Reincarnated with the Country System-Chapter 259: The Silent Forest Part I

They descended into the seventh floor. It was like stepping into the belly of a dead god.

A vast woodland stretched in every direction, its trees frozen mid-scream, as though caught in agony at the moment of death. Their bark was grey stone, their branches twisted into clawed fingers reaching toward a sky of eternal dusk. There was no sun here—only the faint, eerie glow of bioluminescent moss clinging to trunks and rocks, painting everything in ghostly green hues. The air was thick with stillness. No wind. No birds. Just the crunchless silence of ash beneath their boots.

The ash layer was shallow but shifty, like walking on powdered glass. Every step displaced it with a soft whisper, immediately lost in the oppressive quiet.

Raihan raised a fist, halting his paladins. His blue eyes, sharp as a blade's edge, scanned the gloom.

"This place is cursed," he murmured. "Stay sharp."

Behind him, Kain and his Exo Knights fanned out, their armored boots sinking slightly into the spongy earth. Squish...squelch. The Holy Empire's warriors had taken point. Kain didn't mind letting them lead.

Let them take the first hits.

Then—

SCREEEEAAAM!

Something slammed into the forward line. A paladin went flying back, gasping before vanishing into the darkness between trees. Another screamed as a gash opened across his armor—no attacker visible. The ISSD operatives opened fire instinctively, spraying the forest with magitek plasma rounds and guided flechettes.

"CONTACT!" Kain barked, his neural link instantly flooding his HUD with threat markers—none of which appeared.

The forest erupted into chaos.

THUMP. RIIIIIIP. FWASH!

Raihan's forces called upon divine blessings, igniting swords with blue fire and casting sanctified barriers. But the creatures didn't stop. Blades slashed empty air. The holy warriors were being overwhelmed.

Invisible claws raked through the Holy Empire's ranks. Magi-knights swung their glowing blades—WHUMMM! FSSSHH!—at empty air. Arrows of holy light—ZING! ZING!—lanced into the darkness, illuminating nothing.

"They're invisible," spat Ser Brannic, his sword dripping with something black and oily. Drip...drip...

Raihan didn't flinch. "Elira—barrier!"

SHTOOM!

Sister Elira slammed her staff into the ground. A dome of blue light flared around them—VWHUMMMMM!—just as something slammed into it—BOOM!—with enough force to crack the earth beneath their feet.

Kain watched, coldly analytical. His Exo Knights held fire, disciplined. Then he noticed it—

The attacks weren't random.

Every time a paladin shouted—AHHH!—every time a spell detonated—BOOM! WHUMP!—the creatures reacted. They struck where the noise was loudest.

Kain reviewing data.

Infrared—nothing.

Thermal—negative.

Visual—obscured.

Audio—SPIKING. PING. PING. PING.

And then it clicked.

He pulled up a replay of an ISSD soldier's bodycam. As the soldier turned, there was a brief, high-pitched sound—CRRRTCH—his foot grinding ash. A second later—THWACK!—he was hit.

"They're hunting by sound."

"They're blind," Kain muttered. "But they can hear."

He patched into squad-wide comms. "Everyone! They're audio-reactive. They strike by sound. Reduce all emissions. Ghost Mode! Now."

The Exo-Knights obeyed. Ghost Mode—an experimental silence protocol designed to suppress all mechanical sounds.

Across the battlefield, Exo Knights flickered as their suits activated dampeners. Whrrr...

Bootsteps silenced. Breath muffled. Even the hum of their plasma coils—HMMMmmmm...—stilled.

The creatures hesitated.

Raihan saw it too. The moment the Bernard forces went silent, the attacks shifted—focusing entirely on his people.

His jaw tightened.

Then, without hesitation, he reached into his cloak and pulled forth a small, glowing orb—a Holy Sigil of Revelation, a relic of immense power.

Sister Elira's eyes widened. "My lord—!"

He crushed it in his fist. CRACK!

FOOOOOOM!

Light exploded. A shockwave of divine radiance tore through the forest—WHUMMMMM! FWWWASH!—searing the fog away. For one blinding second, the creatures were visible—twisted, skeletal things with too many limbs, their flesh translucent like smoked glass. They shrieked—SKREEEEEEEEE!—recoiling from the light.

"NOW!" Kain roared.

BRRRRRT! FWASH! TCHK-TCHK!

Exo Knights opened fire. Plasma bolts and railgun spikes tore through the revealed horrors. The Holy Empire's warriors charged—CLANG! SHING! WHAM!—swords singing with holy fury.

A creature lunged at Kain, its maw gaping. SNARRRRR! He sidestepped, grabbed its elongated skull—CRACK!—and slammed it into the ground—BOOM! His powered gauntlet clenched—CRRRNCH.

"Stop wasting ammo!" he snapped at his men. "Aim for the joints!"

Across the field, Raihan fought like a man possessed. His greatsword cleaved through two abominations—SWOOSH! SLASH!—their ichor sizzling—TSSSS!—where the blessed steel touched them.

"You knew," Kain transmitted to him over the open channel, accusation sharp in his tone.

Raihan didn't deny it. "We suspected."

"And you didn't warn us?"

"You would not have listened."

Kain's grip on his rifle tightened. CLACK.

Damn zealots.

The battle raged. The Holy Empire bore the brunt of the assault, their numbers dwindling. A young paladin—barely more than a boy—fell, THWUP! his throat torn out. Another screamed—AAAAAGH!—as a creature burrowed into his armor—CRRRNCH!—ripping him apart from the inside.

Kain's Exo Knights suffered fewer losses, but not none. One soldier was dragged into the fog—SKKKRRRTT!—his last transmission a garbled scream. Another took a claw—THWACK!—through the visor.

And still, the creatures kept coming.

Raihan wiped blood from his brow—smear—breathing hard. "We cannot hold here."

Kain ejected a spent plasma cartridge. CHINK. "No shit."

"We need to push forward. The rift is near."

"You're asking us to march deeper into this hell?"

Raihan met his gaze, unflinching. "I am telling you that if we do not seal it, this will be the fate of your empire next."

Silence.

Then Kain snarled and reloaded. CHAK-KLAK. "Fine. But your people take point again."

Raihan nodded once. "As you wish."

♦♦♦---------------------★★★

The creatures inhabiting the seventh floor are not merely invisible; they exist in a state that defies conventional detection methods. Their partial phasing into another dimension renders them imperceptible to standard visual, infrared, and thermal imaging technologies. This phenomenon is akin to certain magical beings in fantasy lore, such as undead entities, which emit no heat and thus remain nearly invisible to infravision unless specific conditions reveal them .

Moreover, these creatures have evolved or been altered to hunt primarily through auditory cues. Their heightened sensitivity to sound allows them to detect and target prey based on noise, a trait reminiscent of the alien entities depicted in A Quiet Place, which are drawn to the slightest sounds .

Only through the use of powerful relics, like the Holy Sigil of Revelation, can their forms be temporarily unveiled, providing a fleeting opportunity to counter their assaults.