“We are leaving, right now!” For the first time, I hear extreme urgency in Myrra's voice, and she even snatches the item from Obelia's hand, and uses it to charge and activate the array after throwing a few mana stones on the ground.
While they are preparing to leave, I send a pulse of [Perception] towards the city in a thin cone instead of a field that surrounds me.
I detect a few items all over the city, but the tree is gone. I can't see as well as Tess, but there is a crater in its place, and the buildings around it aren’t destroyed.
It seems like the tree flew or teleported?
My eyes immediately turn to the sky, and a few more members of the expedition look at it as well, coming to the same conclusion. Skill after skill activates, trying to detect the tree, and Myrra even uses her mana to activate the array faster.
“Ready!” Myrra shouts, and all of us step back into the circle.
Looking at the capital one last time, we teleport and reappear back in the array near Virelia.
“Obelia, feral one, you are coming with me. We need to see the Matriarch, right now,” Myrra orders, and this time she doesn't joke nor ask.
But this time I'm not even angry and am inclined to do as she says.
Unfortunately, there is something that won’t allow me to do that. Hundreds, thousands of monster signatures are all around Virelia, and some of them are even inside the city.
Ant signatures.
“How… HOW! They were weeks away!” one of Obelia's guild members shouts.
“On me! We go to the Matriarch!” Myrra orders again, and when I do not move, she looks at me, “Feral one?”
“I need to check on my group first,” I tell her simply, my mana slowly radiating from my body, and kinetic energy collecting inside me.
Myrra hisses in annoyance and rushes towards the city without saying anything else, closely followed by Obelia.
“Be careful on your way back,” I tell Hadwin, and he nods in agreement.
Then, I use the kinetic energy I collected in an orb to push myself ahead with speed much faster than ever before. The nature around me turns into a blur, and the city becomes bigger and bigger, and I even pass by Myrra and Obelia. Yet I use more and more, I have a bad feeling that doesn’t want to subside, especially when I notice a horde of ants on the hill.
On the street where our house is.
[Focus]
When I get close, I find the house nearly destroyed, and members of our group are fighting much smaller ants than before. Barely as big as a horse, yet they are much faster, and the barrier resonating on their skin seems to disrupt mana attacks.
I land in the middle of what used to be our house and absorb the inertia of my fall, not even cracking the ground under my feet.
The first ant rushes me, and my kinetic energy changes frequency, rising to a high pitch, and the ant's head explodes.
[You have defeated Weaver Ant - lvl 189]
The moment I do it, a link forms between the remaining ants, and when I use kinetic energy on another, the ant endures. All hundred or so remaining ants somehow shared the damage I caused, distributing it among all of them.
Instead of attacking again, I let [Regalia] form around my body to absorb its attacks. Then, I scan the area again, confirming what I noticed the moment I arrived.
Sophie, Dennis, and Aaron are not here. I can't feel their presences no matter how far I reach. That can mean only two things. They are either dead or they are beyond the range of my detection.
The ant bites at me again, and I clench my teeth; [Redistribution] slows it to a crawl, not allowing it to move. Then, I reach for one of the orbs I prepared for the Living Tree and send kinetic energy towards the monster. It's shared, so there is no damage, but I push more and more. The attack becomes stronger and stronger and the high-pitched noise becomes more audible.
The air seems to wave and twist, and a crack appears in the ant's carapace.
One more push and all hundred or so ants explode into pieces.
[You have defeated Weaver Ant - lvl 173]
[You have defeated Weaver Ant - lvl 179]
[You have defeated Weaver Ant - lvl 199]
[Lvl 183 > Lvl 184]
[You have defeated Weaver Ant - lvl 161]
Ignoring the rest of the notifications, I check on Maya. She is fine, fighting two gravity ants, surrounded by her [Armament] and not seeming to have trouble with them.
Min-Jae fights too, his telekinesis moving around the chest we got from the Champion's house and using its immense weight to smash the monsters, even increasing its weight with his [Gravity Well]. Biscuit is next to him, using his Tentacles to stop any ant that gets close.
On the other side, Lily shoots arrows made of [Disintegration], using the epic bow we got, and each attack obliterates the monster, no matter its level.
I boost myself and reach Tess and Isabella, who are fighting further away, surrounded by a dozen ants.
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Isabella's fire doesn’t seem to work on them, and I can feel that she is losing control, and getting frustrated by it, but there’s something else. Tears flow from her eyes and she seems scared and worried.
There is a [Storm Crown] over Tess's head, and each of her attacks does terrifying damage to the monsters, her epic spear keeps hitting more of them, always perfectly timed to help everyone.
The city is burning, and I can hear screams from everywhere, but it's weird too. There are too few ants; there should be tens, hundreds of thousands of them.
I quickly help Tess deal with the ants and glance at Izzy, who stops moving, and even more tears appear in her eyes.
Tess stops in front of me, “We were wrong, Nat, the ants never were after you or Virelia. They were after Sophie and the twins,” she explains quickly, “They attacked the moment you guys went to the Living Tree, just a few minutes ago.”
After dealing with their monsters, others join us too.
“Where did they take them?” I ask Tess.
“They used something like an array, I don’t know…” she lies.
The same as me, she must know that they probably took them back to the colony and whatever they plan to do is not nice.
