The third day of Limbo's journey began before sunrise, the habit Mark due to Rin, and his father.
Morning slowly revealed the mist with golden light before fading from forest, spirling around tree like snake to pray.
Limbo walked quietly, his steps were light despite the rough terrain.
Traveling alone was not unfamiliar to him anymore, it strengthens his senses , view and decision making. The forest had its own rhythm, even in the corrupt source. Despite years of growing within Navals borders he understood many of its moods.
As he moved, the air felt strained.
Not heavy full of corruption, not yet...strange.
Stretched thin, like a rope pulled too tight.
He movements slowed near a fallen log and crouched beside the soil.
At first glance it looked healthy, dark, full of life. But when he brushed aside the top layer, the truth reaveles itself.
Thin grey veins rand through the dirt beneath, faint and almost invisible.
They pulses once and vanished.
Limbo narrowed his eyes slightly.
"You're not spreading," he murmured to himself, there was no one else, except him and forest this moment.
His fingers hovered over the ground.
The corruption patterns were expanding like wildfire were stopped their march thi instant.
That's he thought.
But it was moving, flowing like a water being drawn somewhere far away.
He pressed his palm gently against the soil.
He wish to feel, read to environment.
So he can used the knowledge He grasp to come with solution.
A small thread of mana slipwd from his hand into the earth.
Not lightning...not anymore.
The matching energy inside him answered first flowing softly into the affected ground.
The reaction he get was immediate.
The grey veins dimmed slightly.
Life stirred beneath the surface again.
But only briefly.
After a few seconds the darkness returned, crawling slowly back into the same channels.
Limbo withdraw his hand.
"So forest's energy... repair...."
He rubbed his hands together, thinking, focusing using hakini.
Then He tried something else.
A faint spark of lightning flickered along his palm, which he directed downward.
The effect was stronger.
The grey veins shattered instantly, burned away like peace of paper.
But the soil itself cracked slightly under the sudden force.
Limbo frowned.
"Too... destructive...need more careful and..."
Lightning remained the coruption quickly, but damaged the land. Forest energy healed the land.
But it was slower.
He sat quietly for a moment, thinking.
After a deep meditation on thoughts.
Ahh...
"I'll need both."
He rose and continued forward.
The forest grew quiter as the hours passed.
Occassionally he encountered animals, but they also behaved strangely.
Some fled immediately.
Others simply watched from the distance, eyes uneasy.
Around midday limbo stopped beside a dried stream bed.
Something moved nearby.
He turned slowly, a group of animals twisted wolves and others emerged from between the two trees.
Their bodies were thin and uneven, fur clumped together with dark patches of corruption, their eyes glowed faintly with a dull grey haze, and faint smell of corruption.
They circle him cautiously.
But something about their behaviour was wrong, it seems they weren't here for hunting.
They weren't even focused on him, their heads lifted occassionally, sniffing the air, then turning towards the same direction deeper in the forest.
Like they were trying to reach somewhere.
Drawn.
Limbo understood immediately.
"So you're heading there too."
The wolves finally lunged.
The first one came fast.
Limbo shifted slightly to the side.
His hand struck it's shoulder joint with precise force.
The wolf collapsed instantly.
The second leaped from behind
Lightning flashing once.
A narrow arc snapped across Limbo's arms and into the beasts chest.
The wolf fell without a sound.
The remaining hesitated.
Limbo didn't wait for their actions, two clean strikes, The fight ended.
Silence return quickly.
He stood still for a moment, observing.
Then something strange happened.
The dark corruption inside the fallen wolves began dissolving.
Instead of spreading outward, the black residue sank into the ground beneath them.
The soil absorbed it.
Or rather.... Something from beneath the soil was pulling it.
Limbo looked down slowly.
"So that's how it feeds, intresting."
He stepped away.
Later that afternoon the system flickered inside his mind.
A familiar window opened.
Fragments Resonance Detected
Signal Stability:21%
Distance: Unknown
Limbo stared at it.
The sixth fragment....
Closer than before, a joy.
But still impossible to locate, at the moment.
Something powerful was distorting the signal.
He closed the window.
"This place..."
He looked deeper into the forest.
"... you're hiding quiet deep... something."
By evening the forest terrain began changing again.
Roots grew thicker here, pushing through the ground like twisted bones. Some trees leaned strangely, their bases weakened by something below the surface.
Limbo stopped walking, them crouched again.
This stone he didn't touch the soil.
He simply closed his eyes.
The guardian's voice echoes in memory.
"The coil grows below."
"I cannot descend."
Now the meaning felt clearer.
Limbo extended his senses downward.
At first he felt nothing, then...a pulse.
Slow and deep.
It was different than corruption.
Something larger, something alive.
It moved far beneath the forest floor.
Limbo's eye's opened slowly.
Night settled quietly across the forest.
Limbo built a small fire near a cluster of stones.
Nothing large enough to reveal his position from far away.
He sat beside it, breathing steadily.
Mana circulation had became smoother since leaving the village.
Traveling alone forced discipline.
Every step, every spell, every movement had
Had tobe measured.
He opened the system interface once more.
Status check
Alpha Fragments: 5/7
Beta Fragment :1
Sixth fragment Resonance: Increase
Signal Stability:24%
Still unstable.
Still hidden.
But closer.
Limbo closed the interface and leaned back against the tree behind him.
The forest remained silent.
But somewhere far beneath the roots, something massive shifted, limbo didn't move.
He simply looked towards the darkness between the trees.
Then whispered quietly.
He drew the protective barrier, and ignite the fire, to rest...
A scream....
Ahhhh Ah.....
Grandma.....help....
Who's that?