Chapter 583: The Whisper of a Mole
Aldric the First still wore a full suit of armor, his head crowned by a massive horned helmet. The great, curving horns radiated a strange authority, and the sight alone was enough to stop people in their tracks.
"Hey, man, that’s a killer cosplay! Which club are you with?"
A man wrapped in a headcloth stepped closer, his outfit resembling the robes of an Indian mystic.
Aldric stared blankly, unmoved by the stranger’s rapid English. When the man noticed the confusion, he tried again in simpler words.
"Club?" Aldric repeated, his voice muffled through the helm. The modern word meant nothing to him, and he only looked more puzzled.
Watching from above, Ethan laughed quietly. He nudged the Shatterstar’s controls, guiding the massive mech away and leaving Aldric to bewilder the crowd as he pleased.
Despite the vast gulf between the sun and Earth, Shatterstar covered it in a mere fifteen minutes. Once it entered Earth’s skies, the mech reduced its thrust to avoid detection, yet even restrained, its speed was staggering. In moments, it had crossed into the US territory.
Then Ethan remembered. Celeste. She had left him an urgent message before... how long had it been now? A twinge of worry slipped into his chest.
He pulled up the tactical map and redirected his course.
"Rerouting. New target: Ravenwood."
The mech, which had been cutting north toward the Ashhorn Mountains, halted sharply in midair before pivoting south. Within minutes it was soaring over Ravenwood.
Ethan felt a rush of exhilaration. Flying Shatterstar was like stepping through portals across the world, a kind of freedom he had never known. To go anywhere at will—it was intoxicating.
Following the remembered route, he guided the machine in a low sweep over the land. Soon, a thick shroud of mist rolled into view.
He had found it. Hidden within that fog was the secretive Shadow Lynx Village.
At the mist’s edge, Ethan brought the mech down into the ancient forest. This time he didn’t recall it to the hangar. Instead, he left it hovering just above the fog, ready to respond at his call.
Even with his power far greater than before, he wasn’t foolish enough to be reckless. No one knew what still lingered in this land that was whispered to be humanity’s cradle within the Desolate Domain. Aldric the First had walked out of two thousand years of death. If that was possible, then what else might dwell here?
Drawing on memory, Ethan retraced the sequence Doe had once used to lead them through. He twisted and turned, navigating the dense, disorienting white.
After half an hour, he stepped past the final marker. The fog dissolved, and the village revealed itself. The familiar sights came rushing back: the desolate huts, the withered well at the entrance, the rust-eaten drilling rig, and even the backpacks and ropes they had left behind.
When he turned, the wall of mist loomed close again, still sealing the way. The old array had not weakened in all this time; it continued to funnel outsiders harmlessly back to where they began, shielding the village from intrusion.
By now dusk had fallen. The jungle’s darkness mixed with the fog, sinking the world into a murky twilight.
Ethan had been here before, yet a cold tremor ran down his spine. His eyes caught something that made the hair on his arms rise.
From one of the village chimneys, smoke was curling upward.
Immediately, he expanded his Soul Sense. At that same moment, a woman emerged from between the huts, a basket on her arm. Her eyes found him at once.
A pulse of Soul Power brushed against his own.
"Celeste?" he sent through the link, shock in his voice.
"Ethan?" came the answering thought.
In the blink of an eye, Ethan was moving, racing toward her with all the speed he could muster.
When Ethan finally saw Celeste, her appearance jolted him. Her face was thinner than he remembered, worn with hardship, but it was the left side that froze him in place.
"Celeste... what happened to you?"
She instinctively touched her scarred cheek.
"Ugly, isn’t it?" she said lightly.
The burn stretched across her skin in harsh, twisted ridges.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed, fury flashing in them. "Who did this? Was it the Dissenters?"
But Celeste only shook her head and forced a smile.
"You got my message, but you took your time. If you hadn’t shown up today, I’d probably have left tomorrow." She spoke as though it was nothing, sidestepping the question.
"Sorry. I... got delayed," Ethan said, awkward in his own defense.
"It doesn’t matter. You’re here now." Her familiar spark returned, unbroken even by the scar. She stepped aside, holding the door open. "Come in. I just finished cooking."
Ethan followed her inside. The house was small, humble, yet swept clean. It looked as though Celeste had lived there for some time.
Once the door shut, her voice dropped. "Why didn’t the others come with you?"
"I didn’t tell them."
She arched her brows. "What about Leo?"
The question hit Ethan like a stone. He hesitated. "...Leo’s been missing. Nine days now."
His voice trailed as he thought back. In Ethereal, before entering the General’s Hall, he had still been able to hear outside the VR capsule. He remembered the words Victor had spoken then.
"What?" Celeste’s chair scraped as she stood, her expression alarmed.
Her reaction made Ethan’s stomach sink. Could Leo have somehow reached the Shadow Lynx Village? Had he seen the eight blade marks too? If so, and he hadn’t returned in all this time...
But Celeste’s next words broke his train of thought.
"No, this is worse. He must have gone to Ember City! We can’t stay here—we have to leave immediately."
She was already moving for the door.
"Celeste, slow down. What’s in Ember City?" Ethan asked quickly, realizing his guess had been wrong.
She turned, conflicted. "I sent you two messages. One was this location. The other..."
"The other?" Ethan pressed.
"There’s a mole among you."
Her voice was heavy, reluctant, as though the words themselves weighed her down.
The room seemed to tilt. Ethan’s mind roared. A mole? Faces flickered through his memory—friends, allies, comrades. Who?
...
Far away, in the Whitmore family’s Hidden Territory, silence gripped the chamber. All eyes were on Leo.
He had just awakened, but his body was weak and pale. Curiosity burned in him even through the exhaustion. He touched his chest, searching for the familiar thump of his heart—yet there was none.
Alive, but not alive.
The realization made his blood run cold. Then he looked up, startled, and his voice cracked through the silence.
"Where’s Ethan?"
Leo’s gaze locked on Victor.