Chapter 388: Someone Secretly Poisoned Him!

“An… ant-person?”

Pandora murmured.

So this was what she had been chasing just now.

Without bothering to settle on what this anomaly should be called, Pandora gave a soft shake of her head.

Once she confirmed what it actually was, she seemed to lose interest entirely. She turned back around, her gaze shifting toward the support squad members.

In those indifferent eyes, there wasn’t even a trace of someone in the middle of a fight.

As for the Killer Ant behind her—

Not that Pandora made any visible move.

The surrounding shadows simply rose in an instant.

The darkness lurking in the wall corners, as though awakened by some unseen will, surged upward, twisting and condensing into a terrifying scythe.

That scythe stood as tall as two men. Its blade was black as ink, its edges gleaming with a faint, cold light, as if capable of slicing through light itself.

It took only a moment.

“Shk—”

A soft sound.

Like silk being torn.

The Killer Ant was split cleanly in two.

From the top of its head down through its abdomen, right along the center of its body, it was divided perfectly in half.

Translucent fluids gushed from the cross-section. The broken edges of its chitin armor were smooth as mirrors.

With nothing more than Rank-2 peak strength, the Killer Ant hadn’t possessed even a sliver of power to resist.

In Pandora’s hands, it truly was nothing but an insignificant ant, one she could crush at will.

The only reason it had kept her chasing for a while was entirely because Pandora hadn’t been paying it any real attention. Had she actually made it her primary focus, she would have caught it long ago.

And as for why she hadn’t been particularly concerned—

“Tell me. What exactly happened to you all?”

Pandora’s gaze settled on the support squad members.

Her tone was flat, as though she were asking about the day’s work progress.

The group stared at the Killer Ant—now a corpse on the ground, split in two—and at its legs still twitching faintly…

Only then did it truly sink in—

The person before them was not a squad member, but a Rank-3 master.

And compared to a year ago, Lady Pandora’s strength had clearly grown considerably.

Killing an ordinary Rank-2 anomaly had become even more effortless for her—far easier than they had ever imagined.

That ease was genuine… indifference.

Swallowing hard, the three exchanged glances, still visibly shaken.

Jack silently stepped forward, about to explain.

His mouth was already open, the first word on the tip of his tongue.

But out of the corner of his eye, he once again caught sight of the lone head lying on the ground.

The squad leader’s face was turned to one side, half buried in dust. Those wide-open eyes still faced the direction Jack had been standing moments before.

The gaze was vacant, yet it seemed to still be trying to say something.

Even if the squad leader’s death could, to some degree, be attributed to his own obstinacy—his insistence on leaving the mist, his refusal to heed their counsel, his stepping out beyond the gray-white fog without a backward glance—

Even so, he shouldn’t have been treated like this after death.

He shouldn’t have been tossed around like a ball, left to lie in the dust with no one to care.

With a solemn expression, Jack bent down and carefully gathered up the squad leader’s head.

His movements were gentle, like he was lifting something precious.

He wiped away the dirt and dust, then dug through his pack for a clean cloth and wrapped the head securely.

The cloth was a spare bandage—one he had originally saved for himself.

Finally, he cradled the wrapped head in his arms.

The weight was both far lighter and far heavier than he had imagined.

Seeing this, Pandora didn’t rush him.

She merely waited in silence, her gaze resting on the cloth that wrapped the squad leader’s head.

Her eyes showed no visible emotion.

Still, when Jack finally lifted his head and met her gaze, she gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Only once Jack had finished did she speak, her tone flat:

“Your squad leader—why wasn’t he moving with you?”

“And just now, from what I saw, his death… seemed to surprise you as well?”

“It’s like this, Ma’am…”

Jack drew a deep breath, swallowing the bitterness rising in his throat, and briefly recounted the argument they’d had with the squad leader.

From the squad leader’s abnormal state after waking, to his insistence on evacuating, to the three of them refusing to follow, to the squad leader stepping out of the mist alone…

Every detail was remembered clearly, as though carved into his mind.

They hadn’t expected an anomaly like that to exist beyond the mist either.

Although the Killer Ant only possessed Rank-2 peak strength, under normal circumstances, the squad leader’s abilities should have been enough to keep him from dying to an anomaly of that level.

The squad leader was also at the peak of Rank-2, and his combat experience was extensive.

At full strength, facing a Rank-2 peak Killer Ant head-on shouldn’t have posed any problem. Even taking a step back, even if he couldn’t win, he should at least have been able to retreat intact.

But…

They were now practically half-crippled, and the squad leader had only just recovered from his coma.

In that state, his reactions were half a beat too slow. His mutated limbs might not even have had time to fully manifest. It hardly counted as “normal circumstances.”

If he died, it could only be chalked up to terrible luck.

Of course, another major factor was the squad leader acting alone.

If the four of them had stayed together, even a Rank-2 peak Killer Ant would have had no reason to be able to take one of them down…

With their combat experience and coordination, even half-crippled, they shouldn’t have been so easily picked off by an anomaly.

Four people fighting a single ant—how could they possibly lose?

And yet, somehow, they had.

“Hmm, so… a death caused by internal conflict?”

Pandora’s tone was level, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

“…Yes.”

Though it was hard to admit, Jack forced out those two words with difficulty.

Those two words were heavier and sharper than he’d expected, like barbs raking through him, leaving every fiber of his being wound tight.

He had always felt guilty about the squad leader.

If he had followed him back then, perhaps…

Perhaps what?

Perhaps he would have died too?

Or perhaps he could have pulled the squad leader back?

Jack didn’t know.

But he did know this: he hadn’t followed.

That fact weighed heavier than anything else.

“What’s with the ‘yes’? I wasn’t actually asking you just now.”

Pandora’s voice was cold, cutting off his self-reproach.

Her tone seemed to say: I have no interest in your guilt. Don’t waste my time.

“What I mean is—you’ve got it wrong. This death wasn’t caused by internal conflict. Didn’t any of you notice something was off about your squad leader?”

Jack’s head snapped up, and he stared at Pandora in bewilderment.

What did she mean?

Not internal conflict?

Something off about the squad leader…?

Of course he knew the squad leader had been off. After waking, his mental state had been abnormal—sometimes lucid, sometimes confused, his words disconnected and rambling…

But wasn’t that because of the brain damage?

Yet Pandora had, at some point without him noticing, already walked right up to him—or rather, to the cloth-wrapped head of the squad leader.