“This next part’s the truly amazing thing,” Fria-al said while continually pushing the blade down, cutting into a dead monster’s body.

“Big sis, aren’t these creatures elemental?” questioned one of the children around her, their eyes fixed on the tear that had finally exposed the fleshy inside of the monster.

“Amazing right? Considering the environment outside and their outer shells, no one would think of them as having any similarities to us humans much less having flesh and blood but,” she forced the tip of the knife inside. She had already erected a barrier around the tear that would keep its internal heating, which had been maintained despite its death, trapped inside. “See this blood? See the way this flesh moves even still. This internal part is very much similar to us humans and that means it needs to maintain a level of heat to keep operating. The multiple layers of isolation that I pointed out earlier are the only way they maintain the heat which these monsters nurture from their birth.”

“How come it is so difficult to fight against them then big sis? All that is needed is a strong blunt force that would damage the layers of insulation in its body structure and it would die,” after raising his small hand, one of the boys squatting beside her asked.

“You would be right to think so if you think about the properties of ice and metal but you have to expand your thinking further. For example, the armor suits you piloted, did they show any signs of damage when you three tried to kill this monster? No right. Countless resources, time, and effort had been poured into making them flexible enough to endure the blunt forces they would have to endure. Likewise,” Firal-al put her palm on the surface of the monster’s outer shell, putting continuously greater force but the ice that should have cracked under her increasing force did not crack, rather, it bent inward, “Even though it is ice, and it is metal, it has been affected by the subconscious will of these monsers monsters. Most likely due to a concept similar to our Paths.”

“Do you know where these monsters came from, big sis? Never have I seen such creatures during the various planets master took us with him.”

“Who knows? You saw how they attacked the moment we appeared right? The moment they sense a human they lose themselves and start attacking and with the environment, as it is outside, it is almost impossible to observe them from a large distance.” Fria-al replied as she willed her Qi causing the blood on her knife to slide away. Once again it was clean.

“Anyway, surely you have seen things more strange than this right? Now it's your turn to teach me.” Fria-al said

The children became eager, causing a small fistfight to break out among them. Fria-al smiled looking at them, then her mood once again became downcast as she remembered Inero-ie. He had never acted like a child from the moment they had met. She had wondered before, but now increasingly so, what would he be like if he had not endured it all?

Fri-al stood up and it made the three stop fighting. They spoke at once, “Where are you going, big sis? We haven’t told you our stories.”

“A thing came into my mind. It's urgent so I will be going.”

“Are you going to search for that uncle again? But even master was unable to find what happened so how would you, big sis?”

“Hahaha… Uncle? Inero-ie? When he comes back you have to call him that to his face.”

“You found a clue big sis?” one of the children asked, curious.

“No. But he always returns. I am sure it would be the same this time too,” Frail-al replied, ‘He has to.’ Because if she lost even him then what would she have left? She had lost her big brother. Now she she had lost the child she had cared so much for.

***

A wave of dense, almost on the verge of liquifying Qi rolled away and a man appeared in the teleportation chamber. His appearance was normal as was his height as well as the aura he radiated. If he stood in between the crowd, his appearance would allow him to meld into it, making it difficult to see him.

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A small but sharp noise alerted him that he could finally go outside which he did with hurried steps, walking through the Qi-dense environment and then exiting the Teleprotation Station. Once outside, he did not slow down, his steps taking him to the train station and soon he was inside the train which sharply accelerated, moving vertically until it was on the top of the sub-sector housing the Teleportation Station.

The man kept observing his surroundings while the train speedily headed to the Lift Station.

There was a tenseness in the air which the man noticed immediately upon coming out of the trian. It was not easily discernible as there were no over identifiers but the quietness in this place as the people did not talk, instead whispered with one another, and the people were tense. He noted how they walked just a bit faster, just a bit hurried. As he kept on observing the surroundings, he became even more confident in his initial observation.

The lift once again stopped, pausing to allow for new passengers to move in.

People came in rushing, constantly looking back while they made their way to the seats the system had assigned to them. Their faces were pale from fear and their auras, conveying their inner state, were fluctuating. The man noted that their eyes were constantly moving as though keeping a lookout for something just like when they had come in looking like they were running away from something fearful.

Their bodies kept trembling, their breathing unstable. Quite whimpers could be heard in the lift that had become quiet upon the arrival of these people.

The man, like many others, looked outside but found nothing that created the result he was seeing, only more people haphazardly running away from the area. If not for the system controlling the numbers that could get on the lift, he was sure more would have rushed in. He had seen quite a few trying but failing.

If he had not been on a mission, he would have liked to investigate what he was seeing but the mission had been assigned was the priority.

Once a certain number of people had entered, the general-purpose lift responsible for moving humans up and down the Layers started moving. Its speed, unlike smaller and bookable lifts, was relatively slow to take into consideration the different types of people that used it.

Though the man had decided against doing anything about these frightened people, he nonetheless kept observing them and once the lift touched the Ground Layer, he exited immediately.

Despite it being the Lift station, it was much quieter compared to the above Layers but that was to be expected. The atmosphere here matched the characteristics of harvesters. Most of the people here were harvesters or associated with them in one way or another.

He could see many moving in groups, quietly. A distance was automatically present in-between each group or person and though they might be communicating through their private channels, it did not change the fact that the place was eerily quiet.

It was not a surprise. The type of environment these people spent most of their time in molded them, and changed them. It would be much more surprising if it did not.

***

The man stood in front of the tower. It was massive, incomparable to any other construction in any settlement. 'Still, just a twig compared to the Central Tower of the capital,' thought the man.

A few hundred meters of radius around the tower was empty and he was the only person in there. The man started moving towards the tower and arrived not at the feat of architecture itself but instead at the smaller palace-like building connected to the tower, the only place through which the tower could be accessed.

'Just like the tower,' the man thought. Though it was undeniable that this tower and the place both were awe-inspiring that was only if there was nothing to compare them to.

Arriving in front of the door, he took out his identity token after which the door rippled and an entrance opened. He stepped inside and quickly rushed to the place through which he could communicate with the princess who was currently inside the tower itself.

"This humble servant, Orama, greets Princess Cile. I was sent here by Lord Knrama to be of use to your highness."

"How did grand come to know about my return? I am sure I did not inform you of my presence," Cile asked, 'and why did he not come here after knowing about my return? Dearest mother would surely have not waited, meaning she is uninformed implying others are uninformed."

"I am just a humble servant and do not know of the Lord's plans only that I was ordered to come and be of use to you. Additionally, the Lord told me to inform Your Highness that he would come to escort you back himself but cannot come to this settlement at the moment."

"He couldn't come but he also did not inform others. No wonder. So Granduncle is doing something here that others would frown upon. No wonder he came to such a small place."