About an hour after Mell's 'confession,' Petra was still snuggled in the rooftop pavilion, nestled comfortably within the Calamity Wolf's warm fur. Mell sat beside her, awkwardly quiet, and similarly sank into the white pillow.
She didn't quite know how to behave right now.
She felt like a naughty child who had just been caught in a lie.
Petra didn't care.
Across the pavilion, Levy was bent over a circular mirror about the size of a shield, muttering under her breath. Her short purple hair was messy, and a dozen glowing runes floated lazily around her like fireflies, almost mocking her as they swam around in lively arcs.
Petra tilted her head, watching with interest.
She didn't have many opportunities to see Levy act, and just from seeing the spirituality of the surrounding runes, Petra realized there was a huge difference between the teacher and the student.
For some reason, the current Levy reminded her of those old-world repairmen she would often see back on Earth, the kind who came to fix your broken television.
After a long series of hums, grumbles, and at least three loud curses, Levy finally exclaimed,
"There!"
The magic mirror flickered to life.
What was displayed was the vision from the Ant Avatar that was currently following the rescue team in 'auto-pilot' mode.
Levy continued to create four more mirrors, each one connecting to a different Ant Avatar. They came with video and audio, just like a normal TV from Earth. As for how this technology worked, when Petra asked, she simply received a good old 'study harder' response.
With a satisfied nod, Petra closed her eyes and sank her mind back into the connection that existed between her and the Ant Avatar.
Levy stood to the side, while Mell watched through the magic mirror with a bit of interest.
* * *
The rescue team continued towards their destination.
The sun had risen, and the day had begun.
The slosh of boots in wet soil, the quiet clink of armor, and even the rhythmic creak of wagon wheels, every sound was muffled.
Even the wind had slightly restrained itself in this part of the forest.
The Black Forest was appropriately named.
Formed from a combination of Westwood Trees, Hollow Risewood, and the rare Black Iron Maple, the branches stretched, twisted and split at unnatural angles. Some trees appeared petrified, while others groaned with the sound of age. Roots varying in size burst through the path of blackened grass ahead, curling like complex knots concealed within the forest floor.
Petra's Ant Avatar walked near the back of the formation, her hood low.
Through her, Mell watched everything, her distant gaze piercing through the mirror and watching through the avatar's eyes.
Every so often, Petra, or the Ant Avatar, would turn her head, observing the faint silver glow that flickered from the front of the group. Mell didn't need an explanation, she instantly understood who these two were, the twin sisters, Lethra and Lithra.
Unlike Petra, Mell knew that all the experiments the Tibon Family performed on their descendants completely lacked any ethical boundaries. This meant that they didn't care about the condition of their test subjects after they were 'completed.'
Even from a distance, and even through the mirror, Mell could still tell that the overflowing light that enveloped the twins was not a good thing.
Despite being a powerful weapon, she had no doubt that the light leaking from their bodies, their soul, locked them into a state of constant pain. Their souls swelled and absorbed, forcing them to endure a state of endless and relentless expansion. Even after all of that, they were still forced to remain 'exposed', completely vulnerable to the outside, almost like they existed as a living nerve.
Mell, watching from the Tower Spider, had gone completely silent.
When Petra heard her thoughts, she understood why.
Petra knew very little about the soul, but it wasn't that difficult to understand that too much of something would be very painful.
* * *
After several hours, the terrain started to flatten out.
The forest slowly opened into a shallow crater surrounded by large hills. Mist pooled from the forest, snaking around the hills, and gathered in the hollow like a dense sea of mist that submerged one's feet.
In the center of this misty crater was a small town.
This was their destination, and it was eerily still.
Half the buildings had collapsed, their rooftops crushed beneath black roots that intertwined like a crude net-shaped canopy. The streets were flooded with white mist that swayed faintly under the magic lights. Everything looked as though it had been abandoned for centuries, and yet, the air felt 'fresh', not yet having been tainted by the smell of blood, almost as if whatever had destroyed this place had done so recently.
It was an odd feeling.
"We've arrived!" the captain said, his voice strong and loud.
"Search teams, move out! Look for survivors but stay alert! The information here is unreliable."
The soldiers split into ten groups.
Petra followed one of these groups into the central city.
The mud was soft beneath her feet, faintly rippling with the three-toed pattern unique to her foot. After crossing a puddle, she looked down and noticed small bubbles rising to the surface, popping with faint traces of poisonous gas that formed small clouds that dissipated in the wind.
