To most of them, Clifford had only asked the most natural question possible.
Everyone else had already explained what they went through before regrouping. Zephyr and Lennox had shared their side. Jimmy and Henry had done the same. Even Gavalich had spoken about what happened on their journey through the mist.
But Isla had stayed mostly quiet through all of it.
He barely explained anything about himself. The only thing everyone knew was that he had suddenly appeared during Zephyr and Lennox's story.
Then there was the obvious issue.
One of their members was missing. Alex.
So naturally, Clifford asking about him wasn't strange at all. If anything, it was expected.
Yet for some reason, Isla looked genuinely irritated by the question. His expression darkened immediately, and the atmosphere around the group shifted.
"Fine!" Isla snapped, sounding like someone being forced to revisit something annoying.
"Since you're suddenly so interested in what happened to Alex," he added coldly.
"The weakling couldn't even survive sixty seconds after entering the tournament," Isla said. "He probably got himself killed by one of the Anakim we ran into."
The group stayed quiet after hearing that.
There wasn't much shock on their faces. Most of them had already guessed something bad had happened the moment they noticed Alex wasn't with them. In a tournament like this, disappearing usually only meant one thing.
Still, Clifford didn't react emotionally. His face remained calm as always.
"Did you actually see him die?" Clifford asked.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Or did you personally assume the Anakim that killed him?"
"What with all these questions?" Isla burst out angrily.
"You probably have never even fought an Anakim before," he continued.
"I literally saw Alex get blasted into the air by one of them. Even with my ring, I wouldn't survive a hit like that, so how exactly did you expect Alex to survive something like it?!" Isla's voice rose sharply.
"And even if by some miracle he survived, how do you expect the tournament to keep him inside with the condition his body would be in afterward?" he added.
The street fell quiet again after that.
This time, Clifford didn't respond immediately. He simply stepped back slightly. As much as he disliked assumptions, Isla's explanation made logical sense. There wasn't really anything there he could directly argue against.
Still, a faint frown slowly formed on Clifford's face.
For just a brief second, he turned his head toward a particular direction deep within the fog-covered city.
'Are my senses wrong?' Clifford wondered silently.
'Did I pick up the wrong energy signature and mistake it for Alex's?'
For the first time in a while, he genuinely wasn't sure. And because of that uncertainty, he decided not to mention it to the others yet. No point creating false hope in a place like this. That kind of thing got people killed fast.
---
Meanwhile, Clifford's senses were not wrong at all.
At that exact moment, after finally stepping out from the last line of thick trees surrounding the area, Alex came into view.
Standing on slightly elevated ground, Alex looked ahead at the massive blanket of fog gathered in front of him. Beyond that thick mist was the Ruined City.
'The journey here was surprisingly quiet,' Alex thought while narrowing his eyes at the scene ahead.
'But with the way this place looks... there is no way the inside is going to stay uneventful.'
The Ruined City was surrounded by a massive forest that stretched far into the distance. Thick trees formed a natural wall around the area, making the city itself feel isolated from the rest of Ztheu.
And right above the ruins, the heavy fog hung low like something alive.
Far away, adjacent to Alex's position, a massive mountain stood tall against the sky. The peak stretched high above the clouds, and even from this distance, patches of snow and ice could still be seen clinging to its surface.
Meanwhile, directly ahead of him was the Ruined City itself.
Before even reaching the fog-covered area surrounding the city, there was a wide wasteland stretching between the forest and the city gates. The ground looked scorched black, as if fire had once swept across the entire place. Dead grass barely stood upright across the cracked earth.
But the burnt land wasn't the only thing that made the area look abandoned.
Damaged cars, broken bikes, and pieces of wreckage were scattered everywhere carelessly across the wasteland. Some vehicles were overturned. Others looked crushed flat from heavy impacts.
'Yeah... there is obviously a reason they call this place Ruined City,' Alex thought.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he carefully scanned the surroundings. A faint glow flickered deep within his pupils as he activated his Spiritual Eyes.
The world around him instantly became clearer.
Energy signatures appeared within his vision one after another.
'reaching the city might actually be difficult now,' Alex thought.
From the very start, he already suspected the wasteland would be the perfect ambush zone. Anyone trying to cross it would be completely exposed in the open with almost nowhere to hide.
And unfortunately, his suspicion was right.
Using his Spiritual Eyes, Alex could clearly see several glowing figures hiding across different positions within the wasteland. Some were concealed behind wrecked vehicles, while others hid inside collapsed debris or shallow trenches in the dark ground.
