A thin slice of space spread apart, allowing two figures to slip through. One of them was the same individual who cut open space, a nearly impossible thin blade formed of a red substance held in her hand. The other didn’t stand out except perhaps by her lack of obvious weapons, gauntlets and sturdy boots being perhaps the closest option.

“What do you think?” Chikere asked.

“I don’t see anything,” Vari admitted. “But I’m still quite suspicious.”

The two of them were looking at the Everheart system, which still had active formations. That wasn’t unexpected. They were quite aware that since the incident, people continued to enter the system. Just as before, some never left and others claimed rewards that made them think the risks worthwhile.

“I mean, it’s just one planet missing,” Chikere said. “Anyone could have done that. Nobody was monitoring it or anything. Why would we, since nothing was there?”

“Nothing except the second most toxic planet in the whole of the Scarlet Midfields, Selpeh. Quite similar to Ye’sin, which was already here.”

“Hmm,” Chikere frowned. “I would have thought I could detect a new planet in this system. But I also would have expected to sense Rahayu. Maybe they moved on.”

Vari frowned. “Everheart could be dead. It’s been nearly five decades…”

“Could be,” Chikere admitted. “But I wouldn’t say it’s likely. Then again, you only have to screw up once to die.”

“We’re gonna have to check,” Vari said. “Ye’sin might be the safest.”

“Why?” Chikere asked.

“Because I actually know the secret.”

“We’ll try that one then,” Chikere said. “Assuming we’re actually able to approach the planet we intend. Last time we were intercepted.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything to be the same,” Vari shook her head. “That was so long ago. He would have changed things up if people learned to understand it, and that was several centuries before he went inactive.”

The two of them began to fly closer. While neither of them were focused on such techniques, in empty space it was something an Augmentation cultivator could do- and both of them had reached Augmentation in their own ways.

They found they were indeed able to approach their intended planet, and since they didn’t have any particular point of landing in mind they dove through the nearest part of the toxic clouds.

“We’re going to want to land quickly,” Vari said as they began to drop. “And look for weird trees.”

“... You should have mentioned how it would infiltrate the blood,” Chikere said.

“Yeah, you’re gonna need the trees to deal with that crap.”

They landed, the haze preventing their energy senses from covering a large distance as it corroded their energy. The planet seemed mostly the same as before, sparse vegetation being a surprising feature for a place that should have been lifeless. The surface of the dirt never quite seemed to dry in most places, and Vari scooped up some of the claylike mud to rub over her body.

“We’re still going to need something else if we’re going to actually breathe,” Vari commented. Just holding their mouths closed wouldn’t be sufficient. At their cultivation they weren’t going to die rapidly, but any fighting would speed up their rate of toxin accumulation.

“So what sort of creatures live here?”

“No idea,” Vari admitted. “I wasn’t here for that long, and then I was fighting humans who showed up.”

“Watch the ground,” Chikere said.

As those words left Chikere’s mouth, the ground itself seemed to rise up- or perhaps some sort of sludge beast. Whatever it was, Vari stomped down on it- forming a wide barrier of energy beneath her foot to force it away.

The creature’s upper energy was difficult to pick out from the surroundings, feeling much like the toxins of the planet. Not that it was unexpected, for something to blend in, but it was uncanny.

The pile of goop rose up from the ground, surging over Vari. She formed a box of energy around herself to keep it at bay. Even though her defensive barriers should have been seamless, it was starting to seep through, just as the natural toxins slid through energy defenses. Vari shoved at the sides of her box, blasting the creature away, with chunks of it flying in different directions.

Only one of them continued moving, but it pulled up the ground around it to return to its former size with seemingly no effort. “Yeah, uh, I don’t know if I’m meant to fight things like this,” Vari commented.

“You just have to damage the right part,” Chikere said.

“Which is?”

“Let’s test it,” Chikere said. “... I have made a mistake. My pores are blocked for a reason.” She lowered herself into a stance with the single sword of blood she had never returned inside her. “This will have to do.”

She pushed forward, her sword slicing once, but creating a dozen cuts from different angles. The creature flowed back together with seemingly no harm.

“If it has some sort of core, it is undetectable,” Chikere commented. “Cutting doesn’t seem great.”

“I hate to say this,” Vari said. “But maybe we should run. It’s not like we gain anything from fighting this.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“I have a better idea.” Chikere cut it into pieces again, but as they began to flow back together she picked out an area and cut that away. Not just from the surrounding goop, but from space itself. She wasn’t sure if it would arrive at its intended destination of the local star, but it should at least be further away. When the goop continued to lay flat for a few moments, Chikere relaxed back into her ready stance.

Vari nodded. “That works. Now then, let’s try to find some spiky fruit before we get really bad.”

They ran into a few more bits of trouble on their way- as usual for Everheart’s favorite planets, there wasn’t a lot of time to relax. Flying above everything seemed ideal, but if they were very high up they couldn’t sense the ground- and the planet now had formations that seemed to dissuade flying. If they were planning to leave Vari was pretty sure they could get out without too much trouble, but her energy drained uncomfortably more than normal while flying.

Soon enough, they found spiky fruit. “So I just eat this?” Chikere said.

