Red woke up earlier than he had yesterday. The sun was still up, and the boy was able to find Narcha taking guard not too far from him. He decided to approach her.

"You can go to sleep if you want." Red spoke.

"What, and risk being ambushed?" the woman shook her head. "No offense, kid, but I trust my own eyes better."

Considering she had opened her Five Senses Vein, the youth obviously didn't blame her.

"Should we continue traveling, then?" he suggested.

"Sure." Narcha accepted his suggestion. "I'm just worried that we might stumble on this zombie if we're too fast."

"We've been in the same place for hours. Shouldn't it be very far ahead already?"

"Zombies are known for being particularly slow travelers." the warrior explained. "The only time they get energetic is when food is in front of them."

"By food, you mean..."

"Flesh. Much more so human flesh."

"...But it didn't eat any of the bandits." Red frowned.

"Indeed, just like that other monster." she declared with a solemn tone. "There's something weird going on here, kid."

The youth had obviously arrived at the same conclusion the night before. Except, unlike Narcha, he had a guess as to what the cause was.

"You told me there are plenty of bandits in the region." Red replied. "With some luck, the zombie will get tied up with them and let us by with no fight."

"That would be a comforting thought if it wasn't for the fact that every being it kills is a new potential zombie." the warrior shook her head. "It would be good if we could kill it before an undead outbreak spreads to the region."

"We're not prepared for that kind of fight." the boy commented.

'And that is not my priority right now.'

Red left the rest of that sentence unspoken.

"You're right, but we might have no choice." Narcha laughed. "Anyways, let's keep moving, shall we?"

The youth agreed with her, and after he was done picking up his equipment, they began to move again.

...

It didn't take long, though, for Red to notice a curiosity along their path.

"There are a lot of recent tracks around here." the youth pointed out.

"Well, bandits move around this region a lot." Narcha replied.

"That's not it." the boy shook his head. "Some of these early tracks were at least somewhat disguised. These people didn't even bother with it."

"Then you mean..." the woman frowned.

"They were in a hurry." Red nodded. "Maybe they saw the zombie."

"There are no signs of battle, though." even Narcha could tell that much. "If the zombie saw them, it would definitely attack."

"Maybe it was distracted with something else." the boy suggested.

"That's..." she trailed off. "Not that absurd, now that I think about it. It even ignored fresh corpses in front of it, so there's precedent for its weird behavior."

As they continued to search the area, Red soon came across another abnormality. The youth crouched down and examined a patch of grass.

"These plants are all dead," he pointed out.

In fact, it wasn't just a single patch. These dead plants weren't immediately noticeable amidst the leaf litter. However, as the boy continued to examine it, he found a pattern. A mostly straight line of dead plants leading to the south.

"Is this caused by the zombie?" Red asked.

"From what I understand, it should be." Narcha nodded. "Technically, undead emit death energy, and they can slowly kill any living being just by being near them. But..."

The woman frowned.

"What is it?" the boy questioned.

"It's just that from what I know, these effects take a while to happen," the warrior explained. "It depends on how much death energy an undead has. A normal zombie shouldn't cause this kind of change so quickly..."

"Could it be that it's not a zombie?" Red suggested, worried.

"I... Don't know." Narcha shook her head. "I'm not as knowledgeable as Eiwin is on this subject. But it would make sense. I don't think an average zombie could kill those bandits so easily, and this might explain its odd behavior."

"Is this cause for concern?"

"Of course it is." She laughed. "But I have never fought an undead in the past either way, zombie or not. Doesn't change much in the end."

Her nonchalant attitude didn't give Red much confidence. However, in the end, he was the one insisting on continuing on this path. The boy was aware of the risks involved already.

...

They continued moving, and the signs of tracks became more frequent. At some point, Red had counted seven different footprints, an indication of how many bandits were in the area. Eventually, night arrived, and the boy braced himself for the gaze.

The pressure on his psyche reappeared, and the youth immediately began to contend with it. For some reason, though, Red had begun to feel that opposing this force was getting easier. At first, he thought this was because of his experience in fighting with the lunar gaze. The pressure had been reduced so much over the last few days, though, that the boy figured there was another reason behind it.

'Is the gaze getting weaker?'

This was the only reasonable explanation Red could find. Of course, once his thoughts traveled in that direction, he remembered his conversation with Goulth about the undead. He looked over at Narcha.

"How's the Moon today?" He asked her.

"What?" The woman looked confused.

"Can you tell me how the Moon is today?" The boy repeated his question.

"Can't you check for yourself?" Narcha asked back.

"You have better eyes."

"I suppose that's true- No, wait! That doesn't make any sense!"

"Can you just do it?" Red insisted.

"Ugh, fine." Narcha grumbled before looking up through the canopy. "Yep, the Moon is still there."

"How bright is it?"

"A little bright."

