They made camp in a hollow between stones twisted with ivy and pale roots. The air felt stale. Too still. The trees above had not rustled in hours.
Lybid sat facing Shchek, her eyes narrow, hand pressed to the dirt.
"You led us out," she said. "But you… What happened?."
Shchek shook head slowly. "I felt something calling me."
"What is it?" Methodius demanded. "What speaks to you?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly, hiding the truth.
"That's not comfort," Methodius growled. He rose, cross in one hand, the Bible in the other. "Step away from him."
"Don't," Lybid warned.
But Methodius had already begun the rite. He spoke the old Latin prayers, voice firm, unwavering. He raised the cross, drew the circle in the dirt.
Shchek sat still.
The air trembled.
And then—
Nothing.
No light. No scream. No reaction. Not even the wind stirred.
Methodius lowered the book.
"It's not a demon," he said, shaken. "Or if it is, it's beyond our rites."
Lybid stared at Shchek, her voice calm. "If he wanted to harm us, he'd do it long ago. Moreover don't forget we made an oath."
Shchek nodded once.
The fire crackled. No one said anything for a while.
Eventually, Kyi handed Shchek a waterskin.
"We come from different backgrounds, but we are here together. As a team, as a family fighting evil."
Yurko didn't speak to him. Maksym watched him like a wolf.
They rested for a few hours, but none slept deeply. It was Methodius who noticed it first, when he awoke to check the sky.
"No dawn," he said.
The others stirred.
He pointed.
The sky above was not dark in the way of midnight, nor red in the way of sunrise. It was simply… black. Still. No moon. No stars. No sun.
As if the concept of time had ended.
"We've passed into the veil," Lybid whispered. "The part of the forest where day never comes."
"How do we keep moving if there's no time?" Yurko asked.
"We follow the heartbeat," Shchek said.
And they did.
Deeper into endless night.
Where the world no longer obeyed the rules of men.