She frowned.
Petra didn't know what the western region was like before, but if this wasn't caused by the calamity, she had really underestimated just how much of a shi– cough cough, 'rough place', the western region was.
The houses were quiet.
The doors were open, some torn completely off their hinges, but none of them were inhabited. Scratches covered the walls, appearing as long, deliberate lines that were too deep for claws, but too wide for weapons.
"Spread out," one of the soldiers coughed.
"Check every corner!"
The group nodded, then moved carefully between the houses. Every step echoed strangely, as if the sound bounced off something tangible in the air, something that wasn't there.
Then, suddenly, the ground moved.
Woosh!
The earth split open with a sudden crack.
Before anyone could react, something burst out and rushed towards the party. It was one flash, followed by two, three, and then many.
The sound of static filled the air as dozens of wings all flapped at once, forming a wave.
The soldiers staggered back as the wave of mutated beasts erupted from the ground. Their bodies were warped and fused, deviating from any single species. They were all about half a meter in size, reflecting the traits of Ants, Bees, Beetles, Spiders, and Mantises. Chitin, dripping with black blood, flowed from all their bodies. Their jaws split too wide, their eyes clouded with white film, and poison steam hissed from their wounds.
They were like living bombs.
"Formation!" the captain roared.
Shields locked while spears rose.
The mages began forming their spell circles.
The first creature lunged and slammed into the line of soldiers. The ground shook from the impact, its weight not matching its size. Spells flashed from behind the formation, while bursts of flame and frost cut through the fog, dancing with the arcs of lightning and wind blades that tore through the attackers.
Petra had already silently separated from the group.
She watched from a nearby rooftop, her eyes glowing faintly as she watched from the shadows.
These insects… weren't acting on instinct.
They were being driven by someone, or something.
The soldiers cut the insectoid monsters down one by one. Every strike left trails of black blood and shattered shells that scattered through the air.
The silence of victory came just as quickly as the battle began.
The soldiers stood still, their weapons dripping with black blood. They discussed what to do next, considering their options and voting on the proposal to regroup.
In the end…
"Clear the area," the captain ordered.
-
Hours passed.
The smell of damp wood and old smoke drifted through the air. In the distance, a warped sign creaked in the wind, the only sound in a dead town.
The team moved quietly through the ruins of the town, their steps echoing softly across the shattered stone. They checked every corner, every basement, inside the narrow attics of half-crumbled homes, beneath piles of broken debris, and even within a collapsed well.
Dust clung to their boots as they moved.
Every now and then, one of them would lift a lantern, illuminating small pockets of darkness, letting its dim glow sweep across the skeletal remains of the buildings.
They searched carefully, methodically, and left no shadow unchecked.
They weren't just looking for survivors.
They were also making sure nothing dangerous was left behind.
Luckily, their search wasn't in vain.
The survivors that were found were weak, but alive.
Other groups found more, a dozen here, a few there, all of them pale, trembling, with bodies covered in strange, faintly growing black marks. They had all been exposed to the Duskwood Dust, and they had all begun to mutate.
Fortunately, they were just in time!
By evening, they had rescued nearly sixty people.
By dusk, they had cured fifty-eight of those people.
Just as they were preparing to leave…
That was when the tremor started.
It was faint at first, like the forest was shaken by the wind, first forming as a mere whisper. Then, as the trees quivered and the puddles rippled, the horses began to panic.
The mist began to swirl in spirals, pushing even more fog from the forest.
The sound came next, rhythmic creaking, like the groan of a falling forest, only longer and lower.
Everyone froze at once.
The noise grew louder and louder, slowly getting closer.
They all turned their eyes towards the darkness surrounding the town.
There… something moved at the edge of the forest.
For a moment, it looked like the trees themselves were walking, appearing like long shadows swaying in the fog, splitting the gray veil in two with their approach. When the shapes detached from the canopy and curved down, everyone realized that 'it' was enormous.
It had thin limbs like the trunks of withered trees, jointed and barbed at the end, and a narrow body that transitioned between wood and chitin with deep hollow eyes that glowed faintly through the fog.
It was a stick insect, but impossibly large.
It was dozens of meters tall, surpassing the centipede, and standing around fifty meters. Its body blended in perfectly with the forest, so much so that the human eye couldn't tell where it ended and the other began. Each 'leg' was as thick as a person, with a speed and reach that could catch a target hundreds of meters away.
