An endless number of invisible Threads spread out from his body without making him feel any pressure. His core was stable, showing no signs of being burdened when this same number of Threads would have once caused his core to be on the verge of cracking. Then there was the length of the Threads, he had expanded them to his previous limits but there was no disruption, no noise with the awareness that was generated by the Threads, they extended even further, and still, there was no problem.
Inero-ie started testing his boundaries, still inside the metallic room.
Except for the metallic plates in the center, the room had no defining features causing it to appear normal. From outside, as his Threads spread further and further, he could sense the structure of this metallic room, and many other similar rooms were connected. The structure had massive vessels that circulated the Qi into different places. Most of the rooms, like his, were connected to the smallest vessels but though few, there were rooms connected to bigger vessels. Outwardly, it looked simple but as he tested his extended awareness of his surroundings, the simple transformed into complex.
While he tested the limits of the Threads, he slowly adjusted to the new state.
***
Waves appeared on his skin, and his whole body trembled. His newly grown hair was now charred and then turned to ashes, dispersing, as the small lightning kept dancing inside his muscles and bones, sometimes making its way outside. He endured the pain while incrementally increasing the strength of lightning throughout his body.
It was slowly, but as he opened and closed his fist, tightened and released various muscles in his body, he could clearly sense the difference. His previous limit had been crossed, and by a large margin, and it still showed no signs of stopping.
***
The central tower, impossibly tall, covered his vision, and a pressure radiating from it that he could instinctively sense without even spreading his Threads. His Threads were small, just a few meters in length, just to make him aware of his surroundings. He did not want to see the original appearance of this tower, it put too much pressure on his mind.
Inero-ie made his way toward the castle which was the only place through which the castle could be entered or exited. Just like the tower, it too was massive. There were no guards outside but there was no need for them. It was a part of the tower and though the castle could be accessed by those who were not a part of the Mus-Draik family, such could only happen by the explicit approval of a Mus-Draik.
As Inero-ie made his way inside, the noise in his head became muffled, no longer as deafening as before, no longer as exhausting as before. It had been too long this time. From Insetel to here, he had spent too much time inside the settlement, and pushed himself to do too much, it had allowed the whispers in his mind to grow.
Before, there had been many things that had kept him distracted but now he was left with them, the noise stronger than ever, and eating away at his sanity. It made him miserable but every second of his life was miserable.
Wandering in his thoughts, his steps brought him in front of the door where he used to report when he returned from the assigned missions. The door automatically opened and Sline spoke, breaking him back to reality.
“Come in.”
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Iner-ie entered the room and stood in the usual position before the desk.
“Why don’t you sit down at least this time?”
“No.”
“You are a very stubborn man, do you know?”
“Yes.”
“Sigh… Anyway, here are the things that you requested. This is the authorization token, you will be able to go to the Frozen Sea and this is the ownership token for the Armor Suit.”
“Thank you.”
“No thank you, if you hadn’t taken care of princess… Anyway, when are you returning?”
“A few cycles, maybe.”
“You really are daring, when you come back, contact me, the princess said she would give you an appropriate reward then.”
With the conversation done, Inero-ie saluted and left. He had no intentions of returning this time but he could not say that lest the ray of hope he had seen after such a long time be snuffed out.
***
The exit gates were massive, grand metallic gates that allowed the massive Armor Suits to enter and leave the settlement. Next to the two gates were even bigger entrances through which consignments were brought in and out of the settlements. At this moment his eyes were open, taking in the scenery in front of him, the gigantic, 10-meter-tall Armor Suits constantly entering and leaving the settlement.
As the capital was much much larger compared to Insetel and there was only one passage for entrance and exit, the gates were much much wider than in Insetel. It was bustling even in this place occupied with only harvesters.
He watched it all, taking in every detail, and then turned to head towards the storage space for the Armor Suits.
***
A wave of the token and the smaller gate opened and he saw the massive Armor Suit. He started checking everything, from the protective armor and the formations embedded to make the Armor Suit more resilient to the thrusters that allowed for quick and complicated maneuvers to be executed, to the sword that he would use to cut the monsters while waiting for death.
Once he had checked the outer part, he teleported inside the killing machine, and the first thing he did was to check the artificial spirit. It was made by her, the moment he saw the artificial spirit he was completely sure of that. He quickly checked everything, being extra thorough to make sure nothing could alert her of his presence in the settlement.
The thing left for the last was the storage space. He checked various storage devices, and all were filled with various things, ranging from things to eat to the Refined Cores of different levels.
***
Like a breath of life was poured into it, the massive machine came to life, took a step forward and the gate automatically opened, allowing the machine to step out. A few others were exiting at that moment, some in front of him, some behind.
After moving for a while, they arrived in front of a crossroad and all moved in the same direction, except Inero-ie. It made other Armor Suits stop as they looked at the lone harvester moving further on the path that would take him to the forbidden zone.
***
The massive gate, though much less wide, opened and he stepped into an ice tunnel. The light shining from the gate cast a deep shadow in front of him, while the lights on the tunnel ceiling were barely enough to see anything. After a silent while, he moved down a spiraling pathway which brought him in front of a barrier. Multiple verifications later, the barrier opened and he stepped into the frozen wasteland, but this was different.
Massive ties, frozen, their sizes making the Armor Suit seem small, were everywhere. Likewise, he could sense the Qi signatures of monsters everywhere.
Under his command, the Armor Suit stepped forward, in search for his grave.