify ambient Mana.

Focus: The creature's primary survival mechanism: the Shadow-Blink ability.

===

The air around the Shadow Beast thickened into a viscous, heavy jelly. Its sleek, black body suddenly felt impossibly heavy, its intended phase shift into the shadow plane grinding to a halt.

It hadn't been attacked; its very ability to move through its natural medium had been nullified.

"Gurrrrr…!" The Leopard Mutant let out a strained, panicked snarl, its attempt to escape the containment field failing instantly.

"Reddy, the potion!" Aria shouted.

Reddy, who had recovered from the initial shock, was already sprinting forward.

She uncorked the vial and, with a practiced, desperate motion, hurled the taming potion— not onto the beast's snout, but directly into the open tear in the carriage roof where the Shadow Beast's two cubs were hiding, terrified, attracted by the scent of the spilled Mana restorers.

The concentrated magic of the taming potion was designed to soothe and bind a dominant creature, but for the smaller, unfocused cubs, it acted as a massive, overwhelming wave of calming energy.

-Zuuuuuuu…

The cubs collapsed instantly, falling into a deep, drug-induced sleep.

The Shadow Alpha, seeing its offspring incapacitated, let out a heart-wrenching, silent cry that was pure instinct. Its rage vanished, replaced by the profound, desperate concern of a parent.

Vice nodded, seeing the exact outcome he had anticipated. "It values its family, Aria. It is an efficient, intelligent creature, not a mindless one."

Aria knelt down, carefully inspecting the sleeping cubs. "They're fine. Just asleep. You have a very fierce sense of responsibility, don't you, Alpha."

The Shadow Beast looked up, its eyes no longer yellow with malice, but dark and filled with a profound, quiet despair.

"The carriage provides protection," Aria continued softly, offering the Alpha her hand, much as Cass had done with Azure.

"My journey requires a partner who is fast, intelligent, and fiercely loyal to their chosen pack.

I offer you a better chance for your family's survival, and your pack's growth, than this dying forest."

She didn't need a taming potion. She needed a pact.

The Shadow Alpha hesitated for a long moment, looking at the sleeping cubs, then at the two magnificent mounts: the brute-force River Lord, and the ethereal Crystal Hart.

It looked at the raw, contained power of the Architect, and the ancient, serene wisdom of the Elf.

Finally, it gave a low, almost reluctant chuff of acceptance and lowered its massive head, nudging Aria's outstretched hand.

The third, most crucial piece of the anarchist's team was acquired.

"Welcome to the team," Aria smiled, patting its smooth, obsidian head. "You need a name. You are fierce, sleek, and utterly devoted to efficiency. How about… Sleek?"

The Shadow Alpha, now dubbed Sleek, let out a sound that might have been a long-suffering sigh, or perhaps, grudging agreement.

Cass finally emerged from the woods, retracting Silas and looking utterly bewildered. "So… we have Lord Moomoo, Azure, and a Shadow Beast named Sleek, all acquired without a proper fight?"

"The best battles are the ones you win with intelligence, not muscle, Cass," Vice said, picking up the untouched orange. "Now, we must repair the carriage quickly. The Primordial Forest is close, and we need to be resting before we enter that domain."

We spent the rest of the day in a flurry of construction and preparation. Vice, surprisingly, was an excellent carpenter, weaving new Mana-infused wood into the carriage frame.

Reddy sorted her remaining supplies, while Cass and I spent time with the new mount, Sleek, who, once the taming effect wore off the cubs, proved to be an efficient, if aloof, companion.

That evening, the entire party was gathered around a low-burning, smokeless fire, deep in a natural hollow Vice had designated as their final, secured camp before the true danger began.

Lord Moomoo and Azure grazed peacefully nearby, their distinct auras blending into the forest's Mana flow, while Sleek was nestled near the fire, its cubs asleep against its side, its watchful yellow eyes never fully closing.

The air was still, heavy with the scent of ancient earth and the faint, sweet perfume of the Primordial Forest beginning to assert its domain.

"This is it," Reddy murmured, stirring her tea. "We cross the border tomorrow. The Whisperwood ends where the Forest begins.

Vice, you've been quiet all day. Tell us what we are walking into."

Vice nodded, his silver hair catching the low light of the fire. He took a long sip of his own herbal brew, his expression turning solemn, marked by the true weight of his long life.

"The Primordial Forest," he began, his voice deepening into a resonant, storyteller's cadence, the rhythm of a forgotten epoch.

"It is not merely a forest, young ones. It is a scar. The deepest, most enduring scar on this continent."

He paused, looking up at the velvet-black sky, which, even without the moon, seemed to hold a greater, darker light.

"You see the Sky Island, the Floating Castle, yes? The home of the Absolutes, the origin of much of our world's magic. The legends call the Sky Island the Great Valley of Truth.

It is said that when the world was young, it was there that the First Dungeon was formed, the source of all the World Energy we chase today."

Cass, mesmerized, leaned forward. "The First Dungeon is in the sky?"

"Not anymore," Vice shook his head, a genuine sadness in his eyes. "Once, the Great Valley held a forest that was a perfect microcosm of creation, trees that breathed pure Mana, beasts of myth, and the very First Breath of the world.

That forest… was what you now call the Primordial Forest."

He stirred the fire with a delicate, silver-tipped twig, his eyes reflecting the ancient sorrow of his people.

"Long ago, before humans were more than footnotes in history, a great war broke out. A conflict of colossal, reality-breaking scale.

On one side, the Dragon King of the North, whose power shattered mountains and whose breath was the pure, incandescent rage of Mana.

On the other, a Demon Lord of the deepest Void, whose influence could rot the very laws of physics and whose presence was the stillness of absolute zero."

"They fought," Vice continued, his voice now a strained whisper that demanded silent awe, "directly over the Sky Island.

The clash of their supreme powers, the chaotic Mana of Dragonfire meeting the crushing gravity of the Void, tore reality itself.

They did not merely fight on the land; they fought with the land, using the fabric of the Great Valley as their weapons."

He gestured to the surrounding, shadowed woods, the movement slow and dramatic.

"When the Dragon King's final roar, a sound that was pure creation, met the Demon Lord's ultimate void-spell, a force of pure anti-creation, a massive piece of the Sky Island, the entire pristine, magical forest that cradled the First Dungeon— was ripped clean from the Sky Island's foundation.

It did not merely fall; it was hurled down to the continent below, a fragment of paradise violently cast out."

Reddy gasped, the scale of the disaster registering on her face. "The entire forest fell?"

"Like a colossal, burning meteorite of Mana and rock," Vice confirmed grimly. "The sky wept for a century. It crashed here, carving the deep valleys and mountains we see in the South.

The impact, the sheer cosmic violence of the crash, warped the land, fused the dungeon's raw power with the continent's geology, and killed everything that was not pure spirit."

"It didn't die," Aria whispered, her eyes shining with an almost hungry understanding.

"It changed," Vice corrected, the intensity of his gaze unwavering.

"The magic of the Sky Island, the First Breath, was too profound to be extinguished. It healed, yes, but it healed wrong, in defiance of its new home. The trees grew back hostile, their roots twisting around the buried cosmic remnants.

The dungeons within it became unstable, constantly fixing, reforming, and seeking to return to the Sky.

And the beasts, like your Sleek, evolved to be masters of camouflage and lethal efficiency, creatures that only thrive in the borderlands between worlds. It is a forest of death because it is a place where the pristine law of the Sky Island, the Valley of Truth, clashed violently with the messy, aggressive laws of the continent."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.