Someone muttered, "Damn…"
The creature tilted its head, the movement slow, almost curious, before it moved like lightning.
Woosh!
The ground split beneath its weight as its long legs struck like spears, piercing through the ruins of the abandoned town, stabbing through walls like paper. One carriage exploded under the shockwave, scattering splinters and survivors alike.
"Defensive formation!" the captain shouted. "Mages, NOW!"
Dozens of magic circles lit up, shooting rays of light through the fog.
The creature's body shimmered and blurred, its skin reflecting light like glass. The spells wrapped around it harmlessly, striking the forest behind it with an equal ferocity.
Lethra and Lithra moved as one, the white light of their souls intensifying until it became almost blinding. "Contain it!" one of them roared.
The air rippled, then exploded outwards, white light spreading like a net around the creature's legs.
"Schreaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
The insect paused mid-step, shrieking with a sound that wasn't normal. The resonant cry was like metal tearing under strain, piercing into the ears and shaking the mind. The wave of spells burned its outer shell, revealing layers of glistening black flesh beneath.
It staggered for a moment, then swung its front limb forward, smashing through the crowd.
BOOM!
The twins were thrown backwards from the shockwave, their light flickering weakly, almost screaming along with the two girls.
"Fall back!" the captain roared.
The soldiers scrambled, pulling the survivors away as the monster reared its body.
Its massive frame bent backwards, before erupting forward and pressing down with the momentum of a mountain. The ground split beneath its feet, and it rained down a storm of stabs with its front legs.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
It tore through the city, turning what was once simple destruction into hundreds of hills of desolate stone and destruction.
BOOM!
Petra was far in the back, sitting on one of the few remaining buildings that had yet to collapse, staring over at the towering silhouette. She rubbed her chin, wondering why this big guy didn't have the same reaction that normal insects had when facing her.
It definitely wasn't a king, right?
Could it be because it can't feel her?
No, it was something else…
So then… why? What was blocking its innate instincts?
"Odd," Petra mumbled to herself."
Her eyes turned back to the fight.
BOOOOOOM!
It looked like they were going to lose.
Her mind, the real her, was perfectly calm, almost like she was playing a video game from home.
In fact, that was kind of what she was doing.
Anyways…
She might as well interfere.
Petra stepped forward, her little ant igniting with a blinding green light. The mental energy flooded through the channel from her main body like a tide, then wrapped around her like a cloak.
In an instant, all eyes- at least -those still conscious, were drawn to her.
She was like a beacon in the night.
The creature's eyes flashed with a faint, distant, and cold light. It looked past the group of 'annoying ants' and met the eyes of Petra's literal ant.
Then… it screamed.
"Schreaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
The sound tore through the forest, scattering the surrounding mist.
Leaves and dust were pulled upwards, swirling in a violent storm of wind around its body. The soldiers covered their ears, blood trickling between their fingers.
In that instant, almost all the 'cannon fodder' fell down, losing consciousness.
The twins grimaced, but they were more durable and held on.
Their eyes turned to Petra, clearly more cautious of this small character rather than the massive monster looming over them.
They, like the massive insect, didn't need to guess.
Petra was the most dangerous, and this was made immediately clear by the waves of incomprehensible energy flowing out from her small body.
Petra approached, jumping down and landing with a light thud.
The mental energy around her body expanded like a sea around her feet. It flooded the town, stretching across the landscape at a terrifying speed.
It wrapped around each person like a cocoon, protecting them in a defensive bubble.
Petra passed the girls, her footsteps crisp and clean, her shelled feet clicking off the shattered stone.
The hood of her cloak was pulled back, revealing her true face.
Meeting another of its 'kind', the massive creature widened its eyes in anger, clearly feeling challenged. It turned its long body, the sound of its limbs creaked like collapsing wood, and stepped forward from the fog with an earth-shaking force, then thrust its front leg at Petra.
Woooosh—Boom!
Within a second, it was gone.
The entire arm, all forty meters of it, was crushed by the wave of mental energy that rose up and wrapped around it from Petra's body.
"Schreaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
It screeched again, shaking the fog with a violent vibration.
Woosh!
Another limb came down like a falling tower, then stopped midair. Petra hadn't moved, but the air between them bent within the green light, forming an invisible hand that gripped the limb in place, slowly applying pressure.
