It was a loud thud that spelled the doom of poor Jack.
It was all so sudden, no indication what so ever and yet here it was the expeditions first casualty.
"WE NEED MEDICS URGENTLY!"
Stacy shouted into the camp, even knowing that it was already too late.
Hurriedly a few people arrived by her side including the one who was leading this whole operation Gabriel.
"What happened?"
"I... don't know... we were talking and then he suddenly just... died."
As they were talking some of the medics were checking on his condition and their fears came to fruition.
He was dead. His body showing no signs of anything that could have caused it.
"Truly interesting... what has killed him?"
Gabriel asked the question, more preoccupied with the cause than with the mourning of this soldier.
"You mentioned that you were talking when it happened. What was it about?"
Stacy was unsure if the answer would satisfy Gabriel, but even she found their conversation odd so she didn't hold back.
"We were just discussing how long we've been here for... and our answers greatly differed."
Gabriel just stood there waiting for Stacy to finish speaking before commenting on it.
"I said that I thought we've been here for about a day, while he suggested it's only been around three hours. He also wondered why the others were so tired... it was... strange."
Gabrield thought for a moment before coming up with his own possible answer.
"Could he have just pushed himself too far without his own knowledge and died from exhaustion... still his answer of three hours was indeed strange as even I feel like we've been here for atleast a two or three days."
That was when Gabriel turned towards a few of the men on his side and asked a question.
"And you three how long do you think we've been here for."
The coming aswers were varied.
"Three days."
"Around two days."
"... four days..."
The answers that came in were greatly varied, but they were still more realistic than the estimate Jack gave prior to his death.
"...hmm for now we'll consider it a death from exhaustion, still I want everyone to ask around camp to see if anyone else with such an abnormaly different perception of time is present.
As Gabriel said this the men around began talking and soon the whole camp knew what went down.
Even those that were supposed to be resting were now awake thanks to Stacy's shouts for a medic.
The minutes passed, some went back to sleep while others stayed awake, but then something strange happened.
"Sir, we've found someone who reports similar symptoms."
In the silence of the Void the voice carried through the crowd eventually reaching Stacy's ears.
'They found someone else?'
Hearing this Stacy made her way towards where Gabriel was.
"Sir, is something wrong with me?"
The anxious voice became clear as she approached.
"I didn't realize that we've been going for so long I thought it has only been a couple of hours... am I gonna die?"
The man asked clearly scared for his life.
"No, we'll make sure you stay fine don't worry."
Gabriel came to reassure the scared man.
"Oh thank god, if it's you I'll believe i–"
*thud*
The man suddenly fell to the ground hitting the floor hard.
Seeing this Gabriel quickly rushed to check on his condition, but it seemed there was nothing to be done. His pulse was just gone.
It was as if his soul was just suddenly removed from him, leaving behind only an empty vessel of flesh and blood without any life in it.
"...What... happened?"
Gabriel remarked, now more concerned than before. This clearly wasn't just an isolated case.
"Okay people we are getting out of here!"
Gabriel was quick to action.
Some monster were not things that would have made him act like this, but an unknown enemy that could kill them without any chance of fighting back was something he couldn't afford messing with.
"EVERYONE I'M SETTING UP THE TELEPORTATION DEVICE I'M GONNA NEED YOU ALL TO PROTECT ME!"
His voice was heard throughout the whole camp, reaching even those who were still out of the loop till now.
Soon everyone was in gear, ready for battle or for anything else that may happen while Gabriel was setting up the device.
Suddenly a loud noise erupted from the middle of the camp, the sound was similar to something like a running engine, but amplified a thousand fold.
It was really loud.
This was the teleportation device being set up by Gabriel.
Soon as the noise erupted plenty of other sounds began surfacing from all directions.
The horde has been alerted.
The first to arrive were the small creatures they encountered prior.
The group quickly engaged these enemies, but as half of the group lacked rest their actions were more sluggish than before.
Still, these enemies were easy to deal with, but what came next was something much less manageable.
The next set of monsters seemed to be around the size of entire vehicles and their armor seemed to be tough way harder to cut through.
This was when actual casualties began showing up.
At first it was the lower ranked front line tanks who lacked rest.
Their loss was felt, but the onslaught didn't let people mourn as the monsters just kept on coming.
The biggest of the problems was that Gabriel the strongest of the group wasn't there to help as he was busy setting up the teleportation device.
As the one with the highest rank he was by far the person who would be able to load the device the quickest.
Still whether this was better than if he just helped with the fight was difficult to tell.
As these large monsters kept on pushing the signs of fatigue were starting to show on all the others too.
This was when even Richard the highest ranked individual of Stacy's team began slowing down noticeably.
'I don't know how long they can hold on.'
Stacy being the weakest had one of the lowest participation rates of everyone around.
Still this didn't mean that she wasn't holding her own.
'Blade of Light.'
Stacy used her core skill Blade of Light which allowed her to amplify her own sword strength or even create swords of light which she could send flying at her enemies allowing her to assume a mage like role.
Everyone was fighting hard when suddenly, the enemies stopped coming.
This gave the group some time to recollect themselves and look around at the damage that's been done.
And what they saw was truly devestating.
Of the hundred and sixty-one people that were here at the start of the expedition twenty were missing.
They have lost twenty people during the extraction process.
And the portal still hasn't finished forming.
But then something happened as suddenly absolute silent descended upon where they stood.
The loud sounds the device was making just moments prior were nowhere to be heard.
"What happened?"
Many wondered with some even saying it out loud.
All looked towards where Gabriel was all asking the same question.
"...The portal... failed."
Gabriel said outloud in disbelief.
'Why did it... fail?'
That's probably what he thought.
"...what... do you mean... it failed?"
Some were quick to ask.
"I don't know... while trying to connect to the outside it simply... couldn't."
Gabriel said even he himself unsure of what to make of the situation.
"So what now?"
"We move."
Gabriel said with the full confidence of a leader.
"Yes, while not optimal we'll try getting out of the Void on foot, we have no other choice."
All the people knew that this meant that their chance of survival just became even lower than it was before, but left with no other choice they all readily agreed.
"Don't worry though, next time I'll be fighting with you."
This statement reassured the people of the expedition a tiny bit, helping them calm down a little.
"We have to start moving now. We've made a lot of noise this place can't be considered safe."
As such the camp was quickly boarded and they began moving once again, this time trying to not go deeper, but instead upwards.
...
Maybe a few hours passed. Most were still walking while those that have exhausted themselves beyond their capabilities rested on the carriages.
As they moved no one talked, they just moved trying to cover as much ground as they could.
Yet a strange feeling arose in some of the people, the feeling that they were walking in place.
No saying that they were walking in place felt wrong as at times Stacy could swear that they were actually going lower into the Void.
With the way the Void worked most knew it was difficult to find you way around, but who would have thought it would be hard to tell if they were even going up or down.
As the hours passed the group became more and more tired and no matter how much they wanted to avoid it, it became neccesary to set up camp once more.
"Okay everyone, we'll be setting up camp here. This time it's fine for more people to rest since I believe a lot of us need some rest."
The group was surprised by such leniency, but instead of protesting they simply agreed and went ahead to rest.