'From what I can tell... there are four different clans spread across this place,' Alex analyzed silently.
'One of them even still has all four members together.'
Alex slowly exhaled.
For a lone participant like him, this kind of situation was dangerous. To organized groups, someone isolated was basically free points walking into their territory.
But despite that, Alex's objective hadn't changed.
'I need to get to the exit point,' he thought while tightening his grip slightly.
'That is the only way I am leaving this tournament.'
Taking another careful look at the wasteland ahead, Alex quietly prepared himself for whatever was waiting inside the Ruined City.
--3
During his journey toward the Ruined City, Alex's Qi had already mostly recovered.
His condition still wasn't good though. His clothes were barely hanging onto his body, and burns still covered parts of his skin.
But at the very least, the wounds were no longer bleeding. Slowly, his body was already beginning to repair the damaged flesh.
Alex took a slow breath and gathered power into his legs.
"Buster!"
Boom!
The ground exploded beneath him as Alex launched himself forward at high speed. Dark dust blasted behind him while his body shot across the wasteland like a bullet.
He needed momentum. Speed. Anything to cross the exposed area before the hidden clans decided to move.
'Fuck... I know the distance isn't actually that far,' Alex thought while gritting his teeth.
'But in a situation like this, everything suddenly feels farther than it should.'
Even while moving at full speed, the Ruined City still looked distant through the fog and scorched land ahead.
Then suddenly...
Buzzz!
Alex's eyes widened slightly.
He heard a sharp buzzing sound behind him, followed almost instantly by rising heat.
Someone attacked.
The moment the warning hit his senses, Alex immediately abandoned the idea of continuing forward. Instead, he forcefully planted one foot into the ground and twisted sideways.
"Buster!"
Boom!
Alex blasted himself sideways just in time.
A massive fireball tore through the exact spot he had occupied less than a second earlier. The attack shot past him and crashed farther ahead into the wasteland.
Boom!
The explosion erupted violently, throwing scorched dirt and broken debris high into the air. Flames spread briefly across the dead ground before quickly dying out.
Alex rolled across the ground several times, skidding over the broken wasteland before he forced his body to a stop. Dust clung to his skin. Pain still lingered, but his Qi circulation had already stabilized enough for movement.
He pushed himself up in one motion.
Then he looked up.
Above him, a battle was already unfolding in the sky.
A man hovered mid-air, supported by bursts of blazing fire erupting from his palms. He wore oversized red pants that flapped violently in the wind. His hair burned a deep fiery red, almost like it was lit from within. Every time he released fire from his hands, it pushed against the air like invisible wings, keeping him suspended.
He wasn't alone.
Two more figures appeared beside him.
Both were female. Both were wrapped in fire from head to toe, like living flames given shape. They wore similar outfits, red oversized pants paired with black crop tops covering their upper bodies. The fire didn't burn their clothes. It flowed around them like armor.
The next moment, all three of them dropped.
They shot downward at the same time, turning into blazing streaks. From a distance, they looked like falling meteors aimed directly at the wasteland.
Alex's eyes sharpened.
He clenched his fist.
Then threw it forward.
The male fighter landed first.
His fist met Alex's punch mid-air.
Boom!
Fire erupted on impact.
The explosion blasted outward, carving a burning trail through the wasteland. The force ripped through the air and stretched straight toward the Ruined City before fading into the fog like it was swallowed whole.
Silence returned for a brief moment.
Then, at the exact spot where the explosion had faded, two figures stepped forward.
A man and a woman. Both wearing full metallic suits that covered their entire bodies, reflecting the dull light of the wasteland. Their armor moved smoothly, almost alive, as they walked.
The man glanced at the fading smoke.
"I was going to take that boy down before those three jumped in," he said coldly.
The woman beside him gave a small shrug.
"Yeah, whatever," she replied without interest.
Her gaze shifted toward the Ruined City ahead.
"The system says there's a high probability of danger inside," she said. Then her tone hardened slightly. "But at this point, we should stop guessing and just go in."
She tilted her head slightly, watching the fog swallow the ruins.
"Besides... I have a feeling Rhyssa and Eric are already increasing their kill count."
The two stood in silence for a moment.
Then she added one final line.
"Let's move."
These were Maelis Valdeiro and Caelan Valdeiro. Members of the Synapse Circle. And they were about to enter the Ruined City.