Chapter 89.
Enchanted forest (2 months and 2 days since the fog invasion.)
Hubert, the father of Lucas can be seen running in the lush forest covered in a thick fog, expertly avoiding all the obstacles coming on his way. Maneuvering his body left and right with great precision, covered in his milky white aura that symbolizes his strength as one of the top powerhouse of the kingdom.
Not far behind him, Hubert is followed by a group of knights equipped with their silver and gold colored auras as he leads the way to the entrance of the enchanted forest.
Their mission is to find out what causes this foggy phenomenon on their land and to find a way to end it.
Hubert was the strongest person among this team but even that doesn't make him feel safe as he even brought the shield of obedience with him risking it's discovery, just to make sure that they would have a higher chance of success for this mission.
He just hope that all their preparation are enough to face whatever enemy comes in their way. Because it's been two months since the fog shows up, and Hubert is already loosing his patients to wait for the rescue to come.
Hubert is certain that the Turox kingdom already sent people to investigate and help them face this strange phenomenon that invaded their land, but 2 months have already passed by and Hubert never saw any shadow of them.
And for Hubert it only means one thing, and that is they might have encountered something dangerous that stopped them from sending their help.
Although the Beaufort family is not warmly welcome in the aristocratic world, Hubert is certain that the Turox Kingdom would not let something bad happen to them as it can caused the kingdom to destabilize.
At the same time, Florentine city also serves as their first line of defense against any invasion coming from the enchanted forest. As the Turox kingdom have already learned their lesson from seeing the fall of Aqua kingdom of the southern continent.
Because they can't be certain when would they be attacked by those beast coming from the enchanted forest, that's why they need someone to stand guard and protect this place.
This is the reason why Beaufort family is still standing to this day despite all the challenges they face, Since they delegated their selves as the guard of this place, becoming an important part of the kingdoms defense.
This also the reason why theirs only a few attack coming from high ranking magic beast. Because of the strong presence of the Beaufort family and of course, because of the ruins hidden underneath their city the combination of the two have made those beast wary of their city.
For several hundred years, the Beaufort family have constantly produce Grand master rank individual that constantly defended this place against the siege of magic beast wave, that it comes to a point that no other noble family can compare to them when it comes to the number of battle experience.
It's because of this reason why the Beaufort family were able to preserve their strength to this day, as they are surrounded by harsh environment and sharpen by constant battles.
But in the 700 year long history of Florentine city this is the first time, that they have been put into this precarious situation, trapped and surrounded by unknown enemies.
At first, Hubert was still confident that he can protect the city from any invasion coming from the enchanted forest, as he has the ruins underneath their city to back him up. Hubert thought that even if he fail, then he can just activate the mechanism of that ruin to engage it's barrier. A strong barrier that can stop anyone from entering their city and he thought that it would be enough to protect them but he was wrong.
The barrier alone would not be enough for them to survive. Yes! The barrier can definitely protect them from harm, but what about their food supply? Hubert knows that the situation is dire and that they need to find a way to end the fog invasion as soon as possible.
With the current population of their city doubling in just a matter of several months, the current food stocks on their land would not be enough to sustain them for long, by then they might not die from the monsters but they would die out of starvation.
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This forces Hubert to make a difficult decision to risk their live and investigate the sources of the pollution. So, now they are on their way to the enchanted forest where everything begin.
Hubert is hoping that they can start the investigation once help from the outside arrives but it seems like he needs to do it their selves as something might have stopping them from entering their land.
And his hunch have become stronger since they discovered the appearance of the mutated creatures, Hubert is uncertain on why they aren't attacking the city on a huge scale but it might have something to do with the ruins under their city as it has certain influence to stop the fog from spreading within.
When the fog have first showed up they all thought it was just some kind of toxic mist that can make people sick, but never in their mind they expected that it was actually just a symptom of a much bigger problem from the parasites that causing mutation converting them into monsters.
