Nearly a thousand Threads once again twisted under his control, weaving a hair-thick Thread that quickly arrived before Cile, informing her of what had happened. By the time he made his way inside the cave, she already knew what had transpired outside as well as the incoming hoard.
“How much time do we have?” Her voice floated out of the body suit. This cave was completely quiet, its entrance having been modified by Inero-ie before leaving, completely closing it to remove the chance of anything wandering inside.
“A few hours. To quickly get away, I will be carrying you princess,” the threads formed letters, answering in Inero-ie’s stead. Next, he waited for the princess and after she nodded, he picked her up in princess carry, heading out. As he neared the entrance, the thick layer on the entrance divided under his control, opening out enough to allow an easy exit.
“Can we not just hide?” once again questioned Cile. She had been on this journey with him for more than a cycle now and once they had hidden themselves, they had never been discovered. It made her only more curious as to why he wanted to get away from this place when they could remain hidden.
“Just some uncomfortable feeling, maybe that hoard has specters of higher ranks. Whatever the case, the hoard will be arriving soon so we should get as far away as possible otherwise this whole place will be filled with the monsters and we will be trapped here then.”
Now outside, his legs bent, then he jumped, his feet finding their way inside the smallest cracks and matched with his ability to control ice, he never had any worry about not finding a foothold as he climbed this steep section of the mountain. In a few seconds, he was on top of the cave and started running, quickly reaching his maximum speed, tearing through the winds. Even though he was running through a place filled with obstructions, whether they be razor-sharp spikes that cover the mountain or cracks and pits among other things, none were enough to slow him down as he expertly avoided everything while running through the path that would take the shortest time all while his speed only increased. Soon, they were both once again standing on the mountain ridge and ahead was a steep decline.
“Have you fought against higher-ranked specters?” She was curious about them. The Grand Formation only ever allowed the lowest-ranked specters to enter and even then it was almost impossible to find them. Higher ranked could only be found outside and even then there were few accounts.
Inero-ie nodded while lightly kicking against the mountain wall, the ice moved aside creating a hole, once he was sure of his footing, his hand moved to grab the ice rod that had extended out under his control. At this moment, Cile was above, following down the path he created.
“Yes,” the Thread answer for him.
“When? And how was it different from other specters?” she asked.
“The rank 2 specters that I have come across have all shown a control over ice and Qi that is multiple times greater than rank 1’s. Then there are the number of Threads they can control which are almost double in amount, not to mention the Threads themselves…
As they made their way down, Inero-ie told Cile about the difference he had observed between different specters he had come across. Despite talking, his speed had not slowed down even a single bit and they quickly set foot on the solid, icy ground.
***
“Is that the forest that surrounds the Grand Formation?” asked Cile while her eyes were fixed on the forest that glowed. It glowed, the towering crystalline trees glowing in different colors but that was not the only glow. This massive forest that encircled the Grand Formation was filled with Qi, it was to the point that it was almost impossible to for her to make out anything, just like intense light made it impossible to see.
Though she had read much about the forests that surrounded the Grand Formations, this was the first time she had seen one with her eyes. She compared it to the other forests she had seen, both inside the Central Tower of the capital as well as the massive, sprawling forest on the first Layer of the capital. There was a reason it was so highly regarded by the few who had the ability to so far outside the Habitable Zone and then return safely. The mixture of colors, even from what little she knew about colors, would surely be pleasing to whoever saw it.
Her eyes turned, looking at Inero-ie. His face had been blank even when he had returned after saving the harvester and even now despite viewing a scene that would have moved anyone. Or should have moved anyone who watch it, from what she understood.
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As they arrived closer to the forest, it was possible to make out the crystalline trees. Crystalline branches extended out and from them, dangled long vines filled with small crystalline leaves. Though shaped similarly to trees and plants, these things were anything but that. The crystalline structure was a mix of ice and other metals and instead of taking nutrition from the ground, they absorbed the Qi of anything that came near them, eventually robbing them of their vital Qi, without the prey even noticing it. Even now she could see the cores that were underground, filled to the brim with Qi that had been robbed of their prey.
