Cile started running through the imitation of the forest with Inero-ie following along from the outside. The moment she had started, Inero-ie took control of the massive sculptures of the trees with vines dangling from them and grass on the ground, trying to capture her. As it was a practice to give her an idea of what the actual sprint would be like, he went easy at the start.
Slowly, he ramped up the difficulty. The Threads acted as a medium, transmitting his will and the ice moved, the dead sculptures became more and more lifelike, slowly becoming what it was actually like inside the forest. While at the start Cile had been comfortable, that no longer was the case now.
The crude imitation of the web was torn down as she ran, informing Inero-ie of her position. He did not use the Threads to keep track of her, that would be too unfair. So he had purposely blinded himself, relaying on the signals given by the webs to deduce her position.
The vines, filled with crystalline leaves of all kinds, twisted and turned, trying to block any and all passages of her escape. Similarly, the grass on the ground below gathered. Individually, they were weak, easily broken, but once they gathered, they became strong enough to delay her, a delay that allowed the vines to surround her.
At the start, he often gave her leeway and left her some paths of escape but the forest was not like that. So, as she had assimilated with the difficulty, he would ramp it up. Up and up the difficult went until she was surrounded. ‘Now, what would she do?’
‘Oh, obvious… but if she can do that in the forest…,’ the vines had escaped from his control, and the tendrils that had been blocking the path were overpowered, all without any trace just as before. The vines twisted away, the grass spread away, the tendrils uncoiled, and a path was created for her, without any interruptions. He kept trying but with no result. Whenever she was in a critical situation, she just forcefully created a path where there was none.
He let her have her fun, his mind wandering, ideas springing up, and slowly a new plan consolidated inside his mind. If it worked, the amount of Qi he would have to use to overload his core would be decreased to half. After cycle upon cycle of abuse, his core could easily endure that much stress without any problem.
***
“Was it satisfactory?”
“Enough to survive in the Mid Barrier by yourself. The ability to control the ice is wondrous, unlike anything I have ever encountered before,” replied Inero-ie while they headed toward the forest.
Once again they were standing on the outskirt of the forest, breathtakingly beautiful, breathtakingly deadly. The two at the scene though were unappreciative, one could not feel, and the other did not want to feel.
A patch of crystalline grass spread outside the forest and turned towards them, sensing the Qi that was cycling inside their bodies.
“Can you control them?” From what she had observed, she should be able to.
There were many reasons why he had never tried this. Most of his mental capacity was always directed toward the Threads which was even higher in this place as the slightest contact will result in his Threads being absorbed. The remaining capacity was further divided to control the Qi inside his overloaded core, to navigate through the forest while warding against its mental attacks, to fight, and much more.
Just like the Qi, the monster, and the specters, the repulsion towards humans was ingrained even in the ground, in the winds, in the underground river and seas. Though they were not alive, and thus did not actively work to kill them, manipulating the elements outside the Grand Formation was made that much more difficult due to the ever-present hostility.
Currently, he was not powerful enough to include manipulation in an already extensive list of things that had to be done to quickly traverse through the forest.
Once again he was unable to sense what she had done but the result was visible. The grass started swaying, then straightened, then curled, then parted to create an unhampered pathway to the forest.
“And those?” The Threads displayed his question while he pointed toward the real problem. The massive trees, each filled with hundreds of vines dangling from them while an equal number of tendrils were hidden. Emitting all kinds of colors, swaying from the winds, they appeared beautiful.
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Once again the same thing happened. It started with the vines that warped around the trunk, then the trees themselves that started twisting to the extent that cracks started appearing. Immediately after, a reaction spread, and the massive crystalline trees in the surrounding were twisted to the point cracking noise could be heard.
His Threads spread, carefully avoiding the trees. They emitted an unhearable sound and soon a map of the surrounding appeared. “For how long can you do this, your highness?”
“How long do you need?”
“Around 15 minutes.”
“I can do that much.”
‘Change of plans.’
***
Once again two were inside the crack acting as their base. Inero-ie took out the supplies for his storage, first Refined Cores. Compared to those used for armor suits, they were like fireflies but this was enough to keep their body suits running for months.
After handing one to the princess, he replaced his core, placing the two cores near depletion back into the storage. Then he took out the oxygen and water pills along with nutritional biscuits, again two sets. Once again he first handed them to the princess, then replenished supplies in his own body suit.
With the supplies taken care of, he started explaining the forest in detail, its topography, the monsters, and anything that she needed to know beforehand, and once he was done with that, he once again described what she had to do.
"Your Highness only needs to keep those things away. Just that. I will be carrying you until we get into the Grand Formation."
"Monsters? Muddling effect of the forest?"
"I will be responsible for them. You just have to make sure none of those things can block the path."
"Why not go through the underground? The root system should be able to spread only so far underneath."
"No. Too dangerous. Unlike above, down below they don't require the vines and tendrils to act medium for draining the Qi. I have gone as far below that I can safely but the whole space is filled with them."
"Can I have a look at it?"
"Yes, but first let's check how well you can bear the effects of the forest. A small run will be enough."
"Why do you only sometimes address me by the title?" She asked, curious. The people she had met fell into two categories, most who had to address her respectfully as the mannerisms demanded or the few that she had to respect. He fell in the first category but did not act like that. It made her curious, what was the reason?
"I try to use it whenever I can remember," the Thread replied in his stead but this also showed how much of an importance it had for him.
***
As they bulldozed through the web which shattered from the slightest touch, their surroundings came alive. Vines tried to warp around them as did the grass and other similar crystalline plants filled the ground while the tendrils quickly extended, coiling from one trunk to another, trying to imprison them, allowing everything else to drain them until they died. The next moment, all the obstacles that usually required him to perform at his peak were now rendered useless.
Despite carrying her, despite focusing his attention on her even though he was running through this dangerous forest, he still could not sense how she did it. The result was in front of him, a path opened and they quickly made their way outside.
"That was easy," said Cile as Inero-ie placed her down.
"Thanks to you," he said while moving further and further away from the forest. Only after they were a few kilometers away did he dive into the ice, Cile following behind.
Slowly, almost at a crawling pace, he led her back towards the Grand Formation. It was like going down the stairs, only incredibly slow. She had no problem with it.
After a long time that she had spent thinking, wondering how to make the process of passing through the forest even smoother, they arrived. Now a few kilometers below, the scene in front was astonishing.
What was above the surface was nothing. The true immensity of the forest was down here. A massive, vast network of dense roots was in front of them. Both were still far away for their own security. Even more astonishing was the immense quantity of Qi flowing through it all.
Lines of Qi filled her eyesight, crisscrossing throughout her field of view. Down and down it went, as far as her eyes could see, slowly curving along with the Grand Formation.
"Have you tried to do this from inside the Grand Formation?"
"No."
"Why?" She asked. Even she was curious, a feeling she had artificially created, how could a regular human not feel anything when they saw the view that was spread out in the front?
"What do you see?" She had forgotten he could not see like herself, another thing she had an interest in. Since their first meeting, he and been using the Threads instead of his eyes, and where he would occasionally open his eyes at the start, that stopped with the number of his Threads increasing.
"Bright lines tightly woven together like a cloth."
"Interesting. Let's return and quickly get inside the Grand Formation. I want to see what it looks like from the inside."