“Uh, I’m not sure about that,” Vari said, sniffing one. “This is certainly a spiky spiny thorny death fruit, but I don’t think it’s the same kind. It’s kinda different.” She frowned. “... Maybe it’s not ripe? Or overripe? Ugh, I hope they’re not out of season or our time here will be short.”

“I don’t even really get why we’re here,” Chikere admitted. “If Everheart wanted to reveal himself, he would have already.”

“I’m going to be… I have a plan,” Vari said. “I just can’t relay it to you right now.”

“Right, he could be listening,” Chikere nodded.

“Anyway,” Vari said. “We want something like this but… smaller? It might be something unrelated, I never saw the tree it came from. Or bush or whatever.”

“What sort of rewards are we expecting here?” Chikere asked. “Besides an agonizing death.”

“Usually there are treasure caches,” Vari said. “Or maybe specific challenges from Everheart’s projections. Though I hear people haven’t seen many of those lately.”

“Really? Why?”

“Perhaps they’re no longer being maintained. He seemed to have moved on from the permanent idea at some point.”

“Yeah, when we took over Xankeshan and the projections swarmed him,” Chikere said. “Hmm. Axes and spears.”

“I would have mentioned the cultivators first,” Vari said. “But I feel them too.”

“It’s not as if we were doing anything to hide it,” a woman said as the cultivators stepped out of the toxic fog, stepping into a half circle formation around a hundred meters out. There were about twenty of them total, all Integration cultivators.

Chikere furrowed her brow. “Oh, you guys are the… Dead Trees, right?”

“That’s the Forest of Death. And you would be Chikere, the grandmaster sword cultivator. You caused us quite a bit of shame when you escaped last time. It seems fortune has smiled upon us, because this time you won’t be able to escape.”

“Really?” Vari raised an eyebrow. “The lot of you seem awfully confident for how weak you all are.”

“Yes, but unlike you we have proper protections.”

“Purifying Moonflowers?” Vari asked.

“That’s right. More than a few,” the woman held one in her hand while holding a spear in the other. “But you seem to have run out.”

Chikere looked over at Vari and ‘whispered’, “Does she know we can just take those from them?”

Vari shrugged. “I don’t think they thought about it. But if they want to throw away so many Integration cultivators they can. Oh wait.” She turned towards them. “Hey, you don’t happen to have any Augmentation cultivators around, do you?”

“That won’t be necessary,” the woman said, swallowing the flower. “With your power weakened, we’ll take you out quickly.”

She covered the distance between them in an instant, along with the rest of her companions. Ten weapons swept towards Chikere, and ten towards Vari.

Chikere moved two steps forward in the same time they approached, and made a single swipe with her weapon. Ten corpses fell around her, axes and spears sundered in two.

Meanwhile, Vari caught the spears of two in her hands, her energy pushing along the weapons to wrap around the wielder’s hands so she could keep them attached as she swung them into their neighbors. She kicked the heads of axes when two others tried to come from behind, sending them tumbling into their two compatriots.

That left two with all of her limbs locked down, but she just caught their weapons in her teeth- the edge of an axe holding aside a spear. Not all of her enemies were dead in that single exchange unlike Chikere, but ten Integration cultivators of varying training weren’t worth that much.

Vari finished off her opponents in another round of attacks, throwing their allies’ weapons at those who retreated. She didn’t like using spears, but she did know how. And with enough energy, anything would do fine.

“You know,” Vari commented. “I guess technically the Purifying Moonflower was good for that instant. No time for the toxins to build back up. Maybe we should consider having some.”

“They should have waited longer…” Chikere commented. “Obviously we could still defeat them in a burst of strength.”

“Those who rely on numbers aren’t great at judging strength,” Vari shrugged.

“Except void ants.”

“That’s tactical. And you’d better be sure nobody is listening.”

“Everheart knows they exist already.”

As it turned out, Ye’sin was covered in dozens of plants that had thorns and spines, all vaguely looking like what Vari sought. The two of them traveled for half a day, growing ever more uncomfortable and trying to conserve their energy. Until finally, Vari stepped on one.

“Oh. I should have considered they might grow in the mud.”

“Aren’t they fruits? Can tubers be fruits?”

“I thought they were fruits. They look like fruits,” Vari said. “Also I’m pretty sure everything on this planet should be classified as a toxic death pincusion and not the things we’re used to.”

“... This one isn’t toxic, right?”

“I hope not,” Vari sighed. Her lungs hurt so bad. It was so tiring keeping her body vaguely functioning. “I know it’s the right thing, though. It’s definitely the same. It feels right.”

Chikere chomped one down. “Ow. Was I not supposed to eat the spines?”

“I think it’s supposed to hurt,” Vari shook her head. “And I can’t guarantee it works without.” She ate her own quickly, digging up more than had grown nearby. At least the mud didn’t taste that bad. Better than the sour, bitter, sharp things.

“My lungs really hurt,” Chikere coughed. “And my eyes. Is that bad?”

“... I think they went numb,” Vari said. “So this is technically better. Do you feel better?”

“I feel like I don’t want to be here.”

“We need to at least find… something. Preferably while killing any political enemies we come across,” Vari said. “And despite how it feels, this might now be the safest planet for us. Ugh, my ears hurt too.”

“That’d be the toxins leeching out. Probably. It’s so hard to feel them.”