It took them no more than a few minutes to get close to the twister. They still had a considerable distance to reach it, but the winds had already picked up and they could feel grains of dust peppering their skin.

Reinhart stared at the tornado with a troubled expression. “Suddenly, I don’t feel too confident about that idea.”

Narcha scoffed. “What’s the issue? Didn’t you sneak by that snake already? What’s there to fear about a little tornado?”

The knight smiled. He looked over at Red. “How exactly are you going to be able to tell whether this plan succeeds? I mean, if I get sucked into that thing, will you even be able to see what happens to me?”

The boy shook his head. “I do not know for certain. If I’m correct, then once we are close enough to the tornado, it will draw us in and we will be teleported, so it would be best to see how close we can get to it before the winds get too strong.”

The tornadoes themselves weren’t that wide, so Red hoped he could get close enough to still detect Reinhart within his crimson sense. He wouldn’t know that for sure until they tried it, though.

Reinhart nodded. “Then let’s not delay it any longer.”

The man led the charge, holding onto a talisman in his hand. Red guessed this must have been one of the remaining talismans the man had exchanged with the spirit back then.

Soon, the group was close enough to the tornado that the winds started affecting them. Red felt resistance as he tried to walk forward, as the gales blew against him from the side, making it hard for him to breathe normally. Not to mention, the dust also impeded their view. The others weren’t as affected by the strong winds as the boy, but it was clear that it had started to wear on them too, much more so as they got close to the spinning monstrosity.

Narcha looked at Red, shielding her eyes. “Is this close enough?!”

The woman had to scream to be heard over the shrill sounds of the wind.

Red frowned. “Let’s go closer!”

It was hard to accurately tell how distant they were from the tornado proper, much more so as the twister started to blend with its surroundings in his vision. Not to mention, the tornado wasn’t remaining still either, and they had to keep up with it.

The rest of the group agreed, and they continued to push forward. Soon enough, even Narcha and the others felt the pressure of the wind, and Eiwin had to hold on to Red so he wouldn’t be blown away.

“This… do!” Reinhart said.

The boy couldn’t hear the man’s voice anymore over the winds, even as he tried to scream. He could gather what the knight said, though.

Red looked over at him and nodded.

Reinhart looked ahead and gritted his teeth. “… fucking… insane!”

The last traces of hesitation disappeared from the man’s face. The talisman in his hand started to glow, and he stepped forward.

Red saw the barrier forming around the knight’s body as the man struggled to maintain his balance against the strong winds. Soon enough, Reinhart’s figure was swallowed by the dust at the tornado’s base and disappeared from view.

The boy then focused on the man’s fluctuation with his crimson sense. He was trying to feel the distance the knight had travelled judging by the strength and direction of his fluctuation. To his surprise, or perhaps not surprisingly at all, Red sensed Reinhart’s presence distancing itself, lifting itself from the ground and away from him.

Then, a few seconds later, the fluctuation completely disappeared.

‘That fast?’

Red wasn’t sure whether the man’s fluctuation had simply gotten out of his detection range or if Reinhart had been teleported somewhere like he had guessed it would happen. To be safe, the boy decided to remain close to the tornado, as he expected that if the man was floating around the twister, he would eventually make another pass above his head and be detected by his crimson sense.

That didn’t happen, though, even after almost a minute had passed. The boy was now uncertain, but he decided it best to retreat for now.

He pulled at Eiwin’s sleeve, making a motion with his head. The woman seemed to understand his silent intentions, and likewise informed Narcha about it with a nudge of her feet.

Soon enough, the group had distanced itself from the tornado until they were a couple hundred meters away.

Narcha frowned as she looked at the column of spinning dust. “Do you guys see anything?”

Eiwin shook her head. “There’s no sign of him.”

Indeed, not even Red with his dark vision could spot Reinhart’s figure. Either he was concealed by the tornado’s dust, or he had been blown very far away. The latter scenario didn’t seem likely, though, as there was only flatland surrounding them and they would have been able to spot the knight’s figures from miles away.

Narcha looked over at Red. “Do you think he was teleported?”

The boy nodded. “I think so. Still, I’d rather wait and see if anything else happens.”

And so they waited. After five minutes passed with nothing happening, though, they were certain that Reinhart wasn’t coming out of that tornado.

“We should go.” Red said.

Narcha nodded. “I’ll lead the way.”

“Wait!” Eiwin held her back. “We need to do something first.”

She took out a length of rope from her bag before throwing it towards Red and Narcha.

Red frowned. “You want to tie us together?”

Eiwin nodded. “It’s for the best. That way, if anything goes wrong, we’ll still be together.”

If anything went wrong, the boy wasn’t certain they would survive. Still, he wouldn’t complain, considering he was the one most likely to be affected by the strong winds considering his weight.

Narcha also had no complaints, and soon the group was all tied up together around their waists, with Red being the middle link.

“Try to cover yourselves.” Narcha said. “There might be a lot of detritus closer to the tornado.”