She looked up. Far away she could make out the barrier created by the Grand Formation. A humongous wave of Qi was flowing towards it, absorbed, refined and the useless and dangerous aspects discarded which then lazily made their way down only to be absorbed by the alien plants. Each plant in this forest abosrbed the raining Qi from above in different percentages, resulting in different colors that created this spectacle.
"Yes. These things are all Qi draining organisms. If you come into contact with them, your Qi will be absorbed without you noticing, even the vital Qi, so you have to focus and follow behind me quickly," Inero-ie told her as got close enough that the grinding roars of the monsters could be heard even through the harsh winds. These were the sounds of maddened monsters.
With the forest blocking the winds, the howls of winds were replaced with constant gritting howls and the sound of fighting.
"Do they ever regain control?"
"If they don't enter the forest, sometimes, but once the muddling effect of the forest takes hold and with the Grand Formation effecting them too, they are trapped."
The madness that took hold over them left no distinction, as they hunt anything that they come across, be it humans or monsters or specters. To the monsters and specters trapped in these forests, everything was their target.
"How do you shake off the forest effect?"
"Bit of control and a bit of speed. I have enough control to offset the effects for sometime and during that I rush through it."
As they got even closer to the edge of the forest, she could see the seemingly empty spaces filled to birm with web like structure, something that she had been unable to make out and even now notice only by chance.
The forest was filled with a mist that effected her eyesight, a result of dense Qi that surrounded the Grand Formations. This mist made it almost difficult to make out these webs that were even thinner than Inero-ie's Threads.
She had not come across any mention of these things, maybe due to the type of equipment that would be required to sense them. She knew the type of equipment that armor suits making expedition to outside the Grand Fomration usually equipped. Most were related to increasing the survivability of the armor suit and its pilots, some to enhance the sensory and combat related capabilities, and at the end if there was still space, then equipment to explore the world outside as well as the resources that existed outside. In short, the type of equipment required to sense such thin webs in such a hostile and Qi dense environment was not equipped on the armor suits.
Her fingers pointing at the webs that were difficult to make out, she asked Inero-ie, surely he had to know considering those Threads and the numerous expositions he had made to the outside. "What are those web-like things?"
"Throw something at it," replied the Thread.
Breaking a small and pointed chunk of ice from the ground, she threw it with full force and wherever it passed, the webs were broken but surprisingly, moments after the chunk passed, they were repaired as though nothing had happened.
She could see, the crystalline tendrils of grass on the forest floor, the vines dangling down from the branches and other crystalline plant life, quickly but stealthily surrounding the area where the webs had been brown, soon warping around the chunk of ice but upon finding nothing they moved back but suddenly activity spread through the surrounding forest, trying to find cause of the disturbance.
“You can consider them somewhat similar to my Qi Threads but where my Threads are completely made out of Qi and thus incorporeal, these webs are made up of really, really thin ice, engraved with formation that alert these plants whenever they are disturbed,” while the Thread conveyed his thoughts, Inero-ie signaled Cile to stop and moved even closer to the forest.
He controlled the ice to gather beneath his feet, elevating him up from the ground. The patch of crystalline grass outside the forest curled around the ice, sensing that something was moving, trying to drain the Qi but finding none. He now stood infront of the web.
Blocking Qi from circulating through his arms, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling that spread through them as a result, his finger moved, stopping on two end of a straight section of the web. A trickle of Qi, so small that it could not even form a single Thread, made its way to his middle fingers. With lighting speed, they touch the section, separating it form the web but not allowing it to shatter, and with same speed he leaped back while the grass and dangling vines tried to wrap around him, to drain him of his Qi.
“Let’s go,” he said, leading her to a hidden crack and extending his hands out for princes to see the web. He could sense her squinting her eyes, trying to make out the formations that were packed within.