An hour has passed since the group had fallen into the caverns beneath the dark forest.
Damion-"The whispering keeps getting louder"
Whispers-"Help me, I don't want to do this anymore"
Damion-"I recognize that voice, don't know from where though"
A vine quickly lashes out from the wall of the tunnel Damion is in.
Damion-"Unbinding skill: mana unbinding"
Damion removes the magic from the vine and it falls to the ground. Damion enters a large empty cavern.
Damion-"Time to pick a new tunnel"
Whispers-"My soul, it hurts. Help me please"
Damion-"...How does a soul hurt?"
Damion hears a loud sound emanating from above him. The cavern starts to shake.
Damion-"It feels like it's getting hotter in here"
The roof starts glowing red and Damion hops back into the tunnel he came out of. The roof explodes into lava which spills down onto the ground. Elise then jumps down into the cavern. She splashes into the lava but doesn't get burnt.
Elise-"Man just another one of these!? I thought I would find something by going down but no... Just cavern after cavern after stupid cavern"
Damion-"Hey"
Elise-"Oh finally"
Elise casually walks through the knee deep lava towards Damion.
Elise-"I was wondering when I would find someone"
Damion-"You're smoking"
Elise-"What?"
Damion-"Your body, it has steam coming off from it"
Elise looks at her arms and sees a lot of steam shooting out from her body.
Elise-"Yeah that happens when I use my magic too much, it can overheat my body. But with my new evolved skill, I can endure a much higher body temperature. Now the higher my body temperature the stronger I get"
Damion-"Does that hurt?"
Elise-"No, not really. Do you know where anyone else is?"
Damion-"No"
Elise-"Well that sucks"
Damion-"I figured everyone would start following the voices so I thought I would run into them eventually"
Elise-"The voices?"
Damion-"The 'help me'"
Elise-"I haven't heard any of those"
Damion-"It could be because your explosions are so loud"
Elise-"Word of advice. If you hear some mysterious voice calling out to you in the middle of some cavern filled with monsters, you shouldn't do as it says"
Voice-"I would advise changing your current course of action"
Julius(In his head)-"What do you mean?"
Voice-"It has been an hour since we have landed in this space. Yet you still haven't found anyone besides Marigold who you followed down here"
Julius(in his head)-"Well I can't leave them behind. Are you insane?"
Voice-"It is unlikely you will find them, I have detected spacial distortion in the area"
Julius(in his head)-"Spacial distortion? Like portals, moving rooms, or some kind of tardis situation?"
Voice-"A combination of tardis and moving rooms"
Julius(in his head)-"Why didn't you lead with that instead of just telling me to stop looking for them?"
Voice-"I wasn't telling you to stop looking for them. I was advising you to change your method. These drones will likely not be able to find anyone"
Julius(in his head)-"How come it took you so long to detect the spacial distortion?"
Voice-"I am able to near instantly detect spells. However this spacial distortion was not created by a spell and was instead the result of immense dark mana flooding into the area"
Julius(in his head)-"I haven't noticed mana distorting space without a spell before, just how much mana is there? And what is the source of it?"
Voice-"The mana is far greater than the mana of others you have met so far excluding Atlas. The mana is likely coming from a single entity, it could be either a person or a monster"
Julius(in his head)-"So whatever is creating this mana, will be stronger than Prince Magnus and Lucious"
Voice-"Yes, likely far more powerful"
Marigold-"Still haven't found anyone yet?"
Julius-"No I haven't, it seems there is some spacial distortion created by the dark mana"
Marigold-"Spacial distortion? So does that mean we are teleporting around?"
Julius-"No, it means the distance between us has been increased"
Marigold-"So it's like the opposite of one Damion's abilities"
Julius-"Oh yeah the one where he moves himself around, maybe dark magic has a lot of control over space"
Marigold-"Do you have a way to combat this spacial distortion?"
Julius-"Flying around at light speed I could probably find everyone pretty quickly, but if the spacial distortion is too great I could get thrown way off course"
Marigold-"With how fast you would be, even if you were thrown off course you would still find them quickly wouldn't you?"
Julius-"When a small particle moves at light speed it's pretty easy to change its course, it happens to photons just passing through different types of glass. A spacial distortion so intense that it is able to change the size and shape of the caverns would send me in all sorts of directions, it would be impossible to move in just a straight line"
Marigold-"How fast could you go without getting thrown off course?"
Julius-"Hmm, low hypersonic speeds should be relatively unaffected. But it would still take a while with all of these tunnels"
Marigold-"Well I have an idea. Holy magic is able to counter dark magic so if I can create enough holy water it could nullify this spacial distortion"
Julius-"Good idea. Are you able to create a holy water mist?"
Marigold-"Yes I can do that. I don't think it would be quite as potent as running water"
Julius-"But it will be able to cover a larger distance since it can float up through the tunnels. Plus it would spread out faster"
Marigold-"It would drain a lot of mana, but since you have a stamina recovery skill, you can keep restoring my mana so I can continue creating more mist"
Julius-"We have to be careful to not run too low on mana, otherwise we wouldn't be able to fight off those monsters"
Marigold-"Good point, we'll take a break once we are both at around half mana"
Julius-"Alright, then once we reduce the size of the place I can zoom around looking for everyone"
Marigold-"I'll start, holy skill: holy water mist"
Marigold starts creating mist that spreads throughout the tunnels.
End of chapter 79