"Would you say it's brighter than yesterday?"

"What kind of question is that?" Narcha stared back at him.

The woman was only met by the youth's emotionless gaze and silence. She sighed.

"Yeah, I suppose it's getting brighter. That's what the Moon does, isn't it?"

Red nodded in understanding. Although he had already guessed this would be the case, the confirmation still helped him. It was direct evidence that the phases of the Moon were connected to the lunar being and its gaze.

The being was at its strongest during a New Moon and was now getting weaker as the Moon got brighter - the exact opposite of an undead. This also gave Red some confidence that the absorption process wouldn't happen again any time soon.

Another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place, and now the boy was one step closer to understanding his situation. Not to mention, he also had a frame of reference for the being's strength. It would be at its weakest in 10 or so days, on a Full Moon.

If Red had the right idea, though, its strength would also climb back up as the Moon got darker. It would peak in 25 days with a New Moon, and at that point, the youth had to brace himself for the worst.

At the very least, now he had a rough guess on how long he had to prepare.

"What are you thinking about?" Narcha asked once she noticed his silence.

"It's a-"

"If you say it's a secret again, I'll just leave you to travel alone." She glared at him.

Red kept silent. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to appease the woman either, as she marched ahead at a hurried pace while cursing the boy under her breath.

...

A few hours later, Red began to notice another pattern in the footprints.

"The bandits are all headed south too." He pointed out to Narcha.

"I could've guessed that." The woman laughed. "Honestly, this is the first time in a long time I've been in the middle of such a mess. Zombies, bandits, monsters... Does that tend to happen often when you're around?"

"We haven't really met any of them, though." Red defended himself.

"You're right. Maybe you're not as much of a bad omen as I-" Narcha suddenly froze. "Get down!"

The youth instinctively followed her instructions, diving behind a tree. Nocking an arrow in his bow, the boy braced himself for an ambush, but after a few seconds, nothing happened. He looked back at Narcha, who was also hiding not far off.

The woman just shook her head and made a shush sign with her finger. Red just nodded and waited. Soon enough, he began to hear voices slowly approaching their location.

"...haven't seen it yet." A man's voice spoke. "Maybe it ran away."

"And you'd be willing to bet your life on that?" A gruff male voice replied. "Just be on the lookout for it and do as you're told."

'Bandits.'

The youth suddenly tensed up. Red didn't dare to peek past his cover.

"I mean, what are we even going to do against something like that?" Another bandit asked. "Have you seen what it did to Stoyan's group?"

"That's just because it took them by surprise." The same gruff voice replied. "Besides, we just need to trap it. Once we do, the boss can come and finish it off."

The voices continued to approach their general vicinity. Red looked over at Narcha and showed three fingers at her while tilting his head, as if to make a question. The woman shook her head and replied by showing 5 fingers.

This immediately made the boy frown.

The warrior seemed to be in thought too. She gazed at the boy while her hand grabbed onto the saber hilt strapped to her back. She smiled and tilted her head.

Red shook his head frantically at her actions.

Narcha looked disappointed. The youth came up with another plan and made a wide circling motion with his hand. His companion looked confused for a second, but eventually, realization came to her. In the end, she just nodded begrudgingly.

Red sighed in relief.

The boy tried to think about how to sneak past these bandits without getting noticed. An idea eventually came to him. The youth looked around his feet, looking for a large rock. It took him a while to find such an object in the dark, but eventually, he managed to procure a heavy stone.

Narcha watched his actions with a confused expression. Red didn't know how to explain his plan to her, so he just patted his own chest as he saw Allen doing in the past. This only made the woman more confused.

With no more hesitation, though, Red waited until the voices were closer to them. At this point, it was just a matter of time before they walked past their hiding places. However, when the boy identified their position, he threw the rock with all his strength not too far away.

The stone struck heavily against a tree, and the footsteps of the bandits all stopped.

"What was that?" One of the bandits asked with a fearful tone.

"It's the monster!" Another one yelled. "It's waiting to ambush us!"

"Shut up, you moron!" The gruff voice roared. "You there, go check what that noise was."

"Me? I don't want to die to that thing!"

"Bah, you bunch of useless cowards!" The man grumbled. "Just keep your weapons at the ready and follow me!"

Their footsteps resumed, and the bandits began to walk in the direction of the thrown rock. Once Red thought they were far enough, he looked at Narcha and nodded. That sign the woman clearly understood, and she began to carefully sneak around the trees while the boy followed behind her.

Red braced himself for the warrior to imminently give their cover away by stepping on a branch or something. However, surprisingly enough, Narcha adeptly sneaked through the trees and branches. The duo managed to leave the area without even seeing the bandits.

Perhaps Red had still been selling her short, after all.

Suddenly the sounds of screaming began to echo from the place they had just come from. Red felt his blood run cold.

"We should go."