"Nautilus, stop! STOP!!"
Ren dashed forward as if driven by instinct, his hand tightening around Nautilus's shoulder, yanking him back just as he was about to charge into the dense mist.
"LET GO!" Nautilus nearly roared, reacting in the only way his body allowed in that moment, struggling, thrashing, desperate to break free from Ren's grip.
Desperation surged within him like a violent wave, swallowing all rational thought. "I HAVE TO FIND YUNA! SHE'S OUT THERE, SHE'S WAITING FOR US."
"AND HOW EXACTLY ARE YOU GOING TO FIND HER?!"
Ren's voice cracked like thunder, cutting straight through Nautilus's panic.
He froze.
"Can't you see?" Ren's voice was tight, his gaze sweeping the scene before them.
Nothing but a sea of thick, milky white mist, drifting like a living entity, curling into every crevice, squeezing the space around them.
"This thing… it's not normal fog. It's moving. It's hiding something."
The air was freezing, sharp enough to bite into their skin. But what sent a chill down Ren's spine wasn't the cold.
It was the silence.
No birds. No rustling leaves. No sounds at all, except for Nautilus's ragged breathing and the pounding of Ren's heartbeat.
He gripped the hilt of his sword, cold sweat tracing a line down his back.
"Do you understand?" He spoke slowly, deliberately, as if forcing the words into Nautilus's consciousness. "We're not just surrounded. We're being led. If you rush in without thinking."
Ren took a deep breath, his eyes darkening.
"…You'll disappear too."
Nautilus stiffened.
Every muscle in his body tensed, trembling with the strain.
"But Yuna…"
"I KNOW!" Ren cut him off, his voice firm, urgent, but laced with an unhidden worry. "I want to rush in and find her too! I'm scared too, Nautilus! But if we lose ourselves in this thing."
He paused, locking eyes with Nautilus, trying to pull him back from the spiral of fear tightening around his mind.
"…Then who's going to save her?"
The words stabbed into Nautilus like a knife.
He choked on his breath.
Right.
If he lost control… if he got lost in the mist too… then who would bring Yuna back?
Who would make sure she was safe?
Nautilus clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms. But the pain was nothing compared to the sheer terror clawing at his chest.
"You want to save Yuna," Ren continued, his voice lower now, but unyielding as steel. "Then stand your ground. Keep a level head. If this really is a trap, running around like an idiot will only make things worse."
Silence hung thick in the air.
Nautilus's breaths were still uneven, but he had stopped struggling.
Ren loosened his grip, his gaze never leaving the thick fog before them.
"Now calm down," he said, his voice sharp as a blade, but steady. "And think… what do we do next?"
Ren tightened his hold on his sword for a few seconds before swiftly opening his menu, his fingers hovering over the Map tab with a fragile thread of hope.
A three-dimensional map flickered into existence before him, its faint blue outlines wavering against the ominous backdrop.
But the moment he looked at it, his blood ran cold.
A blank white void.
Not the usual pitch-black screen that indicated an unexplored area, where only faint borderlines marked the places he had passed.
Not the familiar rugged contours and details of the Starting Town map, carefully recorded from countless times he had walked its streets.
But a blank, smudged white void, as if someone had erased every trace of this world.
Ren's brows knitted together, his breath hitching. He tried zooming in, zooming out, shifting perspectives, a routine action he had performed countless times while navigating.
But this time, nothing changed.
No terrain details.
No landmarks.
Not even their own position markers.
He refreshed the map, closed it and reopened it, even checked the system for display errors.
But the result was the same.
Only endless white.
This had never happened before.
A creeping unease surged through Ren's chest like a rising tide. His fingers curled slightly, his gaze locked onto the useless map in front of him.
"What the hell…?" he murmured, a shiver crawling down his spine.
Nautilus saw Ren's expression, and his heart suddenly felt heavy. "Does the map show anything?" he asked, his voice dry.