During this past two months they encountered many cases of infected people coming out from the forest who have already mutated beyond recognition. But in order to maintain the morale of the people Hubert ordered the soldiers to clean them up before anyone can see them.
Even his own son Lucas and his nephew Michael doesn't know about it. What's more, is that most of this mutated humans wears the armor of the Turox kingdom signifying that they really sent people to investigate the fog but those people have now turn into monsters.
And now, 2 days after surviving the siege of mutated creatures, Hubert have finally decided to lead his Knights and explore this place in order to find the root cause of this problem.
"My lord, were about to arrive at the border." warned by one of the knight covered in silver aura.
Which causes Hubert to stopped on his track and turn his back to face his knights.
"Thanks for the reminder, as we all plan we would takes things slow from this point." Hubert announces as he quickly called for Callisto to come in front.
Their plan is to use their fastest speed to approach the enchanted forest hoping that they would not encounter any monsters while they were on their way. And if they did encounter them they are required to kill those mutated creatures as fast as possible without creating too much sounds.
In order to avoid attracting attention from the surrounding monsters. And their plan has indeed worked since Hubert also gets the help of Callisto's eyes in choosing the safest routes.
"Callisto, from this point on you are now in charge of this mission. Remember what I told you before, only focus on our goal. Your main task is to use your gift to see what was hidden behind this thick fog, and identify any anomaly. While we were responsible for your safety." Hubert explains as he now handed the leadership to Callisto.
Using his miraculous eyes Callisto has the gift to see the flow of energy without using any magic artifact. This is how he finds out the real strength of Lucas despite him hiding his power.
For Callisto, seeing the energy around him is easy as opening his eyes. He doesn't need to use any special magic artifact to identify how powerful his opponent is, and this gift also allows him to train faster than the others that's why he was able to achieve his current strength which is at the peak of Junior rank.
Callisto has never regretted his decision to transfer his family to this place even in exchange of abandoning their own territory. As Hubert and the other knights welcome them warmly.
In fact, he feels much safer staying in this place than on their own territory, despite of Florentine city being surrounded by danger. Callisto had a great trust that his lord Hubert can find a way to solve this problem as he doesn't have his title for nothing.
It didn't take them much time to arrive at the border of the enchanted forest and they were surprised by what they saw.
"What in the world happen here?" Hugo said in shock as they now gaze at the destroyed wall of thorns.
It was known to everyone that this giant wall of thorns appeared before the fog invasion had even begun. In fact, this wall of thorns is their number one culprit for the appearance of the thick fog since this is where it begins to spread.
But looking at it now, It seems like the wall of thorns has nothing to do with it. Huge sections of the thorns were destroyed and even the forest itself is almost overturned. It looks like a huge war has happened that destroyed most of it.
"Whatever it is, It must be as powerful as me." Hubert suddenly said, breaking the silence.
But this didn’t stop him from entering the forest. And as soon as they enter, they begin to notice that this forest is not the same enchanted forest they know before because everywhere they looked, they saw death and decay.
The once lush and thriving forest was now a shadow of its former self. The trees were wilted and dead, the animals had fled, and the once beautiful landscapes were now desolate and gray. The situation in the enchanted forest is even worse than their land.
It didn’t take them that long before they finally found the reason why the forest have become like this, they began to encounter strange and terrifying creatures.
These monsters were unlike anything they had seen before, twisted and mutated by the fog. These creatures were not natural inhabitants of the forest, but rather creatures that have been changed by the fog. They are clearly dangerous and hostile, forcing the group to defend themselves as they moved forward.
“Callisto, any news with your proving?” Hubert asks as they finished their battle.
“Not yet, but I’m seeing some kind of weird flow of energy coming from the deeper part of the forest.” Calisto replied with a wary look on his face.
“Then we will continue.”
As they encountered more and more of these monsters, Hubert's team began to realize that this was not just a natural disaster, but an invasion of some kind. They knew that they needed to find the source of this pollution as soon as possible before it becomes too late.