A sound reverberated inside the room filled with pitch black darkness, disrupting the silence. After noise from the fall went away, the sound of breathing could be heard. One was stady and calm, its owner unconcious and in sleep while the other was incredibly chaotic but despite being chaotic, it had a fragility which made it seem like would shatter and disappeare the next moment.
Inero-ie tired to move, to drag his body into his room. He tired it once, twice, again, and gain but he failed and failed. His physical body had been seeped of small trickle of strength that had remained. His muscles were squeezed dry of all vitality and nurishments, making them weak and frail and his attempts at dragging his body had worsened it even further, causing many of the tissues to torn while other remaining were just on the verge of it. Slimilary, his tendons were weak and stiff, his bones filled with cracks, his organs shutting down.
The threads made from ice that had been supporting his moments were no longer there, having disappeared now that the Qi that conjured them into existence was no longer there. The exhaustion was so intese that even his core was cracked, fine cracks covered his core.
Jumping using darkness cost a lot, especially when an extra body for which too he had to endure the cost. The moment his Qi had been exhausted, the cost had been paid by his stamina, than by the vitality of his body, and then by his core. The core, a crystalization of Qi was cracked, its sharded devoured to fulfill the energy required to jump.
Now he was powerless, an even greaer waves of pain assaulting his senses. Then there was also that feeling of intense suffocation, normally his core would have started absorbing the atmospheric Qi but with it cracked, that was no longer possible and so that feeling of suffocation kept building up. He was dying. His body was dying. His body had no strength, there was no Qi to access the storage.
Seconds ticked by and as the shadow of death quickly grew denser, and despite his efforts, his consciousness started getting blurry. Suddenly, his body set off into a brust of motion as instincts surface in the dormancy of conciouness, his instinct to survive that had been instilled into his body, this instinct that had been honed and sharpned on the edge of death moved his body.
It tried to. But how can a puppet with strings cut off be moved by the puppeeter?
As the last bit of explosive energy disappeared, Inero-ie had only moved a few centimeters ahead, wholly useless.
He knew well of his state, that was why he had come to Fria-al’s place instead of directly returning to the Ground Layer but his body gave up. A few meters and he would have been able to save himself. Now, even moving the eyelids seemed like an insurmountable task, his previously sharp senses were now thoroughly dulled, and he lay there without any energy.
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The flow of time did not stop, nor did his instincts give up, they did not know how to do that. Like a fish taken out of water, he had flailed, consumed the last remaining bit of energy only to wait for death. The death he so much desired.
***
“Current situation is much better than what we had expect. Nyob family has been preparing, and they have been sending their hidden agents to search for any clue. Most likely, Nyob will be coming down soon.”
“And that harvester? Where is he?”
“The supervisor of the Pobis family has successfully been swapped, I have gotten the signal but there is no sign of that harvester like the last time.”
“Search up everything related to him. We have to make sure he stays with us, it will make everything much easier,” Revensol said.
“Yes sir.”
“Additonally, prepare those who were from this place, they would be responsible for starting this operation by killing Vissbl as for the others, Harlev will be responsible for leading rest to the top Layer.
“I will make sure everything is ready.”
***
“No traces found, my Lord. I beg your forgiveness.”
“And the thing I told you to do?”
“Yes, my Lord. Despite our best efforts we found nothing about those people but if other families search, they would easily find out the tarces of our agents. But my Lord is it correct to face against these people that have the ability to infiltrate into the settelment. They must have been prepared if they dare challange you like this.”
“You don’t need to worry. Anyways, since they can come and go undetectd even in our Layer, surely they must have means to hide down there. Start sending our men little by little, since they want me to come, I will make sure to leave them chrushed. Meanwhile you are to make sure the plan proceeds without any problem. Now that we have gotten such a God sent opportunity, we must utilize.” Visible instructed his trusted subordinate. Since the castle had been infiltrated, similar problems had popped up in the remaining families, though not as severe.
The thing that had heightened the tension to extreme was the leaking of research, the life and blood of every family and it had made the situtaion chaotic. But this situation also present him with and opportunity.
‘I will give them a quick death for giving me such an unexpected gift.’ thought Vissble, his finger rubbing a ring worn in his index finger. It had taken him too long to develop this item but it had been completed at the perfect moment.
‘Greater the chaos, the better. Once I am done with those rats, it will be time to deal with these families,” alone in the room, on the young face of Vissbl, a shiver inducing smile emerged.