A dimensional breach opened up for a split second, its edges containing broken pieces of space mixed with prismatic pixels. Two armored figures quickly passed through the portal. Before even touching the ground, one of the figures threw a small tube into the hole.
Boom! A conflagration of colorful lightning exploded in the mouth of the dimensional hole. The wet, dark tentacles of otherworldly creatures chasing the two figures were pushed back to where they belong, its outstretched limbs shredded. Before any extradimensional entities that roamed between the gaps of dimensions chased further, the dimensional hole collapsed into itself.
“Phew! Captain, that was extremely dangerous. We almost got eaten by dimensional horrors… Well, at least we didn’t synchronize with the main world in pseudo-random coordinates,” one of the two figures muttered, the pilot’s feminine voice muffled by the sleek, high-tech design of the 2.25 meter tall metallic exterior. The power armor excluded an air of elegance, its streamlined contours and intricate detailing setting it apart as a rare and advanced piece of technology, a level of craftsmanship rarely found in most countries of Morgen World.
Flashes of prismatic pixels engulfed this figure as the armor she wore began to dissolve, transforming into digital boxes of data. The process was swift, taking no more than two seconds for her armor to dematerialize and stored in her personal storage. It was a sight both surreal and extraordinary, as if a physical object had been seamlessly translated into the intangible reality of the digital world.
Her petite body is barely 150 cm tall, it is covered by a white-purple plugsuit, the clothing accentuating her narrow waist and ample chest. Her eyes, a mesmerizing shade of purple, sometimes flickered in prismatic colors.
Ayame, the petite pilot of the armor, quickly made a gesture as if she’s typing on the empty air or interacting with an invisible computer. “Wait, we really did synchronize with realspace in pseudo-random coordinates. We were off by around twelve thousand kilometers from our original point…” she clicked her tongue in annoyance.
Phsssst! Meanwhile, superheated air flowed from the cracks of the armor worn by the other figure. Standing slightly over two meters tall, the armor is an assemblage of broken asymmetrical design, giving in the appearance of being constructed from various salvaged pieces of junk. The most eye-catching feature of the armor was the single metallic skeletal wing of the left side, seemingly ‘grasping’ the door-like shield and the gunlance attached to the armor’s back. Despite its seemingly chaotic exterior, there was an unexpected level of structural integrity, hinting at a hidden sophistication that bellied its outward appearance.
“Any words from Sumire?” The armored figure asked Ayame, ignoring her report over the barely successful dimensional jump. Traces of dark purple flames flickered on the armor, but they quickly subsided as the cooling protocols were activated.
“Let me check.” Ayame replied. After a brief skimming of her emails, she reported her findings. “It seems like the grade-S talent boy managed to awaken a grade-S mana pool. The choice was fire-path, and the motivation was to follow the Great Archmage’s footsteps.”
“Any inconsistencies with Katyusha’s report?” the captain inquired back.
“No inconsistencies whatsoever were found. We can conclude that Sumire’s message is not interrupted or altered by external forces. However…” Ayame paused, expressing her doubt, “Katyusha also sent a multi-layered encrypted message for you on top of her regular daily reports.”
“You can’t decrypt them?” The captain’s armor cooling process is escalating into opening up all the gaps in the armor. Cooling agents such as liquid nitrogen are being flushed into the armor’s interior.
“You know she doesn’t like me, right?” Ayame sighed as she forwarded the message she received. “Even if I can decipher the encryption, it’ll take some time. Even then, she’ll design a brand new encryption method the next time she wants to send a private message to you. I bet she injected a digital virus in them to cause trouble with my systems like the last few times. In the first place, how can an ice-path mage like her beat my AI Support Unit in information warfare… It's unscientific. Captain, did you tell her to play a prank on me?”
