Not everyone who entered the Forest of Four Seasons started in the same place. Unless they went in holding hands, each person would find themselves somewhere different.

Even holding hands was no guarantee. People had been seen entering, but not a single person had ever come out.

It took extraordinary luck to end up near someone who had entered before you.

"Ugh..."

A paladin groaned and rose to his feet. His helmet concealed his face, but his attire made his affiliation clear.

He was a senior oversight trooper whom Ludwig had kicked into the Forest of Four Seasons.

While ordinary paladins generally wore pure white armor, the oversight troops wore armor so dark it was almost black. It was originally worn only by inquisitors, but they had now become the pope's private soldiers.

"Damn it. Where the hell am I?"

The trooper cursed as he looked around. In truth, he knew where he was, but desperately wanted to deny it. He distinctly remembered Ludwig kicking him in the back and sending him into the forest.

'Damn it...'

He surveyed surroundings utterly unlike the Forest of Four Seasons he had seen from outside. Instead of lush woodland, there were nothing but dry, skeletal trees.

Whether volcanic ash had blanketed the area or a forest fire had swept through, everything was gray.

That wasn't all. Then there was the ground.

The spot where he had fallen was at least solid earth, but everything else was swamp.

'Was I lucky?'

Had he landed in the swamp, he would have died the moment he entered. That hardly meant he was safe, though.

Where was he, after all? The Forest of Four Seasons, the place called hell on earth. A deadly realm said to have no survivors. He swallowed hard.

'It's not over yet. That Grylls fellow was living here just fine.'

Even if no one had escaped, there was a survivor. That thought gave him hope.

Next, he checked himself for injuries and inspected his weapon. Aside from his back where he had been kicked, nothing particularly hurt.

The forum cannot be accessed from this area.

But accessing the forum was impossible. He was a forum user himself, and from what he had seen, he knew just how useful it could be in an environment like this. Seeing the message telling him he couldn't use it, he could only click his tongue.

'So much for being able to use it.'

Pointing to Wild Grylls as evidence, the pope had stirred people up by claiming that the forum could now be used inside the Forest of Four Seasons. His rhetoric had worked well enough to drive the investigation team's dispatch.

Now that the trooper was inside, he understood. The pope had told a blatant lie.

There was a saying that everything that came out of the pope's mouth was a lie, except carbon dioxide.

The trooper couldn't have agreed more. His mistake had been falling for those smooth words.

'I'm getting out of here. I'm far stronger than that bastard. Why wouldn't I be able to escape?'

He ground his teeth. He would escape within a few days and cut off Ludwig's head.

The pope was the source of all this, but he was too powerful. So the trooper directed his resentment toward the comparatively weaker Ludwig instead.

It was a classic case of bowing to the strong and bullying the weak, a manifestation of his selfishness.

'First, let's check my mana.'

Before setting off, he checked the mana inside his body. His fierce battle with Ludwig had consumed a considerable amount. Since he was only checking, there was no need to practice his mana training method.

"... Hmm?"

Then he noticed something wrong. His eyes widened slightly.

Normally, it should have been circulating, however faintly, but it wasn't moving at all. No—it was circulating. Just impossibly slowly.

Alarmed, he hurriedly tried to activate his mana.

'M-my mana! Why?'

It still wouldn't budge. Only by forcing it to move could he barely feel it.

Hoping against hope, he even tried manifesting aura... but it was useless. No aura emerged, either.

He might as well have been dropped here with nothing. His chances of survival were far lower than he had anticipated.

Wondering if he had an injury he hadn't noticed, he examined himself thoroughly. Still, he found nothing unusual. In the end, he took the risk and began practicing his mana training method.

'W-what is this...!'

The moment he began, he realized why. It was the mana.

More precisely, the mana outside his body, not within it. Its concentration was far, far too high.

The external mana was suppressing his internal mana, much as the pressure of the deep sea crushed objects.

'Impossible! That bastard Grylls clearly...!'

He couldn't believe it. This was completely unexpected. Grylls threw mana around at every opportunity, yet he himself couldn't use it at all? It was hard to accept.

'No. If I just have time...'

It was too early to despair. He steadied his wavering resolve.

If the external mana prevented him from using the mana in his body, he simply had to fill himself with the mana outside. He didn't know how long it would take, but it wasn't impossible.

'I need somewhere safe.'

He assessed the situation quickly. This swamp was dangerous. There was no telling what monsters might emerge from it. The woods where Grylls lived would be much safer.

Having made his decision, he started walking, intent on leaving the swamp.

SHING!

He drew his sword as well, ready for anything. Though he couldn't use mana, his basic fighting skills should let him hold out.

'Archbishop Odon came in before me... Where is he?'

He thought of Odon, who had entered the forest first—a cleric forced inside by Ludwig, just like him.

Unlike the trooper, Odon specialized in support and had virtually no fighting ability. Now that this place had proved to prevent mana use, his chances of survival would only diminish with time.

'Even if there's nothing I can do about the archbishop, I should find the others first.'

So, unless something significant happened, he decided to give up on the cleric altogether. His own fighting capabilities had been crippled. He had no strength to spare protecting someone who couldn't fight.

Clerics generally healed through divine power, but that required them to have divine power in the first place.

Archbishop Odon had so little that it was fair to say he had none, so the trooper expected little from him. He had risen to his position by having the right connections.

