CHAPTER 209: EX 209. WELCOME TO MY ABODE

Leon leaned back on the moss-covered stone, finishing the last adjustments to his stat panel. Numbers flickered across his vision before fading away, leaving him with that familiar sense of growth humming in his body. He exhaled, satisfied, but then his head snapped toward the cave entrance.

"Intruders?"

He sharpened his senses, stretching them past the faint barrier he had set over the cave mouth. "His eyes widened a fraction. Humans?"

The next moment, his figure blurred and vanished.

---

Outside the cave, James and his squad crouched low in a thick shrub, their eyes fixed on the yawning darkness of the Tyrant’s den. The forest around them was unnervingly still, the faint hum of insects muffled as though the cave itself swallowed sound.

Crystal, the squad’s lithe scout, returned from her sweep, her movements as quiet as a shadow slipping through leaves. She crouched next to James, her face grim.

"Leader," she whispered, "after scouting the perimeter, I found trails of the Tyrant leaving the cave, but their was no sign of it returning."

James’ expression hardened, though he only nodded. "That much is obvious. The beast is dead. But did you find any signs of something else entering?"

Crystal shook her head. "No. Just the Tyrant’s trail."

James narrowed his eyes at the cave. His gut told him things were not so simple. "We’ll still have to check the cave, to fulfill our duty. After that, we’ll search the perimeter for this supposed ’new ruler.’"

He was about to give the order to move when a voice, sharp and casual, came from behind them.

"What ruler?"

The words cut through the silence like a blade.

Almost on instinct, the squad leapt from their hiding place, scattering into combat stances. Weapons were drawn, mana flared. James’ heart pounded as his mind reeled, he hadn’t sensed anything.

’How did he escape my senses?’

Standing in the middle of their formation was no beast, no monstrous ruler of the forest, but a boy. Topless, white hair falling loose around his sharp blue eyes, his lean frame carried an unsettling calm. He looked like he had simply appeared there.

James’ thoughts raced.

’This boy... he’s not normal.’

Through the mental link he had established, he sent out commands with practiced speed.

(—Carl, Joseph, prepare to strike. Crystal, form a retreat path in case this goes bad. Stephen, you and I hold him down if he’s hostile.)

Before they could even act on the command, the world around them shifted. As the forest blinked away.

Suddenly, damp air filled their lungs. Stone walls loomed around them. They were no longer crouched in the shrubs but standing inside a vast cavern, light spilling down from glowing rocks above. A pond stretched out before them, its surface still and glasslike.

And on the mossy island at its center sat the boy.

Leon leaned back lazily, a ration in hand, chewing with an ease that mocked their shock. His presence filled the cavern more thoroughly than the glowing stones ever could.

His blue eyes slid over them, cold and curious. Then, through a bite of his food, he spoke.

"I know you guys can understand me... so why don’t you tell me where the hell we are?"

****

James had faced ambushes in the dead of night, fought off beasts twice his size, and survived battles where his comrades dropped like flies, but never in his life had he been in a situation this bizarre.

He and his team stood inside a moss-carpeted cave, forced there by someone they hadn’t even seen coming. A boy, half-naked with snow-white hair and sharp blue eyes, sat on a stone outcrop by the pond, chewing idly on what looked like a simple ration. His stare was wild, unrestrained, the kind of look that belonged to something untamed rather than civilized.

For some, this might have been a dream, a strange fantasy come to life. But James didn’t swing that way, and right now, the only thing pounding in his chest was alarm.

Leon sighed, brushing crumbs from his lips.

"You guys don’t have to be afraid. I won’t hurt you."

The words carried no menace, but that was the problem. He had dragged them here without so much as lifting a finger, plucked from the forest and placed inside his den like pawns on a board. Who was to say he couldn’t just snuff them out one by one?

James and his squad stood rigid, silent as stone.

Leon rubbed a hand across his face, muttering, "Okay... if you can’t tell me where we are, you can at least tell me what brought you to my humble abode."

That got a reaction.

"Abode?" James repeated, cautious.

Leon’s lips curled into a faint smile. "Oh, so you do know how to talk?"

The words landed heavier than intended, and James averted his gaze almost instantly, as though staring into those strange eyes would unravel something inside him. Leon tilted his head, exhaling in mild exasperation. Do I look that scary? he wondered.

"Yes," he said more firmly this time, "this is my abode."

The squad froze. And then, as if on cue, all of them burst out at once:

"What!!"

The echo carried off the stone walls, disbelief painted across their faces.

Carl stepped forward before he could stop himself. "That’s impossible!"

Leon arched a brow. "And why is it impossible?"

"The new ruler of the forest automatically claims ownership of all the past ruler’s possessions—including their dwelling," Carl said, his voice edged with conviction.

Leon blinked, amused. "Oh... that big guy was the ruler of this place?"

Confusion rippled through the team. Who was he talking about? Because their was no way he was referring to the great tyrant, right?

But their answer came a heartbeat later.

Behind Leon, as if conjured from the very shadows, the massive corpse of the Great Tyrant Bear appeared, its colossal body sprawled, its head missing cleanly from its shoulders. The stench of blood and the oppressive aura of the dead beast filled the cave like a second atmosphere.

Leon glanced at them, calm as ever.

"Do you believe me now?"

James and his team could only stare. Their mouths open and their words gone. Their entire understanding of the forest shattered in an instant.