“Hmm.” The captain was unresponsive for a few moments. Ayame stopped bothering her as she understood that the captain must be decrypting the message from Katyusha. “I see, so it’s like that. Seems like things are getting interesting from here on out.” The captain’s armor slowly closed up its gaps, its cooling protocol slowly de-escalating. “Sumire had chosen route B12…”
Ayame frowned, quickly typing B12 in the search query of her system. “B12 means… ah! The convoy will pass through a Darkshroud Formic Lord’s nest, a dark-path resource point.” The petite lady frowned, her gaze traveled from the augmented reality-screen towards the captain, “Will Katyusha be enough?”
“No. Dark-path lifeforms excel in stealth, not destructive power. This allows Katyusha to withstand a direct hit or two as long as it isn’t an ambush, so my assumption is that she will draw the beast out while the others pass through its territory. However, the rank 2 beast is beyond her capacity to defeat alone since the other hunter can’t even approach it. The ‘winning condition’ of her strategy should be that at least 30% of the apprentices survive the battle. This is unacceptable; we need to catch up.” The captain glanced at the darkening evening skies, “The battle will occur in twelve to sixteen hours from now,” before returning her gaze to Ayame, “but route B12 is roughly eighteen thousand kilometers away from this location.”
The captain’s intense gaze bore into her, silently conveying the urgency of the situation. Ayame could feel the weight of responsibility pressing down on her shoulders. “Your Soul Armament weighs a ton, and your armor is at least twice of that, the fuel expenditure…” Ayame started to protest, hoping to find an alternative solution. But as she saw the captain’s unchanging cold gaze, her resolve wavered. “Fine, I’ll take out the VTOL,” she quickly relented, her voice tinged with a mix of frustration. Deep down, she doesn’t care if the apprentices are all dead, but that is not the case for the captain.
The captain nodded in silent acknowledgement, her mind already preoccupied with her own thoughts while she waited for Ayame to prepare their means of transportation. ‘Mino Satoru, huh? The next grade-S fire-path spirit talent apprentice in the Hunter Academy recruitment cycle should emerge three years from now. Satoru’s name isn't even in the list, he’s not a possible target of Wild Hunt,’ she mused, her thoughts drifting to other matters, ‘but the karmic retaliation from the last minor inheritance is stronger than ever before, forcing me to use [Castigation Fire]. Hmm, whatever. I’ll have to unseal Kenji and see the anomaly myself.’
…
Early morning, the next day.
The sun was barely up, but the convoy had begun to move. While a portion of it is due to the desire of not missing the Shinkansen, the real reason for moving early in the morning is so as not to be delayed by mundane matters.
Dark-path lifeforms thrive in darkness where dark elemental particles are in abundance. During nighttime, all dark-path creatures would not only be more active, but also more powerful. However, the opposite is also true. During the day where the sunlight is present, they would be weaker and suppressed since the sun saturates the world with light-path radiation. They need to pass the B12 point during the day, otherwise, even Katyusha wouldn’t be able to delay for the required time.
With their means of land transportation, even if they can accelerate faster, the apprentices would not survive the g-force of acceleration. The carriages are not equipped with inertia dampeners, thus they can only proceed within a certain limit of speed.
That being said, it took them up to two hours of maximum speed from the freshwater lake’s shore to reach their destination, a valley between two resource points.
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On the right side, a dark-path resource point in the form of a mountain. It is a tall, gigantic landmass of an anthill with a steep angle made out of black soil, the dark clouds surrounding it casting a great, ominous shadow onto the surrounding area. The vegetation around and on the mountain are similar to sick flora. Instead of having green leaves, they were all black. Not only does the tall, black flora provide cover for the creatures underneath it, it also produces a perception-dampening field. As long as dark-path creatures roam around its range, they wouldn’t be suppressed by too much under the light of the sun, and they could stay hidden.
