The third day on the main road dawned clear and cold, with the sky a pale wash of grey that offered no warmth while casting no shadow. The mesas had fallen behind them sometime during the night as the terrain opened into a broad, flat expanse of blackstone and scrub that stretched toward the northern horizon without interruption. In the distance, if Alucent squinted against the glare, he could make out the first traces of the mountain range that marked the border approach to Runepeaks.
Still a full day out... Maybe more. It's hard to tell from this distance. He silently estimated as the sight of the mountains after so long on the road made him straighten on the cushioned bench while pressing his palm against the window frame.
But the air had carried something off since dawn.
He had noticed it first through his Thread 1 perception, where the Runeforce field ahead of them was bending in a way that did not match any of the standard topologies he had learned to read. The energy curved around something he could not see, bending the way a current bends around a stone in a river, yet there was no stone. The field was behaving as if mass existed in a place where no mass existed.
This pattern... I've felt this before. Where was it...? The recognition surfaced slowly as he traced the sensation back through his memory. Yes, at the Gilded Sprout, when the worm-like creatures were feeding on the patrons while the air felt wrong. It was thick with something that shouldn't have been there, like a hole with mass, or... no, more like a presence that the Runeforce field didn't know how to handle. His grip on the window frame tightened slightly. The structure is similar here, but the intensity is much stronger. Whatever is out there, it's definitely not the same as those parasites at the inn.
Upon noticing him stiffen, Joy turned from her own thoughts to meet his eyes. She had been quiet since waking, her hands folded in her lap while her blue eyes fixed somewhere that did not correspond to anything outside the cart, but now her attention had sharpened.
"The field ahead is bending around something," Alucent said, keeping his voice low enough not to wake Raya or Gryan. "It's a topological distortion, similar to what I felt at the Gilded Sprout when we first encountered the Waros, though whatever is causing this is significantly stronger."
After hearing this, Joy's hands tightened in her lap, the motion small but deliberate. "I have been smelling it since first light," she replied, her voice soft but unhesitant. "Copper along with ozone, which are standard precursors for Runeforce discharge, though there is something underneath both that I cannot place." She paused briefly as her fingers pressed together before adding, "An atmospheric pressure that does not belong to Iron Vale's natural weather patterns."
By then, Raya had shifted on the opposite bench. She was not reaching for her Weaveblade yet, though her hand had already settled on the hilt as her eyes moved across the open terrain outside the window with careful attention.
"What leaves a signature like that?" she asked quietly.
Joy was silent for a moment as she considered how to answer. When she spoke, her voice carried the careful precision of someone reciting information she had studied but never expected to use.
"Hex-Waro," she said. "I read about them in the restricted Collegium materials during my Archive visits at Runepeaks, though they are not the same as the Waros you encountered." She kept her hands folded in her lap as the deep forest green of her dress caught the pale morning light. "Those were parasites. These are an evolved variant, more dangerous while being far more aggressive."
"Hmm, How are they different?" Alucent asked, though the growing pressure behind his eyes told him he probably did not want to know.
"The Waros at the Gilded Sprout fed on emotions along with memory," Joy said, her blue eyes staying on the window as her breathing slowed deliberately into the controlled rhythm she used when maintaining composure. "Hex-Waros drain souls, willpower, as well as thought-threads in addition to emotions. They are highly intelligent, armored, while being extremely resilient." After pausing briefly, she added, "They can warp through the air at high speed without wings, along with having a minor ability to manipulate perceptions by creating hallucinations or false memories. Their aura alone can induce fear or despair in nearby entities."
Drains souls along with willpower... While the perception manipulation plus the fear aura are only the minor abilities... His stomach remained cold despite the sectioning. The Cold Scribe method could partition fear, though it could not remove it entirely, leaving this particular information to settle somewhere the method could not reach.
"I have never faced one," Joy said, her blue eyes meeting his directly. "I have only read about them."
So we have descriptions but no answers. The Collegium archives are very thorough in documenting what kills you. The thought carried a bitter edge, though he did not let it show on his face.
As they spoke, the smell was intensifying. Copper along with ozone had thickened enough to taste, while beneath both, something that had no good name pressed against the skin, making the hair on Alucent's arms stand up. The cart's brass fittings had begun to spark with faint arcs of blue light in the same way they had during the Sprocket Storm, yet the sky remained clear without any storm on the horizon.
Wait, it's bringing the density with it... This is open Iron Vale road, where there's no natural high-density zone. Whatever is causing that field distortion is generating its own atmospheric conditions. Alucent pressed his palm harder against the window frame. This thing, it's creating the environment it needs.
"It is bringing the density with it," he said aloud, causing Gryan to straighten from his doze upon hearing this. His brass fingers curled slowly beneath his dark blue sleeve as his eyes moved immediately to the window, scanning the empty road ahead with the sharp attention of someone who had woken into danger before while knowing how to orient himself quickly.
John had already slowed the cart without being asked, his plain brown suit dusty from the road while his hands remained steady on the reins despite the horses stamping along with pulling against his grip. Their breath came in short visible puffs despite the morning chill, as the road ahead stretched flat while remaining empty for another half kilometer before curving around a low ridge of blackstone where the field distortion was centered.
Then the air changed.
It was not a sound, nor was it a movement, but rather a shift in the quality of the atmosphere itself that pressed down on Alucent's chest like a physical weight. A wave of unease washed over him, cold along with sourceless, as he recognized it immediately. The fear aura... It's already affecting us from this distance.
Something emerged from behind the ridge.
It moved fast, warping through the air without wings in a motion that seemed to fold the space between where it had been along with where it appeared. The red-and-black exoskeleton caught the pale morning light as the creature descended toward the road ahead, its armored body rigid while segmented in a way that spoke of resilience rather than flexibility. It was larger than the Waros from the inn, more predatory in its proportions, before landing on the blackstone with an impact that sent cracks spreading outward from beneath its legs.
Red-and-black exoskeleton... Armored. The ones at the inn were soft, worm-like. This one is built for fighting. Alucent felt his grip tighten on the window frame as the creature oriented itself toward the cart. The Waros at the Gilded Sprout had been mindless feeders, yet this one turned toward them with a deliberate intelligence that made his throat tighten.
Beside him, Joy drew a breath before holding it as her hands left her lap. She was already pushing back the sleeve of her deep forest green dress as blood rose from her wrist where she had bitten it.
On the opposite bench, Raya had risen with her Weaveblade half-drawn, the gold trim of her burgundy gown catching the pale light while the amber glow of the blade began to build along its edge. Gryan was on his feet beside her, his mechanical arm humming beneath his dark blue sleeve as the rune-lines brightened while his brass fingers spread wide.
The wave of fear intensified, pressing against Alucent's mind with a weight that made his thoughts sluggish. It's trying to slow us down before it attacks. Make us hesitate.
"What do the texts say about stopping one," Alucent asked quietly, his hand already resting on the Journal's cover inside his pouch as the Anchor Ring warmed against his finger.
Joy's voice remained steady despite the blood rising from her wrist. "They describe them, though they do not describe how to fight them."
Descriptions but no solutions. His grip tightened on the Journal as the Hex-Waro's exoskeleton shifted, its armored body orienting toward them with the focused attention of something that had identified its prey. The smell of copper along with ozone had become thick enough to coat the back of his throat while the brass fittings of the cart sparked with blue arcs that were growing brighter.
No one moved as the horses stamped while pulling against John's grip on the reins, the cold morning air pressing down on them all.
On the road ahead, the Hex-Waro began to advance, its red-and-black form moving with a speed that belied its armored bulk.