I turn to Izzy to say something but then hesitate. What can I even tell her? Saving them seems impossible. We could be throwing our lives away if we went there.
“Nat, I want to save them,” Tess says simply from behind me.
She doesn't hesitate. Her eyes are clear when I turn to her. She knows going into the middle of the Colony could mean death, yet she is willing to do so.
How? Why? She barely knows them. Not even a year. Isn’t her life more important?
Her voice becomes softer, “I’d rather do this than constantly regret not even trying to help them for the rest of my life.” The lightning stops flickering around her, and she takes a step closer. “I was always serious about all of us becoming friends and not even once did I lie. This is the decision I made.” She says, [Declaration] activating for a moment, making everyone feel her will.
I barely know them, Sophie did hurt me before, and the twins still dislike me, so why do I also want to help them? That’s so dumb.
With a sigh, I take a step towards Izzy, who is already sobbing, “Sophie used her skill on me, forced me to run away,” the little girl cries. “They wanted to take me too. I could feel it. They want us, people with skills like ours,” the air around her gradually heating up, and everyone else takes a step back, unable to endure the heat.
I start absorbing it and take another step towards her.
“She promised never to use her skill on me, yet she did. She said to find you and stay safe near you,” Isabella looks at me with cheeks wet from tears that immediately evaporate as she releases more heat.
“We will save them for sure,” I tell her.
“You're lying. I can tell,” the little kid shakes her head, “I can tell that you still don't like Sophie. You don't hate her anymore, but you don't like her because she did what she did.”
“Yes, I can't help it,” I admit.
Her flames start to melt the ground we stand on, pushing others back. Brilliant blue flames make iron glow bright and melt the stones.
“Don’t come closer!” Isabella shouts, and her flames explode, pushing me back a bit before I absorb them and take another step toward her. Our eyes meet, “They want to do such terrible things to her, and I want to help, but I can't! Sophie’s skill won’t allow me to follow her.”
Isabella expends more and more of her mana, trying to force me away. She is crying and still using her [Empathy] on me. She is scared and frustrated.
She is just a kid.
Before she hurts herself using too much mana, I take the last step and kneel in front of her so our eyes meet. Then, I stop absorbing her flames and strengthen my body a bit, circulating more heat inside to activate my passive healing.
Immediately, burns start appearing on my face and body.
Reading my feelings, she shouts shortly and her flames strengthen even more, burning my skin and revealing flesh underneath, “Don’t…” she whispers.
Then, I disable my [Focus] and let her feel everything I feel. All my fears, my anxiety, my past trauma, and feelings I like to push to the back of my mind, “I will help Sophie, Dennis, and Aaron. I myself don’t fully know why and would be unable to express it. So just feel it yourself,” I reach with my hand and touch her cheeks, still constantly burned by blue flames, “A simple answer would be that I consider you my friend, I think.” The small smile that appears on my face just comes up on its own, and I don’t even have to force it.
With a sob, all of her flames disappear, and she hugs me tightly, and I can feel her small body shake in my arms, “You won’t take me with you to save her,” Isabella sobs.
“No, I won’t.”
“You won’t do it in case she has be…”
“Yes,” I caress the back of her head, “But Izzy, check the Community, the number didn’t decrease, meaning she, Aaron, and Dennis are alive.”
I feel her body freeze, and the relief she must be feeling is clearly noticeable, "Do you promise you will save her?"
"I can't do that. I don't know what to expect, but Izzy, I will try. I will try really hard."
The last sob sounds from her. "That's enough."
Then I send a weak pulse of [Resonance] to her head, making her pass out.
When I stand up with her in my arms, I feel my body screaming to move, to run, but I can't. Any small mistake I make could mean their death.
I pass by a few people and stop in front of Biscuit, who looks at me from the ground.
This time, I'm serious and don’t use the normal tone I use with Biscuit. Right now, I talk to him like I would talk to anyone else from group 4, “Will you protect them while I'm gone?” Just a simple question.
Biscuit’s tail doesn't swing at all, and the look in his eyes changes. The usual cheekiness is gone, and they are calm and firm.
Instead of answering me, mana starts radiating from him. The one that feels extremely disturbing, and his eyes gain a soft purple glow. Even his shadow on the ground grows until it's dozens of times bigger. Biscuit is strong, stronger than he lets show, but even this is only a hint at his potential. The same as us, he also needs to grow.
(Friend?) he asks.
“Yes, I consider you a friend too,” I say to him.
(Friend,) he repeats and hovers into the air, his right front paw bumping my nose and I do the same.
With this, I turn around and put Izzy into Hadwin’s hands. The older man just arrived, and there is a surprised expression on his face, “They will explain everything to you,” I tell him, and then turn around, “Tess, Lily, will you join me?” I ask them to risk their lives, to go into the heart of the enemy forces.
“I would go even without you,” Tess says.
“I will help,” Lily nods.
Neither of them hesitates.
“Biscuit, Hadwin, Min-Jae, Maya, please take care of Izzy.” I pause. “There might be a traitor, so be careful. The Living Tree is gone, it disappeared, so expect anything.”
I quickly explain the rest of it to them and then put Lily on my back, push us high in the air, and boost us towards the middle of the city. Tess follows us in a similar fashion, lightning trailing her body.