Party A recuperated atop the stone pillar, while several blood beasts of the Mana Liquefaction Rank crowded at the base.
It had been a couple of hours since they managed to reach the safety of the pillar. Yet, no matter what, the blood beasts down below never left.
In fact, as ti went by, the nearby beasts all ca crawling towards them, as if sensing the warm blood coursing through their veins.
Lisa stood at the edge of the pillar, gazing at the blood beasts below with a ruminative look on her face.
She turned to Edward, who was standing beside her, and said evenly, "In a way, it’s good that all of them have gathered in one place. It will be much easier to take them out."
Edward remained silent for a long ti, then said, "But how long will this go on?"
He turned towards the distance, gazing at the countless stone pillars scattered throughout the second layer at fixed intervals.
By now, he understood how they were going to pass through the second layer. They would have to kill blood beasts, then rest atop the stone pillar, then continue the cycle until they reached the third layer.
But this would be greatly ti-consuming. A day had already passed. They had six more days left inside the secret plane.
And until now, they had only collected the blood cores from the beasts they had slain in the blood marshes.
The crimson grasslands were too dangerous for them to collect blood cores after defeating the beasts, fearing that more beasts would pounce on them afterward. There was not a mont of respite—not unless they climbed the stone pillars.
There were already many corpses of beasts sprawled by the base of the pillar, their blood cores still intact. But the party mbers couldn’t retrieve them without risking their lives.
Mikar Atkins suddenly walked up to them and said, "I’m unable to summon my ssenger. The connection to the Spirit World is very... unstable in this place. No, it would be more precise to say that the connection has been severed."
Edward nodded ever so slightly. "This secret plane is young, and the space within and around it is volatile. So it makes sense."
"So we have to make use of traditional thods of communication," said the young man from Greenfield Ridge.
"Oh?" Edward arched an eyebrow. "Do you have sothing in mind?"
"...I do." Mikar stroked his chin, deep in thought. "It’s going to take so ti, though."
"How long?" Lisa asked curiously.
Before Mikar could answer, all of them suddenly turned their heads in a particular direction when they sensed a presence approaching them.
At once, they all beca alert, thinking that they were being attacked by enemies.
But the scene that greeted them caused them to be... speechless.
A wasp flew in their direction and hovered before the group, silently staring at them through its hollow eyes, seemingly mocking them.
Edward couldn’t help but frown.
"...It’s dead," he said.
Lisa also had a similar look on her face. She lingered for a mont, then said evenly, "I don’t sense any mana at all. Then how..."
Their first thought was that the insect was being controlled through necromancy. But the fact that they couldn’t sense even a speck of mana from it caused them to be utterly perplexed.
By now, all the party mbers had gathered at the edge of the pillar, gazing at the wasp with varied expressions.
All they could tell for now was that it was harmless.
"Wait!" Suddenly, Chris’s eyes narrowed. "I sense... spiritual energy from it!"
At once, the party mbers tensed up. If the dead wasp contained spiritual energy, that ant it was being controlled by soone.
It was surprising to them that the one controlling the wasp was using spiritual energy instead of mana, but that wasn’t what was important at the mont.
Now, Party A had to figure out what the purpose of the wasp—or rather, the one controlling it—was.
Edward had a dark expression on his face. He couldn’t help but wonder, Could this insect be sent by those cultists?
Are they planning on killing the contestants within the secret plane? Damn it!
But there was also the possibility of soone trying to communicate with them, just like how they had planned to reach out to others.
Either way, they would have to soon switch their positions.
Then, under everyone’s rapt attention, the wasp descended to the cold floor. Slowly, it began to move on a deliberate path, leaving behind a trail of incandescent spiritual energy that shimred for all to see.
Inch by inch, it carved a glowing arrow into the ground, its luminous trail pointing unmistakably in one direction, as if guiding the group towards a certain destination.
With each unsteady step the wasp took, its dead body staggered and the spiritual energy within it began to fade.
The arrow on the ground was nearly complete, but only a faint glimr of power remained inside the wasp. Just enough for a few final strokes.
Gradually, realization dawned on the group.
The wasp hadn’t just been moving, it had a purpose. Under their hopeful gazes, it crawled to the very tip of the glowing arrow and etched two final characters before collapsing once more into lifelessness.
The characters were written in Acaros.
They read:
MM.
Everyone turned to look in the direction the arrow was pointing. It wasn’t aid towards the depths of the secret plane, but off to the side, adjacent to their current path.
And they all knew exactly who waited for them at the end of that trail.
***
rlin opened his eyes, his pale blue pupils flickering with hints of fatigue. He rose to his feet then stretched his body a little, yawning loudly all the while.
Arthur walked up to the madman and asked curiously, "So?"
rlin turned to him and arched an eyebrow. "So what?"
"...So did you find anyone nearby?" Arthur’s lips twitched.
"Oh." rlin nodded. "I did. It’s Edward’s party. Their about a day’s distance from here."
He said while pointing in a certain direction.
"Great!" Eleiney said, clearly satisfied with the outco. "Let’s rest a few more hours, then head out. If we et them sowhere halfway, we can close the distance faster."
Everyone readily agreed.
A few monts later, rlin spoke up, "I’ve also managed to scout the third layer."
Eleiney froze, stunned into silence. For a long mont, she couldn’t speak. Then, with a grim expression shadowing her face, she finally asked, "Is it good or bad?"
rlin’s grin stretched from ear to ear.
"Neither," he said softly, his tone ominous.
"It’s worse."
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