The left side wasn’t too much of a difference. An expanse of black swampy desert filled with copious amounts of white bones of various creatures, with an aura of death completely overpower everything else. Due to being blocked by the dark mountain, this area is lacking in sunlight and vegetation. The purplish, reddish, or sickly green toxic muck that decorated the landscape produces an extremely uncomfortable stench of death. Traces of reddish gray rotting corpses of some creatures are abundant, with some zombies of whatever species they were before gorging onto them. Of the small amount of vegetation that survived in this landscape, they are either petrified into bone, grew from corpses, produce rotting matter, or are originally bones to begin with.
In other words, it is a necro-path resource point.
Currently, the convoy is barreling alongside a river that serves as a natural divide between two resource points, moving forwards at full speed. The decision to use run on the necro-path environment was a strategic one, aiming to minimize the risk of potential ambushes from the lurking entities hidden underneath the shadows of the dark mountain. Ironically, the deadly environment of the necro-path resource point is safer compared to the dark-path resource point.
Naturally, the ironwood constructs (the carriages) and its beast of burdens are not designed to thread a necro-path environment, they are currently under the protection spells of the Hunter teams. Despite being in the outskirts, the black, toxic sand in this desert produces strong radiation that would siphon lifeforce away, which is even more lethal to human bodies without sufficient resistance. This is caused by the necro-path resource point harboring a hidden rank 2 entity within its depth, despite being significantly smaller than the dark mountain. Therefore, there are zero apprentices allowed to take part in the battle while they are traversing the necro-path desert.
As of now, the apprentice’ carriages are in the core of the formation, being protected by Hunter Teams depending on their location.
In the arrowhead formation, Twin Helix took point, with Savage Moon and Radiant Desolation covering the right and left side. Katyusha and her army of twenty ice cavalry led the charge, followed by twenty five strength-path werewolves of Savage Moon’s. Behind them, the arrow-formation carriages carried Sumire’s kobolds and the members of each team.
The most dangerous right flank is covered by three teams of Scorch Talon, Wild Scales, and Wind Chaser. Wild Scales’ strength-path lizardman and Scorch Talon’s fire-path lizard beast slaves are serving as the first line of defense, followed by the members of Wind Chaser who excel in wind-path methods.
The safest left flank, facing the necro-path resource point, is covered solely by Undying Forest, a team consisting of pure enslavement-path mages. As of now, the carriages that the apprentices are being kept in are faintly glowing with green hue, evidence that wood-path defensive measures have taken place. Moreover, there are multiple variants of green puppets, seemingly made out of grass being twisted to form human forms, guarding on top of each carriage. These are Grass Warriors, the primary combat resource of team Undying Forest.
As for the rearguard, the role is taken by Dark Enigma, a team mainly consisting of dark-path ranged specialists.
“Why are we skirting around the edges?” Kenji, on top of the first carriage, asked Kurogane who’s sitting next to his sister, Shirogane. Kenji sat on top of a military storage box, heavy spear heads can be seen from one side of the box. If one were to take a closer look at his person, the red veins on his eyes are visible, a sign of enduring great pain.
“The brains of the operation had decided that going with this formation would be the safest, having the highest chance of survival. Naturally, no amount of calculations would be sufficient in the face of luck. If things didn't go according to plan, which is the usual, then we’ll have to switch to plan C, or its 28 variations, just like the current decision to choose plan B12.” Kurogane elaborate kindly. Unlike the other Twin Helix members, his feelings for Kenji's antics are neutral, so he didn’t bully him like how others expressed their abhorrence.
Tracing the toxic wind with his fingers, Kenji sighed, “Though I wish I don’t need to standby for too long. The pain… is too much,” his words were cut off as he grasped his head.
“The nanoms are acting up again?” Kurogane couldn’t help him since life-alteration surgery isn’t his forte, but he pat Kenji’s shoulder.
“What do you know about nanoms?” There was a hint of anger, perhaps insanity in Kenji’s voice. “Fucking piece of shit weapon system is not for human usage. I should’ve taken the captain’s offer to Convert.”
“You’re already a Convert though.” Kurogane mused.