Ren was silent for a second before slowly shaking his head. "No. It's just… white fog."
Nautilus swallowed hard, his spine stiffening.
A chilling thought struck both of them at the same time.
If this fog could obscure the map entirely, then it wasn't just a normal trap.
A regular trap could erase footprints, hide paths, or even disorient them for a while. But it couldn't interfere with the system map, something that recorded data directly from the game's system.
Yet here, there was nothing.
Only a vast, blinding white void.
The space around them seemed distorted.
Or worse…
Their traces were being erased.
Ren clenched his teeth, forcing himself to stay calm. He took a deep breath, trying to push back the terrible thoughts creeping into his mind.
Nothing is certain yet, he reminded himself. Nothing confirms that we're being erased.
But the unease clung to him like a cold shadow.
He had been lost in an underground labyrinth, trapped between waves of monsters, and even stood on the edge of death before.
But never...not even once, had he experienced something like this.
Something was happening here. Something that wasn't in any guidebook or information he had ever known about Aincrad.
He glanced at Nautilus. The other boy was frozen, eyes wide, chest rising and falling in rapid breaths.
His fingers clenched into fists as if trying to suppress a panic about to break free. Ren didn't need to ask to know what Nautilus was thinking.
Yuna was out there.
Alone.
Lost in the fog.
A sudden chill ran down Ren's neck, making the hairs on his skin stand on end.
Every second that passed only made things worse.
Something had to be done.
Ren quickly checked his menu again. If the map wasn't displaying, maybe the Tracking function would still work?
As long as the system recorded their past movements, they could still find a way back. It was a faint hope, but he couldn't let any chance slip by.
His fingers moved swiftly through the options, opening the Tracking menu, then froze.
There was nothing.
Their footprints, which should have been displayed to let them retrace their steps… were completely gone.
Not just their footprints.
Their entire movement history had been erased.
Ren stared at the menu screen, disbelief tightening in his chest. He tried refreshing, adjusting display settings, even reopening the entire map system. But no matter what he did, the result remained the same.
There was no way back.
No sign that they had ever been here.
As if something or someone, had erased every trace of their existence from this world.
A sharp chill ran down Ren's spine. He swallowed dryly, his fingers tightening instinctively around the hilt of his sword.
This wasn't a normal labyrinth.
It wasn't like dungeon areas, where maps only appeared as players explored. It wasn't like forests or caves, where terrain shifted with roaming monsters.
He had heard of areas with special mechanics, dungeons with no exit until the boss was defeated, caves that could only be left via teleport gates.
But even in those places, the map still functioned. Players' existence was still recorded within the space.
But here…
This was a distorted space.
A place that bent the game's very rules.
Not just a simple trap. Not just a labyrinth with an exit.
It was a white void, severed from reality.
Ren could feel every vein in his body tighten as he slowly realized the meaning of this.
If this was truly a warped space… if it could obscure maps and erase their traces… then that meant.
Nautilus suddenly broke the silence. His voice was hoarse, as if every word carried the weight of a suppressed fear:
"…We're trapped here, aren't we?"
Ren slowly nodded.
And not just them.
He gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the suffocating feeling spreading through his chest. If Yuna had been caught in this place too… if she was lost somewhere in this fog, alone, with no way to find her way out.
Nautilus shuddered, his panicked gaze darting around the empty space surrounding them.
A cold wind swept past, carrying a faint whisper, so soft, so distant, yet undeniably there, lurking within the mist.
Ren suddenly felt as if something was watching them.
Invisible. Untouchable. Yet undeniably present.
Observing them.
Waiting.
A bead of cold sweat rolled down Ren's temple, but there was no time to hesitate.
He took a deep breath, focusing all his thoughts on one thing: finding a way out before it was too late.
He tightened his grip on his sword, his gaze hardening.
"We can't just stand here," he said firmly. "We need to find a way to break through this place's mechanics."
Whether that meant finding a way to navigate through.
Or cutting through the mist with the very blade in his hands.