She flicked with her mind.
Kacha!
The limb twisted with a dry crack, tore off, and slammed into the nearby street like a boulder.
"Schreaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
The creature screeched, continuing to advance, its claws stabbing through the mist. Petras' mind turned, and the attacks curved away, deflected one by one.
As she defended against the pillars that were gouging trenches through the ground, the green energy above their heads condensed into dozens of simple spears, each two meters long.
Another flick, and the monster's front legs snapped backwards with a sharp crack. Then, following a push of the mind, hundreds of green spears tore through the air and pierced through the massive creature's body.
Unlike with spells, the strange ability it had used before seemed to fail when faced with mental energy.
It screamed, the sound shaking the trees.
Petra's green light flared, and a crushing wave of mental energy surged out and crashed into the creature's chest like a cannon. BOOM! The stick bug staggered, cracked, then fell. Black blood and shattered shells scattered through the air as its impaled body collapsed, shaking the earth.
That attack was the same one she had used against the twisted red skeleton in the Darkstone Mine.
What hadn't even made the skeleton flinch took this giant bug out in a single attack.
It was even overkill.
Although Petra didn't know how strong she was, at least, with mental energy, she understood that the skeleton was a real monster.
After the rumble caused by its collapsing body concluded, silence returned to the crater city.
Petra lowered her hand, dust falling from the air like rain.
The mental energy that had extended around her like a sea dissipated into the air, fading like moats of green light that drifted on the wind.
It was a rather beautiful sight, looking a little like leaves leaving on the wind.
After a pause, she turned her head to the two girls who were lying weakly to the side, looking at her in shock and amazement.
In their minds, they were both thinking, 'We really underestimated this little girl!'
Petra approached, her small face somehow forcing a smile.
Her big black eyes widened, and she wrapped the two girls in a dense bubble of transparent mental energy. They panicked, not understanding the situation.
Petra raised them slightly above her head and began inspecting their bodies.
What she found caused her real body's eyes to widen.
Petra could feel at least three, no four, different restrictions within their bodies. It seemed she still underestimated the Tibon Family, even after Mell's story.
On top of the 'soul seal' and the 'curse', there was also a series of 'complex runes' dotted around their bodies, in addition to Poison, a Slave Ring, and even a Gu Worm. Petra's brain flickered awake as she recalled what some of these runes did. They were monitoring runes, manipulation runes, recording runes, enslavement runes, and punishment runes. Most of them were used on serious criminals in the southern region.
Petra felt more and more annoyed as she scanned through the runes one by one.
How was this a family member?
Wasn't this clearly just a bloodline slave?
"Tsk." Even the Ant Avatar couldn't help but momentarily wrestle command of the body, just to click its tongue in disdain, an act that Petra was completely in agreement with.
Petra pulled her mind back from the Ant Avatar and back into her main body.
Before she had a chance to ask Mell if she wanted her to save them, she suddenly realized that she was surrounded by dozens of maid girls, all eating a variety of snacks and watching the 'movie'.
Her little mouth gaped.
Where did they come from?
How did this turn into a movie night?
Shit, why was that such a good idea?
Petra cursed in a cute voice.
The girls chuckled.
-
Petra turned to Mell and asked, "How do you want to handle them? I can probably 'save' them if we bring them back here."
Mell didn't need to think, so she immediately nodded her head.
"Please!"
Petra grinned.
Since the whole rescue team was unconscious, Petra just had to swagger away with the two girls. The bubbles that she wrapped Lethra and Lithra in were so dense that they basically cut off all connection to the outside world, so it was just a matter of bringing them back and not getting chased down. As for the rescue team and the refugees, the red cloaked captain could take them back after he woke up.
-
After ending that little escapade, Petra turned her head and looked back to the maids that surrounded her real body.
"Is there anything that you guys want me to do?"
There was a long silence, then nearly forty heads turned towards Rose.
With a snort, Rose turned her head away and spoke in a low voice. "Well… maybe it's okay to make a quick trip to the place where I grew up… and also, check on my family a bit."
Her cheeks were slightly flushed.
Petra nodded, then turned her attention to a new Ant Avatar.
While the first one was carrying back the green bubble that contained Lethra and Lithra, Petra sank her mind into another of her Ant Avatars and began her journey towards the research facility that had experimented on Rose.