The metallic lift column rippled, moving aside, creating a passage in the lift allowing the people the few remaining people inside the lift to get out. As the crowd streamed out, when the last of the crowd was stepping out of the lift, Cile stood up and started heading towards the exit, this time Orama stepped ahead to clear a path for her once she exited the lift.

Despite there being a sudden change compared to what she had told him before, he did not question just remained ahead of her, clearing the path. Once they were outside, the lift was empty, another stream of crowd headed inside the lift and soon the passage closed and it headed towards the upper Layers.

The Lift Station was much less crowded compared to the upper layers. As they moved, Cile taking the lead and Orama following, a wisp of aura released making those around automatically avoid them which removed any obstacles.

***

The moment the lift had crossed into the Ground Layer, Inero-ie had been prepared, jumping out of the lift and then out of the lift column. The crowd in the upper layers was thicker, allowing him to use the shadows to move about, not in the Ground Layer where the harvesters moved in groups making sure there was sufficient distance between one another. The crowd could not be used to get out.

Reducing his weight, Inero-ie kicked the lift column, pushing himself towards the subsector that was a few hundred meters away. He was like the sharp pieces of ice on the outside which were carried by the power of winds at fast speed. Soon he collided against the wall of the subsector but did not latch on to it, running vertically and jumping into the dark alleys in between the subsector. There was light traffic there as people walked, a distance present between all.

The moment his feet touched the ground, automatically his Threads spread in the surroundings, making him aware of everything, including a cargo train that zoomed through the tunnel under his feet.

He was still melded with the darkness, waiting for the arrival of the princess, his Threads spread all around, searching for her Qi signature. The moment he captured it, he rushed toward her, messaging her through the Threads and directing the princess who was unfamiliar with the layout of this settlement to finally arrive before the subsector holding the Teleporation Station.

The station was sealed off, the entrance and exit blocked by the many guards each radiating a threatening aura. Threads twisted into words and Cile nodded and moved into an area filled with pitch-black darkness.

“Don’t resist,” Cile ordered.

“As you order, princess,” Orama replied in a relaxed tone.

A feeling bloomed, an overwhelming fear gripped him, a feeling that came suddenly rendering him unable to resist, instinctively, his aura flared and the feeling that had almost drowned him was torn. Only then did he came to his senses, and looked towards the princess whose face now supported a scowl. A random thought flashed through his mind: this time too there was something lacking in her expression, just like those that he had seen since he had first greeted her. What it was though, he could not put a finger on.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Before he could say anything, the guards had arrived and though their weapons were not aimed at them, the threatening aura around them intensified. They did not say anything to them, just stood there for a while and then left but that was enough of a warning.

Cile led the way and they retreated, arriving at another point that was dark enough.

“Prepare yourself and don’t cause a commotion this time.”

“Terribly ashamed, princess,” said Orama and then readied himself, this time prepared for that invasive feeling.

Once again that feeling appeared, that feeling that made him want to attack with full force, wanting to cleanse himself from this terrible sensation. But this time it was stronger, and he too forcefully held himself back. Soon he started losing sensation, the first to go was eyesight, then hearing, then the touch, and then even his body faded from his senses. The overwhelming panic made him want to flare the Qi, to break out of this state but only then did he found that he could not even sense his own Qi.

He had been a harvester. He had wandered through the wastelands that were outside of the settlements. The feeling of being trapped, the disgusting sensation of being trapped, no harvester would be afraid of it because piloting the Armor Suits was no different from being trapped. Once inside, once they left the settlement, they were trapped inside in that small place, for weeks, for months, for years, the only companions they had would be the others in their teams.

This current sensation was worse, much worse. As the feeling kept brewing, suddenly it was gone, they were in a completely different place and as his senses expanded and he took in a deep breath, he found another person alongside the princess, who was on the floor, body twitching.

Orama stepped in front of the princess but at the same time, he heard Cile’s orders.

“Pick him up, come. It's time to go back.”

“Yes, princess.”

The station had been closed for quite a while and it was apparent. There was just a dim light illuminating the station and once they made their way into the station proper, it was no different than any other ordinary building. That extremely Qi-dense environment, so dense that it was almost physical was gone.

“Do you know how to operate the station?” Cile asked.

“No, princess. I have never had the opportunity to learn such a thing.”

“Get ready, then. I will start it.”

“As ordered.”

***

An alert rose Revensol out of the zone he had entered, bringing him back to the present, the document he was working on the verge of completion. He looked around, still not fully back from that hyper-focused state but then he saw that hologram, blinked, then quickly stood up, a circulation of Qi removing that state.

“Finally,” Revensol whispered and then quickly called for Harlev while ordering the guards surrounding the teleportation station to release the seal.

An alert suddenly rose Revensol from the zone he had entered, almost on the verge of completing the document that he could provide to the Knrama. He looked towards the hologram that had suddenly erupted and brought him back to reality and he stood up.

“Finally,” Revensol whispered and called for Harlev and ordered the guards surrounding the teleportation station to release the seal of the station.