“In a rhombus formation,” Nangnang said. Chi-Woo stood on Shadia’s left, while Snowy Mountain moved to the right. Nangnang then took point with Hawa falling to the back. Chi-Woo looked around his surroundings.

It was red. Not exaggerating one bit, the whole world was simply crimson: from the entrance in front of him to the soil that made up the ground, everything in his vision radiated a reddish light, like they had been doused with blood. The only other color was the night sky. It was completely black without a star in sight. And was it just his imagination, or did it look like the bloody insides of a monster’s mouth, stretched wide open to swallow the expedition team?

Sniff, sniff. Nangnang pushed his nose to the ground and smelled it. “It’s different,” he said, stroking his nose with his cat paw and twisting his face.

“The soil here is completely different from that of the outside. It’s not just the makeup of the minerals… It’s most likely soil belonging to a different planet, and it appears that it has gone through considerable erosion.”

“That would make sense since centuries have passed since that incident. We should consider this place part of an entirely different world one way or another,” Shadia responded and then looked behind her anxiously. “Would we even be able to return…?”

They couldn’t see anything from where they had come from. As if obscured by a curtain, the area was cloudy and hazy.

“I don’t have a good feeling about...