To escape this hellish forest, the trooper needed to join forces with strong people, not those who would only be a liability.

'Still... if I run into him, I can't pretend I didn't see him...'

He had just finished sorting out his thoughts when it happened.

["...please."]

A sound reached his ears. At first, he thought he had misheard. He stopped walking and listened closely.

["...help me, please."]

He heard it again, faint though it was. He hurriedly looked around, trying to pinpoint its source.

"Is someone there? Speak up if you are!"

Shouting in a swamp was a bad idea. A beast might hear and approach. But given the circumstances, he had little choice.

He shouted loudly, praying his voice would reach whoever it was.

["Here! Over here! I'm over here!"]

This time, he heard clearly. He turned toward the voice.

It sounded slightly echoing, but he didn't care—not when he heard the language it was speaking. It wasn't some foreign tongue. It was the language of Eldorado.

'And that voice... Archbishop Odon?'

He hurried toward it. Apparently, he had been lucky enough to wake up near where the archbishop had landed.

He had been dismissing him as useless moments ago, but he was still a person.

'If it comes to it, I can use him as a human shield.'

It was a truly devious thought, a clear illustration of what desperation could do to a person.

["I'm here! Is anyone there?"]

The voice drew steadily closer. Water covered the trooper's feet. It was only ankle-deep for now, so he paid it no mind. Confirming who was there came first.

At last, he reached the source of the voice.

"A-Archbishop?! You're alive?"

["Oh, you've come...!"]

He had found the archbishop. Surprisingly, he looked perfectly fine. His slightly strange voice was suspicious, but he seemed to be in excellent condition.

["Come this way. This appears to be the exit."]

"Pardon? The... exit?"

["Yes. Someone else helped me as well."]

Archbishop Odon spoke of an exit with a kindly expression. The trooper's suspicions deepened.

He was pointing toward a deep, deep stretch of swamp. The water here was already just above his ankles, and anyone could see it was deeper over there.

'But before that...'

There was something even stranger, something he had only just noticed.

Archbishop Odon was short. And the water here was ankle-deep. So why were his feet resting on the surface?

Powerful fighters could step across water, but not Odon.

It was strange. No, more than strange—it was ominous.

"W-who are you?!"

["Pardon? What do you mean..."]

"You wicked monster! Show yourself!"

He backed away and leveled his sword, his voice trembling with anxiety.

Perhaps it had detected the fear in his voice. Odon—no, the creature mimicking Odon—stopped hiding.

SSSHH...

Odon's form faded like a mirage. What emerged beneath it was, shockingly, a corpse.

A shriveled, desiccated corpse. Tentacles were wound tightly around its neck, as though it had been strangled.

The trooper identified it immediately. It was unmistakably Odon.

'W-what is this...!'

RUMBLE!

Regardless of his horror, something ominous began happening in the swamp. The ground started shaking as though an earthquake had struck.

Had Grylls been there, he would have fled the area without looking back. But this was the trooper's first time in the Forest of Four Seasons.

He could only stand there spluttering until the monster made its move.

SPLASH!

A hand emerged from the deep pool. It looked human, but its skin was conspicuously smooth, like an amphibian's.

Perhaps for camouflage, it had the same dingy color as the trees.

SPLOOOSH!

Bracing its hand against the ground, the monster hauled itself fully into view.

The trooper could only stare aghast at the creature several times his size. Hideous teeth, an elongated body, and a feeler sprouting from its head.

Odon's corpse had been hanging from that feeler.

WHOOSH!

An anglerfish with hands had emerged from the depths of the swamp. It reached a hand toward the trooper.

The moment he saw it move, he scrambled backward to escape. But that led him to his death. Again, this was a swamp.

SPLAT!

"Gah!"

Standing still in one place was enough to make you sink into the mire. The trooper lost his balance and fell, and the swamp anglerfish seized its chance.

It squeezed tight.

"Aaaaargh!"

The swamp anglerfish had grabbed him roughly in its humanlike hand.

He thrashed against the pressure constricting his body, but it was futile. Unable to use mana, he was doomed to be eaten.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

Meanwhile, the swamp anglerfish put Odon's corpse, which it had snagged with its feeler, into its mouth and chewed it thoroughly with its sharp teeth.

Then it wrapped its tentacle-like feeler around the trooper's neck.

It tightened its grip.

"Ghhhh..."

A wheezing sound escaped him, and before long, the strength began draining from his body.

THUD!

His helmet, loosened by his violent struggles, came off and fell. Beneath it was nothing but a mummy as shriveled as Odon's corpse.

He hung limp.

When the swamp anglerfish opened its hand, the trooper dangled from its feeler. Having drained all his life force, it slipped back into the deep water, leaving only the feeler bearing the trooper above the surface.

["A-Archbishop?!"]

Astonishingly, the mummified trooper's mouth moved, and a voice emerged. It was an utterly grotesque sight, as though the feeler were controlling his body.

["You wicked monster! Show yourself!"]

It went beyond simply mimicking his voice.

["Is anyone there? There's someone here! I need help!"]

It was an imitation that seemed to have extracted his memories wholesale.

["Anyone, please help me!"]

The Forest of Four Seasons was a hellish place.

* * *

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

"Whew. That should do it, right?"

I murmured in satisfaction as I drove the signpost into the ground. I'd spent so much time making these signs.

Still, now that I was putting them up, I felt proud.

'I really hope they make it.'