(Time-Stilled World, 5 Kilometers into the Forest of Death)
Minutes passed, and the fog surrounding the team did not stop thickening.
It kept creeping higher and higher, rising from their chests up to their necks, as Patricia— the shortest in the group at 5'10"— now had her night vision goggles dipping beneath the line of fog, making it impossible for her to see more than half a meter in any direction.
Shadows flickered where there should be none, trees vanished into the white of the fog, and the path ahead seemed to narrow, collapsing into a corridor of ghostly haze.
"Everyone, link up. Use the same hand you're holding your mana stone with to grab the wrist of the person in front of you," Raiden instructed, as each of them reached out to clasp the wrist or forearm of the one ahead, moving in single file like children crossing a battlefield.
Leo was near the center— Patricia ahead of him, Bob behind.
Raiden led from the front, with Cipher and Karl forming the rear.