“A secondary heart is not enough.” He grabbed his head, suppressing the pain, “I need to replace at least 70% of my biological tissue like how Ayame has!”
Kurogane scratched his head, not knowing what to say. He has his own reservations regarding life-alteration surgeries, especially if it is related to implanting magic machinery artifacts inside one’s body. He was saved by the awkwardness by his sister who nudged and shoved a medicine box on his arm. “Ah, I’ve almost forgotten,” he took out one of the spherical objects inside the medicine box, “The captain said that she had found something useful in her last extradimensional expedition. She sent some research results to Sumire on the way, so our vice-captain has been busy following her instructions to make this, you should take one.”
“What is it?” Kenji took the black marble, but his experience in eating the wrong things compels him to know what he’s about to eat.
“Nanoms, but I don’t know which strains.” Kurogane shrugged. “Captain said it should alleviate the pain of having nanoms swimming in your body without resorting to cutting off your pain receptors, Sumire and Alanis worked on it the whole night...”
Knowing that it was an indirect product of the captain, Kenji immediately consumed the black marble. In his throat, the sphere quickly dissolved into powder, and the nanoscopic machines quickly spread into his body, performing its task. A few moments later, Kenji’s eyes metaphorically shone.
“This is… miraculous! All my seven senses are back without having to endure the burden of nanoms!” Kenji stood up from his seat, embracing the deathly air with his arms open wide. “Necro-path radiation, this is something that I almost forgot…”
Kurogane frowned. To the ‘living’, necro-path radiation is lethal. It causes living tissues to decay which translates to excruciating pain. Rank 1 martial cultivators have some resistance to this, but the fact that Kurogane ‘forgot’ how being exposed to necro-path radiation feels like meant he had been enduring something far more painful than being exposed to lethal radiations.
‘What the fuck has the captain been doing with your body?’ Kurogane wanted to utter those words, but he already had an inkling. As one of the descendants of the Nine Master Clans of Hartina Kingdom, he had seen his fair share of secret methods, one that involved improving a person’s quality from their most basic foundation.
Genetic engineering.
‘Can it be that… the captain has been performing a life-alteration surgery using nanoms, one that slowly altered his genes all this time?’ Kurogane unconsciously glanced at his sister who was an unfortunate victim of such methods, of which failed miserably. She has yet to wear her helmet, so her brilliant silver hair flows by the wind. Her cold, dead look was ever present, but he wished it wasn’t so. “Sis, shouldn’t you be wearing your helmet? The air is not good for your skin.” He tried to divert his own attention.
Shirogane shrugged, before slowly wearing her helmet.
Recalling his thoughts back, he started to wonder, ‘Although the captain has been generously giving us cultivation food, ones that are far superior than sustenance potions, she had never allowed us to touch Kenji’s food.’ He squinted, tracing Kenji who started stretching his muscles with his eyes. ‘Not even Sumire or Ayame is allowed to touch the captain’s dimensional ring that holds those foods. The ones who are responsible for distributing them are… Katyusha? Wait, if I knew all this, then Sumire would’ve known this as well…’ Thinking that he almost exposed himself to sensitive information, he decided that it’ll be best if simply did not delve too much into it.
“Hey, with the pain gradually subsiding, the details of B12 are rushing back at me,” Kenji suddenly exclaimed. He pointed towards the direction of 11 o’clock, “Are those zombies supposed to be part of the plan?”
There are a group of ten zombies in the shape of dogs. Most of the zombie hounds have two sets of mouths, its rotten flesh exposing the bone spikes. Each of these zombie hounds were two meters tall, their sheer visage inspire terror and they have been attracted by the living.
“No,” Behind him, Sakuya tapped her earpiece, listening to Sumire’s telepathic command. “Katyusha and her ice cavalry will take care of them. Your firepower is needed to handle the undead 50 kilometers from this point… a Corpse Mother.”
“Hmm.” Kenji sat back down, “Alright, I’ll see what Katyusha will do.”