Immortal Anger

"VOLUNTARY EXILE !"

The moment Dante shouted those words, a greenish glow enveloped the entire group — Dante, Samuel, Helydia, Relia, Kai, Canon, and even the beast-ferret. The cubic object he held in his hands began to shine intensely.

An instant later, the world tilted.

They were flung elsewhere.

When their feet touched the ground again, they found themselves in a vast plain of tall, reddish grass. in the distance there were trees with red leaves. The sky was orange-pink, the air was cooler, crisper. The shift in temperature was felt immediately on their skin.

The beast-ferret, which had been sprinting just before the teleportation, suddenly slowed its pace, clearly confused.

Everyone looked around at each other.

"What just happened?" Helydia shouted, her eyes wide.

Canon, hand on his still-throbbing head from his fight with Seyra, winced and groaned:

"Hey, blondie… look at your thing."

Everyone turned toward Dante.

The green cube in his hand was no longer glowing. It was cracked all over, and fragments were already falling off as gray dust, scattering in the grass with the wind. Within seconds, it had completely vanished.

Dante sat up slightly on his seat, wiped his palm, and answered calmly:

"I used one of my oldest magical artifacts… the Exile Cube. It teleports us anywhere on the planet with a specific phrase. But the problem," he said, glancing toward the red horizon,

"...is that the location is completely random."

Canon raised his voice, pointing a finger at him:

"What? What do you mean random? You're telling me we're lost, stranded somewhere on this damn planet!?"

He turned to Samuel.

"Say something, for fuck's sake!"

Samuel, who had just dismounted from the beast-ferret, still shirtless, responded in a calm tone, locking eyes with Canon:

"Back off. He did the right thing. We were surrounded, cornered, seconds away from dying. We didn't have a choice."

He gestured for Kai to come over.

"Kai, come here."

As everyone tried to collect themselves, Helydia shot a sideways glance at Relia. Her gaze was dark, wary. She crossed her arms and furrowed her brow. She still didn't trust her.

Kai stepped up to Samuel and unfastened a small bag tied to the mount's saddle. He pulled out a gray shirt and handed it over.

"Explain everything to me, Kai."

Samuel slipped on the shirt, wiped the sweat from his brow, and waited for the explanation.