Unfortunately, they didn’t have a defensive talisman like Reinhart, so they could only rely on their armor to protect them.

Narcha led the way as she suggested, and soon the group had caught up to the tornado again. The winds started to pick up around them, blowing against the boy and threatening to take him off his feet. Eiwin held him once more, though, and soon they had reached the same distance they had been at before.

This time they didn’t stop, though. Narcha forged ahead, one step at a time, fighting against the tormentous winds to keep her balance. Red had no such luck, though, and he felt himself being lifted up, only the rope and Eiwin’s grip allowing him to not be taken away.

A few steps further, and they reached the base of the tornado. The dust covered their vision, and Red was not able to see anything else. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted further up into the air, as Eiwin also lost her fight against the winds.

The rope tying them to Narcha was pulled taut, the only thing keeping them from flying off. Although Red couldn’t see her, he knew she was doing her best to keep her balance, but against the might of the tornado, there was nothing a simple cultivator could do.

The boy felt himself being pulled up into the air, a signal that Narcha had lost her balance, too. Immediately the boy felt himself being sent adrift along the strong winds, a force he could do nothing to resist against. A terrible feeling of helplessness attacked him.

He had no sense of direction, and all of his senses felt completely overwhelmed. Still, Red focused on keeping his breathing steady.

Every breath that he drew in felt like a struggle, but this wasn’t the worst of it. The boy felt his body being peppered by countless dust debris that, at these speeds and in these densities, felt like being pummelled by small pebbles. It wasn’t unbearable, and his uniform protected most of the impact, but the force continued to increase at every second.

Red didn’t know how much time had passed, but suddenly the wind pressure around him diminished. Before the boy could even process what was happening, he felt himself hit the ground with a thud.

The shrill sound of the tornado disappeared, along with the dust covering his view and peppering his body. As Red collected himself, he heard the groans of his companions by his side.

A familiar voice greeted them. “You’re finally here! I really thought you had decided to abandon me back there.”

The boy looked up and saw Reinhart sitting against a wall, staring at him with a smile.

‘Wait, a wall?’

Red examined his surroundings and noticed they were now inside a building.

Reinhart laughed. “You were right, kid! The tornado was the answer, after all!”

Narcha got up while holding onto her head with a painful expression. There was a hint of blood pouring down her temple. “Yeah, good job, kid… Just hope we don’t have to do that again.”

Eiwin got up with a worried expression. “Miss Valt! Are you alright?!”

The warrior shrugged. “This is nothing. I think a big rock hit me inside that tornado… Else, we could have made it even further in.”

Red shook his head. “I’m not sure how that would have helped.”

Narcha ignored him and looked around. “So this is another one of those invisible buildings?”

Reinhart nodded. “I haven’t explored too far, but this one seems a bit different.”

Red was immediately able to notice what he meant. This place seemed to be in ruins. Cracked walls, fallen debris, dust everywhere. They could even see hints of the eternal storm outside through the cracked ceiling.

The room they were in seemed to be made of a similar rock material to the mausoleum they had visited before, and just like that place, it also lacked any kind of decoration or noticeable details. The only path available to them was a long, narrow corridor on the other side of the room.

Narcha frowned. “Great. More corridors…”

“I’d wager it’s better than being lost out there.” Reinhart got up, patting the dust off his clothes. “So, should we get going?”

The warrior nodded. “Sure. No point in waiting around.”

“Wait!” Eiwin held her back. “Are you sure, Miss Valt? I know you might not think the injury is anything serious, but blows to the head can’t be overlooked, even in cultivators.”

Red could understand her worry. A hit to the head from tornado propelled rock would have probably killed any normal person, and he doubted even someone like Narcha could ignore it.

Narcha shook her head in annoyance. “I already told you I’m fine. Besides, we don’t have time to wait, do we? We have to catch up with those bastards!”

Eiwin sighed. “Fine. Just don’t push yourself if you feel anything is wrong.”

Soon, the group was walking through the dark corridor, with Reinhart leading the way. They had decided not to use torches or other light sources here due to the fact the lightning from outside pouring through the crack in the building provided some illumination, and also out of an abundance of caution.

Red half expected them to be walking through this corridor for a long while, considering the way the creator of this place seemed to enjoy designing his challenges. To his surprise, though, that didn’t happen.

Instead, they came upon another room in less than a minute. This chamber was extremely long, almost like a corridor of its own. It was around 30 meters wide, and hundreds of meters long, possibly even longer than that, as Red couldn’t see the other end of the wall due to the large amount of rocks in his way.

Pillars lined up the side of the room, which had also fallen in a state of ruin, much like the rest of the building. What caught the group’s attention, though, was something else.

There was a monster in their way. A giant lizard resting by one of the pillars.

‘No, it’s not just one.’

There were many of them, spread throughout the long room. In fact, the more Red looked around, the more monsters he spotted, hidden in crevices and behind cover.

Ten seconds later, and the boy had spotted dozens of them.

And all of them, without exception, were staying eerily still.